|
U-Know! Forum » McCain isn't just getting a VP... |
Log In to post a reply
|
|
|
|
| Topic View: Flat | Threaded | |
grufty jim 1978 posts |
Sep 23, 2008, 18:47
|
||
|
Sort of. Actually, not really at all. But a very fun idea... it manages to both take a swipe at Palin and her position as well as making a small donation to a worthy cause... See this link
|
|||
handofdave 3515 posts |
Sep 24, 2008, 14:44
|
||
|
White Privilege, White Entitlement and the 2008 Election By Tim Wise / BuzzFlash / 13 September 2008 [Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008), and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.] For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help. White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because 'every family has challenges,' even as black and Latino families with similar 'challenges' are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay. White privilege is when you can call yourself a 'f*****' redneck, like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you'll 'kick their f*****' ass,' and talk about how you like to 'shoot shit' for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug. White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action. White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're 'untested.' White privilege is being able to say that you support the words 'under God' in the pledge of allegiance because 'if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me,' and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the 'under God' part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals. White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from the Union, and whose motto was 'Alaska first,' and no one questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being disrespectful. White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow being mean, or even sexist. White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a 'second look.' White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt. White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about history of racism and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America. White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a 'trick question,' while being black and merely refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced. White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it, a 'light' burden. And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole 'change' thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of the same, which is very concrete and certain. White privilege is, in short, the problem. A. Hamilton Williams, Ph.D., LMSW Western New Mexico University Social Work Department P.O. Box 680 1000 College Avenue, PE Building 146 Silver City, NM 88062 575-574-7902 (work cell) 575-538-6420 (office) [email protected]
|
|||
|
grufty jim 1978 posts |
Sep 24, 2008, 15:52
|
||
|
While much of that may be true, I think it would be a big mistake for Obama supporters to turn this election into any more of a racial issue than it already is. Just my two cents.
|
|||
|
shanshee_allures 2563 posts |
Sep 24, 2008, 16:12
|
||
|
Over here this happened http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article4806581.ece Ain't it usually all mobile phones and bling? More than disgraceful I say. x
|
|||
|
handofdave 3515 posts |
Sep 24, 2008, 16:34
|
||
|
There is enough racism left in the USA to have an effect on the vote in McCain's direction, there's no doubt about it. And this is, ironically, why Obama's campaign has to tiptoe around the subject, lest he incite the discomfort of the whites who think they're beyond race, but when tested, find out they're not as enlightened as they thought they were.
|
|||
|
grufty jim 1978 posts |
Sep 24, 2008, 16:59
|
||
|
handofdave wrote: There is enough racism left in the USA to have an effect on the vote in McCain's direction, there's no doubt about it. And this is, ironically, why Obama's campaign has to tiptoe around the subject, lest he incite the discomfort of the whites who think they're beyond race, but when tested, find out they're not as enlightened as they thought they were. About 15 years ago (or thereabouts) I used to publish a zine on the subject of psychedelics. One of the things I included (in classic cut'n'paste zine stylee) was a long conversation / interview between David Byrne and Tim Leary. They were both heroes of mine at the time, and remain so today. There was a particular exchange in that dialogue that has stuck with me to this day. They were discussing the topic of racism... =============== DB: After years of telling myself I'm not a racist, I'm a liberal, I'm free-thinking, I started to acknowledge that I have these reactions that I'm not aware of, that I didn't look at before; things that have been bred into me, not necessarily by my parents... maybe by the society, by the system, by television... and that it's a real job to get rid of it. You can't just blissfully say, Everybody's equal, everybody's nice. The conditioning is so powerful that you have to work all the time... TL: It's invisible; racism is the water through which we swim. DB: And you have to tread water to stay up there; otherwise you're in it. You have to go against the flow to rise above it. So it's acknowledging that in some ways I'm trying to deal with it, but it's not going to happen overnight. It's not something you can announce to yourself and all of a sudden you're clean and pure. =============== That line; "racism is the water through which we swim"; is very powerful and very perceptive in my view.
|
|||
PMM 3155 posts |
Sep 24, 2008, 18:04
|
||
|
Was either Michael Moore or Al Franken (I think it was more likely Moore in his "Stupid White Men" book) that 6 out of 10 poor non white people spend time in prison. If you're black and poor you go to jail. Never mind the stuff you posted about.
|
|||
|
shanshee_allures 2563 posts |
Sep 24, 2008, 18:10
|
||
|
Ironically enough, 'White Privilege' also allows a white man to publish a book with such a title as 'Stupid White Men' and not receive any cries of racism. x |
|||
|
PMM 3155 posts |
Edited Sep 24, 2008, 20:57
Sep 24, 2008, 20:57
|
||
yup. and Richard Prior can tell nigger jokes.
|
|||
|
shanshee_allures 2563 posts |
Sep 24, 2008, 21:04
|
||
|
Yes, jokes. I don't think Moore was 'joking' though. A whole set of complex standards later... x
|
| Pages: 6 – [ Previous | 1 2 3 4 5 6 | Next ] | Add a reply to this topic |
|
|
|
| U-Know! Forum Index | |
