Posted on 09/26/2013 3:47:43 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Slowly, I'm beginning to understand the freight of meaning in President Barack Obama's comment that Trayvon Martin could have been him.
George Yancy's "Walking While Black in the 'White Gaze' " in The New York Times sent shivers down my spine. Fifty years ago, he was a kid in north Philadelphia carrying a telescope, and a white police officer said to him, "Man, I almost blew you away. I thought you had a weapon."
Yancy says he's waiting for the day a white president says, "There is no way that I could have experienced what Trayvon Martin did (and other black people do) because I'm white, and through white privilege, I am immune to systemic racial profiling."
"Walking While Black in the 'White Gaze' " is an elegant essay that considers Martin Luther King Jr., Bernice King, Malcolm X and Frantz Fanon on being black and David Hume, Immanuel Kant and Thomas Jefferson on being white looking at blacks.
This is an essay worth reading if, like me, you are white and struggling every day to identify white privilege. We can't resist it if we don't see it.
A companion piece to Yancy's scholar's cry of anguish is a post on Questlove's Facebook page recounting a moment of anguish in an airport. Questlove, a musician who plays with The Roots and just released a new album with Elvis Costello, wrote a stream-of-consciousness reflection on being a big black man and frightening people. Questlove isn't writing for us whites. He's writing for his Facebook friends and fans. But his essay has attracted attention from Rolling Stone and New York Magazine.
Questlove recounts one time when his presence frightened a woman: "all the time i'm in scenarios in which primitive exotic looking me (6'2, 300 lbs, uncivilized afro for starters) finds himself in places that people that look like me aren't normally found. i mean what can i do? i have to be somewhere on earth correct?"
And he tells us his constant struggle, even today when he's rich and famous, not to feel like he's worthless. As he says in his Facebook note, "the overall message this whole trayvon case has taught me: you aint shit."
In his death, Martin offers us a gift, an opportunity to ponder and be changed by the anguish of the other. If we can open ourselves, if we can remember, if we can tell one another. Or else we can forget, and in forgetting, inflict more anguish.
I’m sure Sister Mary is a very nice person, but she’s a huge part of the problem. Unfortunately, there’s millions of white libs in positions of power who help perpetuate the problems in the black community and inhibit any progress. They’re simply too ignorant to be taken seriously. The whole “white privilege” scam is one of those things where you just shake your head. I guess black Americans being at the bottom of scholastic achievements and at the top of crime figures is caused by white privilege. I continue to be astonished at the stupidity of some people.
yeah, he’s fertilizer now.
“White privilege” is the unfortunate fact (for white libs) that you’ve done better with your life than many non-whites. According to white libs you have to be ashamed for your own success (which, your success, is probably well-earned.) I know it sounds incredibly stupid....but that’s because it is incredibly stupid.
there is so much bias everywhere for everyone but whites it’s not even close, or funny. so so sick of this liberal bullsh1t.
Gift to maggots? How nice.
>>>I’m still trying to figure out exactly what “white privilege” is. <<<<
It’s the modern equivalent of the “world Zionist conspiracy.” A good metaphor for white privilege is “filthy Jew.” Modern anti-white racism is based on the old familiar ground trod by the anti-Semites from the previous century - that whites are rich, powerful elites with strange habits conspiring to take over the world from the good, hard-working and oppressed minorities. The left has figured out that it’s easier to ID someone with white skin than it is to make them wear gold stars. And as an extra bonus, hey, they get to kill the Jews, too.
The reason for some white and Jews to support the left? They think their elite status will save them. Lenin called them “useful idiots.” Of course, we’re sophisticated these days, so some of the useful idiots think they’ll be saved because they’re protected minorities like gay, lesbian, or feminist. Sad fools.
In any case... God help us.
Sister. I believe you are overlooking one important fact in the case. Trayvon attacked Zimmerman. The left is trying to spin this thug into a hero. But the fact remains, he attacked Zimmerman and had him on the ground pounding him.
Thanks. It’s been HOURS since we’ve e heard from the Zimmerman Trayvon circuit.
I was getting withdrawal symptoms
Thanks. It’s been HOURS since we’ve e heard from the Zimmerman Trayvon circuit.
I was getting withdrawal symptoms
Catholic nuns are rarely involved in beating people up, killing and robbing them, so in general, you probably get a "pass" from roughly 99.9999% of people.
Except in the Middle East.
Then you're dead.
Now, how's that shiver up your spine?
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