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cali

(114,904 posts)
Fri May 1, 2015, 11:50 AM May 2015

Dear white Facebook friends: I need you to respect what Black America is feeling right now

his post originally appeared on Julia Blount's Facebook page.

Dear White America,

It is somewhat strange to address this to you, given that I strongly identify with many aspects of your culture and am half-white myself. Yet, today is another day you have forced me to decide what race I am — and, as always when you force me — I fall decidedly into “Person of Color.”

Every comment or post I have read today voicing some version of disdain for the people of Baltimore — “I can’t understand” or “They’re destroying their own community” or “Destruction of Property!” or “Thugs” — tells me that many of you are not listening. I am not asking you to condone or agree with violence. I just need you to listen. You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to, but instead of forming an opinion or drawing a conclusion, please let me tell you what I hear:

I hear hopelessness
I hear oppression
I hear pain
I hear internalized oppression
I hear despair
I hear anger
I hear poverty

If you are not listening, not exposing yourself to unfamiliar perspectives, not watching videos, not engaging in conversation, then you are perpetuating white privilege and white supremacy. It is exactly your ability to not hear, to ignore the situation, that is a mark of your privilege. People of color cannot turn away. Race affects our lives every day. We must consider it all the time, not just when it is convenient.

<snip>

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/29/dear_white_facebook_friends_i_need_you_to_respect_what_black_america_is_feeling_right_now/#

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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NoJusticeNoPeace

(5,018 posts)
1. What is white culture?
Fri May 1, 2015, 11:59 AM
May 2015

Even this POC says it, yet I cant find a single example other than negative ones.

White privileged, racist Americans, tens of millions of them, insist that black culture is bad and white culture is good.

It was the basis of the idiot O'Reilly's comments about how much better things were in the 50's.

What is white culture?

 

cali

(114,904 posts)
2. lol. Masterpiece Theater and Alistair Cooke seated in a leather arm chair
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:15 PM
May 2015

suddenly popped into my mind, immediately dating myself.

Seriously, I don't know. I guess one would have to say that it breaks down into several ethnically rooted cultures.

NoJusticeNoPeace

(5,018 posts)
3. The point of the question is to respond to racists who say "black culture" causes fatherless
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:17 PM
May 2015

children, poverty, etc.

But white culture does as well so what is white culture?

Maybe there is no such thing and all peoples suffer in the same ways.

 

cali

(114,904 posts)
4. I once had a tee shirt printed that said, rather awkwardly,
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:24 PM
May 2015

"We all have more in common, than that which separates us" on the front, and on the back it read "though that which separates us can seem unbridgeable".

It's such bullshit to claim that black culture causes all the ills that beset black people in this country. It's a refusal to look at history and the oppressive weight of institutional racism. I hate that.

haele

(12,587 posts)
5. I think she means middle class WASP culture; the media portrayal of the average "American".
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:48 PM
May 2015

That's the cultural stereotype that citizens of the USA in general are portrayed as being pretty much internationally.
Look, when the generic "American" is portrayed in TV, in books, and especially in political speeches, it is typically a white guy who is either skilled trades technician, middle management, an independent contractor or owns a small business. The generic American usually has a wife, two/three kids, a dog, and a decent-sized bungalow with a grass yard that is either in a gentrified neighborhood or in the 'burbs. He's pragmatic, narrowly-focused, and rather boisterous, likes to play hard and party hard. He usually doesn't think too deeply. The generic American used to be a savvy farmer or a clever union worker, but both of those are out of favor; these lifestyles are not ones for the general public to "aspire" to.

His cousins are the "shrewd businessman/lawyer/wealthy shark" with the apartment in the city and a corner office, the disaffected, under-employed, soul-searching artistic youth (i.e."Young America&quot and/or the"goofy lovable nerd who can't nail the girl" who either lives in an apartment, the parent's basement, or shares a room with equally nerdy friends.

In supporting roles or on special occasions, the "American" can also be the triple Madonna/Bitch Goddess female (single, married, or cougar), the ethnic or racial-based BFF(s), the "true-blue" military or first responder, the gangster/thug (the shiftless, animalistic black, brown, or white mafia types, motorcycle gang members, and/or drug dealers), the homeless and mentally ill vet and drunkards, or the evangelical nutcases (religion or CT types).

However, for the most part, in the internet and pop culture, the American is identified under the "white culture" stereotype, specifically the first generic American identified above.\

You can argue it, but when you take an honest look at the American media product even now, how is the "Real American" portrayed?

Haele

NoJusticeNoPeace

(5,018 posts)
6. I know what she means, and this from your post
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:53 PM
May 2015
who is either skilled trades technician, middle management, an independent contractor or owns a small business. The generic American usually has a wife, two/three kids, a dog, and a decent-sized bungalow with a grass yard that


could just as easily be a black family

My point is there really is no white or black culture.

When asked a white person CANT tell you what white culture is and if they try it is wrong, but they can go on and on about black culture

like


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/12/1284076/-Ryan-says-men-in-inner-cities-aren-t-even-thinking-about-working




“We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning to value the culture of work, so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with.”


The racist puke Ryan is saying that the black culture is this.

He hasnt been to my neck of the woods, lots of white folks not working either.

haele

(12,587 posts)
8. I know what you mean - I also know that people are more likely to do easy than smart.
Fri May 1, 2015, 01:55 PM
May 2015

Ask any random Joe or Jane on the street to describe American Culture, and I'd speculate that four out of the five will default to popular media stereotypes as the basis for "culture".
And that's when you can get these arguments between "white culture" and "black culture" (and "native culture, Asian culture, Hispanic culture" - whatever), because a THINKING person will recognize that stereotype is not culture - and will start talking about economic, philosophical, and ethnic sub-groups, with both their commonalities and their differences.
But as I said, between three and four out of five people are more inclined to be reactive rather than stop and think, and the easiest "go-to" when faced with what to say about something that is as complex and nuanced as culture is, will be pop-culture.

"Well, What I see on TV, or read in the Papers or in books must be the way those other people live; that's their culture."

Overall, a major component in the actual culture of America is to "get on". To not think to hard about the problem, but to be active and certain, to take risks and presume that will always lead to progress. Culturally, Americans also tend to have a very small, tribal world-view, valuing personal property and individual freedom of activity - for ourselves and those we relate to. And that can probably be linked to the fact that most of the people who participated in the development of the "American Society" over the 19th and 20th centuries were concerned with creating their own little oasis where they could be who they wanted to be and prosper without interference from social interests that were different than theirs. They had frontiers they could carve out. They could isolate themselves into communities where for the most part, they could claim a leadership position and make whatever social laws they wanted and raise their families and treat their property in whatever way was most comfortable for the hierarchy they were building.
sorry for the edit, this last part dropped off during the posting

While that can a good thing when it comes to innovation, but can be disastrous when dealing with root cause issues, like poverty, social and economic inequality and injustice, the need for education, the need to manage resources, etc...

Anyway, I can see why someone would shorthand comments "to white culture" about what's going on in Baltimore and other areas where people are disenfranchised and have had enough - because there's a whole lot of people out there who associate a stereotypical "those people" with culture.
Heck, I see it all around at work, with family and friends - and in the DU forums all the time - "When I was growing up you never heard about; or I and my family would never think of acting like that; followed by...why don't they just ...[just grow up and take responsibility, just raise their kids right, stop doing the crime, stop being victims, stop thinking its all about them, stop preying on each other, etc., etc.,] ..."
So it seems very much like there's an undercurrent of "Good old White American Culture" vs. "White-Trash and/or Black Culture".

When in reality, it's all about feeding the stereotypes and ignoring root causes for an easy, "painless" answer.

Haele

 

LittleBlue

(10,362 posts)
7. That is part of identifying with a race
Fri May 1, 2015, 12:56 PM
May 2015

Clannish uniformity regardless of the truth. His message will fall on deaf ears despite a handful agreeing.

It has worked many times in the past, forming a consensus opinion and pressuring others to adopt it. Hence the mayor of Baltimore, Obama, and POC on social media defending the white consensus. Whites have the seemingly limitless social power to look down on other people, which causes those others to scramble to be seen as "not like them"

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