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**Lo Jacobs** · 03-08-2013, 05:04 PM

Umm ... really, guys? Really?

[Being White In Philly]

Quote:

Indeed, I’ve begun to think that most white people stopped looking around at large segments of our city, at our poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods, a long time ago. One of the reasons, plainly put, is queasiness over race. Many of those neighborhoods are predominantly African-American. And if you’re white, you don’t merely avoid them—you do your best to erase them from your thoughts.

At the same time, white Philadelphians think a great deal about race. Begin to talk to people, and it’s clear it’s a dominant motif in and around our city. Everyone seems to have a story, often an uncomfortable story, about how white and black people relate.

Basically this is one big fat complaint about how black people are rude, oversensitive, and violent towards white taxpayers, and nobody says anything because they don't want to seem racist.

Quote:

Dennis, 26, teaches math in a Kensington school. His first year there, fresh out of college, one of his students, an unruly eighth grader, got into a fight with a girl. Dennis told him to stop, he got into Dennis’s face, and in the heat of the moment Dennis called the student, an African-American, “boy.”

The student went home and told his stepfather. The stepfather demanded a meeting with the principal and Dennis, and accused Dennis of being racist; the principal defended his teacher. Dennis apologized, knowing how loaded the term “boy” was and regretting that he’d used it, though he was thinking, Why would I be teaching in an inner-city school if I’m a racist? The stepfather calmed down, and that would have been the end of it, except for one thing: The student’s behavior got worse. Because now he knew that no one at the school could do anything, no matter how badly he behaved.

The guy asks only white people how they feel about race, because.

Quote:

I went to the northern edge, close to Girard Avenue, generally considered the dividing line from North Philly, and began asking the mostly middle-class white people who live there, for whom race is an everyday issue, how it affects them.

Quote:

“I’ve been here for two years, I’m almost done,” she says. “Blacks use skin color as an excuse. Discrimination is an excuse, instead of moving forward. … It’s a shame—you pay taxes, they’re not doing anything except sitting on porches smoking pot … Why do you support them when they won’t work, just make babies and smoking pot? I walk to work in Center City, black guys make compliments, ‘Hey beautiful. Hey sweetie.’ White people look but don’t make comments. … ”

Quote:

That’s the other surprise: If you’re not an American, the absence of a historical filter results in a raw view focused strictly on the here and now. I meet a contractor from Maine named Adrian, who brought his Panamanian wife to live here, at 19th and Girard, where she saw fighting and drug deals and general bad behavior at the edge of Brewerytown. It all had her co-nvinced there is a “moral poverty” among inner-city blacks.

This is an astonishing article. He doesn't ask one black person what they think about ... anything.

Quote:

In early December, I go to a civic-association meeting. On the agenda: the upcoming house tour, the winter social, patio planter boxes to help lessen rainwater in the sewers, and the neighborhood scourge: parking! I talk with Eileen and Bruce, who’s the association’s head, in the cozy glass-enclosed back room of their rowhouse on 25th Street. They’re both retired Philadelphia schoolteachers; we discuss neighborhoods.

Brewerytown residents tend to stay above Girard, they tell me. “At Halloween,” Eileen says, “that’s the only time we see them. Lot of little kids from the other side of the tracks—African-American kids. People still give them candy.”

“People get upset,” Bruce says. “We used to have a parade on Sunday afternoon, kids would get nicely dressed up, and kids from up there”—he points north—“would come barely dressed up.”

Eileen says, “People say—”

“At least dress up,” Bruce says. “Unless they’re working here, most of them don’t come in this direction. They seem happy to stay in their little lot, as it were.”

I find this incredibly depressing.

Quote:

In so many quarters, simply discussing race is seen as racist. And so white people are stuck, dishonest by default, as we take a pass on the state of this city’s largely black inner city and settle for politely opening doors at Wawa, before we slip back to our own lives.

No, dude, you're just racist.

**Lo Jacobs** · 03-08-2013, 05:12 PM

DON'T READ THE COMMENTS.

Lucifer Baphomet · 03-08-2013, 05:15 PM

Now, this is a story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I'd like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air

In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school
When a couple of guys who were up to no good
Started making trouble in my neighborhood
I got in one little fight and my mom got scared
She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air'

I begged and pleaded with her day after day
But she packed my suit case and sent me on my way
She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket.
I put my Walkman on and said, 'I might as well kick it'.

First class, yo this is bad
Drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass.
Is this what the people of Bel-Air living like?
Hmmmmm this might be alright.

But wait I hear they're prissy, bourgeois, all that
Is this the type of place that they just send this cool cat?
I don't think so
I'll see when I get there
I hope they're prepared for the prince of Bel-Air

Well, the plane landed and when I came out
There was a dude who looked like a cop standing there with my name out
I ain't trying to get arrested yet
I just got here
I sprang with the quickness like lightning, disappeared

I whistled for a cab and when it came near
The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror
If anything I could say that this cab was rare
But I thought 'Nah, forget it' - 'Yo, homes to Bel Air'

I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later'
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air

**Max Herzog** · 03-08-2013, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lo Jacobs

DON'T READ THE COMMENTS.

YOU MADE ME DO IT. Jesus fuck...

**Cristiano** · 03-08-2013, 05:29 PM

My prediction for Friday, March 8: this thread will end well.

Jahar Aabye · 03-08-2013, 05:33 PM

Sad, from the first two paragraphs you'd posted, I was hoping it would be one of those "White people ignore societal problems when they occur in mostly Black neighborhoods" but sadly that particular angle appears not to have occurred to the author.

Also this part:

Quote:

What gets examined publicly about race is generally one-dimensional, looked at almost exclusively from the perspective of people of color.

But what really bugs me is that he fails to see the larger picture at all: when nobody cares about what happens in mostly-Black neighborhoods, the results are inevitable. When the people who live there are statistics, or characters in a race-based psychodrama, rather than real people, it becomes easy to dismiss problems of crime, poverty, and other social ills that would be top priorities if they were occuring to White people.

**Lo Jacobs** · 03-08-2013, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jahar Aabye

Sad, from the first two paragraphs you'd posted, I was hoping it would be one of those "White people ignore societal problems when they occur in mostly Black neighborhoods" but sadly that particular angle appears not to have occurred to the author.

This is what was so astonishing to me. He blithely ignores any and all current race discussion. It might as well not exist.

Chandra Masala · 03-08-2013, 05:45 PM

The comments.

Imnotgoing Sideways · 03-08-2013, 06:27 PM

This can be the Friday thread once some butthurt repub starts saying "You totally misunderstood!!!" ... =^-^=

Innula Zenovka · 03-08-2013, 06:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucifer Baphomet

In west Philadelphia born and raised
On the playground was where I spent most of my days
Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool
And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school

'Fresh Prince' voice mail tune alarms Beaver County, Pa., schools - UPI.com

Eris · 03-08-2013, 06:49 PM

The best thing about Philadelphia is D-cell night at Phillies games.

Maggiedoll Alter · 03-08-2013, 08:15 PM

A couple of weeks ago when I was talking to my dad, he started going on about white male privilege and how "nobody ever gave me stuff and put me in charge" blah blah blah.
I was actually really shocked. His only children are daughters, my mother's profession is pretty traditionally male, he's not exactly unfamiliar with sexism. I've heard him talk about comments made to my mother when they were working at RCA, and about an interviewer who told he her he'd thought her name was Allen (rather than Ellen) and wasn't going to take a woman seriously for the job.. he really does (should? I'm not sure I know anymore) have an idea of how sexism works.
And when my mom was going on awhile ago about how "one of those conservative assholes" (I think those were her exact words) had made comments about Michelle Obama's butt, he was the one who pointed out that it was actually a racial slur.
I know he knows.. and yet, there he was, complaining about what he considers his lack of privilege as a white male.

I tried to talk about it a bit, but it's always a tap-dance with him. I'll never really be "permitted" to contradict him without a big blowup. And half the time he seems barely coherent. I'm not sure how much it's the meds and how much it's him only seeing and hearing what he wants or expects to hear.

Heck, I can't even tell if he means anything he says. He's also gone on at length about how impressed an "amazed" he is that I can sew competently, and he apparently thinks that this is a great compliment. (Point of that being that I have no idea how to tell what he ever means. He really does seem to believe that he's complimenting me and telling me how highly he thinks of me when he says that.)

There does seem to be something bizarre happening up there racially. Maybe it always has, I've always been too far outside anything that might be considered remotely mainstream that I don't know how I'd tell.

**Cristiano** · 03-08-2013, 08:32 PM

So to sum up the article - it's hard out there for a white man, amirite?

**Lo Jacobs** · 03-08-2013, 08:39 PM

This is a good takedown of the article:

[Philly Mag cover: Whites must criticize blacks more | Philadelphia City Paper]

Quote:

Huber seems to feel that his holding the door for black people at Wawa and being "overly polite," an example he weirdly invokes a few times, is some sort of pathetic expression of white guilt. It's not clear how Huber convinced his editor that personal hangups better discussed with a psychotherapist were "journalism" about "race in Philadelphia" and so he conducted interviews with some white people. In Fairmount.

One source is a "tall, slim, dark-haired beauty from Moscow getting out of her BMW" who tells him that "Blacks use skin color as an excuse" and waste your tax dollars while "not doing anything except sitting on porches smoking pot...Why do you support them when they won't work, just make babies and smoking pot?" If this is "what's not being said" about race by whites then white people like Huber might indeed need to keep theirs mouths shut.

And this article, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, perfectly illustrates how this kind of racism persists:

[The Good, Racist People]

Quote:

In modern America we believe racism to be the property of the uniquely villainous and morally deformed, the ideology of trolls, gorgons and orcs. We believe this even when we are actually being racist. In 1957, neighbors in Levittown, Pa., uniting under the flag of segregation, wrote: “As moral, religious and law-abiding citizens, we feel that we are unprejudiced and undiscriminating in our wish to keep our community a closed community.”

A half-century later little had changed. The comedian Michael Richards (Kramer on “Seinfeld”) once yelled at a black heckler from the stage: “He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger! He’s a nigger!” Confronted about this, Richards apologized and then said, “I’m not a racist,” and called the claim “insane.”

Wrong Weatherwax · 03-08-2013, 08:47 PM

Wow... sounds like some of the white folks in Philly are making my area of the country look cosmo.

Thanks Philly, from Alabama.

Maggiedoll Alter · 03-08-2013, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lo Jacobs

This is a good takedown of the article

You're forgetting this very telling bit:

Quote:

as I head home to Mount Airy

Mount Airy may or may not be connected to anything else. My mom refers to the "Mount Airy triangle" because once you're there, it's like being lost at sea. It probably should not be counted as actually being part of the city.

Jahar Aabye · 03-08-2013, 10:15 PM

One of the parts that I think was really illuminating was when the author interviewed the guy with the architecture degree. The architect mentioned an encounter with a teenager who asked if he wanted to buy oxycontin. The author's interpretation and the architect's interpretation were very different, it seemed. The architect saw a poor kid who was trying to do whatever he could to hustle some extra money, and compared it to his own experiences of taking jobs he'd thought were beneath him when he couldn't find work. The author of the article, though, couldn't seem to get past the fact that the kid was Black (presumably he believes that there are no White teenage drug dealers in his neighborhood?).

There were a few other people who he interviewed who seemed far more...colorblind, I guess, like the mother who wanted to send her kid to the neighborhood school even though it was majority-Black (which I could definitely relate to, since that would describe my schools from 6-12th grade). It was clear that the author had an easier time understanding why other parents wouldn't want to send their kids there than he did in understanding why it wasn't a big deal to the mom he was interviewing, or at least it seemed to me.

**Cristiano** · 03-09-2013, 12:22 AM

The simpleton responses seem to fall into a couple of common themes when this issue comes up:

1. Why is there Black Entertainment Television / Black History Month / etc...
2. Why can black people say nigger but white people can't?
3. Black people are just as racist against whites.
4. There is no white privilege.

Number three and four have some nuance to them at least, however lost it normally is on those saying it. Any group can be racist. The impact is different, but racism is not exclusive to any group. Also, a lot of white privilege is wiped out and trumped by poverty. The poor have it bad across races. Still, there are inherent privileges to being white, with some mitigating factors.

We should be free to talk bluntly about race issues, as they are not black and white (pun intended). However, that article is not just biased and useless, the author seems oblivious to it.

Amity Slade · 03-09-2013, 12:27 AM

Every day I drive my car, and a police officer does not pull me over for a bogus reason to go fishing for drugs in my car, I have benefited from white privilege.

ETA: I am not proud of this.

Free Xue · 03-09-2013, 06:28 AM

Can't even get a Philly cheesesteak without racists sticking it in your face.

Maggiedoll Alter · 03-09-2013, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cristiano

We should be free to talk bluntly about race issues, as they are not black and white (pun intended). However, that article is not just biased and useless, the author seems oblivious to it.

And there was definitely something valid in the stuff about white people not knowing how to approach race. You're taught that it's not supposed to matter, that you're not supposed to treat people differently based on race, which does end up giving the distinct impression that you're supposed to ignore it altogether. Except that by simply ignoring something that is part of who somebody is, you're already treating them differently.

But then he put in the whole "white people are oppressed because we're uncomfortable talking about race" bit and made an utter ass of himself. There is no "right to never encounter anything that makes you uncomfortable" or "right to never discuss any topic that you're not sure exactly how to approach."

There's also no "right to always be understood and never have to explain what you meant."
In the Villanova story, they act as though the girl who got offended when she thought she was being specifically targeted about the missing blackberry had done something wrong, and ignore the probability -- introduced into the article with the "Vanilla-nova" bit -- that she was feeling like everybody distrusted and disliked her because of her race. It says that the girl who lost her blackberry "assured her that she had Facebooked the whole class" but didn't even offer an "I'm not the only person in the class with a Blackberry, I figured somebody else probably picked it up thinking it was theirs." I suppose that nobody is technically obligated to explain themselves in a situation in which they've given offense, but if you've been misunderstood, it certainly helps. Sure, some people will take offense to something just to put somebody else on the defensive, but most of the time if somebody is unexpectedly offended by something, it's because one or both people misinterpreted something.
When it comes to misunderstandings, it's rarely "bad guy" and "good guy." It's "people with feelings and histories." I really hate that whole "I don't have to explain myself" attitude. If you want to interact with people, sometimes you do have to explain yourself, because that's part of interacting with people.

**Lo Jacobs** · 03-09-2013, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cristiano

2. Why can black people say nigger but white people can't?

I'm dragging this out because he says it so simply and beautifully.

The Last Word on That Word - YouTube

**Beebo Brink** · 03-09-2013, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amity Slade

Every day I drive my car, and a police officer does not pull me over for a bogus reason to go fishing for drugs in my car, I have benefited from white privilege.

This is the air that white people breathe and that so many completely ignore. If you aren't consciously aware of the advantages of LWW (Living While White), you're well on your way to racism. It may not be the in-your-face, stomp-your-toes type racism that gets the bogey-man label, but it's a perspective that upholds racist institutions by denying they exist.

**Lo Jacobs** · 03-19-2013, 02:58 PM

Michael Nutter, the (black) mayor of Philadelphia, blasts Robert Huber (the author of this article):

[Nutter goes after Philadelphia Magazine over race article]

Quote:

Mayor Nutter issued a scathing letter Friday calling Philadelphia Magazine's controversial "Being White in Philly" cover story a "pathetic, uninformed essay," and asking the city Human Relations Commission to consider a rebuke of the magazine and the article's author.

Tom McGrath, the magazine's editor, fired back, accusing Nutter of "sophomoric statements" that suggested he is "more interested in scoring political points than having a serious conversation about race."

Rue Landau, the commission's executive director, replied to Nutter: "The commissioners and I share the concerns of the mayor regarding the racial insensitivity and perpetuation of harmful stereotypes portrayed in the Philadelphia Magazine piece."

It's also interesting to note that the magazine had a completely different cover, used for hotels and similar businesses:

Quote:

The mayor called the magazine cynical and hypocritical for providing an alternative cover with "an attractive woman of color" for hotel guests and other visitors.

The mayor also accused Huber of:

Quote:

... ignoring positive anecdotes "to feed his own misguided perception" that African Americans are "lazy, shiftless, irresponsible, and largely criminal."

Which sounds about right to me. Huber, proving that you can really continue existing in a little fluffy white bubble, responded:

Quote:

Huber said "the mayor, like anyone, has a right to his reaction to the article. But I think his characterization of the article's thesis and tone and so forth is off the mark to the point of absurdity."

Maybe if you wrote the damn thing better, you'd have a point, Huber, but there is nothing in your article that suggests that:

Quote:

"The goal of my piece is to point out problems in race relations in Philadelphia, and to push for a better dialogue. So I think the mayor is right on point in asking for an inquiry into the state of race relations in Philadelphia."

Seriously, you are so, so stupid.

Asher Bertrand · 03-19-2013, 03:28 PM

From the article:

Quote:

What gets examined publicly about race is generally one-dimensional, looked at almost exclusively from the perspective of people of color. Of course, it is black people who have faced generations of discrimination and who deal with it still. But our public discourse ignores the fact that race—particularly in a place like Philadelphia—is also an issue for white people. Though white people never talk about it.

Even if his premise is true, talking only to another group is STILL one-dimensional. Get people talking to each other and maybe you got something.

And bullshit white people never talk about it. The problem is, we usually only talk about it with each other.

03-08-2013, 05:15 PM	#3 (permalink)
Lucifer Baphomet Nobel Peace Prize Winner *SLU Supporter* Zenophile Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Darkmere Posts: 20,949 My Mood: Business: Radio Free Darkmere Awards: 1	Now, this is a story all about how My life got flipped-turned upside down And I'd like to take a minute Just sit right there I'll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Bel Air In west Philadelphia born and raised On the playground was where I spent most of my days Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school When a couple of guys who were up to no good Started making trouble in my neighborhood I got in one little fight and my mom got scared She said 'You're movin' with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air' I begged and pleaded with her day after day But she packed my suit case and sent me on my way She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket. I put my Walkman on and said, 'I might as well kick it'. First class, yo this is bad Drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass. Is this what the people of Bel-Air living like? Hmmmmm this might be alright. But wait I hear they're prissy, bourgeois, all that Is this the type of place that they just send this cool cat? I don't think so I'll see when I get there I hope they're prepared for the prince of Bel-Air Well, the plane landed and when I came out There was a dude who looked like a cop standing there with my name out I ain't trying to get arrested yet I just got here I sprang with the quickness like lightning, disappeared I whistled for a cab and when it came near The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror If anything I could say that this cab was rare But I thought 'Nah, forget it' - 'Yo, homes to Bel Air' I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8 And I yelled to the cabbie 'Yo homes smell ya later' I looked at my kingdom I was finally there To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air __________________

03-08-2013, 06:27 PM	#9 (permalink)
Imnotgoing Sideways - Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Darkly Cute :: Ferguson Posts: 6,925 My Mood: SL Join Date: November, 2007 Business: Darkly Cute Client: NOT the same one I used yesterday... (<.<)	This can be the Friday thread once some butthurt repub starts saying "You totally misunderstood!!!" ... =^-^= __________________ Link

03-08-2013, 06:49 PM	#11 (permalink)
Eris Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 1,792	The best thing about Philadelphia is D-cell night at Phillies games. Last edited by Eris; 03-08-2013 at 07:07 PM.

03-08-2013, 08:47 PM	#15 (permalink)
Wrong Weatherwax Senior Member Getting Back There Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 2,247 My Mood: Client: Exodus	Wow... sounds like some of the white folks in Philly are making my area of the country look cosmo. Thanks Philly, from Alabama. __________________ An education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on. -Terry Pratchett

03-09-2013, 06:28 AM	#20 (permalink)
Free Xue SUPER BANNED *SLU Supporter* Auratusnaut Join Date: May 2009 Location: USA! USA! USA! Posts: 29,384 My Mood: SL Join Date: May, 2008 Business: [ Xushi ] Client: Viewer 3.something Blog Entries: 9 Awards: 1	Can't even get a Philly cheesesteak without racists sticking it in your face. __________________ "We're not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people." ~U.S. Congressman Paul Ryan

03-08-2013, 05:12 PM	#2 (permalink)
Lo Jacobs Kitten Fuzz *SLU Supporter* Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Chicago by way of Los Angeles Posts: 4,171 SL Join Date: May 2004 Blog Entries: 17 Awards: 1	DON'T READ THE COMMENTS.

03-08-2013, 05:45 PM	#8 (permalink)
Chandra Masala Senior Member One Angry Chick Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Jungli Central Posts: 1,286 SL Join Date: 4/28/2007	The comments.

03-08-2013, 08:15 PM	#12 (permalink)
Maggiedoll Alter Pedantic Geek Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Maryland Posts: 2,829 My Mood: SL Join Date: 1/30/2008 Business: Perception	A couple of weeks ago when I was talking to my dad, he started going on about white male privilege and how "nobody ever gave me stuff and put me in charge" blah blah blah. I was actually really shocked. His only children are daughters, my mother's profession is pretty traditionally male, he's not exactly unfamiliar with sexism. I've heard him talk about comments made to my mother when they were working at RCA, and about an interviewer who told he her he'd thought her name was Allen (rather than Ellen) and wasn't going to take a woman seriously for the job.. he really does (should? I'm not sure I know anymore) have an idea of how sexism works. And when my mom was going on awhile ago about how "one of those conservative assholes" (I think those were her exact words) had made comments about Michelle Obama's butt, he was the one who pointed out that it was actually a racial slur. I know he knows.. and yet, there he was, complaining about what he considers his lack of privilege as a white male. I tried to talk about it a bit, but it's always a tap-dance with him. I'll never really be "permitted" to contradict him without a big blowup. And half the time he seems barely coherent. I'm not sure how much it's the meds and how much it's him only seeing and hearing what he wants or expects to hear. Heck, I can't even tell if he means anything he says. He's also gone on at length about how impressed an "amazed" he is that I can sew competently, and he apparently thinks that this is a great compliment. (Point of that being that I have no idea how to tell what he ever means. He really does seem to believe that he's complimenting me and telling me how highly he thinks of me when he says that.) There does seem to be something bizarre happening up there racially. Maybe it always has, I've always been too far outside anything that might be considered remotely mainstream that I don't know how I'd tell.

03-08-2013, 08:32 PM	#13 (permalink)
Cristiano Hive Mind Director Amish Mafia 4EVER Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 23,074 My Mood: SL Join Date: Dec 2002 Business: ANOmations Client: Viewer 2 Blog Entries: 18	So to sum up the article - it's hard out there for a white man, amirite?

03-08-2013, 10:15 PM	#17 (permalink)
Jahar Aabye Script Kitty Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Between our dreams and actions, lies this world Posts: 8,027 SL Join Date: 2/16/2007 Business: Black Operations Client: Singularity	One of the parts that I think was really illuminating was when the author interviewed the guy with the architecture degree. The architect mentioned an encounter with a teenager who asked if he wanted to buy oxycontin. The author's interpretation and the architect's interpretation were very different, it seemed. The architect saw a poor kid who was trying to do whatever he could to hustle some extra money, and compared it to his own experiences of taking jobs he'd thought were beneath him when he couldn't find work. The author of the article, though, couldn't seem to get past the fact that the kid was Black (presumably he believes that there are no White teenage drug dealers in his neighborhood?). There were a few other people who he interviewed who seemed far more...colorblind, I guess, like the mother who wanted to send her kid to the neighborhood school even though it was majority-Black (which I could definitely relate to, since that would describe my schools from 6-12th grade). It was clear that the author had an easier time understanding why other parents wouldn't want to send their kids there than he did in understanding why it wasn't a big deal to the mom he was interviewing, or at least it seemed to me.

03-09-2013, 12:22 AM	#18 (permalink)
Cristiano Hive Mind Director Amish Mafia 4EVER Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Miami, FL Posts: 23,074 My Mood: SL Join Date: Dec 2002 Business: ANOmations Client: Viewer 2 Blog Entries: 18	The simpleton responses seem to fall into a couple of common themes when this issue comes up: 1. Why is there Black Entertainment Television / Black History Month / etc... 2. Why can black people say nigger but white people can't? 3. Black people are just as racist against whites. 4. There is no white privilege. Number three and four have some nuance to them at least, however lost it normally is on those saying it. Any group can be racist. The impact is different, but racism is not exclusive to any group. Also, a lot of white privilege is wiped out and trumped by poverty. The poor have it bad across races. Still, there are inherent privileges to being white, with some mitigating factors. We should be free to talk bluntly about race issues, as they are not black and white (pun intended). However, that article is not just biased and useless, the author seems oblivious to it.

03-09-2013, 12:27 AM	#19 (permalink)
Amity Slade Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2010 Posts: 3,038 Scrabble Blast Champion!	Every day I drive my car, and a police officer does not pull me over for a bogus reason to go fishing for drugs in my car, I have benefited from white privilege. ETA: I am not proud of this.

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