Letters to the Editor
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@ susan sunflower
Beautiful, trenchant and productive. Thank you.
The fact that even utterance of the word "racism" or "racist" hits raw nerves and forces people into defensive postures is a major impediment to even being able to talk about race.
People don't want to talk about race because they fear being indicted, condemned and ostracized as "racists." Thus, the conversation inevitably turns from a dispassionate, clinical analysis of the way racial and racist dynamics work in experience to impassioned protestations: "I'm not a racist, Clinton's not a racist, Obama's the real racist," etc., ad nauseum.
I guess (for white people, anyway) the underlying dynamic is what used to be called "white guilt."
The problem with the notion of guilt or innocence is that it's too final, to static.
For many people it seems as if a concession of, "Wow, yeah, I guess I was replicating patterns of racism there, my bad." is tantamount to a confession that one has hung niggers from the trees or at least, attended the barbecue celebrating said hanging.
I don't know how to overcome this dynamic, personally, other than to continue to steadily and patiently explain that racism is about more than whether one is or is not a racist.
It's about so, so much more.
Anyway, thanks for a terrific post and thanks for sharing your experience with us.
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AH HA....finally someone said it MONEY MONEY MONEY
You can get back on the boat to Africa my dear, because if you have a beef you need to take it up with your sisters and brothers who sold you into slavery. THE ONLY COUNTINENT in the world where slavery is on-going is AFRICA. You have to have a seller and a buyer dear, sorta like drug deals, so don't look to great great great great great great grandchildren of perhaps a slave owner--go straight to the source. MOTHER AFRICA!
There will be no money. Period. Get off that bus. And tell Al Sharpton to get a fucking job.
Oh, and I know you are going to call me a racist so bring it on. BRING IT ON. In addition to the ongoing slavery in Africa, the only groups BUYING slaves OUT OF SLAVERY are white....so talk to the hand.
The problem is that one cannot be lifted if one does not expect to play a part in the lifting. As a long time social worker I can speak from experience, so unless you have worked in the trenches for YEARS AND YEARS once again talk to the hand. There are 1000's of programs involving money, services, housing, etc., etc., and the main reason why certain subsets of the population do not raise up from poverty is having children with no ability to pay for them and failing to get an education. Until society stops paying children to have children this will never end.
I will get down on my knees and thank GOD ABOVE for the day that no child suffers, but until we all take responsibility--YOU AND ME--this will never happen. And it has less to do with money and more to do with mindset than many of you will ever know. One of the main reasons I detest Mr. Obama is that I know what he has done for his black constituents in Illinois, and jack shit don't sit well with me sir, nope, don't sit well with me at all.
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well said. affarmative action is racist. agaisnt all races.
"WHITE: But we gave you affirmative action. We gave you welfare.
BLACK: Yes, and those things helped, for a time. But even the effective application of those policies revealed a somewhat paternalistic - and racist - attitude towards our race. White liberals may have had the best intentions in creating those systems, but the end result is generations of dependency, poverty and hopelessness. What we really need are opportunities to help ourselves, rather than handouts which simply make us dependent on our old masters. We need black-owned businesses, black-owned banks, black-owned corporations. We don't need you to "give" them to us - but we need you to make it just as easy for a black American to do it as a white. And it just isn't so. The welfare system essentially created a new form of slavery, and little has been done to correct it.
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I would add, rather than african americans being easier to get ownership, it should be the same for all. I think color of skin is less important than social "class" as viewed by the job. Or poor people. More oppurtunites for poor none college grads, all races. That is the fix. Not specific for any race. It's not about race, it's about money. those who have it and those don't. African americans have a point in this regard, as a less percentage would be considered wealthy.
having said that, whatever change happens cannot be race based. it must be financially based.
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The third rail of race
Every time anybody related to Clinton mentions race, it's "touching the third rail", and it is interpreted by Obama supporters as being racist. When Obama mentions race, he is excused, because, after all, he is black and therefore he may touch that rail whenver he wants.
Ms. Walsh said here that we need to discuss race, then she said that we can't discuss it. Ferraro said that being black was an advantage for Obama, and she was dismissed as racist. Clinton says that Obama is not getting the support of white Americans, a statement that is demonstrably true, and she is compared to George Wallace, a man who made lies about race the foundation of his political career.
Kennedy as much as said that white people aren't voting for Obama because they aren't used to voting for a black person for President. Meanwhile, a number of people have endorsed Obama because they want "change", saying that they want to send a message to the world that the United States is "differetn" and Obama has asked black voter's to vote for him because of how they will feel when they watch him being sworn in. Obama's platforms offer no identifiable change. His politics are as old school as they get. So, what kind of change does Obama offer, besides being from a mixed race heritage?
It's beyond time that we had a frank discussion of race, and it should begin with an admission that race is not always a negative. Unless we are willing to acknowledge that, there can be no discussion, because we are starting the discussion with black people firmly in the "victim" category with no hope of acknowledging the progress this nation has made in race relations. Black people are not victims. They were, but they are no longer. Injustices happen to people of all races. So... let's talk, and please don't start out by calling me a racist. That says more about you than it does about me.