Much as I believe the guy in the video is a total ASS, it can be said that his "non-racist racist" message is the one that resonates more clearly with the sub-set of Trump supporters who would be perceived as NOT raving lunatic alt-right. Maybe the folks next door with whom you've always had a right neighborly relationship, or the co-worker at the next desk who is politically conservative, but you've always gotten along well enough to play together on the company bowling league.
This guy's monologue can sound pretty reasonable to a lot of frustrated, disgruntled, threatened white Americans who have watched the middle class disappear before their eyes, and can't seem to understand that it is NOT the guy on food stamps who has been chipping away at their status; rather, it's the guy on "Celebrity Apprentice" whose over-the-top lifestyle they not-so-secretly covet.
Here is the video. Afterward, the comment I posted on the page. To which I have received no response of which I am aware.
Apparently the video has been deleted. I don't know if I can describe it accurately enough to make this post make sense, but I'll give it a shot. Basically it was a forty-ish good ole boy standing out in his yard, pontificating about how he's not racist... I DO remember that his speech began with, "To all you black men and black women out there..." Then he went on to say how much he dislikes being called a "white boy" and people had better not label him that way. He ranted for awhile about how he doesn't enjoy any white privilege...he has WORKED for everything he has (a deliberate misunderstanding of the term "white privilege," I'm thinking...:) And that black people just need to get over living in the past and thinking they are still being oppressed by white people. And then he goes on to declare that HE is not responsible for past transgressions against black people...he was not even born yet! He was not there making those decisions to lynch or burn or beat or "jim crow," so get out of HIS face about it. Thus, my evaluation of him as a total ass...
No...but
being white DOES mean enjoying a heaping helping of "white privilege"
which most of us white people-- having never been a minority and not having had
our ancestors dragged to these shores in chains-- do not even think about.
White privilege does NOT mean being given things for free rather than working
for them, as this guy in the video wants to believe. White privilege means NOT
being detained/arrested/shot at for being caught in the "wrong"
neighborhood. White privilege means that a white man may walk down the street
carrying an AR15 on his back without being molested by police, because he's
simply "exercising his 2nd amendment rights" but a black boy
brandishing a pellet gun in a public park is shot dead by police immediately,
no questions asked. White privilege is the President saying "All sides are
responsible" when a white terrorist plows into a crowd of peaceful
demonstrators and kills someone.
The guy in this video has NO IDEA what he's talking about, and will have no idea until he experiences what black people and other minorities experience at the hands of SOME of the white majority every day, right here in 2017. Black people and other minorities live in the "past" this guy is spouting off about because it ISN'T the past for them. The Japanese aren't attacking Pearl Harbor TODAY. Hitler is not killing Jews TODAY. But black people and other minorities are being shot, bullied, discriminated against and openly hated TODAY all over the country. Blacks are not living in the past. They are dealing with ill treatment TODAY. It's obvious that we are NOT a "post-racial" society. Anything but.
I'm white, and I was born in this country, too. But that doesn't mean I have a right to be purposely and aggressively blind to the history of race relations in this country...to blow the whole issue off with a declaration that "I wasn't there" and "It wasn't MY fault." Those that don't understand history are destined to repeat it. Just look around. It's happening as we speak.
The guy in this video has NO IDEA what he's talking about, and will have no idea until he experiences what black people and other minorities experience at the hands of SOME of the white majority every day, right here in 2017. Black people and other minorities live in the "past" this guy is spouting off about because it ISN'T the past for them. The Japanese aren't attacking Pearl Harbor TODAY. Hitler is not killing Jews TODAY. But black people and other minorities are being shot, bullied, discriminated against and openly hated TODAY all over the country. Blacks are not living in the past. They are dealing with ill treatment TODAY. It's obvious that we are NOT a "post-racial" society. Anything but.
I'm white, and I was born in this country, too. But that doesn't mean I have a right to be purposely and aggressively blind to the history of race relations in this country...to blow the whole issue off with a declaration that "I wasn't there" and "It wasn't MY fault." Those that don't understand history are destined to repeat it. Just look around. It's happening as we speak.
Preach it, Momma!
ReplyDeleteThere's that twinge when you watch the cast scroll on The Last Ship and realize that you share a last name with a perfectly lovely African American actress. And you remember that the first cousin several times removed quit being Quaker and served in the revolutionary war in the south. Lived in South Carolina and then what became Alabama. Her family either took the last name of their former owners after the civil war or ... three guesses and the first two don't count.
ReplyDelete