Amy Goodman
"W.E.B. Du Bois' classic 1903 work "The Souls of Black Folk" opens with "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line." Du Bois helped form the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which just celebrated its 100th anniversary.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., who directs Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, knows much about the color line -- not only from his life's work, but from life experience, including last week, when he was arrested in his own home.
Gates' lawyer, Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree, said in a statement that the arrest occurred as Gates returned from the airport:"
Zcommunication
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I am sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college admissions, which he opposes and I support. The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that in the United States being white has advantages. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white privilege. So, if we live in a world of white privilege--unearned white privilege--how does that affect your notion of a level playing field? I ask. He paused for a moment and said, "That really doesn't matter." That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the ultimate white privilege: the privilege to acknowledge you have unearned privilege but ignore what it means.
ReplyDeleteUnearned white privilege indeed. Predominantly white countires have the most stable governments and economic systems in the entire world. They have led the advancement of the state of humanity over the last 1000 years. To imagine a world without the USA, England or the Roman Empire is to imagine a world still stuck firmly in the middle ages.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what "privileges" he has received? Its harder to get accepted into competitive universities. Its harder to get jobs at large companies. Its harder to get voted presiden of the USA!!!
Please tell us what these "tangibles" are. A piece of furniture perhaps? A recipe? Some other hand me down?
Indeed, are non-whites so immune to privileging their own? In fact nepotism and/or crony corruption is one of the worst problems plaguing the third world.
How Henry Gates blew it.
ReplyDeleteThe Root
The Race Dialogue We Won't Have
Affirmative Action's Untimely Obituary
Take up the White Man's burden--
ReplyDeleteAnd reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Its really quite amazing. A black man gets elected president of the united states and people still cant stop harping about racism. Not to mention: Black athletes dominate big time collegiate and pro teams. Black entertainers are among the most powerful and wealthy. People of color are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies (Amex, Pepsi, BofA, TimeWarner, etc). The USA's top military person has included a black and ah hispanic. The Attorney General is black. There is a black now, and soon to be a hispanic on the Supreme Court. There are unversities still which promote themselves as being "historically black" aka black only. Face it, most blacks in the US have it 1,000 times better than if they lived in Africa. I mean Jesus Christ, what more can we do.
ReplyDeleteI learned in my personal life I cant make anybody think or feel a certain way. It has to come naturally. No amount of berating, begging or cajoling can do it. I would think people would have enough sense to realize this. Guess not.
fleming,
ReplyDeleteLook...
If you hold off an berating me personally, I will venture to say that you have misinterpreted my rants. I am not condemning white people. Where you got that idea is beyond me. You don't have to agree with everything I post, but at least give it serious consideration, as does vza. She certainly doesn't agree with everything I say but:
1.) she reads it.
2.) acknowledges the parts she agrees with.
3.) criticizes the parts she doesn't agree with without deriding me personally.
That is the basis for a civil exchange of views. If you make this a personal thing, you will not receive a response from me. OK?
Ok. Fair enough Maracutu.
ReplyDeleteClearly I do read your comments or I could not respond to them. That is not to say I pursue every link, because I dont and cant promise I will. My time is finite.
Im all for civility. I will try and keep my criticisms on a non-personal level. My guy friends and I regularly insult each other. So sometimes its just a natural response.
Curiously, you term your comments "rants" yourself. I dont usually feel the need to defend "white people" but I certainly have after reading some things here.
I wonder what the reaction of the media, white America, and vza would be if Elie Wiesel was handcuffed, arrested, fingerprinted, and locked up because he argued with a cop in his own house and broke no law. Do you think they would bend over so damn far to see it from the cop's point of view?
ReplyDeleteGood illustration Joe
ReplyDeleteGood comparison
ReplyDeleteWell, I can only speak for myself, but if the circumstances were all the same, I would basically feel the same way about it all. Both acted foolishly, but Crowley should have walked away and let it go. I would add that it is more than past time for the police to be trained to avoid making stupid ass arrests. Also, the disorderly conduct charge is far too broad and totally subjective, which leads to unnecessary arrests like this one. As I stated yesterday, just because he could arrest Gates on disorderly conduct does not mean that he should have done so. But until the laws are changed and all police officers are a model of perfection and wisdom, unlike the rest of humanity, it is dumb to rant and rave and threaten an officer of the law. If Gates had a complaint, he should have taken it up with the cop's superiors.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think I would think differently..because Elie Wiesal is a Jew? Your choice for the comparision is very interesting.
Also, who is white America ? Do you think it is a monolith of some sort with uniform thoughts, opinions, and beliefs? Last night at dinner I heard nine different opinions about the whole issue. Today I read an excellent piece by a white lawyer calling for a change in the disorderly conduct laws. He convinced me. Lots of different views, Joe...from White America.
vza said:
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think I would think differently..because Elie Wiesal is a Jew? Your choice for the comparision is very interesting.
You are some piece of work. I was trying to use an example of an intellectual that white America respects. Granted, there isn't a large pool to choose from. My example of Wiesel may have been influenced because I'm Jewish so he was the first name that came to mind. How about if something like that happenned to Billy Graham? Do you think the general reaction would be different than what happened with Gates?
But I have to say, just like you, my reaction in all three cases would be the same, but it would be different than yours: I would think that the cop must be out of his fucking mind to harrass, much less arrest. a crotchety old man who just wanted to be left alone.
And what is white America? I could say it is like that Supreme Court decision on obscenity: I can't define it but I know it when I see it. Without writing a thesis, however, it's a combination of physical appearance, obviously, but equally as important, a state of mind and self-identification.
No insults, personal attacks or outlandish caricature.
ReplyDeleteI knew you can do it.
Thanks.
No insults, personal attacks or outlandish caricature, fleming!
ReplyDeleteI knew you can do it.
Thanks.
"You are some piece of work."
ReplyDeleteI take it you probably were not thinking of Hamlet's great, "What a piece of work is man" speech when you wrote this line ?
"You are some piece of work."
ReplyDeleteI take it you probably were not thinking of Hamlet's great,
"What a piece of work is man", speech when you wrote this line?
Now I am curious-why did you find it "very interesting" that I chose Elie Wiesel, a "Jew", as you pointed out, as the example for a double standard? The only thing I can think of is that you think if someone says anything about what the Palestinians are going through or includes their plight in the list of urgent issues that must be addressed now-then they must have something against the Jews. That is why I called you a piece of work. If I am wrong, please let me know why you found it so damn interesting.
ReplyDeleteYes, I could also claim that if I sacked nations of color, which are very rich - the people are just poor from colonial exploitation. If I also built my nation on the foundation of slavery and genocide - which ALL the Euro/American gang did, man could I have an empire also. You dumb putz, you make statements out of thin air with no substance, and stick you foot in your mouth with ease being proud of your "heritage."
ReplyDeleteYay! No insults, personal attacks or outlandish caricature, fleming!
ReplyDeleteI knew you can do it.
Thanks.
My time is about up, too. Comprehensives are Friday and classes start next month.
ReplyDelete...so it's back to macroeconomic stuff like this.
What is missing from this debate? CLASS. The accepted equation is 'black = working class'. Middle class blacks in the US are accorded honorary white status, it's just that racist cops haven't caught on yet.
ReplyDeleteFleming,
ReplyDeleteThere is an interesting facet to what you mention. Speaking in very general terms, capitalism arguably "knows no color or nationality", it merely seeks to make a profit. In fact, there is no allegiance of the American capitalist to the United States (or, for that matter, any other capitalist to its country of origin). You can see this manifesting itself in the whole "offshoring" debate.
With the prospects for a jobless recovery increasing in the US, it will be interesting to see what the Obama (and future) administration(s) do when the public raises its level of concern and displeasure. Nothing the current administration can do, short of palliative measures, will change this scenario.
One interesting question (I have for myself) is: Where will newly restructured General Motors increase more its payroll if and when it is in a better position to expand again? In Mexico or the US?
Hey,
ReplyDeleteHere is a bit of trivia.
Did you know that Newt Gingrich did his Ph.D. dissertation on the Belgian Congo? It was titled: BELGIAN EDUCATION POLICY IN THE CONGO, 1945-1960