What if you you switched colors at midnight?

[EffieBlack]

In his book, "Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal," political scientist, author and professor Andrew Hacker describes an interesting experiment he conducts with his classes using the following parable:

You will be visited tonight by an official you have never met. He begins by telling you that he is extremely embarrassed. The government has made a huge mistake, something that hardly ever happens. According to his records, he goes on, you were supposed to have been born black: to another set of parents, far from where you were raised.

However, the rules being what they are, this error must be rectified, and as soon as possible. So at midnight tonight, you will become black. And this will mean not simply a darker skin, but the bodily and facial features associated with African ancestry. However, inside you will be the person you always were. Your memories, knowledge, and ideas will remain intact. Outwardly, people will identify you as a black woman or man.

Your visitor emphasizes that being born to the wrong parents was in no way your fault and you will continue to know your family--but you also have a new Black family.

Because of the government's error, his office is prepared to offer you some reasonable recompense. Would you, he asks, care to name a sum of money you might consider appropriate? While his budget is large, you must justify the sum of money you request. He finishes by saying that their records show that you are scheduled to live another fifty years -- as a black man or woman in America.

1. How much financial recompense would you request?

2. What is your justification for this amount?

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/gbabcock/_private/Old_Courses/2008fall/2008fall427st.htm

White DUers: If you were to be visited by this government official and told that you would, at midnight, change from white to black under the above conditions, but would be offered compensation, how much financial recompense would you request and why?

DUers of Color: If you were to be visited by this government official and told that you would, at midnight, change from a person of color to white under these conditions, but would be offered compensation, how much financial recompense would you request and why?

[JustAnotherGen]

1. $100K

That accounts for how much I've spent on hair and skin care and will also do in the future.

Add in, possibly having to pay for skin cancer treatments, botox, face lifts, microdermabrasion, etc. etc. Skin cancer runs in my family (mom's side) so I'm guessing I would now be impacted by it in a very serious and real way.

I love the texture of my skin and that I'm 45 and don't have a wrinkle. I'm assuming that I don't keep the quality of skin and will have to spend a lot of money to get to back to my 'not cracking' if you catch my drift.

I'm vain.

I freely admit it.

Folks can do with it what they will.


When I get home tonight - I'm asking my husband this question!

[Skidmore]

2. Negotiations

would have to include a guarantee of civil rights and social justice, which are priceless. There is no monetary value I could assign. What is the price of a life lived or yet to be lived?

[ProudLib72]

3. I'd have to add up how much therapy I'd need

I'm telling you Effie, if I had been born black with the attitude I have based on my privilege, I'd have been dead a long time ago. So I'm going to need a LOT of therapy. I make no pretense at being able to adjust easily. The thought of it scares the crap out of me!

[backtoblue]

4. This will take a lot of thought.

My first reaction would be "cool, I now know who I really am" . But, admittedly, I don't know what it would be like to be a black woman. Since this question is very deep and thought-provoking, I'll have to get back to you.

[Uncle Joe]

5. There are a couple of movies that have taken up along this kind of theme

Warning there is a butt shot in this video

Thanks for the thread EffieBlack

[Decoy of Fenris]

6. $6,450,000.

Justification: The average cost of a year of "quality" human life is around $129,000. Since the government agent has stipulated that I would live another 50 years, whether I wanted to or not, they have sufficiently replaced my current way of life with another state of existence without my consent. Given that at any point in the future I may not want to live an additional 50 years and since there's no guarantee of the quality of that 50 year certain lifespan, I'd claim assurances of retaining quality of life in the event of unforeseen circumstances including but not limited to medical care or sudden loss of financial sustainability. 50 years, at $129,000, puts me at $6,450,000. This is excluding the expenses coming from, as the post mentions, a "new black family". Without running numbers, I could probably slap on another few million in one shape or form on their account as well, either from potential medical conditions or schooling or what have you. The size of that family would also determine other costs, as would the legalities of finances and other fiscal responsibilities relating to that family.

That's aside from possible lawsuits rooted in the upheaval of any existing belief systems involving predetermination or lack thereof and the pain/suffering angle, but that'd be fishing for cash at that point.

[dumbcat]

7. I would shoot said overnment official

and bury him in the back yard.

[Solly Mack]

8. When I was teaching, my students couldn't agree on what "color" I am.

Almost all the students said I was African-American. My Mexican-American and Vietnamese-American students saw me as black as well. A few didn't realize I was female - which lead to some comical moments in the classroom.

This bothered some of my co-workers while it didn't bother me at all.

My job was to care for and relate to my students. To introduce them to the joys of learning.

I didn't care how they saw me if I was accomplishing that.

Whenever a student would ask, I'd answer that I was just like them - a person. To treat me the way they wanted to be treated.

That was class. That was me trying to teach a point. To help build them up to face the world - that no matter what anyone else had to say about it, they were a person, worthy of respect and equality.

One on one we sometimes had more realistic talks but as a class, I made sure all the kids knew they were to treat each other with respect and kindness.

Now, the real world. The world they faced outside of my classroom. The world that came after them no matter how they were treated in the classroom.

Oh, you'd have to pay me several hundred thousands a year to wake up a person of color tomorrow. Let's say 500,000 x 50.

1 - I haven't had the years, at my age, to develop the necessary survival mechanisms for coping with white America. The subtle and not-so-subtle prejudices. The day in and day out slaps across the face from people not knowing or understanding how their words and actions show a bias. Then there are the overt displays of ignorance.

- What I see now isn't the same as experiencing it firsthand. Because it isn't happening to me, I can feel awful about it but I don't experience the full impact of it. -

2 - Bail money/lawyer fees/lawsuits for any arrests while merely existing.

- I've been arrested before. It was after midnight. I wasn't placed in a cell but kept at the dispatch desk. They called a judge to come in and sign my release. They woke a judge up so I could go home. The judge arrived still in his pajamas, pinched my cheek, told me to behave, and that was that. It wasn't a major crime but then it doesn't have to be for people of color to be shot dead by the police. It doesn't even have to be a crime at all for that to happen. -

3 - To sum up my reasons for as much money as possible while living as a black person. There are simply too many factors of things that can go wrong or bad for me to not have the cushion of money. And while that is true for all people - money provides options...it is especially true for those who face discrimination. Not facing the double judgments of being both poor and black. Oh, I'd still get judged while being black and wealthy - but money would offer a cushion against it.

And while wealth would not stop my being discriminated against - I'd still face the day to day slaps across the face, both subtle and overt - I'd be minus the worry of bills, housing, health-care - the stress - from having to sometimes swallow racist bullshit just to feed my family.

Having said all that...

Really, no amount of money would counter the soul-crushing wall of racism. You see yourself as one thing - self-made, accomplished, educated - and then some asshole comes along and attempts to tear you down so they can feel better about themselves. And the knowing that the asshole isn't alone in how he thinks. And to feel, even for a second, that no matter what you do or accomplish - there are a lot of people out there that will only see one thing and one thing only.

So, if I were to wake up a black female tomorrow - give me strength. Give me an understanding of my oppressors and a sense of humor. Give me a support network of friends and family.

Oh, and I'll take the money too - I'm not a fool.

[Ms. Toad]

9. Interesting question.

Two thoughts

This is very similar to the wrongful life suits brought by parents/children whose lives were immeasurably harder for a variety of reasons often, ultimately, because the parents were unable to have an abortion (or were denied the information they might have used to obtain one).

The other is the assumption that everyone would want to be straight, if we had a choice, because being gay is somehow "less than" - and even though life is harder, most of us who are emotionally healthy wouldn't change if we could.

So I don't have a clue about award.

But it would be some mixture of:

Award for the life lost (the first 62 - in my case - years) of not being able to live as who I truly was, growing up not knowing my culture, and living in a family where I was different from everyone else (even if I didn't have a name for that difference - as someone who was truly black I'm sure I would have felt an outsider, just as LGBT people feel like outsiders long before they can name the difference). That comes from a mixture of living a life as "other" in a family in which I was different from everyone else, and from my experience with my native american siblings - one of whom was taken from his family as part of the anglicizing NA children - because he was removed under circumstances a white child never would have been removed, and was expressly advertised to my parents as being able to pass; the other two of whom truly needed to be removed from their homes - but not necessarily from their communities and culture. Money cannot make up for that loss, but it is real

Award for the diminished economic value I will have for the remainder of my life My high school sweetheart transitioned from male to female, and instantly lost about 20 IQ points. Fortunately, she was not hit with the normal economic consequences of suddenly being female (and has, in fact, been wildly successful economically since transition) - but the reality is that blacks, women, LGBT individuals (especially trans individuals) earn less than cis white males. I've got a decade or so of work left in my life - if statistics hold, I'll earn less as a black.