Race Is Always Part of the Story

[jaysunb]

Many white people's accomplishments are made possible, in part, simply because they are white.

We use terms to label ourselves and others. We struggle over what the terms mean and how they should be applied. But we also define ourselves by the stories we tell. There are two different stories I could tell about myself. Which is true?

Story #1

I was born in a small city in North Dakota, to parents in the lower middle-class who eventually scratched their way to a comfortable middle-class life through hard work. I never went hungry and always had a roof over my head, but I was expected to work, and I did. From the time I started shoveling snow as a kid, to part-time and summer jobs, through my professional career, I worked hard. From the time I was old enough to hold a steady job, I have held one. I was a conscientious student who studied hard and took school seriously. I went to college and did fairly well, taking a year off in the middle to work full-time.

After graduation I worked as a journalist, in non-glamorous jobs for modest wages, working hard to learn a craft. I went on to get a master's degree and returned to work before eventually pursuing a doctorate so I could teach at the university level. I got a job at a major university and worked hard to get tenure. I'm still there today, still working hard.

more here:
http://www.alternet.org/story/37569

[ThomCat]

1. Thank you for posting this.

How much opportunity, or forgiveness of mistakes, comes simply from being white?
Or being straight?
Or being male?
Or being healthy and non-disabled?
Or being attractive?

The people who are given the most almost always assume they earned it. The people who have to work and struggle for everything are assumed to have been given it, undeserved, through affirmative action.
:grr:

[butterfly77]

2. I would say...

75%to 80%

[rurallib]

3. Yep and been saying for a long time that some form of racism

is the only issue that the repugs have. That and abortion which to me is yet another form of racism. So they shake the ''fear of people not like you' card. And let's facew it, it has been working.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Is this you? Thanks for posting. Makes one stop and think to read

something like this.

[jaysunb]

6. No !

I'm just a colored boy, who's been on the recieving end of this sad state of affairs.

[CatWoman]

5. Jason

take a look, if you haven't, at my Condi Rice/House Negro thread.