White Privilege, Racism, White Denial & The Cost of Inequality

[freshwest]

Cross posted from my reply on a Video & MultiMedia thread by ReasonableToo as requested by seabeyond:

Requested video of Tim Wise on White Priviledge

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017169931

This may not have been what RT intended to add in the OP, but I posted it just in case.

Tim Wise 'gets it.' I've posted his words several times at DU with mixed responses. I don't know how anyone could disagree with him. The facts are so obvious.

This certainly is not news to anyone at this group. This needs to be said unitl it sinks in.

I saw reports that communities of color are the ones doing worst in the water crisis in West Virginia. This has been going on for so long, so much that environmental justice advocates always find it in play.

The cause of troubles in the AA community is systematic, I've seen it all my life. It was blatant and in the past it was discussed in the media, but now nothing is said.

Hope this belongs here, and that people who don't usually post in the group will see it and think.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. It does belong here FW

It does.

I'm sad that it has become a "taboo" subject of discussion around here.

[freshwest]

2. Thanks, JustAnotherGen. It belongs in GD, but... n/t

[freshwest]

3. Considering posting this in GD. I've posted it in the BOG. This is the truth. This explains America

and it explains the hypocrisy of the Teapots and Libertarians. If one would just consider what he says here inside their hearts and minds, they would see a different world. it's sorely needed.

It doesn't appear to be getting much attention, and I wonder if it would be spamming to post it in the BOG, here and GD. But here goes:

Between Barack and a Hard Place: Challenging Racism, Privilege and Denial in the Age of Obama

Uploaded on Apr 7, 2010

Celebrated anti-racism activist Tim Wise, author of Between Barack and a Hard Place: Challenging Racism, Privilege and Denial in the Age of Obama, will appear at Villanova University March 29 to share his insights and wit, and to issue challenging calls to action.

I urge anyone who reads this thread to consider taking time to listen to Tim Wise's version of American history. He doesn't miss one detail. Many of us know this, have always known it. The talking points may be useful in other discussions.

[JustAnotherGen]

9. At around 18 minutes

No truer words were spoken.

He's right - black and brown street "thugs" in hoodies would have to rob around the clock not stopping to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom for half a millenia and they STILL wouldn't make a dent in the trillion dollars a few rich white men robbed from us in 2008.

During the Trayvon Martin Was Murdered trial - we saw folks at DU making excuses because of Trayvon's appearance.

New rule: I'm running in fear from bankers on a go forward basis.

[cinnabonbon]

10. Goddamn, he gets it

I really wish that more people on DU had seen this video, so we could have some more thoughtful conversations.

[JustAnotherGen]

15. I don't do call outs

Because it is a sure fire way to get a post hidden.

But in a thread in the past two days on white privilege in GD - the thread killers were:

1. Watch your tone.
2. It's about class warfare not race - white privilege is the wrong phrase.
3. Stop bringing up race and gender in every conversation.


Number three is hysterical because it was a thread about race!

You know what group 'gets it"? HOF. They get "it'".

BOG regulars? They "get" it.

After that? It falls on deliberately ignorant eyes and ears that don't want to hear.

Should more people at DU sit and watch Mr. Wise? Absolutely.

But then they would have to admit they've been BAMBOOZLED. They would have to admit that deep down inside some wealthy white male "Influencer" told them that "those people" took something from you . . . And deep down inside - they bought into it - just a little bit.

Welcome to the AA Group. I saw your post outside of here on this subject and have a ton of respect for you to even attempt to get well meaning progressives to open their hearts to what racism looks like in this century.

[cinnabonbon]

16. Thank you so much

for the welcome. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I am so glad I found this group.

I have seen you in other threads, and the way you deal with white people who take race relations too personally is always cool to watch. Teach me your subtle ways so I won't get hides.

The "white privilege is the wrong phrase" thread.... I am almost tempted to ask for a link to it. It sounds so wrong. But then again, so does all the gender and race discussions we have in GD.

But then they would have to admit they've been BAMBOOZLED. They would have to admit that deep down inside some wealthy white male "Influencer" told them that "those people" took something from you . . . And deep down inside - they bought into it - just a little bit.

I think you're onto something here. I bet that's why they're so uncomfortable - because I bet that as white people, they've gone through this thought experiment: "If slavery was around today, I wouldn't take any part in it." To find out that they've been benefiting from it after all must suck, I'm sure. But nevertheless, that doesn't excuse all the defensive, weird things they say when they are confronted with their privilege.

Awww...I had to say something in that thread! They were seriously saying such base things that I felt like I was doing them a disservice by letting them continue to repeat those things.

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. Yeah this ...

But then they would have to admit they've been BAMBOOZLED. They would have to admit that deep down inside some wealthy white male "Influencer" told them that "those people" took something from you . . . And deep down inside - they bought into it - just a little bit.

[freshwest]

19. I was scanning after reading the call out thread on Tarheel... And the term discussed,

'white privilege' is a really big deal with some DUers, they get very offended and go on the offensive which is always very telling to me.

I was about to reply in a thread but stopped myself from using those words. I self-censored, although it was appropriate at that point of the thread.

Right now I'm seeing in that call out thread a lot of the 'don't call me racist' and 'oh, so I'm a racist, now' from the same characters over and over in several threads.

I got news for some of these folks, as a white person.

I consider myself a racist since I grew up in this society. I know it very well, and don't support the practice nor did my family. They publicly stood against it, asking people to be reasonable, telling them ot not be afraid, to be logical, not listen to the voices telling them to shun others or run away.

It actually worked.

But the words, the thoughts one has seen for a lifetime, the dynamic of who is to be taken seriously, who is discarded, who just 'doesn't matter,' or isn't on the radar screen in media - I could not miss it if I tried to.

It's an atmosphere, a concept, a way of looking at the world that just does not give time to the other, brushes them away.

That's what they are denying, that they had that luxury. That they could vote and disregard the poorest, the minorities, the immigrants, the tremendous burden of slavery that is not yet over with in this country.

I find their crying about wage slavery and how oppressed by the cops an insult to POC. I got into it with a white male about how Obama was supporting public worker jobs last year.

Out of the blue he said if equal opportunity meant that he would be manhandled by blacks, well to hell with that!

I didn't expect that but now I'm not quite sure who I'm talking to, as racism appears to be a taboo subject here now. The pushback appears to come from those supporting libertarian heroes and taking humbrage at negative remarks about other parties.

The Democratic Party is the most diverse one out there, when you look at the DNC last year and the voters who stood out there and voted despite the odds, it is. That's not DU right now and maybe has not been DU for a while.

Just my opinion.

[1StrongBlackMan]

4. Hi-Jack ALERT ...

and for this, I apologize ...

I saw reports that communities of color are the ones doing worst in the water crisis in West Virginia. This has been going on for so long, so much that environmental justice advocates always find it in play.

Your comment about environmental justice and communities of color suffering reminded me of a conversation I had, at a dinner party, shortly after Katrina. One of the guests (a known right-winger and racist suspect) asked me whether racism had anything to do with the loss of life.

My response detailed the history of housing patterns in the U.S., that had it that communities of color have been relegated to "lesser desirable area(s)" of every city, whether it be down river (and wind) from the slaughter house/factory, or the mosquito infested 'bottoms', or the transportation/food source deserts of the inner-city." (I wrote a research paper about this in under-grad) "The levy system in N.O. was designed to flood one ward ... the 9th ward ... to save the rest of N.O. The 9th ward, also, was the only section of N.O. proper that Black folks could purchase on home (in the 50s, 60s and into the 70s), and later, was where the 'Projects' were built ... So yes, the deaths in the 9th ward had a racist component."

The dinner party erupted.

[freshwest]

5. Growing up in the South, I saw it everyday. Communties of color got the worst polluting industries.

But that was not all that was done.

Municipalities abusing immenient domain was frequently used. Just a couple of examples were new loops and freeway interchanges that did not follow a straight line, but cut in two and condemned minority housing.

Other communities that existed since the Civil War where people had held onto their property and communities and churches with pride, only to earn the baleful eye of developers. The city would work with those who wanted the land for more expensive profits.

The POC endured decades of no work done on streets, sidewalks, water and sewer; the uitility firms likewise gave them short shrift; their schools were left to deteriorate. It was coming to a head in the late seventies with Carter's full tilt push for affirmative action and then along came Reagan, but the poison seed had been planted and watered.

Eventually, these neighorhoods were destroyed both urban and rural, part of what had held them off were government union jobs that blacks were not discriminated in getting and were becoming middle class. Having worked with many AA in my company, I can tell you that they were nothing like the racist caricatures we've heard about from Rush, Boortz and the rest of the fascist thugs of media. They were hard working, conservative with their money, religious and not the image presented in films and on television,

I knew about what happened in NOLA and believe it... What kind of eruption did the party have?

And I don't consider it a thread jack as the catastrophe of NOLA and what the neo-cons worked for after the water went down - was a free enterprise zone that they then sought to make free of blacks. Do you rememeber Pat Robertson and the rest of the slime denigrating the culutre of New Orleans, as he did with Haiti because of so-called voodoo and pacts with the Devil?

That has nothing to do with the public policy of refusing to repair those levees that had held back storm waters for most of these people's lives. And it was not the first time it happened there, either.

Yes, it's genocide. And when they were sent to the Astrodome in Houston like war refuges, that Barbara Bush called them 'lucky duckies.' It pissed me off.

Back to the environmental scheme, did you ever see what happened on both sides of the Rio Grande in Texas and Mexico?

Back to the AA thing and healthcare - yes, people that suffer pollution do have more health problems. And we own it to them to get them better. If not, we have little moral justification to claim it as our idea.

[1StrongBlackMan]

11. The party turned into a racial food fight ...

but more importantly, Mrs. 1SBM didn't speak to me for 2 days.

Now, with her eyes opened from that event (and other, less obvious events), we rarely socialize with that circle of "friends."

[sheshe2]

6. "The levy system in N.O. was designed to flood one ward ...

the 9th ward ... to save the rest of N.O. The 9th ward, also, was the only section of N.O. proper that Black folks could purchase on home (in the 50s, 60s and into the 70s), and later, was where the 'Projects' were built ... So yes, the deaths in the 9th ward had a racist component."

This is so very sad. It breaks my heart.

It is not really a hi-jack. It is the continuing heartbreaking story of how we treat the communities of color.

I weep for the lost souls and hate the soulless bastards that engineered this and the administration that left them to die.

[freshwest]

7. The Corps of Engineers requested funding for the levees. The GOP Congress ignored it repeatedly. In

legal pleadings, that is sometimes called Depraved Indifference and Wanton Recklessnes.

It applies to their willful disregard of the potential for loss of life and the property of the people there. As NOLA was rebuilt, they refuse to fund low-income housing.

The NOLA disphoria was called a big improvement. They couldn't have done better if they'd planned it every step of the way. But anyone who says they did, is called crazy.

Act of God, and all of that. Just like in all other 'accidents' as if human beings didn't know history of how to prevent anything.

The levees had held before when not intentionally breached; and the pumps has held back the floods for generations. We can draw our conclusions by who benefitted.

[freshwest]

8. TRIGGER WARNING. ONE body wrapped in a sheet. A view of human misery in NOLA:

DO NOT WATCH if from NOLA.

[sheshe2]

12. All you've really wanted was someone to truely look up to you

...now under six feet of water...I do.

The little things give you away.

tears, freshwest.

[freshwest]

13. Yes, but so are these to me:

Hope decays

Generations disappear

Washed away

As a nation simply stares

Don't want to reach for me, do you?

I mean nothing to you

The little things give you away...

[sheshe2]

14. It hurts, does it not freshwest.

Painful memories. As a nation simply stares.

Another poignant reminder of how far we have fallen.

[NOLALady]

17. THANKS FOR THE WARNING.

I will not watch. Katrina is still too fresh for me.

Lately, I've been going to NOLA about twice a week. Signs of Katrina's devastation are all around, everywhere I go.