Running racism in America thread

It’s getting so hard to be a racist.

Man Gives Out Address Amid Racist Rant, Pelted By Protesters During Arrest
Man Gives Out Address Amid Racist Rant, Pelted By Protesters During Arrest

 

It's not so much giving up something so others can have it,it's making damn sure everyone has the opportunity to have it. That's the fail. American talks about equality and equal chances, but it's been obvious forever that some people are more equal than others. So no, I don't want you and your kids to give up what you've worked for. I want to make sure that everyone's kids have the chance to work for it even if they're Black and brown, and that no obstacles are placed in front of them because of their skin. We still do that. It's hard to be Black and brown in the land of the free. That's systemic racism.

 

Good. It's time these fuckers started getting scared too.

 

1619 woman told UNC to fuck off and joined the staff of Howard.

Toure called her one of America's greatest minds.

 

Same energy in the thread this week.

 

If nothing else, we should definitely police our tone when discussing race based on the advice of a privileged, white libertarian.

 

tea and ease-

I think that's a great point. The left understands nothing about the nuance of language. Certainly the other side understands even less.

 

I'm presuming you are addressing the general "you" here. I was present. The person who posed the question was addressing an SJW who is very quick to point fingers and demand that people pass her litmus test for being "woke."

The conversations need to happen, but as has been noted by Dixiehack and others here, they can and should be handled better.

Oprah needs to sit her fat ass down.

So do the other self-proclaimed Buddhas in the road.

 

Multiple jeopardy - Wikipedia

 

I agree with you about a level playing field. But from what I've seen and experienced, a lot of potentially disruptive reforms would need to occur to create that kind of level playing field because our institutions were developed in a way that has made for a very uneven playing field today. Without accounting for that, you're just making a very elegant argument for "color blind" policies starting now but where all the structural and societal disadvantages of being a person of color are baked in, along with a healthy dose of "too bad you couldn't do what I did -- must be the content of your character."

I grew up as a middle-class kid with certain advantages while also experiencing a bit of the other side spending the majority of my childhood living in some "questionably desirable" rental complexes as my single mom struggled through graduate school and later on as a low-paid assistant professor at a large state school (Richard Linklater's "Boyhood" was pretty hard for me to watch because it was like watching my life on screen in some uncomfortable ways). These places provided subsidized units for low-income families, many were black. While I couldn't have perceived the big picture at the time, I definitely perceived advantages or privileges I had as a white kid even if it didn't outwardly appear that way based on where we lived. But our existence was very much cushioned by some measure of intergenerational wealth that stemmed from my grandparents' ability to take advantage of low-interest, subsidized mortgages (not available to black people in the redlined areas where they weren't actually barred from buying homes) that allowed them to buy very modest houses in promising areas during the postwar period that appreciated tremendously over time and enabled them to create savings and to invest. How did I benefit?

1. It put my parents in a position to go to college without debt and it helped put my dad (and eventually my mom somewhat) in a position to help me get through school myself with minimal debt. That in turn has put me in a good position to help my own kids as they head to college in the next few years.

2. Being a white kid -- particularly one with the kind of polish at a young age that comes from having educated parents, even with the instability of divorce, gave me the benefit of the doubt at school in ways my low-income black counterparts in our apartment complexes didn't receive. Teachers, school secretaries and school administrators all assumed from the get-go that I was a "good kid" and gave lenient circumstances when I fucked up as opposed to the black kids in our complex who got suspended or kicked off the bus -- causing them to miss school -- for the same bullshit. My mother could speak school officials' language too, which got results that, say, a struggling black single mother without her education wouldn't have gotten (if she even felt empowered to try in the first place), whether it was keeping us out of certain teacher's classes or steamrolling guidance counselors who wanted to put me in the "regular" track when we moved and switched schools. I know as a fact that this had longterm implications -- the school-to-prison pipeline is real and it starts with suspensions at an early age for petty disciplinary infractions and I've seen some of my childhood associates' pages on the Michigan DOC inmate locator site. It's very sad. And if you want to say it was as much about "class" as it was about "race," two things. It was partially about class. But our race helped us obtain our class because of where my grandparents (immigrants themselves as kids or kids of immigrants) were able to buy a house in the 40s or 50s. Second, the low-income white "hillbilly" kids with rough family situations living in the same places still got a similar benefit of the doubt. They didn't necessarily get the same educational outcomes (having educated parents really does help) but they were treated much more fairly than the black kids in the same general income bracket. I'll add that the kids who've ended up in bad places made some really shitty decisions along the way that nobody forced them to make. Bad choices play into outcomes as much as circumstances do, and nobody should be let off the hook. But that's no reason not to address underlying circumstances that lead to intergenerational bad decision-making or smugly say, "Why didn't you do what I did?"

So what does this all mean? First, while this is an anecdotal account of one person's childhood experiences, it illustrates the deep implications of the non-level playing fields our legal, financial, educational and governmental institutions have created and illustrates the huge gulf between black kids' experiences and white kids' experiences even in the same school. It also illustrates the advantages that have snowballed or compounded across the generations for mostly white folks from previously working-class situations beginning in the postwar period.

As a result of all this, my kids are in a great position. But if massive change to address the structural inequalities that have created such a non-level playing field makes it a little harder for them to get into their dream school or get that plum internship due to polices that may level the playing field, and they have to deal with the heartache of settling for their 5th or 6th choice, they'll live. They'll be fine. The may even be better for it.

I'll add that today I live in a pretty nice suburban neighborhood. Developers are planning a 3-story apartment complex around the corner from the entrance to our subdivision -- one that may enable some kids from other backgrounds to enjoy some of what my kids enjoy. The opposition is predictably fierce. "Oh my God the traffic!" (yet they're screaming for a supermarket there, ignoring those traffic implications. Sure sign of a dog whistle). "The impact on schools -- more students!!!! Overcrowding!!!!!!!" (another dog whistle). "The crime and noise it'll bring!!" (stereotyping those who live in rental housing -- this goes beyond dog whistle to a veritable foghorn. Not to mention how personally offensive it is to me to stereotype families living in apartments given my own childhood). Anyway, I have no opposition at all, even if it's against my selfish interests for it to be built. I think the harm of restricting affordable housing and, in turn, restricting access to high-performing public schools will hurt all of us a lot more in the long run than the minimal hit to our own property values or exposing kids to those from different backgrounds would do. Am I about to hand over my own house out of a sense of guilt to someone who didn't have the same advantages? Or quit my very desirable teaching position and fairly lucrative, enjoyable and very dependable and enjoyable freelance writing gig so someone else who had a rougher road than me can have them? Hell no. I'm not a fucking idiot. But I'm willing to countenance that a level playing field -- and whatever broad policy decisions that requires -- might put potential bumps in the otherwise velvety smooth path for my kids and those like mine. And a few thousand dollars off my home's resale value -- if that even happens -- and a few disappointments for otherwise very lucky kids who will be just fine in order to help foster a system that works for more people and gives them more of a fair shot seems reasonable. It's a lot better than the apocalypse we're headed for if we don't make some uncomfortable policy changes, whatever they may be (a totally different discussion). Enough procrastinating. Out.