House of Eratosthenes

In the middle of the night I came across a PM from a friend over on the Hello Kitty of Blogging, providing a link and asking for my opinion on the contents behind it.

I, Racist
:
I don’t talk about race with White people because I have so often seen it go nowhere. When I was younger, I thought it was because all white people are racist. Recently, I’ve begun to understand that it’s more nuanced than that.

To understand, you have to know that Black people think in terms of Black people. We don’t see a shooting of an innocent Black child in another state as something separate from us because we know viscerally that it could be our child, our parent, or us, that is shot.
:
Martin Luther King did not end racism. Racism is a cop severing the spine of an innocent man. It is a 12 year old child being shot for playing with a toy gun in a state where it is legal to openly carry firearms.

But racism is even more subtle than that. It’s more nuanced. Racism is the fact that “White” means “normal” and that anything else is different. Racism is our acceptance of an all white Lord of the Rings cast because of “historical accuracy,” ignoring the fact that this is a world with an entirely fictionalized history.

Even when we make shit up, we want it to be white.

And racism is the fact that we all accept that it is white. Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan in Star Trek. Khan, who is from India. Is there anyone Whiter than Benedict fucking Cumberbatch? What? They needed a “less racial” cast because they already had the Black Uhura character?

That is racism. Once you let yourself see it, it’s there all the time.

That last line I’ve excerpted speaks volumes. It provides an iron-clad answer to the question that naturally arises, “Could it be that the person who is doing this noticing, is the problem?” Rather impossible to deny.

My response was:

It’s defeatist twaddle. Author has no vision for success, except for what he expects others to do. And for all the descriptive energy he puts into the problem, it ends up being just a meandering passive-voice complaint because he doesn’t identify who exactly is do[ing] this bad-thinking, apart from “white people.” Therefore he isn’t ready to isolate the problem, therefore he isn’t ready to do anything about it.

I’d compare it to how silly feminists treat men — the treatment matches his complaints about how black people are treated, letter for letter. My solution to that, is very close to his “I don’t discuss it with white people,” except I practice a more complete brand of isolation: I don’t spend any time around silly feminists at all. I’ve given them too large a portion of my one life already. And so I think of their shortcomings in active-voice, maintaining a working knowledge of who has these problems, distancing myself from them, effectively marginalizing them. Like white racists, they’re marginal people already.

Regarding these cultural challenges black people face, I wrote about that already this morning: Think about that stuff after you’ve accomplished something, not before. Think about your handicaps after you accomplish something that could reasonably have been expected to be harder because you have the handicaps, the outcome of that can only be positive. If you wallow in them before accomplishing anything, it comes off as whining and excuse-making, because that’s really all it can be.

“This morning” means, of course, yesterday morning, and that reference is to this.

I was stuck more by the first part than the last…”To understand, you have to know that Black people think in terms of Black people.” Substitute white (or Asian) for that. Now know that any intelligent white or Asian person making that comment would have to say “think in terms of people” because adding a race to that second part automatically labels any non-black American a racist…
- P_Ang | 07/12/2015 @ 08:57
Call me a racist if you must (and believe me, I’ve almost entirely stopped caring if you do), but

To understand, you have to know that Black people think in terms of Black people

is one of the most retarded things I’ve heard in a long time. You want to start actually solving the problem of racism? Then start with this. This right here.

I — a white person — can’t even conceive of going through life mentally and emotionally invested in every single other white person in America. Not only is it dumb, not to mention impossible, it’s insanely counterproductive. I would get nowhere in my life if I had to worry — that is, to expend real mental and emotional effort — about what Cletus up the holler is doing, and what Boudreau on the bayou thinks about it, and how Dakota the Millennial barista in Portland feels, and crazy Moonbeam out in California, and Billy Bob down in Arkansas, and Chuck the pig farmer in Kansas, and…

If I had to consider those people, even for the briefest instant, before I did anything, I could never do anything. If I had to take their opinion into account before I offered my own, I’d never offer one at all. And if anyone were to suggest that, as a white person, I should think or do or say something, I would cordially invite that person to attempt airborne intercourse with a rolling donut.

Because a healthy, sane, productive life is impossible under those conditions. If that’s really how the average American black approaches life, then there’s really no mystery why they’re so screwed up. Fix that, and most “urban” problems take care of themselves.
- Severian | 07/12/2015 @ 14:56
Dear I RACIST,
Because I’m too lazy to plagiarize, then “”re-dis-contextualize” a few words/phrases”, to appear as a smart and “sensitive” guy, DESPITE the mandatory “symbol” of white male hetero racist (Stars and Bars, plagiarized from the Crown’s “interests”?) to be sewn on the outermost layer of clothing:
(TRIGGER WARNING: micro- passive-aggressive condescension potential)
“If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
― Samuel Adams
- CaptDMO | 07/13/2015 @ 06:16
“And tryest some of my piss-water beer, which has more misses than hits.” In all seriousness though Capt, that was a fantastic quote I’ve never heard before.
And Sev, come on man…give a poor, starving forum commentator a chance. That’s exactly the point I was trying to make, only you had the leet skillz 😛
- P_Ang | 07/13/2015 @ 08:11
P_Ang,

I wasn’t trying to jack your comment, I promise!! I just wanted to add a rant to it. 🙂
- Severian | 07/13/2015 @ 11:27
Hate Group of the Year is a Dead Tie so far

The Klu Klux Klan and the New Black Panther Party held separate protests yesterday in the state which started the Civil War in support of slavery. The hate was loud and strong from both sides. The reasons cited by South Carolina to secede from the Union listed slavery 15 times and other reasons twice.

Today SC shows by example that the majority of their citizens have something better to aspire too than hate. The show of Love and forgiveness by relatives and victims after the killings was a good sign. The fact that black citizens are moving to SC instead of away is another. A Black senator and an Indian Governor freely and openly elected by the citizens of SC is yet another and better sign of progress. In the aftermath of the hate filled protests came still another blow against those who would divide us from each other by race. A black officer helping an aged KKK protester overcome by the heat.

Those who choose Duty and Honor do not pay much attention to color.
- Theo | 07/19/2015 @ 14:56

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“I, Racist”Sunday, July 12th, 2015

“I, Racist”
Sunday, July 12th, 2015