>I think it is pretty easy,
>actually.
>
>In many ways, this is a
>very hard question, but you
>are right, Twinky, it is
>interesting because the racial line
>is drawn even here.
>
>Especially since people can say they
>are whatever race they want
>to.
>
>But what I find is that
>white people will always say
>that they are white whereas
>people of color will either
>not say what race they
>are or allow people to
>think that they are white
>by default -- which is
>a default through both our
>language and thinking -- not
>that I like this, but
>it is a fact. Take,
>for example, the ways in
>which we speak amongst ourselves
>-- especially in the South.
>If you were to see
>tow guys walking down the
>street, one white, one Black,
>the signifier always goes to
>the Black guy. As in
>"that Black guy was pretty
>hot". If talking about the
>white guy, normally, it's just
>"that guy" which establishes "whiteness"
>as normative and without need
>for a signifier.
>

This is on-point, I can tell you, here at school, white people always (every time) make note of the race of any non-white person they might be talking about. If I had a penny for every time I heard "he's the biggest black guy I've ever seen", or some variotion thereof, I wouldn't be so worried about possibly losing my scholarship. On the flip side, black people who were raised in suburban white neighborhoods (including some of my friends) constantly do the same thing when talking about all races. It's such a consistent part of their speech, and something I wasn't used to at home, that it sticks out to me everytime.





>The things that point white people
>out to me in cyberspace
>is the stench of internalized
>racial superiority which shines clearly
>through even here. It is
>the way in which white
>people feel as if they
>have the _right_ to say
>and think however and which
>way they want to without
>anyone challenging them. This works
>extremely well on boards like
>these where opinions and thoughts
>and ideas are flying all
>around. Whiteness, in the "real
>world" works the same way
>in "cyberworld" as the mind
>doesn't make a distinction between
>the two... in other words,
>what would pass as an
>unhealthy need for "control" and
>a need for "individuality" works
>the same way here.
>
>However, something to consider for your
>paper, is the way in
>which people of color have
>adopted the dominant cultures ways
>of being. In my own
>intellectual journey, this is something
>I am working on, specifically
>looking at the way in
>which Black men have incorporated
>white masculinity into their idea
>of what it means to
>"be a man." In cyberspace,
>this same phenomena occurs where
>you have Black people who
>seem to think of his
>or her self as an
>"individual" divorced from his or
>her communal upbringing... and also
>how many people of color
>(specifically Black and Latin communities)
>do not have this cultural
>expression having been raised in
>suburbs or "white" spaces where
>the emphasis is not on
>community, but intense individuality which
>means that these peopel of
>color _read_ white although they
>are Black or Latino.
>
>Another things to look at would
>be, in a word, what
>has been called "bootlickers" --
>that is the term used
>for those people described above.
>
>
>Good luck,
>
>Q
>
>
>P.S. if anyone has been wondering
>where I have been, I
>have been in South Carolina
>and recently came home --
>I've been holding onto that
>groundedness for a while...
>
>Peace,
>
>Q
>
>
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^*********^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>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


*********
You know why I don't have time for you?

Because I only have one lifetime to change the world, and there's not enough time in the world for me to change your life. - Me, keepin it really real since 1982

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at