Whiteness

Whuuut?!? Two posts in one week?!?! You must be unemployed again.

No, just a little more free than usual. Trust me, it won't last.

So I stumbled upon this post regarding Rush Limbaugh and the Crisis in White Conservative Manhood and I found it sort of interesting. Not compelling, mind you, just sort of interesting. It's short on evidence and not particularly revealing, but I think it illustrates an attempt to delve into the issue of whiteness in a moderately critical way that I think the U.S. could benefit from.

The 'Crisis' essay didn't get into it, but for me it sparked the idea that there's an intesection between color blindness, whiteness, and "real america" where White America as a socio-political phenomenon exists.

"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit and these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation,” Sarah Palin

"Real America" serves as a proxy for White America. All that is "really truly" American is White to the minds of many. Removed from the label of "Whiteness", then it becomes easy to deny the existence of race, or to proclaim that you don't see race. In the end, you don't need to see race, because all concepts that would normally be packaged into a conception of White race are subsumed in your concept of "America". Does anyone think that Sarah Palin was considering rap, jazz, César Chávez, or Japanese internment when she was referring to "real America"? Not likely. She was talking about small, rural, white towns where race is not an issue because there is only one race present.

If we could find a way to talk about white America, and white culture, in a non-accusatory, non supremacy boosting, academic, way, it would go a long way toward resolving racial issues here. An honest and useful discussion of race must include more than the experiences of Blacks. We have to include the racial experiences of other groups, and as far as white people (or any group) are concerned, we have to find a way to do this without making people feel guilty or chest-thumpingly prideful. There has to be a way to talk about these issues truthfully and dispassionately. Sphere: Related Content

Who is this Independent Voter?

I've argued before that the independent voter is a myth. As others have pointed out, an independent voter implies that one votes for both republicans and democrats (or neither). But polls and studies assessing the voting patterns of American voters who call themselves independent suggest that "independents" do no such thing. Independent voters vote along partisan lines pretty reliably (they appear to simply be unwilling to classify with one party or another - that's not independent, that's just a failure to identify yourself in public).

Still, there's another point that appears to undermine the idea that there is some robust middle in America. Not only are independents a myth; there is good reason why there are few true independents:

"Liberals and conservatives don’t have a failure to communicate. They disagree. Critics play gotcha with the so-called centrists, asking how they can support same sex marriage and also give money to marriage opponent John Boehner. But that is such a cheap shot. The problem is not inconsistency on one position or another. There is no point at which a rational person can embrace both parties. For the two parties, roughly mapping onto liberal and conservative, it’s disagreement all the way down.

This is so, because, contrary to the wishful thinking of the why-can’t-we-all-just-get-along crowd, political principles don’t just come from nowhere. They start at the most fundamental level: what counts as knowledge? What does it mean to be a person? Different kinds of people require and deserve different forms of government." Hirshman The Myth of the Middle Melts Like Snow

The idea that there is a large group of people out there that seems to think that evolution and creationism are both great ideas or that women should have the right to choose and abortion should still be outlawed, is nonsense.

All of this is not to say that, yelling epithets at each other is a good idea. It's not. We can disagree without being disagreeable or hateful. But that's a different issue.
As far as the independent middle is concerned: Stop looking for it. It ain't there. Man up, take your side, and make sure your side wins the election. That's reality.

Update: Ruy Texiera at The New Republic isn't buying the Independents Myth either.

"Start with the premise of the book. It is that independents are all swing voters ready to move right or left politically—or in Killian’s feverish imagination, toward some inchoate centrist formation of the No Labels variety. This premise is based on the greatest myth in American politics: that independents are actually independent. They are not. As numerous studies have shown, the overwhelming majority of Americans who say there are “independent” lean toward one party or the other. Call them IINOs, or Independents In Name Only. IINOs who say they lean toward the Republicans think and vote just like regular Republicans. IINOs who say they lean toward the Democrats think and vote just like regular Democrats.

Just how strong is this relationship? In 2008, according to the University of Michigan’s National Election Study (NES), 90 percent of independents who leaned Democratic voted for Obama, actually a higher level of support than among weak Democratic partisans (those who said they were “not very strong” Democrats), 84 percent of whom voted for Obama. Among Republican-leaning independents, a still-high 78 percent voted for McCain, compared to 88 percent support among weak Republican identifiers."

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N-word = Racist

Not sure if I've talked about this before, but when I came to the realization that white people today view the term "racist" as the functional equivalent of the word "nigger", it was something of an Oprah A-ha moment.

To many white people today, particularly young white people, being called a racist has the same impact and effect that being called a nigger has on black people. At first, when I talked to friends; saw comments on blogs; and observed white peoples' horror at being labeled racist, I thought, "What's the big deal? They called you racist. It's not that deep. Just ask them why they think you're racist, explain why you're not, and keep it movin'."

But, after seeing how distraught some people became at being lableled racist and the seriousness with which they considered the charge, it occurred to me that the label racist, works in almost the same way as the label nigger. Both terms label the person in question and obscure any other characteristic that the person in question might have. Once I call you a racist, you are nothing else. You are not brave, or funny, or caring, quirky, talented, or thoughtful. You're just a racist. Same thing with the n-word: the label destroys any other characteristic of individuality that you hold. You are nothing but a nigger. You are nothing but a racist.

There are of course important differences. The term racist is generally meant to draw awareness to something done or said that has a negative racial impact on others. If I'm calling you racist, it's because you did something that i think is wrong and I don't want you to do it again. I'm actually trying to help you. Not the case with the n-word. The n-word is deployed to make another person feel that they are less than. It's sole purpose is to maintain white supremacy.

The long and the short of it is, I tend to be more careful now about how I deploy the r-word and who I call racist. Perhaps my fellow liberals should follow suit. Sphere: Related Content

Keep it Nappy

Nappy Riddem CD Release Party Saturday October 22, 2011

@DC 9

9p-2 $10

Support Local Artists!!!

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Brotherhood ii - The Writer's Challenge

In re: Brotherhood

One of my brothers; part of my family; challenged me to write a positive post about the brotherhood of Omega Psi Phi. This is a difficult request to abide by. It's not hard for me to think of famous Omega men: Charles R. Drew, Michael Jordan, Jesse Jackson, Earl Graves, Langhston Hughes, Bill Cosby. And it's not hard for me to think of positive experiences I've had as a brother: the love of fraternal family; stepshows; women; power; the knowledge that I've endured and survived; life lessons.

No, the challenge is difficult because it's not a part of my goal as a writer; nor is it a part of my duty as a writer.

My goal as a writer is not to meet the challenge of presenting a positive picture of my friends, family, race, or country. Not to please, necessarily. Not to anger. Not even to entertain. My goal is to meet Diaghilev's challenge to the poet Cocteau. My goal is To Astonish.

I'm not always successful in meeting that goal: to astonish. But my aim remains the same. I strive for this goal above all others.

I must write. It is something I feel compelled to do. Whether it's in one of the many notebooks floating around my house; or an old journal; or on the back of a cocktail napkin; or on this blog; I'm going to write. I have to.

There are times when the need is less urgent. There are dry spells. There are times when what I've written embarrasses me; times when it doesn't make sense; times when what I've written doesn't exactly capture what I intend. But I need to do it.

My duty as a writer is to be truthful. If I have an iota of talent or ability to convey ideas, feelings, and experiences would I not be doing a disservice to those who take the time to read my words by trading in falsehood? Falsehood: that which condems us to blindness; that which chokes the last bit of air from a small, crowded, room; that which stunts our collective growth. I can think of few greater sins.

Faulkner said much the same:

"There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed

...

The poet’s, the writer's, duty is to write about these things."

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The Mask

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

- Paul Lawerence Dunbar, Lyrics of Lowly Life 1896
(image via blastro.com) Sphere: Related Content

No Tresspassing

via street art utopia

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