sauvage1983 (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} sauvage1983) wrote,@ 2008-03-23 13:26:00 |
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Conversations on race
Having read and participated in enough discussions about race in America, I've been working on putting together a list of things that I see white people do that shut down the conversation. Conversations about race are surely riddled with other problems, but I'm listing these ones because: 1. I see them most often 2. I used to pull a lot of these. Yes, really, so this isn't me being More Liberal Than Thou. I remember being raised to talk like this about race because my parents talk this way about it.
These things are:
1. Turning the conversation into proving that "I'M NOT RACIST!!!11". Making your own comfort (ie, not feeling like a biggot) as a white person the focus of a conversation about race not only derails any attempts at solutions, it also shows just about how concerned you are with the issues POC are trying to raise. Who cares if beauty mags only pick white-looking black women to show, I'M NOT RACIST!!11 for reading those magazines. Real productive, right?
2. "But my family immigrated too." Chances are, your family came because they wanted to. No one grabbed them before they had the chance to grab so much as one possession. Imagine what it would be like to be taken from your home right now with what you have on you and then dumped off in an ocean away from home. You can't speak the language, you don't have a thing on you money or barter wise, and you aren't able to contact anyone to send you anything, and no one will pay you for your work. What effect would that have on you? Your family? This segues into . . .
3. "But slavery was a long time ago." Look at the above situation. Do you think that kind of poverty might affect your grandchildren? Your great grandchildren? That much aside, consider that racism was blatantly institutional in a time that your parents were kids. (Here I assume most of the reader base of this journal has parents in their 40s/50s) The right to vote wasn't granted to POC until 1964. My dad was 8 that year. Consider how not having your interests represented democratically would effect your ability to prosper in the area you live in.
4. "But I know rich black/brown people! " Naturally. Does that mean that the number of POC with wealth, who go to jail, etc is equal in proportion to their amount of the U.S. population? No, it doesn't.
I sure as hell don't have solutions for all the problems regarding race in this world . . . but talking about and trying to end a conversation with these points just doesn't get us anywhere. I was glad each time I met someone who explained how the above lines of reasoning I was using were faulty . . . so uh, tag, you're it :-)
Having read and participated in enough discussions about race in America, I've been working on putting together a list of things that I see white people do that shut down the conversation. Conversations about race are surely riddled with other problems, but I'm listing these ones because: 1. I see them most often 2. I used to pull a lot of these. Yes, really, so this isn't me being More Liberal Than Thou. I remember being raised to talk like this about race because my parents talk this way about it.
These things are:
1. Turning the conversation into proving that "I'M NOT RACIST!!!11". Making your own comfort (ie, not feeling like a biggot) as a white person the focus of a conversation about race not only derails any attempts at solutions, it also shows just about how concerned you are with the issues POC are trying to raise. Who cares if beauty mags only pick white-looking black women to show, I'M NOT RACIST!!11 for reading those magazines. Real productive, right?
2. "But my family immigrated too." Chances are, your family came because they wanted to. No one grabbed them before they had the chance to grab so much as one possession. Imagine what it would be like to be taken from your home right now with what you have on you and then dumped off in an ocean away from home. You can't speak the language, you don't have a thing on you money or barter wise, and you aren't able to contact anyone to send you anything, and no one will pay you for your work. What effect would that have on you? Your family? This segues into . . .
3. "But slavery was a long time ago." Look at the above situation. Do you think that kind of poverty might affect your grandchildren? Your great grandchildren? That much aside, consider that racism was blatantly institutional in a time that your parents were kids. (Here I assume most of the reader base of this journal has parents in their 40s/50s) The right to vote wasn't granted to POC until 1964. My dad was 8 that year. Consider how not having your interests represented democratically would effect your ability to prosper in the area you live in.
4. "But I know rich black/brown people! " Naturally. Does that mean that the number of POC with wealth, who go to jail, etc is equal in proportion to their amount of the U.S. population? No, it doesn't.
I sure as hell don't have solutions for all the problems regarding race in this world . . . but talking about and trying to end a conversation with these points just doesn't get us anywhere. I was glad each time I met someone who explained how the above lines of reasoning I was using were faulty . . . so uh, tag, you're it :-)
