>>Are you white?
>Yes I am white

I'm glad you know that you are. Otherwise, we would have had some serious problems.

>>Because I think you are white.
>>You sound white. And even,
>>that was a very white
>>response.
>Meaning my response to what racism
>is? Ive heard blacks
>use this too, are you
>saying then they have been
>assimilated?

Read what I have said elsewhere (and probably in this topic) -- in America, people confuse racism, bigotry, and prejudice and we are not exempt from this. However, without the power analysis, you have either race prejudice or bigotry -- not racism. People of color can have prejudice, can be bigotted, but they cannot, I repeat, cannot be racist.

>>What I mean is this, you
>>don't have to think about
>>the power piece because it
>>is part of your privilege
>>as a white person.
>Yes, I do realize that there
>is a definate advantage of
>being white, I do realize
>that when driving I am
>not going to be glared
>at by cops, in stores
>I know I will not
>be followed. Its like
>a man riding is bike
>up a hill, being white,
>Ive got the wind pushing
>up my back helping up.
> If I were black,
> that wind would be
>at my front.

And this is a good beginning, but you are speaking metaphorically, not about realities. It isn't simply an "advantage" to be white, it is a privilege. To say that it is an advantage is to say that, for some reason, you deserve this extra edge. But it isn't an advantage, is it? You aren't better than other white people or people of color, are you? It is a privilege, something you expect and you wouldn't know what to do without it.

> You
>>don't have to think, see,
>>hear, or feel anything YOU
>>don't want to. It isn't
>>going to change or shift
>>your life in any way,
>>sense, form, or idea.
>Well, I dont have to, but
>I choose to see these
>things going on in the
>world, and I feel they
>should be changed.

Ah, but your thinking isn't changed. You took a step, but it is time to take another. You are still choosing to see what you want to see. And that's ok. Maybe the totality of it, and how you fit into it, would be too much for you to withstand at this point in your journey of recovering... But we are not really talking about "the world" or at least I am not. I don't know about the world. I know about America. And assuming that you are an American, you do, too, so let's stop universalizing and talk about America. Home. Where you eat, shit, fuck, and sleep.

> Yes,
>it does shift my life,
>b/c it pisses me off
>to see anyone treated this
>way.

It pisses you off. But it doesn't take bread from your table. How often do you use that unearned privilege of yours to aid people of color? *leans head to the side* You know, you aren't the first white person to stick his head outside of the European matrix... and I tend to think we know what they look like and they tend to know that they could do more and we hold them accountable because it is easy to grow comfortable with your unearned privilege.

> Or the fact
>that I have an advantage
>to being white.
>Yes, there are white folk
>who dont like having this
>advantage.

But there are more white folk who know that they have this privilege and feel guilty about it and yet do NOTHING. White guilt ain't gone help people like me and your Black friends.

>>Being white means that you want
>>us (read: people of color)
>>to see you as being
>>an individual. But if you
>>are so individual, why do
>>you have this privilege?
>Did I ask for this privilege?
>No, it just happened that
>way.

Honey, it didn't "just happen" that way. Your privilege as a white person was built on the backs of my ancestors and was then perpetuated by people like you... and unlike you. White people who brought into it and furthered it. White people who felt guilty, but did not allow their guilt to do anything other than make them feel bad. White people who started to look into racism and found their mirrored image staring back at them. Look at your history. Look at yourself. Listen to what people of color have to say. You didn't "just happen" to have unearned privilege. It was passed down to you like a family heirloom. And all of you got it. Regardless of whether you were a woman, gay, really irish or italian or jewish, because you can become white. It is a legacy, this unearned privilege.

>And
>>why is this privilege spread
>>to other people who look
>>like you (or who became
>>white) collectively?
> b/c we look like the
>ones who were/are the oppressers.

No. Because they walked into this country being whoever they were. And then they got a taste of America. They understood what it was like to be an "other" and first chance they got, because, after all, their skin _was_ the right color, they assimulated into "white". They joined the dominant culture, the oppressors. And now, they are the oppressors themselves.

Peace,

Q


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"americans are gross!" -utamaroho

Uplifting thoughts:

"We are the end result of our ancestors prayers as they died. We you are the sum total of their answered prayers."

"I am because we are; we are because I am."

"falling in love with somebody's soul...their essence their personality their walk their talk the way they speak and smile...no matter what the physical outer body is..male or female...is a temptation i hope i am never foolish enough to resist." - Hot Damali