White Privilege

[nadinbrzezinski]

as you see the reaction of the RW to the Martin murder, realize they are expressing their fears.

When they attack the president on race, white Privilege.

You see, a black president is the worst nightmare to them, a man shooting a kid, for the color of his skin...stand your ground...

In effect what you are seeing are the racial tensions of a group of people who are afraid of what inevitably will come, a multicultural society where curry and barbecue mix, and tacos and grits are there.

So as you listen, or read, reactions to this, realize, you are watching deep racial fears of people who really cannot understand, there are no inferior people, and race, in a scientific way, does not exist. It is not just Stormfront or our spelunking "friends." This fear is deep seated, and actually is part of our cheap labor ideologies. If there are no inferior people, you mean we have to pay them the same? The other side if the coin were riots in Colonial America to protest the use of slaves, taking jobs away from white freemen. In the modern day, the expulsion of Mexicans during the Depression, or laws such as Arizona.

This is what we are seeing, a very toxic brew...and yes, white Privilege and a caste system are very real, as well as the social tensions that come with it.

[slackmaster]

1. I believe the correct spelling is privy-ledge

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Interesting photo

This has anything to do with the op how? But interesting shot.

[freshwest]

7. It took forever to load!

[HipChick]

8. Interesting..an ex-co worker of mine has a lodge like..he owns 79 guns..

he calls it his overlook tower, and fully intends to shoot anyone that trespass on his property..he makes his own bullets...he's a true gun nut..

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Packs his own ammo, I call that "dedicated"

[Wounded Bear]

45. It's actually spot on topic....

Shit does roll down hill, you know.

[nadinbrzezinski]

47. So you think we do not have a race problem?

Wonders never cease.

[Rex]

4. HA!

"Ma...found the watershed, Bubba done got drunk and moved it again!"

[Nye Bevan]

11. Now *that's* white privilege.

That gentleman will never be unfortunate enough to experience the horror of being Halle Berry.

[freshwest]

2. 'If there are no inferior people, you mean we have to pay them the same?' Nailed it.

The ending of this will turn the pyramid upside down and liberate humanity, and open up human creativity beyond our wildest ideas.

Korten states this in his inverse pyramid analogy. Instead of individuals carrying the top of the heirarchy on their backs, keeping their focus restricted and low to the ground, the focus goes up and joins with others in the freest way imaginable.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. We are at a point where many aspects of the culture will be challenged.

That includes our relation to nature.

[jwirr]

33. Wonderful idea.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

6. K&R Outstanding.

[Zax2me]

9. Looks like you got it.

[annabanana]

10. I do believe that people, as animals,

are tribal.

There is something VERY deep seated that engenders fear of "the other". Exposure, experience and education are the only effective counterweights.

[RufusTFirefly]

12. Race is an artificial construct of the rich

It is designed to keep workers distracted and at war with each other so they can't join together and demand their rightful piece of the pie from the wealthy.

The concept is so ingrained in our society and reinforced by discrimination and the resulting segregation that we reflexively accept race as reality when, just as you suggest, in a scientific way it doesn't really exist. It should no more be a cause for divisiveness than eye color is.

[freshwest]

15. +1,000

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. It is

and let's be clear, it's not exclusive to the US...but right now this case is pregnant with it.

[hfojvt]

13. Well then, it is too bad we did not nominate Gore, Kerry or Edwards

Because nobody would attack them. They're all white males.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. You deny there is a racial aspect to the attacks on Obama?

I mean you serious?

Gingrich latest is just the latest example.

[mzteris]

14. For those who've never read it - a link

to Peggy McIntosh's White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack


http://www.nymbp.org/reference/WhitePrivilege.pdf


(Forgot the link. )

[RufusTFirefly]

19. Also good on the subject is Tim Wise

[mzteris]

23. Love Tim Wise!

His is a refreshing voice coming from a white male!

[libtodeath]

20. It brings up the whole phony american exceptionalism thing the right has

we slaughtered the native americans,enslaved blacks and all done under the willing nod of privileged white men of the day.
Tebaggers cling to the nonsense that white america is superior because then they never have to admit to an change from the horrible things we have done.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. That is indeed an important aspect of it

In the US. And this started early in colonial history. A white slave could work and be free. A black slave was going to die a slave and his children were going to live as such, unless master released them, or somehow they managed to buy themselves out.

(Yes indentured servants are a type of slave)

We developed a whole ideology to justify this, which included the Bible.

[libtodeath]

22. Yes,some nonsense about gods curse on black people in the old testament

That book is the cause of much evil.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. And good

Problem is that you can cherry pick to justify anything.

[mzteris]

27. In the earliest days of the colony

they could BOTH earn their freedom. But when they landowners (white) began to fear the uprising of their "free help" they deliberately pitted the white "slaves" against the black ones to divide and conquer.

" . . . Only one fear was greater than the fear of black rebellion in the new American colonies. That was the fear that discontented whites would join black slaves to overthrow the existing order. In the early years of slavery, especially, before racism as a way of thinking was firmly ingrained, while white indentured servants were often treated as badly as black slaves, there was a possibility of cooperation. As Edmund Morgan sees it:

. . . Virginia's ruling class, having proclaimed that all white men were superior to black, went on to offer their social (but white) inferiors a number of benefits previously denied them. In 1705 a law was passed requiring masters to provide white servants whose indenture time was up with ten bushels of corn, thirty shillings, and a gun, while women servants were to get 15 bushels of corn and forty shillings. Also, the newly freed servants were to get 50 acres of land.

Morgan concludes: "Once the small planter felt less exploited by taxation and began to prosper a little, he became less turbulent, less dangerous, more respectable. He could begin to see his big neighbor not as an extortionist but as a powerful protector of their common interests."
. . . the special helplessness of the displaced African, the powerful incentive of profit for slave trader and planter, the temptation of superior status for poor whites, the elaborate controls against escape and rebellion, the legal and social punishment of black and white collaboration." http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncolorline.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Indeed

For this early history see white cargo

http://www.amazon.com/White-Cargo-Forgotten-History-Britains/dp/0814742963/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1333226587&sr=8-10

[sulphurdunn]

25. The majority

of the serfs in the "white privilege" cast system are white, and the poorest of them are its most reactionary defenders.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Which is always a puzzle

But sooner or later even that will break down.

[izquierdista]

29. There may not be inferior people, but there are inferior foods

Tacos are one of the greatest culinary advances on the planet, while grits are a primitive technology to turn corn into food, not entirely successful given the history of pellagra.

[malaise]

30. You know I disagree with you re their fear

Their real fear is that those they have oppressed for centuries with pay back the favors down the line.
They should give thanks for the likes of MLK

[jwirr]

31. I agree and what I wonder is when we finally between all the minorities including women finally

do take this nation back will they finally settle down and realize that it is over? Is there an end in sight? I hope so.

[pintobean]

32. Claptrap

No matter how much we would like to believe it, racism isn't divided along political lines.

[jtuck004]

34. +1

[Number23]

37. "racism isn't divided along political lines."

And there is no greater truth than that, no matter how many liberals scream otherwise.

But I think Nadin's OP raises some very good points.

[Ron Obvious]

35. That would be me, then...

I'm a 6+ footer, heterosexual, blond-haired, blue-eyed immigrant with an English accent. I worked at starvation-wages during the night-shift of a convenience store in the 80's but retired as a relatively young man 10 years later near the tail-end of the IT revolution. From sleeping on the floor in an empty apartment to a life of comfortable ease without having to work for it.

I think I really do understand the issues of poverty in this country and want to level the playing ground for everyone.

Am I your enemy? I'm moderately conservative at heart, but consider myself to the left of Obama.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. Do you agree with Rush

How about Sean?

And actually I don't think you fully understand the issues of race.

But nice try.

[Ron Obvious]

38. Rush is a rodeo clown...

No, I don't. I was a big AM radio listener during the 80's and was saddened when Owen Span retired to make way for this buffoon from Sacramento with his "Gorbasms" and "Feminiazi" updates.

I don't know if I understand racial privilege in this country. I don't particularly think I've benefited from it and I know immigrants from Africa who are just as succesful as anyone else.

If I were to guess, I'd say class is a bigger issue than race in this country. This society is more class-conscious than England. and that's saying a bit. Just look at people's teeth...

But I don't think I'm your enemy in this fight.

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. I did not say that

But you really do not understand the complexities of race.

There are oodles of books on it by the way, and academic writing.

I am an immigrant too...and I am aware of it.

As to class, I'll take it a step further. We have become a caste society.

[Ron Obvious]

40. Maybe...

You might well be right. I generally got people smarming over me when they heard me speak. Not that I liked that sort of thing particularly. I lived in El Paso, a majority Hispanic and Spanish-speaking town for years and got lots of shit for being an outsider, though.

But you seem pretty firm. Is it impossible for a guy in my position to understand the complexities of race, you think? Why is that?

[nadinbrzezinski]

41. Did not say it's impossible

Just that it takes reading.

Start with a few good books on slavery, both white and black.

[Ron Obvious]

42. OK

OK, but what is that made you assume that I hadn't read those books to begin with? For the record, I have, you know.

Isn't your dismissal of me as someone who couldn't possibly understand the complexities of race in this country similar to the very attitude you're decrying?

[nadinbrzezinski]

43. Ok...

Have a good day.

[alcibiades_mystery]

44. Here's what white people tend to say when theyn try to talk about structural discrimination

"Class is more important than race."

It's almost always their first move - an easy enough move, since it brings the discussion on to their own turf, and they get to talk about their own "working class" moments (as if "working class" were a stage in life, like college - something that is mostly only true for the bourgeoisie), while dismissing structural racism as - what? - incorrect?

Needless to say, class and race (and gender and etc.) actually interact in deviously complex ways that these trite assertions can't even begin to capture (or understand), but it's easy enough for white folks to find anything other than race to talk about, since many of them seem structurally incapable of talking about it with any insight or even basic empathy.

Yes, yes, quite right, let's talk about class. Much more important than race. Tell me again about your time as a convenience store clerk, ahem...

[Ron Obvious]

46. So you got me pegged then...

I'm genuinely saddened and amazed at the hostility I'm reading into your post. You appear to have pegged me into a place I don't consider myself to belong.