Month: August 2014

foreverr-horny:

grade-a-god:

fishingboatproceeds:

I don’t really understand how that is a question up for discussion on television news. I mean, even putting aside the gajillion ways that white people are privileged by, for instance, being able to think that whiteness is “normal,” studying world history from Eurocentric perspectives,  and etc etc:

– White people are less likely to be arrested for the same crime than black people, and black people serve longer (much longer!) sentences than white people.

– Marijuana use is similar among black and white populations in the U.S., but young African Americans are more than THREE TIMES more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession or use than white Americans. 

– Racial bias in hiring in the U.S. is well-documented and persistent.

– African American students are far more likely to be punished in schools, even though they are not much more likely to break school rules than their white peers.

– Even after accounting for reasons like education disparity, geographical distribution, and occupation, there is a persistent wage gap: White people make are paid more than African Americans due to racial discrimination. 

– White people in the U.S. on average have lower mortgage rates than African Americans.

White privilege is a fact of every facet of American life. I realize I’m mostly preaching to the choir here, but this is not a political issue or a subject for debate. It is well-documented and irrefutable.

Way to buzz kill a funny picture.

^ THIS is white privilege. The fact that you think this picture is funny instead of being something that society needs to work on. There’s NOTHING funny about this picture.

It’s pretty funny too see this kind of topic discussed in the mainstream. The serious faces. The ridiculous rhetoric.

It’s funny because at a certain level it is progress to be talking about what had been somewhat taboo.

But then, there isn’t much likelihood of corporate entertainment media adding progressive conversation to the topic. As a business they feed on conflict, sensationalism, and yes, racist stereotypes. It dumbs down the conversation to symbolic gestures, ie: Obama and Colin Powell and Condaleeza Rice means there is no such thing as racism… Instead of the more rational conversation: how has racism changed.

Finally, the construction of “whiteness” is a terrible injustice that hurts us all. I sure wish I could trust that the media hullabaloo were attacking that paradigm rather than bolstering it. I worry that even the meaning of the word “racism” becomes dilute, while social constructs of race become more solid, as image transcends other understandings of everyday reality.

“Awareness” is not really much more than symbolic noise. We need to attack racism and injustice in our everyday lives.

But then media is only image. So maybe a changed image is possible. I think Marxists are correct however, until the economics changes the media change is always superficial.