That’s a bad thing and a bad group to be lumped in with.
But how does “We’re all part of the human race” alone do that? As a principle it’s unimpeachable.
If that’s all they’re doing, then that’s just dismissive and rude. And I can see why she’s smirking if that’s a common thing. But not everyone who accepts that as a principle is trying to dismiss a problem.
When discussing this with my (mixed race) children I’ve followed it up with ‘Unfortunately not everyone thinks the same way as me and your mum and …’ Which isn’t dismissing.
Take it from a physician that we are? Same species, same physiology. Inter-individual variability is way more important than some imposed classification based on differences in skin hue, hair colour, eye colour and body morphologies.
How is using someone’s skin colour as an indicator of how they might define a word at all useful? Isn’t their culture a more useful marker? I’m pretty pasty and could blend into snowstorm, but I’m unlikely to have the same attitudes and word-use patterns as a group of US citizens who share the same skin tone.
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Who suggested that they were better off or exempt from racism somehow. My intention was to say that anyone in the US who is dark enough to be suspected of being non-white would be very aware of racial and class codes and discrimination in a real and personal way, regardless of whether ther or not their home environment consisted of multi-generational victims of historic oppression, the cultural elite, Christian disciplinarian (which are far from rare in non-white cultures as well), or some addled racist hillbilly Joad stereotype.
I see adherence to a badly translated book of bronze age wisdom being more culpable and explanatory, and suggested by the evidence than the idea that there are rings of sociopath, predator, racist, white patriarchs who, in their eugenic zeal, undertake a10+ year and very expensive plan to steal African babies and torture them. Maybe I am just ignorant as it would not be the first time that the depths of depravity cruel humans have Perpetrated on one another has shocked and surprised me.
The video suggests that this woman was neither black enough nor a true scottsman because she lacked a parents who, ,having built some sort of increased herd immunity to racism and thus a big bag of coping strategy, were qualified to grant her sufficient cred. I don’t buy it.
What is that supposed to prove exactly? Michael jackson also vastly wealthy, and a huge pop star. I don’t think his life and experiences are at all representative of the black experience in America. Despite his skin, he never said “I’m white and I identify as white.” For whatever reason, his skin was far lighter at his death than it was at his birth. Do you think he was somehow magically transformed into a white man by this? That he rejected being black because of this?
Maybe I’m just confused about what you mean by posting this picture?
I posted it because without knowing anything more about him, you can not pronounce his blackness or whiteness. There is no arbitrator of blackness. No single judge. No definition that everyone can possibly agree upon.
If you say you’re Black, so be it. That’s really not anyone’s call but your own.
I understand what you mean, but I think that ignores a fair amount of history and how it is informing our modern discussions on race. That’s the thing - we can’t take Michael Jackson, one of the most successful black musicians in history, out of context, just like we can’t take the construction of race (of both white and black people) out of context. I don’t’ want to suggest that there is some easy answer here, because clearly there isn’t. I’m concerned with this, because it seems like lately, the “race is a construct” concept has just become a way to wave away centuries of history by some using it in their arguments. I don’t think you’re necessarily doing that, but I do think that’s a problem.
One of the other threads on this topic here at BB included a link to a very informative look at how the family Rachel Dolezal grew up in was created: Let’s Talk About Rachel Dolezal’s Parents.
It was probably from someone who is posting on this thread too, but since the link doesn’t seem to be here yet and it’s got points that relate to some of the issues presented in this thread, I figured someone ought to post it.
Yes, race is ultimately a fiction, and there are more variances within racism than within any one of them, and so and so forth. However, and since your questions seem sincere, I’ll explain that for one thing, both Vlogger Franchesca Ramsey and myself made the mistake of speaking as if we were speaking only to United Statesians.
Within that group, especially among “white” “Americans,” there’s a common tendency – and yes, it is indeed a cultural tendency – to skip over differences and problems caused by the perception of race. It’s a way of ignoring those problems, and it’s a very common white thing to do, to say, “We all have universal needs and concerns, so why don’t we all just focus on those commonalities, instead of on our differences?” This move can be well intentioned, but what strikes such white observers as “universal” is often something that’s more culturally “white,” and sometimes “middle-class white.”
Words take on meaning in context, right? This way of thinking, in the U.S. context, is so common, and such a vexing problem for those who fight against racism in that national context, that it has a name, colorblindness, or colorblind ideology. Whole books have been written about it. Here’s a brief article on this “new racism” that probably explains it better than I just did:
I was thinking about how to explain my feelings about Tim Wise. It was all about him. He wanted to be a leader for this movement, whether anyone elected him king or not. Or should I say “King?”
It was great that he was opposing Apartheid, but somehow the movement seemed more about him than about what was being protested. It was very theatrical.
My husband took a Race Relations class with him, so I thought I’d ask him how to describe what was off about how Tim positioned himself. He said, “He would be in the class telling black people they didn’t know how to be black.” I asked him if there were any black people in the class who agreed with Tim, or felt that he was speaking well for their experiences, and he said, no, there weren’t. It never felt like he was working with the black community but more like he wanted to run the show.
I’d like to share about another person who I think exemplifies how to be an ally. My mother’s best friend was a long time volunteer with Fred Shuttlesworth’s organization in Birmingham. I was even fortunate enough to have that great man in my house once, because of her relationship with him. Every year she marched with his group on the historic Selma route. She stuffed fliers into envelopes (I used to help her stuff them) for his rallies and causes.
When one of her neighbors harassed some of her black friends, she moved to the projects so her friends could visit her without being scared.
She worked her whole life toward being bridges with the black community and supporting labor causes, and she never seemed presumptuous or like she was speaking for her friends or trying to explain their point of view to me.
It’s true that Tim Wise was a leader and that my mom’s friend is more of a foot soldier, but I still feel that he could have put his leadership skills more in service to the black community that using them as a platform for his own gain. I don’t think he was looking for monetary gain, but some other kind of gain like getting a big shiny halo put on him.
He’s been doing this now for a long time and his views have matured. Maybe I should look back at what he’s doing now, but having seen how he was on campus I’ll be looking at his stuff very skeptically.
Thanks for explaining, and it would be great to hear your impressions if you do revisit his work. I do agree that his ego does seem to jump to the fore sometimes, and it’s hard not to imagine him basking in the spotlight when it shines on him. Your mother’s best friend does seem to have done a better job of following than Wise has, but then, he’s a skilled writer and speaker, putting those skills to work, and writing and speaking do tend to shine a light on the writer or speaker. But yeah, it doesn’t have to be that way. I don’t doubt that he once told a black student that he didn’t know how to be black, but I have trouble imagine him doing anything like that now, let alone speaking for black people. He’s all about speaking as a very consciously white person, speaking mostly to other unconsciously white people. At least he says he is.
He’s definitely done a lot since the 90’s and he is articulate. I would not really want to be judged by who I was in college and assume he has gone through a lot of growing up as well.
I’m impressed that he’s kept going.
Maybe he’s found his niche as head white guy in charge of making sure we are all black allies, and maybe we need someone to play that role.
I know that I have found that change happens by having people at all ends of the spectrum, so even if I don’t feel he speaks for me, I do appreciate that he is out there trying to raise the conversation about race relations and offering up thoughtful pieces that add to it.
I think, too, growing up in Birmingham and having my grandparents in Montgomery, I have a certain idea of how civil rights movements look based on the events that happened before my time and were continuing to impact those communities when I grew up.
I’ll be waiting for the links…and some evidence about a “whole movement” of white people adopting nonwhite kids “to abuse them”. I think you’re simply lying. I know several whites who have adopted outside their race (often because the kids were particularly hard to place because they were black) and not a single one has done it for any reason except that they wanted to give a kid a chance.
Also, I wasn’t aware “I know several people who haven’t done a thing, so NOBODY has done a thing” was a valid argument for… well, anything. But something tells me you won’t have somebody spamming fallacy links at you, for some reason.
