Hey white people...its on us! [View all]

[sheshe2]

Hey white people...its on us!

Last night I went on twitter when the Zimmerman verdict was announced...at least until I read the words of a father wondering WTH he was going to say to his black son. Then I started balling and the evening was basically over for me.

Surely every parent of a black child in this country has to grapple with teaching them some form of the Black Male Code. I remember the profound sense of what white privilege means hit me when one of my co-workers talked about how she had to make her son cut off his dreads when he was 13 so as not to make him a target. What mother of a white child has to think about those kinds of things? And what mother of a white child has to fear for their lives when they're walking home from the store?

Trayvon Martin, my son, and the Black Male Code

As I explained it, the Code goes like this:

Always pay close attention to your surroundings, son, especially if you are in an affluent neighborhood where black folks are few. Understand that even though you are not a criminal, some people might assume you are, especially if you are wearing certain clothes.

Never argue with police, but protect your dignity and take pride in humility. When confronted by someone with a badge or a gun, do not flee, fight, or put your hands anywhere other than up.

Please don't assume, son, that all white people view you as a threat. America is better than that. Suspicion and bitterness can imprison you. But as a black male, you must go above and beyond to show strangers what type of person you really are.

http://www.jessewashington.com/trayvon-and-the-black-male-code.html

We Can't Fix Ya!
SAT AUG 22, 2009 AT 12:01 PM PDT

I have come to one conclusion.

Race is a problem for white people to solve. If black people or brown people could have made racism go away it would have long since disappeared back into the nothing-ness from which it came.

Nah, it’s on white folks to make the necessary moves to kill and bury, once and for all, the notion of race. I think in a generation or two this just might happen.

For one thing no small part of the fear rising in the hearts of some our finest race-baiting carbon units is the realization that within a generation they will be the minority. This idea causes folk like Pat Buchanan to go to sleep at night clutching at his gonads. He’s been ringing the white folks we’re about to be outnumbered bell for a really long time. With the election of America’s first black president, many of the dull-normals suddenly got it.

In the America they grew up in, such a thing was not possible. A black president was not a notion the mouth-breathers ever considered. It couldn’t happen. For one thing the expectation was white people would never go for it. I still remember the old southern white man who said during the election season last year "I’m voting for the nigger." Even so, he was in the minority.

The majority of white people in this country voted for dumb and dumber. They were willing to be led by two people who couldn’t find their butts with a flashlight and a map.



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/08/22/770764/-We-Can-t-Fix-Ya

Perhaps a good place to start is to listen to black people talk about what it means to be a parent these days. And keep your g-d mouth shut when it comes to advice - even when what they have to say makes you uncomfortable. Right now they feel like their children's lives are at stake - with good reason. Can we find a touch of empathy to spur some curiosity about what that might feel like as a parent?

That's what its going to take, folks. As overwhelming as it might seem, every time a white person opens themselves up to that reality we get one step closer to ending days like this. If we're ever going to get there - its on us.
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/07/hey-white-peopleits-on-us.html