Continued from Part 1: "i don't exactly hate being white."
Since white racism is the central race problem in this country and most European ones too based on the Cecile Emeke Series I've been watching, it stands to reason that is whiteness that must be studied -- and not so much the victimization of black and brown people because that doesn't decrease the victimization.
You want to figure out who the criminal is, you study the victim looking for clues the criminal left. But once you know who the criminal is but find you cannot put him in jail because you don't have the right laws in place, you study the criminal and his motives and his habits and create the detailed laws you need.
In an oversimplified way, this describes how every law ever written was first thought out and created.
The crime of racism is no different. And the racism that matters is the racism that is systemic because when it's not systemic, you can be refused a job at company A walk down the street and get a job at company B. Therefore the racists that matter, in this country, are the ones that are white. The white people in this country, unaware of their own racism or not, are the ones with the numbers and the power to perform systemic racism. That makes white folk the problem, the criminal to be studied.
Therefore I'm glad that sociologist study an entire subject called "White Studies."
One of the things that black sociologists focus on within White Studies is the white person's tendency to assume that their perspective is "normal" while everyone else's perspective is "raced" and therefore "biased."
I think one of the keys to blasting white people out of their "normal" comfort zone into realizing that they have a raced perspective, which also means, as part of the dominant culture, that they probably have "racist" ideas about other groups that don't have to involve "hate" IF they've never taken the time to examine their own top-of-the-heap perspectives passed down to them generation to generation along with their assumptions of "normal"
I cannot be amazed at the racism I hear coming out of white people's mouths at least two or three times a month. But every now and again I do tune into myself and realize I am shocked at white people's own lack of self-awareness. And I'm not talking about white racism washing over me from news broadcasts either. I'm not talking about anonymous type stuff. I'm talking about in-my-face, person-to-person white racism batting me around a bit, that perfectly "nice" and "pleasant" white people are not even slightly aware of. But their racist belief systems are so subtle it would take me two hours to try and breakdown the negative race-based statement that the person expressed today, that the white person expressed yesterday and the day before, and also the pattern they're showing every time they open their mouth -----if the unaware white person's fragility didn't dissolve them into a teary mess before 2 minutes had passed, much less 2 hours.
And this kind of painful explaining is something I would only owe a friend. So mostly --at work, on the street, wherever-- I listen, digest it, regurgitate the problems of whiteness as I see them. It's important for me to do this. It's important for you to do it. It's important, period.
People will read what I and other bloggers and comment-ers and social media wizards write then create videos and books that maybe some white people, like the young white woman quoted yesterday, will watch, read, and repeat something healthy themselves.
Make no mistake, when it comes to race and racism in this country 90% of the changing that needs to done needs to be done by white people. It is their systematic oppression that is the seed of the problems in this country. And some of the actual "racists" know it deep down. When (white) privilege that feels like normal" starts to slip away --black president, vocal black lives matter movement, black controlled television and movies-- some white people feel quite violent about losing what they feel they are entitled to -- which is why violent rhetoric of Donald Trump is popular with so many white people on the right.
In November, if Trump winds up being the Republican Nominee, we're going to find out what percentage of white people can deny their own racism and the racism of others. We're also going to find out just how big the internalized racism problem is in each race and each ethnic group -- because Trump has made it quite apparent that he holds in contempt every single group not white. And, while I may eventually be forced to make allowances for those who don 't speak English well, for now, I'm going to say that every single body who can't see Trump for what he is has some form of ethno-racism problem.
Once the election is over, if the Donald Trump is the nominee, we're going to be able to count the racists and internalized-ethnoracists by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation because there's always a detailed breakdown of who voted for who.
We're all gonna know.
There are white writers on the right and white writers on the left writing and yakety-yakking about all kinds of reasons why, other than racism, that white people like Trump. And I have one thing to say to them: "It's the racism stupid."
Talking about Trump's politics and Trump lovers without talking about racism is like saying, "Well Hitler was fine except for the anti-semitism. He actual had a point about this, that, and the other policies."
Trump's racism is his core and it's at the core of his supporters too.
Come November
We're all gonna know.
 |
| not officially a "white studies" book |
In an oversimplified way, this describes how every law ever written was first thought out and created.
The crime of racism is no different. And the racism that matters is the racism that is systemic because when it's not systemic, you can be refused a job at company A walk down the street and get a job at company B. Therefore the racists that matter, in this country, are the ones that are white. The white people in this country, unaware of their own racism or not, are the ones with the numbers and the power to perform systemic racism. That makes white folk the problem, the criminal to be studied.
Therefore I'm glad that sociologist study an entire subject called "White Studies."
One of the things that black sociologists focus on within White Studies is the white person's tendency to assume that their perspective is "normal" while everyone else's perspective is "raced" and therefore "biased."
I cannot be amazed at the racism I hear coming out of white people's mouths at least two or three times a month. But every now and again I do tune into myself and realize I am shocked at white people's own lack of self-awareness. And I'm not talking about white racism washing over me from news broadcasts either. I'm not talking about anonymous type stuff. I'm talking about in-my-face, person-to-person white racism batting me around a bit, that perfectly "nice" and "pleasant" white people are not even slightly aware of. But their racist belief systems are so subtle it would take me two hours to try and breakdown the negative race-based statement that the person expressed today, that the white person expressed yesterday and the day before, and also the pattern they're showing every time they open their mouth -----if the unaware white person's fragility didn't dissolve them into a teary mess before 2 minutes had passed, much less 2 hours.
And this kind of painful explaining is something I would only owe a friend. So mostly --at work, on the street, wherever-- I listen, digest it, regurgitate the problems of whiteness as I see them. It's important for me to do this. It's important for you to do it. It's important, period.
People will read what I and other bloggers and comment-ers and social media wizards write then create videos and books that maybe some white people, like the young white woman quoted yesterday, will watch, read, and repeat something healthy themselves.
Make no mistake, when it comes to race and racism in this country 90% of the changing that needs to done needs to be done by white people. It is their systematic oppression that is the seed of the problems in this country. And some of the actual "racists" know it deep down. When (white) privilege that feels like normal" starts to slip away --black president, vocal black lives matter movement, black controlled television and movies-- some white people feel quite violent about losing what they feel they are entitled to -- which is why violent rhetoric of Donald Trump is popular with so many white people on the right.
In November, if Trump winds up being the Republican Nominee, we're going to find out what percentage of white people can deny their own racism and the racism of others. We're also going to find out just how big the internalized racism problem is in each race and each ethnic group -- because Trump has made it quite apparent that he holds in contempt every single group not white. And, while I may eventually be forced to make allowances for those who don 't speak English well, for now, I'm going to say that every single body who can't see Trump for what he is has some form of ethno-racism problem.
Once the election is over, if the Donald Trump is the nominee, we're going to be able to count the racists and internalized-ethnoracists by race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation because there's always a detailed breakdown of who voted for who.
We're all gonna know.
There are white writers on the right and white writers on the left writing and yakety-yakking about all kinds of reasons why, other than racism, that white people like Trump. And I have one thing to say to them: "It's the racism stupid."
Talking about Trump's politics and Trump lovers without talking about racism is like saying, "Well Hitler was fine except for the anti-semitism. He actual had a point about this, that, and the other policies."
Trump's racism is his core and it's at the core of his supporters too.
Come November
We're all gonna know.
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