The mullet of cars.
El Camino, half car half truck. The front is where you ride, the back is where you
5 Likes
Total aside, but: Berea College?
I’d love to hear an alum’s view of it, especially with the benefit of life experience since graduating. Maybe a new thread?
7 Likes
I took the CTA bus to school from age 6, and at age 7, was ‘hired’ (no money!) for a year to go an extra stop past the right one for the school so that I could walk to the house of another little girl my age and pick her up to walk her to school, because her parents were worried that a blonde white girl might get accosted at 7:45am walking to school alone.
(It was not a dangerous neighborhood, unlike the one I took the bus in from.)
8 Likes
Yes, Berea! I’m always surprised when people know of it, since it’s so small.
I don’t know how to start a thread from this tablet, but if you start one I’ll be there. Berea changed my life for the better, I’m always happy to chat about that place. And so curious to know your connection to it!
7 Likes
White culture = putting a book (White Fragility) on the bestseller lists that addresses racism while ignoring classism
Imagine: taking on white supremacy and not risking a damned thing. Imagine creating a society just as cruel and heartless, and for the majority, as insecure as this one, with the single exception that black people will be represented proportionally in the upper and middle echelons of society. Congratulations. You’ve imagined the path laid out by Robin DiAngelo and White Fragility.
DiAngelo’s choices here are not at all surprising. She is, after all, a corporate diversity trainer. In that position DiAngelo comes into corporate workplaces “to help the members [should read: employees] of the organization understand why their workplace continues to remain white, why they are having so much trouble recruiting people of color, and/or why the people of color don’t stay”(116). In other words, DiAngelo must tell her workshop attendees that they themselves are the problem. People of color aren’t hired or can’t remain in these workplaces because of them , because of their white insensitivities. The folks bankrolling these workshops, of course, the corporate bosses, are not part of the problem, or, if they are, they are part of the problem as individuals, and not as corporate entities, not as having a structural role in the problems all people face in a white supremacist society, black people especially. To leave it at this, as DiAngelo practically does, is to let America’s white supremacist capitalism remain intact, continually replicating the norms of whiteness that our corporate diversity trainer is busy trying to repair in the workplace.
8 Likes
…by focusing on how to limit personal complicity in cultural racism, rather than on how to best attack the structural forces that create and maintain white supremacy.
As always:
&
12 Likes
Yep. If you read the article I linked to, that’s pretty much the author’s thesis.
7 Likes
I love it that the screen name on the IG account is “NotAllWhitePeople”…
14 Likes
a lotta poetic truth
Whiteness
Think about the color red
It’s a primary color, right?
For pink, just add some red to white
That is, pink’s a tint of red — and, so,
Since white mixed with blue
Is called light-blue
We can call pink light-red, too
And what is white?
A color? color’s absence?
If you went to pick up paint
To blend some pink
You’d simply say: I need two things
Some red and white — white is a color
In that respect — in spite
Of the fact of white’s colorlessness
You could call it plain as well
Or emptiness, or blank
Sure, it’s opaque
That’s its one true quality
That light can’t get through it —
Light and all that light implies —
In some ways it’s, actually, nothingness
That which isn’t — non-existence
One small component, perhaps, of why
Those whose identities stem from it
Are so filled with fright
And reject all light
‐‐Elliot Sperber
8 Likes
White culture = Saying “American” when you really mean “white American”
The reason why this happens is simple: White Americans are, to them, the baseline Americans. The standard-issue Americans. The American-est Americans. To them, “white people” and “American” are as interchangeable as “Clorox” and “bleach.” People who are not white are the ones who require the qualifiers.
16 Likes
I’ve always found it interesting that when talking of pigment (like paint) white is the absence of all color, but when talking of light (like that passing through a prism) white is the presence of all colors.
Hmmmm…
3 Likes
Well, this is fucking white.
19 Likes
I love trying to shift these things to other cultures to really highlight how ridiculous it is. Let’s try:
“Help! My son’s friend fed him latkes without calling me!”
“Help! My son’s friend fed him a Caprese salad without calling me!”
“Help, my son’s friend fed him calamari (that’s a shout out to the RI ninja-chef) without calling me!”
One must assume that if the kid had allergies, the parents would’ve communicated.
Also, the header makes it sound like the son was fed like a baby bird. If that were the case, I guess I could see some cause for concern. The pre-mastication and all. 
11 Likes
Another avenue for thought. From a Leonard Pitts article this weekend that gave me food for thought. He leads with this quote from Taylor Branch’s book “Caste”
If people were given the choice between democracy and whiteness, how many would choose whiteness?
From:
This helped me wrap my head around discussions I’ve had with americans who seem to be willing to throw the entire constitution, democracy, etc., away. It’s sad, but helps me understand white culture.
8 Likes
—
This isn’t just a GOP thing.
Even if we ignore the substantial bloc of overtly racist Democrats, there are a helluva lot of white liberals whose approach to racism could be summarised as “racial justice would be nice, but we must pursue it in a way that doesn’t involve any reduction in my own wealth and privilege”.
White people in America gain direct material benefits from white supremacy. Their houses are more valuable. Their schools are better funded. Their jobs are better paid. Their roads are better paved.
Combatting white supremacy requires the sacrifice of privilege. This is not an optional feature.
13 Likes
Yep. No argument here on anything you said. I think the eye opener for me was that I’d always harbored some notion that I could communicate with these folks by appealing to our “shared American values,” topmost being a democracy. It’s depressing to realize how wrong that idea was. But better to know than not know, I guess.
Somewhat along those lines, I keep adding the question to almost every statement I hear from the RNC about making America safe and prosperous, “but for who?”*
I know the answer, it’s white people. With some money. 
3 Likes
My caprese has caused a few cultural revolutions and societal upheavals. You are 100% accurate about that.
8 Likes
