White in America

When discussing racism, I always want to just quote one of Abagond’s posts because he is far more patient and thorough in dissecting it than I can be.  He is also dead on accurate.  I’m quoting a lengthy excerpt of his post where he discusses clueless white racism.  I was awed with the correctness of it.  I invite you to visit his blog for more.

Imagine if I am stepping on your foot by accident and do not seem to know it. You tell me. I look down, remove my foot, say “Oh, I am sorry” and feel bad about it.

To review:
1.I see my fault.
2.I do something about it
3.I say I am sorry and mean it.
4.I feel bad.

And better yet, I might try to make up for it somehow.

So if a white person is benevolently clueless, unknowingly racist, he would do this:

1.Understand how what he said or did is racist.
2.Stop doing it or see to it that he does not do it again.
3.Say he is sorry and mean it.
4.Feel bad about it.

Mostly they do the opposite:

1.Refuse to admit they are racist.
2.Do not change.
3.Do not apologize.
4.Get angry.

And worse yet, they might say or do more racist things.

Or sometimes you get the half-baked apology: “If I offended you I am sorry. But I am not a racist. Some of my best friends are black.” Something like that.

These are not the actions of the benevolently clueless. These are the actions of a jerk, of someone who refuses to see or understand the wrong he has done and keeps doing it. And if you do not like it, well screw you already.

Why do white people act this way? Because deep down they know full well they are racist but do not want to face the fact. It is one of the side effects of white guilt.

Most white people will do the right thing when they step on a black person’s foot. But imagine if they handled it like they do racism: they would not remove their foot, they would not even look down, but instead say stuff like this (the extended version):

I am not stepping on your foot. How dare you accuse me of that – and after all the nice things I have done for you! You are just imagining it. You people do nothing but blame others and complain. You just hate white people, that is why are you saying that. Arab traders step on feet, did you know that? It is perfectly natural. But if I am stepping on your foot, then I am truly sorry, but it is not something I would ever do.

Foot still not removed.

A commenter wrote the whitey view was neutral and the  problem with me was I couldn’t understand it.  I doubt that the commenter knows any blacks intimately or has known more than a handful, if that, on an intimate basis.

Black people deal with whites every day by virtue of our minority status.  We share our lives with white people and they rarely do so with blacks, deal with multitudes of them on a daily basis and they never do so with blacks, go daily to places where they are the majority and we are the only person of our race or just one of a few and they rarely, if ever, have that experience, have them in our families, have them in our blood.  I know I do.  Yet, somehow my/our observations about whites are invalid?

And white Americans feel perfectly comfortable telling us we don’t know what racism is and we don’t understand white neutrality?

White isn’t neutral, white is a race defined by culture just like black is a race defined in the same way.  Whites have specific white culture and white ways.  Most blacks, since we live in this culture too, have  the same ways, and the few who are isolated from the mainstream and haven’t are denigrated for it.  Example:  White Americans have harsh and prominent accents, rather flat and nasal. They jeer and put down Ebonics, which is nothing but an accent of  isolated blacks, and never think about their own sorta awful accents. They don’t think they have one.

CNN always does specials on minorities such as Blacks in America and is doing one soon on Latinos in America, but would never consider one on Whites in America–which is the one they should have done first.

They will never do it because their specials focus on racial pathology and white pathology MUST be only presented as normal or neutral by the media, never as racial and white only.

Three Respectable Negros did a spoof on it in their blog, I’ve put an excerpt here and cut out a lot (…).  You have to go to their blog and read the whole thing.  They have much, much and links and all.  It’s worth it; it’s hilarious.

What would a White version of Black in America look like? A hypothetical question, yes, but one that is still interesting and useful to work through. In the spirit of Black in America, we present to you our pitch for the never to be produced, television news special, White in America.

Segment 1  White Teenagers: Out of Control and at Risk…

Segment 2  A Plague Upon the Land: White Men, Workplace Violence, School Shootings, Hate Crimes, and Dead Wives…

Is white male violence a global crisis? What can be done to stop this open season on white women and white children? What is fueling this culture of violence? Who is to blame?

Segment 3  School is No Longer a Place for Just the ABC’s: Female Teachers Are Preying Upon Their Male Students…

Why are white women pursuing teenage boys? Is this criminal behavior a result of a culture which focuses too much on the sexual desirability of young women? Are older white women feeling neglected and left out? Is this recent fetishizing of white women in their 30s, 40s, and 50s–the Sex and the City phenomenon–to blame? Are white women feeling an unhealthy pressure to become either a MILF or a Cougar?  What can schools do to protect young boys from these predators? What are the warning signs that your son is being abused by a female teacher?

Segment 4  What are White Women to do? White Men, Down-low Culture, Cruising, Sex Cults, and to Catch a Predator…

What can white women do? How can they know if their partner is on the down low? What are the health risks? If you find out your husband is cruising for sex in public bathrooms or on the internet how should you intervene? Should you stay in the relationship or should you go?

Segment 5  No End in Sight: The Methamphetamine Plague that is Destroying White Communities…

How should you protect your family? What are the signs your child is on meth? What should the government do? Should drugs be legalized and regulated? If you live in a meth infested area what are you doing to protect your children and family? What is your day to day life like? How do you struggle through it?

White folks would never put stuff like this in a white racial light as they do to blacks all the time.  Everything they do must be portrayed neutral and normal.

Every black person I know resented that special at some level, but stuff like this from institutions, the media, and American folks in general, is so common.  Noticing and, god forbid, voicing any of this…of course they consider that racist.

Think on that irony.

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