--- On Fri, 11/14/08, Traci
Date: Friday, November 14, 2008, 8:09 AM
This is that email I was talking about, Jamie. Not that I completely agree with all of it, but some of it.....
Traci
To Be White
cid:010701c857ef$745e8190$43665DE4@JanWhitemanPC
Someone finally said it.
How many are actually paying attention to this?
There are African Americans,
Mexican Americans,
Asian Americans, Arab Americans,
Native Americans, etc.
...And then there are just -
Americans.
You pass me on the street
And sneer in my direction.
You Call me 'White boy,'
'Cracker,' 'Honkey,'
'Whitey,' 'Caveman,'
... And that's OK.
But when I call you Nigger,
Kike, Towel head
Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey,
Beaner, Gook, or Chink
... You call me a racist.
You say that whites commit a lot
Of violence against you,
So why are the ghettos the most
Dangerous places to live?
You have the United Negro College Fund.
You have Martin Luther King Day.
You have Black History Month.
You have Cesar Chavez Day.
You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi.
You have the NAACP.
And you have BET.
If we had WET(White Entertainment Television)
... We'd be racists
If we had a White Pride Day
... You would call us racists.
If we had White History Month
... We'd be racists.
If we had any organization for only whites To 'advance' OUR lives
... We'd be racists.
We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce,
A Black Chamber of Commerce,
And then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
Wonder who pays for that?
If we had a college fund that only gave White students scholarships
... You know we'd be racists.
There are over 60 openly-proclaimed Black-only Colleges in the US ,
Yet if there were 'White-only Colleges'... THAT would be a racist college.
In the Million Man March, You believed that you were Marching for your race and rights.
If we marched for our race and rights, ... You would call us racists.
You are proud to be black, Brown, yellow and orange, And you're not afraid to announce it.
But when we announce our white pride ... You call us racists.
You rob us, Carjack us, And shoot at us.
But, when a white police officer Shoots a black gang member Or beats up a black drug-dealer
Who is running from the LAW and Posing a threat to ALL of society ... You call him a racist.
I am proud. ... But, you call me a racist.
Why is it that only Whites Can be racists?
There is nothing improper about this e-mail. Let's see which of you Are proud enough to send it on.
cid:010801c857ef$745ecfb0$43665DE4@JanWhitemanPC
John A. Emrick
I deleted her email address and the email addresses of the family members she sent this to, I'm not going to out them for the racists that they are, they already know it, and should be ashamed of themselves. This is so fucking wrong on so many fronts, I don't even know where to start. But I can tell them all this, being a racist when you're white and have all the fucking privilege in the world and then saying those people of color (against whom you are being a racist) are being racist against you? THAT is just so damned wrong, and you are so scared that giving equal rights to everyone is going to cost you the rights you've always had. It doesn't work that way! Grow up and get a fucking clue, people, racism is WRONG!!!!!!!!! I can't be emphatic enough about that. Everyone on this whole fucking planet deserves to be treated as a human being with all the same rights and responsibilities as every other person, and it doesn't matter what color you are, what religion you are, what gender you are, what size you are, or what your sexual orientation is. It doesn't even matter how smart or stupid you are, you still deserve equal rights.
My. And, *hugs*
ReplyDeleteThanks. I'm still fuming over this. I don't know if this what my aunt believes, or if she just forwarded it to me along with everything else she forwards. Racism, sizism, all the other -isms are not things I ever discussed with anyone in my family, since they already have plenty of reasons (they think) for disliking me, I wasn't about to give them any more. But this, well, this is just going too far and I had to say something about it (and I know my niece and my mother read this blog, even if they don't communicate with me, so this is my way of telling them how wrong I think they are by perpetuating this kind of crap).
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry. I've seen the same one from some of my family....maybe we're related? (I'm in IL too). Ugh. I did reply...nastily, but it did no good. Unfortunately some people just don't have the brain power to understand priviledge and discrimination if it's not spelled out and blatant.
ReplyDeleteladykuri - I don't know about that, unless you happen to be from a small town in central Illinois that's built on some old coal mines. There's a lot of hatred in that town for blacks who were brought in by railroad from the southern part of the USA many, many years ago to break a strike by white miners, and I won't go into the details of what happened to those blacks, but it wasn't nice, or pretty, or even justifiable. It was awful and horrific and the town should be ashamed of their murderous past, but I don't see that happening. Which is probably some sort of explanation for the view espoused by that horrible email, from growing up in that area, but it's not an excuse to keep perpetuating that kind of thinking.
ReplyDeletei am kinda torn over this kind of thing... cause on the one hand the knee jerk reaction is to say omg yes, you are SO right. and yet...... maybe it's a mark of my own privilege that i feel like some part of this is right. maybe it's that i'm still getting over myself. maybe it's the fact that i'm not proud to be white, and white alone, but i AM proud to be of russian/german/french/jewish ancestry and there is no earthly way anyone can say my skin is not pale as can be. is that the difference? nameing the places my forebeares came from and being proud of those origins rather than the blanket term "white." and yes, there are times when i feel like people are too quick to slap someone with the term racist, or that there is a pendulum swing in the opposite direction somehow. but how do i reconile what i see in my own world with the very real injustice still happening? specially when it seems like those things contradict one another?
ReplyDeleteActually I did grow up in central IL (just south of Decatur), but my family is more from southern IL, down around Litchfield.
ReplyDeleteI don't recognize the history you're speaking of, but as "outsiders" I highly doubt anyone would have mentioned it to us! The only part of the mining past that the town I'm from talks about is the collapse in the 1930s (I want to say 39, but I'm not sure).
lady beca - from what I know of my ancestry, I'm Polish, French, German, Dutch, and Irish, so I don't have the perspective that others with different heritages have, but I do know enough to recognize that I have benefited from white privilege in a lot of ways, even while being discriminated against because I'm a woman and fat (and now the age thing, because I'm getting older, just not growing up, if that makes any sense).
ReplyDeleteladykuri - the town I'm talking about is south of Decatur (I used to live in Decatur, 15 years ago) and it's about 30 miles from Litchfield (I have cousins who live there and my dad was born in Hillsboro). Small world, isn't it.........lol
I'm not sure when the nastiness with the coal mines in that town happened, but it was in the early 1900's, before WW II, I'm sure, not sure if it was before WW I or not, it's not history that is really talked about there, but I remember my mother saying when they went on trip to Florida one time, that when people in the southern USA asked where they were from, and she said the name of the town, people down there knew all about the town and what had happened all those years ago. So it was a big deal at the time, but not something that was talked about, other than in whispers. But it was widely known in town that it happened, and for a long time, blacks didn't stop anywhere in town if they were traveling in the area (I remember this from the 60's and 70's when I lived there).
I remember my mother sending me an engagement picture from the paper (I was living in WA state at the time). One of the guys who was a couple of years ahead of me in high school had gone off to college and came home engaged to a black woman. The note my mom put on their picture was "Can you just see this in P____?" They moved to P____, but ended up moving to Champaign after a couple of years. From what I understand, the racism they faced was just too much (and I hate to think how hard it was on the kids they had while they were living in P____). So there's a lot of history that the town has to overcome, and I'm not too sure that they've come very far on that road at all.
If that P town is a four letter word that was once known for it's roses on 51, I grew up about 10-15 miles north! Where GSI is.
ReplyDeleteThat town is....not so great, last I knew it had basically become the meth capital of IL. I know in the town I'm from it's there, but not as obvious, they've got the children's home that often has black kids, and I know 10 years ago they were pretty well treated by the populace. Of course that's not living there either....
ladykuri - That's the town all right, and I know the town you grew up in (my dad worked for the International Harvester dealership there for a while). I remember the black kids from that children's home coming to the swimming pool in our town in the summer time. I had forgotten that until you mentioned the home. I lived in the city of roses from 1961 until 1972, and then again from 1976 until 1982 or '83, when I moved to Shelbyville, and from there to Decatur. I moved to MN 15 years ago and have never regretted it.
ReplyDeleteIt just occurred to me ... would your cousin ever march in an St Patrick's Day Parade? Or German-American, or Swedish-American, or other ethnic festival? Why do I think your cousin wouldn't bristle about those?
ReplyDeleteliving400lbs - I don't know if my niece would march in any of those or not, they don't have those types of parades in that small town in Illinois (I don't even know if they have a Labor Day parade any more, or was it Memorial Day when they had the parade?). But I don't think she she would bristle about anyone marching in any of those parades, mainly because people with that ancestry are mainly white, unless they happen to be bi-racial.
ReplyDeleteI think what gripes me the most about this is that being white and benefiting from white privilege is nothing to be proud of, it's an accident of birth that no one has any control over (just like you don't have any control over being born to good parents or abusive parents, for example). To my way of thinking, if you want to be proud of something, be proud of how you treat everyone with respect as the human beings they are. Be proud of what you have accomplished with your life, don't be proud that you were able to do as well as you have because you had privileges that were denied to others because of gender, religion, race, size, or sexual orientation. Having a good life at the expense of others is nothing to be proud of, IMO.
Yeah, to be honest I'm not suprised to see that coming from there. Like I said, that town was pretty ragged last I knew...I worked at the Heritage Manor there from 97-00, and some of the people I worked with were just.......yeah. And like I said, it's pretty much the meth capital of IL now.
ReplyDeleteI left A-town in 00 and moved to Decatur, then later Champaign, then Mattoon, now Chicago metro....and I'm quite glad to be away from the narrow minds and nasty attitudes back there!!
Wow! I don't know what to say. My instinct is to say that your judgement of her is correct and that she's a racist. The problem with the e-mail, as I see it, is that it's full of logical fallacies. I mean, it's true that there are colleges that are almost entirely devoted to black Americans. But, unless they're privately funded and their students don't use federal aid to pay for their education, they won't exclude white students (or any other race). The implication that the ghettos are made entirely of minorities and are unsafe because of that is totally fucking insulting. Apparently, she's never been to Couer D'Alene (sp?), Idaho or a trailer park in Oklahoma. Yes, I know I just made an elitist comment but I did so to make a point (not because I feel the poor are second class) - you can have poverty anywhere, with any race, and that will lead to violence because desperate times lead to desperate measures. It's easier to get someone to sell drugs or steal when they have nothing to lose. Aerik's relative doesn't seem to catch on to that.
ReplyDeletepossum_momma - See, that thing about ghettos is one of the bothersome points to me. That small town in Illinois has what, when I lived there, was subsidized housing. I don't remember how many units there were for sure, probably 30 or so (for a town with a population of 6,000). There was a waiting list to get in, the people who lived there had lived there for years, and any time the cops were called, they refused to go in there alone (there had to be at least 2 of them, and they preferred to have 3, just in case). I knew a few people who lived there, some were decent people, working low-paying jobs and couldn't afford to live anywhere else. Some were on welfare and had been for years. The ones on welfare were called lazy (no matter the reason, such as disability or mental problems), no-account bums and their kids were bullied (unless the kids were mean enough or strong enough to fight back, and then they were trouble-makers). That was considered the ghetto, and you were white trash if you lived there, no matter the reason. To me, that was discrimination perpetuated against whites by whites, simply because of class. Tell people for long enough that they are useless pieces of shit and have nothing to contribute to society, and WTF do you expect of them? Some will be able to rise above it, but some will be ground down, and who is blamed? Not the people doing the name-calling, that's for damned sure.
ReplyDeleteI can understand getting rid of the e-mail, but the addresses of the other people she sent it to? What if they were pissed off just like you? At least some of them might be.
ReplyDeleteciocia - The only ones she sent it to were family, and I highly doubt any of them were pissed off by it (I know my mother probably wasn't, she's one of the biggest racists I know, she cut a friend of 20+ years out of her life because she married a Mexican, just as an example of her bigotry). As for my niece's mother and the rest of the family, I really don't think they would have been pissed off by it either, unless they've changed drastically in the last 10 years or so since I've seen them. Even if they were pissed off by it, it's not like they would say anything to me, they don't like me and don't want to have anything to do with me (they probably think I'm just as racist as they all are). And like I said, my aunt is the one who forwarded it to me, and I don't know if she really believes that shit or not, it's not something we've ever talked about. I don't know if she just automatically forwards everything that is sent to her or not (I've gotten sexist and misogynistic forwards from her in the past, and stuff that is definitely not size accepting, and I just delete it). But this particular email had me funing, and I had to vent somewhere, and where better than my blog?
ReplyDelete"I think what gripes me the most about this is that being white and benefiting from white privilege is nothing to be proud of, it's an accident of birth that no one has any control over."
ReplyDeletebeing of any racial/ethnic background is an accedent of birth though, and here's where i run into the wall. being born white is being born into privilege, i know this and undrstand it, but does being born to privilege cancel out the ability to be proud of the places my father's father, or mother's mother comes from? and at that point are we saying pride in your ancestry is not ok? and if it's not ok, shouldn't it be not ok for everyone? because it does feel like there's a double standard at play by saying someone who is african american can be proud to be black with no distinction made between where their foreberers came from (i know the slave trade makes that hard to impossable and further clouds the issue) but in order for me to be proud and white i have to pick a culture to be proud of being from. i have to compartmentalise my pride.
and i have a problem with MLK Jr day being seen as a black people holiday, because what MLK Jr did he did for people of ALL colors and should be celebrated for that reason. i have an issue with black history month being a month and not a firmly integrated part of history curiculums in schools everywhere. there's more but i don't want to run off into rant land. it just seems like the e-mail has so much wrong with it, but it does seem to raise questions.
Wow. How sickening. I hear the same thing a lot.
ReplyDeleteHey! I wrote a reaction on my blog to this post. Please check it out, maybe it will give you something to say to your family ;)
ReplyDelete