So, my friend and I met Andrew Garfield yesterday after Death of Salesman (which was amazing!). He’s wonderful :)
“Not all White People are Like That”
This is easily the most derailing comment that I get, because it does three very harmful things.
First, it manipulates the situation. It makes me (the actual oppressed of race relations) look like the perpetrator. Instead of examining or asking me why I feel disdain toward white people, this statement takes a legitimate problem and makes it about the white person’s temporary feelings instead of a black person’s permanent pain. When you hear someone’s actual lived experience, piled with centuries of degradation and essentially tell them your feelings are more important, that is white supremacy.
Secondly, it invalidates my past experiences. In short, “not all white people are like that” is a rough translation to “you are crazy, you come across some of the bad ones and have the audacity to feel the way you do”, which would be a fair argument, if the entire world hasn’t been a product of white supremacy for the past several centuries. My distrust towards white people is a very necessary tool for survival. It comes from a lack of options. True allies don’t need automatic reassurance; they know they’ve entered a space where they have to prove themselves, because logic, history and lived experience tell us they’re the oppressor.
Lastly, it silences PoC and makes them feel even more isolated. When you tell me that I am not allowed to feel the way I do, while simultaneously stating that having safe spaces for Black People is isolating and doesn’t help race relations, all I’m hearing is “be quiet and stay oppressed, stay marginalized”.
Fine, all white people are not like that, but I reserve the right to be skeptical of every white person I come across, because factually, textually and historically, most white people have been like that. If you can’t deal with, then yes, you are just another white person like that. If it’s hard to accept that I, as a black woman, have experienced microaggression, marginalization and ridicule at the hands of your people, then you are just another white person like that, because you are enabling their actions by silencing me. If you are willing to stifle me while I discuss my pain and frustrations because it makes you uncomfortable, then you are the worst kind of white people who are like that.
Not having KKK burn houses or black people lynched or segregated into their own communities is progress, but it isn’t the end to all. Microaggressions are the new way or dehumanizing Black People, but since we can’t document or prove microaggression, they are laughed at and thrown on the backburner. Having a person tell me “you’re so pretty for a black girl” or “you sound so educated, I’m surprised” is not as urgent as having dogs released on you, so we’re supposed to be satisfied with the meager progression. What the majority of white people mean is “you have crumbs now; you won’t be starving anymore, so leave us alone, while we indulge ourselves in five course meals”.
How do you not see all of this as being harmful or counterproductive?
And the thing is, I very rarely hear PoC say “all white people are like that.” I’ve never said it, either.
It’s always, “This white person is doing X to me, and it reeks of racism” or “God, I hate white people who do X. It’s racist and it hurts.” But then defensive white people jump in with, “But not ALL white people do that!” Um, nobody said “all white people,” and if you’re, in fact, NOT doing X, then why did you feel the need to jump onto the defense in the first place?
But sometimes, guilty people automatically leap onto the defensive. White people who get defensive are usually ones who have been guilty of the racist action in question at one point or another, or they know they’re at least capable of it. So that’s why I don’t even fucking bother really arguing with those who say, “Not EVERYBODY who’s privileged in this way does that.” Because usually, they’re just trying to make themselves feel less guilty and making it about them, not actually trying to grasp the real issue at hand.
^
“The answer to our troubles lies in a positive, optimistic vision, with policies rooted in American exceptionalism,” Mr. Perry said. “See, American exceptionalism is the product of unlimited freedom. And there is nothing troubling our nation today that cannot be solved by the rebirth of freedom — nothing.”
Conservatives have used the concept as part of a broader indictment of liberalism in the age of Obama. Writing in The Wall Street Journal in September, the author Shelby Steele suggested that Mr. Obama’s upbringing in the 1960s shaped him into the embodiment of an anti-exceptionalism world view.
…
When asked directly about American exceptionalism in 2009, Mr. Obama replied that people in Britain or Greece would also feel that their own countries are exceptional, then went on to say, “I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality, that, though imperfect, are exceptional.”
from New York Times: ‘Exceptionalism’ Argument May Prove Potent for Republicans (Richard W. Stevenson)
I’m not denying that America is a great country or even an exceptional country (I firmly agree with the assertion that, even with its imperfections, it is), but I don’t understand how noting America’s imperfections is something worthy of criticism. Sometimes, to think progressively, one needs to move past the “great” and look at the bad. You can talk all day about what’s good with a country, or you can think realistically about how to fix what isn’t good - elitism, inequality, the financial crisis, etc. Also, in light of recent protests and evidence on financial inequality, supporting America’s exceptionalism with the idea of “unlimited freedom” just seems naive. A solution as simple as increased faith in America’s “exceptionalism” just doesn’t seem likely.
"Death toll reaches 92 as Norwegian police search for more victims."
” Witnesses said the gunman, wearing a police uniform, went on a prolonged shooting orgy on Utoeya island northwest of Oslo, picking off his prey unchallenged as youngsters scattered in panic or jumped in the lake to swim for the mainland.
…85 people were known to have died in the shooting and seven in the Oslo bomb blast. The overall death toll could reach 98 if some missing people proved to have died.”
Horrifying and so heartbreaking.
