John’s post about the resignation of a blogger who can’t see the racism in dressing up the President of the United States in drag and sitting him down with a bucket of fried chicken is enough to trip the last of my rage+sorrow circuits. We’re back in Carthage Must Be Destroyed territory with our wingnut friends — and with the party Lincoln would no longer recognize, that G.O.P which has staked its hold on power for four decades with the nod-and-a-wink racism of the “southern stategy.”
Enough.
I’m sick past endurance with the casual viciousness of our opponents. Yesterday I blogged about Question Bridge, a project in which Black men get to investigate and reframe what it means to be male and African American in the U.S. today. As I wrote then, that work performs the remarkable feat of allowing everyone, Black guys and anyone else, to listen in on conversations, feelings, experiences that are not routinely available to most of us in the ordinary business of living in the world.
One of the insights to be gained in doing so comes from direct testimony about a fact we all know, but don’t necessarily nor always feel in our bones if we aren’t ourselves in the midst of it: that being Black and male and in public is to be constantly under scrutiny. Not necessarily or even mostly in the horrifying deadly circumstances that Trayvon Martin found himself in, but just in the sense that there’s attention being paid, and that the burden of representing, and not just being, is always there.
And here’s where that bucket of chicken comes in. That was no joke, not merely “southern cuisine” as the blogger put it.* And the men of Question Bridge know it:
<div align=”center”><iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/27225452?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0″ width=”400″ height=”225″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe></div>
When I go out to eat dinner, I don’t worry about what the folks at the next table think of my order. Never occurs to me. This clip reminds me that this is my privilege, and a measure — an oblique one maybe, but still — of the work we’ve yet to do get over race in this country.
Which, by shoots and roundabouts, is another reason that the “I’m not racist in my heart” nonsense just can’t fly. I don’t care if you love your kids or even (sacrilege here, I know) are kind to dogs. If you put the kind of trash John referenced out into the world, you own it; that’s who you are.
*Funny how a Black guy from Chicago eating chicken is just enjoying in southern cuisine. The first rule of racist club is never to talk about racist club.
David Koch
Meh.
both sides…
http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/files/bagnews/images/joe-hamsher-black-face.jpg
Jewish Steel
I’m certain the blogger in question is sorry if you are offended…
BO_Bill
Umm, Tom, I recently went to Popeye’s Chicken in a largely white area and I noticed with my eyes that the demographics of that restaurant did not match the demographics of the area at large (winky, winky). Does this make me bad?
scav
Yeah, that one was a punch when I first saw it and then to come across the situation today. . .
ruemara
I never worried about being black until I realize I was the lowest paid, had less offers of serious full time work (except when they offered up to 1/3 less salary for the region) and had a number of disastrous interviews, restaurant stories etc. One day, it finally hit me. “Oh, I’m black.” I still forget, from time to time, but shit like this whole damned Obama administration follies just makes me smile. Oh yeah, black thingy. K.
geg6
I hate these fuckers. I really, really do.
El Cid
This is a lady (Tara Servatius) who gave a speech to the League of the South — unreconstructed Confederates (I’m not sure you’d even call them “neo” other than, well, not being from the 19th century directly) who want to overthrow the Union’s aggression, undo the Constitution, and ensure “European-American” (presumably meaning, not Spaniards or Hungarian Jews or Romani) dominance.
So, she can shove this innocent Southern belle ‘why I do declare I had no idea y’all would see mah innocent joke with such burnin’ intemperance,’ etc., right up her hypocritical, cowardly, lying ass.
Cat Lady
I had a Facebook “discussion” re the War on Women with a conservative about how white men just swim in privilege, and that they just get to go la-dee-da-ing through their life with absolutely no pushback, and to try to point it out to them is like trying to explain water to fish. The response: I’m the racist. Yeah. Me. It’s such a problem.
Warren Terra
@BO_Bill:
If we were to start compiling a list of the things that made BOB bad, even restricted to racial topics … the name Sysiphus comes to mind …
wrb
The weirdest thing about how the liking of foods like fried chicken, watermelons, chitlin’s, black-eyed peas etc. is considered an insult is
1) those are extremely tasty foods
2) southern whites love them
Was this originally used as and insult by northern whites in the period
when blacks moved north, and then migrated south to be employed by southern white who took it up because everyone considered it a big insult on the blacks, even though, to the extent it was insulting at all, it
was just as insulting to them? Or is it just insane?
Gex
I just realized what the massive freak out is about. They know exactly how they treated minorities all along, no matter what they say in public. And they know they are very close to no longer being a majority and they are actually afraid they’re going to get theirs.
gnomedad
@BO_Bill:
No, but your smarmy post makes you an asshole. Winky, winky.
John Cole
@BO_Bill:
There are so many reasons you are an asshole that this barely scratches the surface.
El Cid
@Gex: I knew people who when the L.A. riots happened they (in their rural Southern cities) closed up and/or went home from work to barricade and get their guns because they figured the n****** were comin’ to get ’em. Not making that up.
MattR
Seems like Wanda Sykes’s “white people are looking at you” bit is appropriate here.
El Cid
You know what else signifies Southern? Sweet tea, you know, the stuff for which in that Harlem restaurant no one yelled “Bring me some mother fuckin’ iced tea” in front of Bill O’Reilly?
Mint juleps. Verandahs. Magnolias. Whatever.
Fried chicken & watermelon? Why, what, you thought I was bringing those up because Obama was black?
scav
And what is it with every troll suddenly going all camp and flirty and winky? There must be a secret base somewhere where they huddle together and decide the team uniform and theme du mois. (yawn was just so last month)
cathyx
I don’t think there is anything odd or remarkable about people eating the kinds of food that one grew up with. I see asians in chinese restaurants, latinos in mexican restaurants, and white anglo saxon protestant types at Octoberfest celebrations eating sourkraut and sausage. So why don’t we stereotype them and make them feel uncomfortable eating certain foods?
Mino
Slightly off topic, but not so much: I’ve seen three interviews with the city manager in Sanford and the man just seems terrified to me. Am I totally off base?
Ben Franklin
@John Cole:
I admire your 1st Amendment principles…:>)
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@BO_Bill:
Yes. SATSQ. The fact that you noticed these things specifically, and considered them of any importance, rather than other things like whether the chicken was cooked right or that the napkin dispenser was over-full and thus it was more difficult to pull out a new napkin with one free hand, these defects in perceptual priority mark you out as a miserable excuse for a human being.
Lojasmo
@BO_Bill:
Popey’s chicken makes you fat (along with your myriad pizzas. You’re a total douche as a baseline. That your bias was confirmed at popey’s is incidental.
Schlemizel
I know I’m old now but pastadamn I am tired, tired of these inflamed assholes making a mess of my country, tired or their dragging sorry shit like this out again and again when it was past its use by date 60 years ago, tired of the feigned innocence when called out followed by the faux poutrage that they are the victims and the smarmy jackoffs making ‘cute’ attempts at excusing them (h/t Bowel Obstruction). Just plain tired of all this bullshit that serves no purpose other than to make those sorry sacks of shit feel superior.
wrb
@cathyx:
Bangers and mash mam. Or New England boiled dinner.
During the era of when recent immigrants of various European ethnicities were uncomfortable proximity in industrial cities it was common to
use the ethnic cuisine as a somehow insulting descriptor: “That cabbage-eating xxx”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Oh there won’t be enough popcorn watching these idiots head’s explode when its a majority of none and cracker jokes start up. You have to be truly unaware to go their with racists jokes.
Raven
@Lojasmo: The fried srimp sammy I just had was good.
Comrade Dread
@cathyx: Because it doesn’t really hurt us, since it sort of lacks the long history of racial insults, lynchings, systemic legal oppression, and socially accepted racism that gives it real meaning.
So unless you’re part of a particular nationality that our nationality has a longstanding rivalry and or hatred for (let’s say English/Irish; English/Scottish), we just wouldn’t feel bad if you made fun of us eating our hamburgers or quiche or whatever. We’d just think you’re being weird.
DFH no.6
It is who they are, absolutely.
But the fascists are cowards, and are afraid to own it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Dread: Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche.
rkdioxin
Inane fuckery from the John Locke Foundation is no surprise to anyone living in NC. But, hey, congrats boys ‘n girls for making nationwide asses of yrselves. And isn’t this more evidence that we’re in some kind of beyond-satire age? I mean: “Regrettably, I didn’t think about the racial implications of the picture when I posted it. I simply don’t think in those terms. Unfortunately some people do.” When your defense is to paraphrase Stephen Colbert, I just don’t know what to say anymore…
Ben Franklin
@Raven:
Was there more than 4 shrimp in it?
Frankensteinbeck
Question Bridge is amazing, Tom. Thank you for pointing it out. I am mayonnaise white, but that’s all the more reason to learn what’s important to people who’ve lived a life I haven’t imagined.
MikeTheZ
@El Cid: “…If ya Smell-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l what The Rock is Cooking!”
Brachiator
Sarah Palin lives in Alaska and can be associated with hunting Caribou. And this is not a Palin defense. Just follow me on this.
Obama is of American and Kenyan parentage. He has lived in Indonesia and Hawaii.
And still the swinish racists can only trot out the most lamely Southern stereotypical images of bigotry, when they are not proclaiming that he is an anti-colonialist aristocrat.
So, they are not only the most vile racists, they are also fools.
And dumber than BO_Bill.
Martin
@Comrade Dread:
Exactly. When you’re in power, the slurs just roll off. They don’t hurt because you’re in power. It’s just stupid.
The slurs work against those out of power because it’s yet another reminder that they’re out of power, and that you intend to keep it that way.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Cat Lady:
It’s not quite that clear cut – they don’t issue us white boys card to “The Man” club or something. It’s a bunch of subtle little social things that make doing business easier.
Now the thing to note is sure, Obama is black, but he can do that white man thing. That is going to outrage the racists all the hell and back because that means white privilege isn’t a birth right, it’s a learned skill and it means their white, not so competent behind can be pushed aside.
Ruckus
Tom
Once again I want to thank you for bringing up Question Bridge. While hopefully I am a white person who doesn’t need to hear these black men speak, I am one who thinks hearing them is grand. This human experience is much better, the more people I get to share it with.
Comrade Dread
@Omnes Omnibus: I disagree. What’s unmanly about quiche? It’s pie with eggs and meat. And it pairs up well with some alcoholic beverages, meaning you can drink at breakfast and be considered classy rather than being seen as suffering from debilitating alcoholism.
DFH no.6
The fascists are the fucking enemy.
Their worldview is evil and wrong, and violently dangerous.
After decades thinking otherwise, I’m no longer confident we will “work through all this” entirely peaceably.
Hope I’m wrong about that.
Tonal Crow
Oh please Republicans don’t stop showing us your racism! Also too don’t stop showing us your sexism, homophobia, crazy religious fatwas, anti-science bloviation, whiny claims of victimization, birtherism (oh yes, moar birtherism pleaz!), and “justifications” for Zimmerman blowing away the unarmed Martin kid. We just don’t know what the Republican Party stands for, ‘cuz you’ve been way too meek about telling us. So let your freak flag fly high and proud, wingers!
Maude
@Brachiator:
They still want to see the birth certificate, the idiots.
They aren’t bright enough to come up with a better insult.
Amir Khalid
@cathyx:
Obama’s mother was from Kansas, which if I recall correctly isn’t quite the South, his father wasn’t American at all, and of course he was raised by his white family in Hawaii. He wasn’t born into African-American culture; he chose it as an adult. So the references to Southern/African-American culture as a racist dig at Obama strike me as somewhat off-base. Have I got that correct?
wrb
@Omnes Omnibus: @<a
The frogs do. Some of the krauts too. But white-bread wasps only took to it recently.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
all of this goes to cutting the last tethers to reality of the non-apology apology.
what i would like to see, is before someone asks a public figure in such a compromised position if they realized the racism or whatever in what they are saying, is that you preserve their answers to questions that gauge their sensitivity on stereotypes that may apply to them.
in this case, say for example she happens to be some version of southern christianity,(a wild guess). find out what she believes are the way evil christians and “others” mock her. the things she thinks they don’t think she realizes are ways of sorting her into a group for mockery purposes.
let her be on record showing her own sensitivity and awareness of being labelled, or conforming to stereotypes, then let her try to explain that she wasn’t aware black people knew white people associate them with chicken and whatever else.
Seebach
As a 28 year old white guy, I really didn’t know racism was this bad and widespread and I’m so sorry. I wasn’t one of the naive conservatives who pretend that Martin Luther King was right wing, and I knew the klan and skinheads still existed, and that there were still racist people, but I didn’t know this would drive so many seemingly normal people batshit.
The racism and misogyny of the last few years has been eye-opening. I just literally had no idea. I didn’t doubt your experiences, I just didn’t know. I didn’t know.
Omnes Omnibus
@Comrade Dread: Look, I was simply pointing out that the book exist(s/ed). It was aimed at mocking effete, non-Real American(tm) men. Me, I like quiche and have been known to cry at sappy movies. W’evs.
Raven
Here’s a comment from the Athens Banner Herald in response to an article about Paul Broun misusing campaign funds.
“yea snarky the damn liberals dont wanna talk about all the money the planet of the apes woman has spent taking vacations at taxpayer expense. Let alone the 22 assistants she has . No other 1st lady in history had more than 2, she has 22, probably all cousins and aunts”
quannlace
So this blogger couldn’t even be bothered to come up with a straight foward coherent slur. I mean, who knew that slaves were forced to dress up like Lady Ga-Ga? And Popeye’s chicken was around in the 1850’s?
Cat Lady
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
All I know that if you’re a straight white man, you don’t need a Men’s Club ticket – you get to function with some basic assumptions all the time. You never have to make calculations about whether you can walk in certain places at times of night, or your health choices will be attacked, or your food choices will be scrutinized, or be killed or attacked because of what you’re wearing, or whether you can travel anywhere you want, etc. I’ve tried to explain that to liberal men, and even they don’t really get it. They think I’m shrill.
Raven
@Cat Lady: Pretty big generalization there don’t you think?
jprfrog
Related but not exactly on point: (from TPM)
“I have sat back and allowed myself time to assess the current episode revealing itself in Sanford, Florida involving the shooting of 17-year-old Treyvon Martin. First of all, if all that has been reported is accurate, the Sanford Police Chief should be relieved of his duties due to what appears to be a mishandling of this shooting in its early stages. The US Navy SEALS identified Osama Bin Laden within hours, while this young man laid on a morgue slab for three days. The shooter, Mr Zimmerman, should have been held in custody and certainly should not be walking free, still having a concealed weapons carry permit. From my reading, it seems this young man was pursued and there was no probable cause to engage him, certainly not pursue and shoot him….against the direction of the 911 responder. Let’s all be appalled at this instance not because of race, but because a young American man has lost his life, seemingly, for no reason. I have signed a letter supporting a DOJ investigation. I am not heading to Sanford to shout and scream, because we need the responsible entities and agencies to handle this situation from this point without media bias or undue political influences. This is an outrage.”
This is not Al Sharpton, but Allen West (R-Fl). The world is truly upside down.
NotMax
Also should be mentioned how bigoted the use of ‘in drag’ as a stereotyped, demeaning negative shorthand for homosexuality is.
AkaDad
Obama is half white/half black, but calls himself black. He’s the real racist.
Satanicpanic
I don’t even get these jokes. Black people love chicken hur hur. So? So do I. So does everyone. Cooking some right now (seriously). What’s the joke? They don’t have the refined tastes that people that join the Tea Party of Orange County have? WTF?
Cat Lady
@Raven:
Yes it is. Both of my daughters are married to men of color, and I’ve been learning about all of the calculations big and small they have to make that I never had to being married to a white man.
Martin
@Raven: Nope. She’s got it right. It’s not as pronounced as it used to be, but it’s still true.
Raven
“You never have to make calculations about whether you can walk in certain places at times of night, or your health choices will be attacked, or your food choices will be scrutinized, or be killed or attacked because of what you’re wearing, or whether you can travel anywhere you want, etc. ”
I’m sorry but I lived that way from the day I got out of the Army and joined the anti-war movement. We chose to dress and look the way we did but I can guarantee you I fought my way out of plenty of jams based on just that.
Older
@BO_Bill: No, you were already bad.
Cat Lady
@Raven:
Well, having a choice is nice.
Raven
@Cat Lady: Whatever
Ben Franklin
@Cat Lady:
Are you telling us you know more because you have in-laws of color?
WTF?
Anoniminous
@Schlemizel:
Ditto
Tonal Crow
@Older: Zing!
Raven
@Ben Franklin: And that gay white men are easily identified.
Woodrowfan
Well, that’s not ALWAYS true. But as a white male I know I have to think about it less, often far less, than men from other groups…
Ben Franklin
@Raven:
Yeah, but how many shrimp in that sanwich?
Raven
@Woodrowfan: Hence, an overgeneralization.
John M. Burt
@Ben Franklin: Are you telling us you know more because you have in-laws of color? WTF?
Of course she is, and I know for a fact that she’s right, having been the adoptive father of three Ethiopia-born children.
HowTF could she not?
She’d have to be pretty stupid not to have benefitted from a direct object lesson, day after day, in her own life, wouldn’t she?
Raven
@Ben Franklin: They are usually overrunning. I smoked a chicken, made collards and blackeyed peas for my bride to take to her weekly painting session with a friend who is fighting brain cancer so I slid over to Popeye’s for a quick fix before hoops.
Cat Lady
@Ben Franklin:
I’m saying that since I’ve had two black son-in-laws, I’ve learned a lot about the way that white couples can go through this wingnut stained world is different than the way my daughters and their husbands can go through this world. Why is that so hard for you to understand?
Raven
@John M. Burt: All she needs to do is lighten up on the “All the times” and “Never”. It doesn’t take a fucking degree in sociology to understand institutional racism now does it?
Exurban Mom
@Tonal Crow: This!
Wahoo, wingers, keep going for it!! Any fronts you haven’t pursued yet that we can suggest? Hows about continuing to talk about the pron! And more talk about not going to college like some damn elitist! Keep it going!
Raven
@Cat Lady: Because that is NOT what you said.
Ben Franklin
@Raven:
They’re stingier in California with the shrimps, so I order xtra biscuits with faux honey. No collard greens int the Golden State.
Older
@Ben Franklin: She does know more because she has in-laws of color. And so do I know more, because of my nine (mostly adopted) kids, four are black. We know more than we did before we had these experiences, and we probably know more than white people who have not had these experiences. Of whom you are apparently one.
Raven
@Ben Franklin: The grocery stores in LA gots em. Ralphs fo sho.
Raven
@Older: And I know more having lived in the shit of the US Army in the 60’s and watching racism in all it’s fucking glory rain down on the brothers and the Vietnamese.
Cat Lady
@Raven:
Well, in my experience, 100% of the men I try to explain their privilege to, don’t get it. 100%. They all act just like you. Like trying to explain water to fish. My husband is just starting to understand, and he’s 56, and it’s only because he’s starting to see the world through his son in law’s eyes.
DFH no.6
@Cat Lady:
Well I’m a liberal, straight, white American man and I get it. I don’t think you’re shrill.
I know full-well how privileged I am.
Mine is the default cultural position. There most certainly is a Men’s Club, and I’m in it (no ticket needed for me, just come right in). I am of the race, gender, class, and nationality that owns and controls most everything.
And I didn’t do it by lifting myself up by my bootstraps, either. Nor did the other good old boys in the Men’s Club who look like me. That Club was built long before we got here.
I am completely cognizant of the fact that, as a white male Baby Boomer, I didn’t hit the triple, I was born on third base (working class, so I’m no Romney or Bush, but still…).
I absolutely get to function, as you said, with some basic assumptions all the time that are not available to others.
I don’t think about them constantly, of course, but I am often aware of them. When I do think of them (as now) I’m staggered by my good fortune.
How others in my privileged position don’t recognize it I haven’t a clue. It’s pretty fucking obvious; like the most obvious thing in the world.
Oh, and I’m with geg6 way at the beginning – I hate these fuckers, too. With a passion.
Raven
@Cat Lady: And how am I “acting”. You don’t have any business “explaining” a thing to me. You don’t know me or my experience.
Cat Lady
@DFH no.6:
Thank you. You really are a DFH.
Cat Lady
@Raven:
Whatever.
Van
I have never thought about this until watching that video, and I have lived in the deep south for 30 of my 40 years, I have never seen a black person eating watermelon. Everybody eats chicken everywhere and at all times, but that guy saying he never eats watermelon in front of white people…. That is spot on. So many picnics, buffets, and I just never thought about it. Seen plenty of white people eating them like barbarians, as in me, my family, and friends 3 or 4 times a year.
Ben Franklin
@Older: @Cat Lady: @DFH no.6: @John M. Burt:
watching racism in all it’s fucking glory rain down on the brothers and the Vietnamese.
Is that clear enough for you?
Ben Franklin
@Older: @Cat Lady: @DFH no.6: @John M. Burt:
Is that clear enough for you?
Villago Delenda Est
@wrb:
The French are called “frogs” because they eat them.
The Germans are called “krauts” because they eat sauerkraut.
Two examples of ethnic slurs tied to ethnic cuisine.
Raven
@Ben Franklin: My experience of the reality of racism is not as valid as their experience of the reality of racism.
wrb
@Cat Lady:
You had a good point to make but you ruined it by exaggerating.
There are places where white, and especially white in “square” clothing is definitely the wrong color to be. They can usually be avoided. They sometimes are where good music happens though.
In other places looking like you are gay or a hippie endangers.
Middle american white food is scrutinized and mocked (Applebees?)
by the hip dominant culture that would never do the same with regard to other ethnic foods these days.
But anyway, you had a good point but due to exaggerating you ended up saying something untrue.
Ben Franklin
@Raven:
That’s the trap of liberalism. Super Righteouness
Raven
@wrb: How fucking DARE you? The Cat Lady is the voice of the oppressed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cat Lady: You made a broad statement that is, broadly, true. Raven simply pointed out that the breadth of the statement probably made it less that universally true. For example, take a gay man from South Beach and drop him in a mining town in W.Va. and then ask him if he feels he needs to be concerned about where he goes. Ask Matthew Shepard. There are neighborhoods of Chicago in which I wouldn’t want to go alone. Fuck, yeah, I, as white guy who looks and sounds upper-middle class, am privileged vis-a-vis virtually everyone else in the country, but it’s not a universal go everywhere card.
Meyerman
Tom,
Thanks for spreading the word about the Question Bridge. Good to see humanity when it seems to be so out of fashion. Maybe it’ll start a movement.
Ben Franklin
unable to edit…
wrb
@Villago Delenda Est:
You noticed ? :)
Julia Grey
We always are when we are not behaving in accordance with our proper role, i.e., that of calmly accepting that these limitations on our gender are in the natural order of things, and, you know, SHUTTING UP.
Even whispering the “wrong” thing makes you shrill.
Men who do not “behave” are defiant, they are troublemakers, they are rebels, they are loudmouths, they are dangerous and must be dealt with SERIOUSLY.
Women are merely shrill. And gauddam nuisances, to boot. Get the broom, Boris. That mouse has gotten into the oatmeal again.
Raven
@Julia Grey: bullshit
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: The French call the English ros-bifs.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
@wrb:
i think that is true.
her point stands as a generality.
but there are other specific situations and circumstances that can deny even a white male christian heterosexual the usual complement of privilege.
some are purely situational, and some are more permanent.
Omnes Omnibus
@Julia Grey: No one here said she was shrill. People disagreed with part of what she was saying.
DFH no.6
@Cat Lady:
Well, your use of “always” and “never” and “all” and now “100%” is – as was noted – not helpful (edging toward the dreaded shrill, so I’d step back a bit) but your overall point about white male privilege is certainly true.
I’m the same age as your husband, but I’m not now just “awakening” to my privileged position. I’ve been aware of it for as long as I can remember.
And I know a few others much like myself who understand likewise. Actually, more than a few (although many more, I have to say, who don’t).
Again, it seems blindingly obvious to me, and it shouldn’t require some sort of direct personal experience (like people of color joining the family) to, as you said, “get it”.
White male privilege is the goddamn 800-lb gorilla of our society. Sitting right there in the living room taking up most of the space. Pretty much trumps everything else. The “can’t explain water to fish” thing really doesn’t pertain at all.
wrb
@Omnes Omnibus:
I originally included that one too but dropped it due not immediately finding a neat fit under to the quiche-eating theme.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
As Phlegm (I mean, um, Fleur) pointed out in The Half Blood Prince, the English overcook their food.
Omnes Omnibus
@wrb: A roast beef quiche doesn’t sound particularly good.
@Villago Delenda Est: Mmmmm, mushy peas.
urlhix
As a white male weirdo in the deep south, realizing I was an “other” long ago gave me enough insight into the authoritarian mindset of these fuckers. That yeah, I realize I’m on third base, but still can’t join the clubhouse, even if I’m on the team. It was worse when I had long hair.
So many “progressive” white guys can’t even see it. And get assholish when you try to point it out.
GeneJockey
So, what we have here is a bunch of people agreeing that white privilege is a huge force in our society, that it’s largely not seen or believed by those who most benefit from it, but that the most important thing is whether Cat Lady says ‘All’ instead of ‘Most’ or ‘Many’.
Sheesh.
Omnes Omnibus
@GeneJockey: Hey, it’s a small space, but some of us are trying to squeeze into it.
Raven
Any of you crusaders ever heard of Project 100,000? Starting in Nov 66 the military took 100,000 troops that didn’t meet minimum military standards every year for three years. Imagine yourself as white 17 year old high school dropout from an educated family. The fact that I could fucking read put me in the top level on the AFQT. The “best and brightest” of my generation avoided the draft like the plague while the underclass was sucked into the big green machine. Imagine then that you watch as cracker ass lifer NCO’s from the south harass and humiliate young urban black kids sucked up in that shit until they snap and end up in the stockade. Imagine going to Korea and then Vietnam and seeing the manifestation of American racism visited on the “indigenous” people. You come home and vow to do what you can to fight the war and racism on the home front.
Does that make you immune from “white privilege”? Of course it doesn’t. Does it mean if you question an all encompassing statement by someone on a blog you are a sexist pig? Let the chips fall where they may.
Raven
@GeneJockey: Apparently is is important enough for you to chime in.
Woodrowfan
@GeneJockey: Ah for a “like” button!
GeneJockey
@Raven:
Because you don’t disagree with the main point of what Cat Lady said, but instead make a big deal of nibbling at the edges, as if the difference between ‘all’ and ‘most’ in this context really mattered a damn.
DFH no.6
@Ben Franklin:
Dude, we’re on the same side here, and we’re arguing over nits (well, some of us are arguing). Not getting the vitriol.
Yeah, what Raven wrote was very clear, and I am eternally grateful that I was born a few years too late to be put through what he experienced in Viet Nam. Like being black or female, I can only imagine.
And sure, being a hippie (which I was for a few years – 70s, not 60s, version) revoked a few of the standard privileges, but so did simply being young for a while, even if white and male.
But get a little older, cut your hair, put on some “square” clothes, and you immediately become the standard cultural figure in our society that all others defer to. As Colbert joked, he figured he was white because the cops called him “sir”.
Cat Lady went too far, as several of us have pointed out, with the over-generalizations and the “always” and “nevers” but her overall point about white male privilege is certainly true.
That privilege gives us white males an automatic leg up on everyone else. Not everywhere at all times; no, of course not. But most places most times in our corner of the world, yes.
Threats to that privilege is what’s fueling modern movement conservatism (Republicans, the Tea Party, fascists – whatever label you like). So it’s a pretty big fucking deal.
Oh, and “the trap of liberalism. Super Righteousness”? You really did throw that bullshit fascist trope, didn’t you? Not cool.
Ruckus
My role models growing up were 2 black men that I worked with starting when I was 12. I learned more about being a person from them than from anyone else. I learned life isn’t fair. I learned life can shit on anyone, anytime. I learned that black people, men in particular, get shit upon just for living. I learned honor. I learned humanity. I learned never to be around when someone eats head cheese. I learned that someone with almost nothing will share with people with less. I learned a smile can make a shitty day better. I learned that I’m no more human than anyone else. And they are no less.
Omnes Omnibus
@DFH no.6:
Worst superpower ever.
Raven
@Ruckus: I learned many of those lessons from this man.
GeneJockey
@Omnes Omnibus:
Can something be a super power if so many have it?
DFH no.6
@Omnes Omnibus:
Agreed. Much rather have invisibility, given the choice.
Omnes Omnibus
@GeneJockey: I told you it sucks. Not helpful and dead common.
@Raven: He taught you to throw pointy things? That seems unsafe.
Ben Franklin
@DFH no.6:
I think quite enough has been said on this…..
Ruckus
@Raven:
Where, who is that?
I’ve seen the picture before or at least one like it, just can’t remember where.
GeneJockey
@DFH no.6:
Only if you can turn it off.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: He originated the USAER Drill Team before he was my DI at Ft Campbell. He way a 7th ID Korea Infantry Vet and one of the greatest people I have ever known. I was stunned to find his picture on a Stars and Stripes website by googling his name. Sgt Dallas A. Pinkney III. He kicked our asses but let us know why.
Raven
@Ruckus: See above, he was my DI.
DFH no.6
@Ben Franklin:
Yep. Out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: I got to do some drills with a saber, but no one ever let me toss a bayoneted rifle – probably for the best, though, if I really think about it.
Tbone
To be fair, they eat a ton of friend chicken in Kenya. Especially south Kenya.
serena1313
I learned a long time ago that stereotyping people diminishes our ability to interact, learn, communicate, accept, tolerate, expand our horizons. It is so limiting in ways that we do not even realize.
As a 60 year old white southern lady I love fried chicken (& chicken fried steak) & watermelon, I think of them as southern food, period. I love Italian, Mexican & French food, too. Food is food. There are certain dishes you either love or you don’t. Likewise the same goes for people.
If someone does not like me for who Iam that is their issue, not mine. That does not mean I do not care, I do. But I cannot own someone else’s issue/s, I’ve got my own to deal with. It took me 40 years to learn that!
My advice: If you like yourself & who you are, others will too. The ones who don’t are not going to like you no matter what you do. So don’t worry about it. Life is too short. The only person you need to be is yourself.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: No shit. I was a hazard with a fucking duece-and-a-half!
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: Well, at least your current truck is smaller.
Ash Can
@El Cid:
This. And this.
I do not believe for one fucking instant that this stupid broad did not know what she was doing. She is lying. She knew DAMNED WELL what she was doing, and she was TOO FUCKING STUPID to make up a more plausible, more intelligent excuse for herself.
Ruckus
@Raven:
Knew I’d seen him before.
Neldob
All that talk of fried chicken and watermelon makes me hungry. I’m not such a big fan of bananas. Banana cream pie though, that sounds good. I think I’m off topic at this point.
Bamagrad1998
Well, Tara, my dear- what good little Southern parents you have, by the way, with the name and all- a lot of us frankly only give a damn about you BECAUSE of your hate. Maybe you should turn that journalism degree you received from UNC back in because you obviously weren’t paying much attention with an open mind anyway. My life experience as a white woman with a journalism degree from the University of Alabama SCREAMS to me racist connotation when you try to lampoon a black person with fried chicken references. I’m not going to even touch the rest of the photo, but I really don’t see where the fried chicken fits as the president- you do remember that his mother is just as white as you and I are- is smarter than you, too. Oh, that’s right, he is the product of an interracial marriage………..now I get it from your point of view. However, THAT is a fact that I don’t think about. A little more believable than your self serving explanation of not seeing things in terms of race. Given your background with the League of the South, I think we understand exactly why this image and all of its content didn’t sound one warning bell for you, either. But it is always everyone else who has the problem and not you conservatives, isn’t it? Four little black girls just trying to attend Sunday school before they were blown up at the hands of a hate filled man. You should really have to stand at the windows inside of the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham and look across the street at 16th Street Baptist Church’s front steps. You would, no doubt, feel at home with the hate filled comments that greet you when you walk into the entrance depicting the era of the KKK.
xian
also, too, I did a Google image search for “Obama in drag” and could not find the KFC/fetish image (scrolled through several pages worth).
Ben Cisco
I see she ended her routine with the patented “who’s the real racist” triple-Luntz:
I’m embarrassed to say she’s from my state. Can’t wait for her to wake up Nov. 7th and realize she has to DEAL WITH IT for another four years. What a chump.
PWL
Hey, let’s face it: if it wasn’t for white folks gobbling up fried chicken, KFC wouldn’t be in business.