- Mar 11, 2015
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I thought some of Bootney's responses were interesting and I understand where he's coming from. But here are my responses to the same segments Bootney responded to.
People just need to see each other as individuals or humans, etc., is simplistic as you suggest. White people cannot understand the black circumstance in America and we, as a group, never will. But these statements at least represent us trying. Give us that much credit, please. But we will never think with complexity about racism. For us, racism is a nuisance; at most, even BLM, Watts riots, you name it, racism is just a distraction in our lives."Because most whites have not been trained to think with complexity about racism, and because it benefits white dominance not to do so, we have a very limited understanding of it (Kumashiro, 2009; LaDuke, 2009). We are the least likely to see, comprehend, or be invested in validating people of color’s assertions of racism and being honest about their consequences (King, 1991). At the same time, because of white social, economic, and political power within a white dominant culture, whites are the group in the position to legitimize people of color’s assertions of racism.Being in this position engenders a form of racial arrogance, and in this racial arrogance, whites have little compunction about debating the knowledge of people who have thought deeply about race through research, study, peer-reviewed scholarship, deep and on-going critical self-reflection, interracial relationships, and lived experience (Chinnery, 2008). This expertise is often trivialized and countered with simplistic platitudes, such as “people just need to see each other as individuals” or “see each other as humans” or “take personal responsibility.”
On the other hand, it seems to me, that for black people, especially those who are trying or even seriously thinking of trying, to make something of themselves, either from wealthy roots or slum roots, racism is a huge consideration for them that seldom drops in importance to just being a nuisance.
But I can't take your load. I, as an individual, didn't create it and I can't solve it.
You've presented me with several viewpoints and study paths that I hadn't heard before. Some of them are radically different from my world view and could shake up my world - but, I'm confident, won't change my overall conservative view. Others are interesting perspectives from yourself and from black historians and scholars that have opinions different from mine - different opinions are far less threatening than disproving my facts. These views are worth studying and for me to understand. But, still, in the end, it is up to each and every inner city black kid,as he reaches the age of accountability and is looking to the future, to decide whether he's going to live as a victim or as a champion.White lack of racial humility often leads to declarations of disagreement when in fact the problem is that we do not understand. Whites generally feel free to dismiss informed perspectives rather than have the humility to acknowledge that they are unfamiliar, reflect on them further, seek more information, or sustain a dialogue (DiAngelo & Sensoy, 2009)."
That said, just a little less in-the-face hatred would make it a little easier to get ahead... and that last said, I'm sure you don't need my kindness and understanding to reach your potential. So me learning more helps me but you have to help yourself.
We all do too much generalization around here. That's probably why we come here - we can be obnoxious without consequence.I've not fathered a child out of wedlock, but I have hear about if from you whites here.
I have a high school diploma, an associates degree, a bachelors degree and a masters degree, but I have to hear about blacks not wanting to be educated by whites like you here. I have never been on welfare, but I have to hear about it from whites like you here.
Good point. I don't have a great response to that but to say that we should treat everyone like individuals... or as human beings.
I agree.. and try to remember we're individuals, too.. You forgot to say you're a human being.All the "I am an individual" is never considered by you motherfuckers when it comes to blacks so just stop whining that fake ass shit to me here right now.
I had to hear about black on black crime endlessly from you bastards and now that you are asked to look at your damn selves, here comes the whining about how you are an individual and how I am opposed to individual mother fucking rights because I present a case for you to take a look at about a problem in your own community.
Not that it will help, but I think it is the attack on our guns by inner city mayors and leftist governors who are blaming white people and their AR-15s for all the gun crime when it is not the case that yields those black crime statements... (had to edit out as I started to talk about black on black crime).. I think what we really want, for ourselves and for inner city communities, is for those mayors to recognize that the solution to gun crime in the city actually is more guns. We want to see inner city mothers and fathers and brothers protecting their neighborhoods. We want to see them en masse walk down their streets and facing off the gangs.
What would you have us do, as individuals and as a majority community? One can be a perpetual victim or they can (and it seems that you, as an individual have) make the best of the world they're in. Again, I'd like to hear just what it is that you think I, as an individual, and me as part of the white community, should do to fix this.“ I posit that the Discourse of Individualism functions to: deny the significance of race and the advantages of being white; hide the accumulation of wealth over generations; deny social and historical context; prevent a macro analysis of the institutional and structural dimensions of social life; deny collective socialization and the power of dominant culture (media, education, religion, etc.) to shape our perspectives and ideology; function as neo-colorblindness and reproduce the myth of meritocracy; and make collective action difficult. Further, being viewed as an individual is a privilege only available to the dominant group. I explicate each of these discursive effects and argue that while we may be considered individuals in general, white insistence on Individualism in discussions of racism in particular functions to obscure and maintain racism.”
Whites have got to stop making excuses for themselves and begin work in their community to rid itself of racism. I don't listen to that I am an individual stuff because that's a silly argument when we are talking about a problem that has affected an entire nation. As individuals we are charged with leaving the world a better place than it was when we got here, not making excuses as to why we can't. This I am an individual argument is an excuse used by whites to dismiss our experience and their responsibility to stop white racism.
It is a given we are humans. It is a given we all areind8ividua people. It is not a given that we don't have any responsibility to the greater society to change or fix problems because we are an individual and we didn't do it. I have never raped a woman, but as a man it is my responsibility to teach young men or any man that women should be respected and their bodies belong to them. It is not for me to say well I am an individual and since all men don't rape women why should I do anything about it?
This nation is going on 244 years and it was built on race and the maintenance of race based preferences to whites have helped whites achieve great wealth at the expense of every other group in this country. Until that damage is fixed, you can forget about telling everybody to see each other as individuals. We asked to be treated like individuals from day one but the constitution itself made us 3/5ths of a human.