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September 07, 2002
Cry Wolf
Again with the Lisa Germano post titles, which seem to confuse the tourists, but I think I've figured them out.
Something my sister said, actually.
Ever been driving somewhere with two other people in the car, and you're having a conversation with the person in the passenger seat, and every few minutes the person in the back leans forward, catches a word or snippet, and then makes either a total non-sequitur statement or brings up something you've already covered five minutes ago?
They're like that. In the back seat, not really following the conversation and getting annoyed because you refuse to continually interrupt the flow bringing them up to speed.
Sucks to be them.
So at some point in every black person's life (he overgeneralized broadly), you're out with some white person -- a coworker or fellow student or something -- and encounter one of those Random Minor Racist Incidents that crop up every once in a while. Demands for multiple forms of ID, petty harassment by police or store security, some little thing that you'd normally blow off.
This is the first such incident the white person has ever seen.
They become Shocked and Offended on your behalf, which usually makes a non-situation bad or worse. They also admit that although they've heard about such things, they'd never actually believed they happened.
Which translates roughly to, "I've always thought that black people, including you, were either paranoid, delusional, liars or too stupid to realize that what they thought was racism was something else entirely."
Short version: We have never been friends.
After slapping you in the face with this, they then think they've established a Connection, instead of realizing that in fact the exact opposite has taken place.
You are expected to be polite to them at this point. They become quite resentful if you are not.
Update: Offered without comment:
- Abolishing the White Race
But don't tell me that blacks haven't had a voice and a good deal of influence. Think about Affirmative Action, hate crime laws, and Jesse Jackson. There's some influence for you.
- NOT-SO-GUILTY SOUTHERN WHITE GALS: Anne Creed sends this email in response to the post below:
I stayed on in Philadelphia after graduation to work with Turner Construction in Center City, where I had lots of opportunities to get to know Northern blacks. It feels audacious to say this, but I found that I had a much better connection with them that your basic white Yankee.
- HATING WHITEY. Have you cats, as Steve says, read this article about a nutty prof who wants to abolish the white race? I am going write a rebuttal/column in my local paper and remind the prof about the many white firefighters who died in 9-11. If any of you cats know of a similar hero, military or otherwise that I could mention, please e-mail me, or post your thoughts in musings.
Five minutes. Imagine if I was working at finding these things.
Update: Fuckit. One more:
- Apparently, there is a white Harvard professor who thinks the white race should be eradicated.
Excuse me, but racism is racism. If you call for the genocide of a race, if you make sweeping generalizations about a people, then you are a racist crank.
Reading comprehension, not a strong suit. I'm starting to regret including Rachel Lucas in there; at least she understood the article was talking about the white race as a social construct. I suppose having actually read the thing helps. . .
Posted by Aaron at September 7, 2002 08:13 AM
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