August 15, 2018

"I’m riddled with shame. White shame.... I feel like there is no 'me' outside of my white/upper middle class/cisgender identity."

"I feel like my literal existence hurts people, like I’m always taking up space that should belong to someone else. I consider myself an ally. I research proper etiquette, read writers of color, vote in a way that will not harm P.O.C. (and other vulnerable people). I engage in conversations about privilege with other white people. I take courses that will further educate me. I donated to Black Lives Matter. Yet I fear that nothing is enough. Part of my fear comes from the fact that privilege is invisible to itself. What if I’m doing or saying insensitive things without realizing it?"

From an apparently serious question by "Whitey" to "The Sugars," who write a "radically empathic advice column" at the NYT.

To summarize the advice given to this woeful man:
You’re not going to empower others by disempowering yourself.... Seek out the causes and classes and candidates that speak to your vision of America — one in which the lives of the disenfranchised matter more than white people’s feelings...
Which sounds suspiciously like: Vote for the right party and you are absolved. That's from the male "Sugar," Steve Almond. From the female half of the team, Cheryl Strayed:
[P]art of learning how to [relinquish your privilege] is accepting that feelings of shame, anger and the sense that people are perceiving you in ways that you believe aren’t accurate or fair are part of the process that you and I and all white people must endure in order to dismantle a toxic system that has perpetuated white supremacy for centuries. 
In other words, you should feel bad.

So it sounds as though "Whitey" is right where he needs to be. He feels ashamed of himself. Good. And then he just needs to vote for Democrats. That's how I read it.

ADDED: I wrote "this woeful man," but as Rick says in the comments "Nothing in the letter indicates this is a man." Isn't it strange that this person who stresses identity — "there is no 'me' outside of my white/upper middle class/cisgender identity" — has avoided leaving any trace of whether he/she is male or female? That's the most identifying identity of all, and yet it's eradicated from this weird letter. So is this letter for real? David Begley writes, "Fake letter published by the Fake News."

228 comments:

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Seeing Red said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Seeing Red said...

The casino thing is somewhat unusual. I remember reading the tribes are very specific in who can benefit, since quite a few Americans have family lore about one or two ancestors. I also read because of the casinos, depending on the tribe, they were encouraging some members to become investment counselors because their wealth was growing. I remember reading each member of one tribe was worth about $480k at the time and that was years ago.

The Crack Emcee said...

I got it:

Let Native Americans listen to Jordan Peterson.

Problem solved.

Seeing Red said...

States rights have been about two issues: the right to discriminate against blacks and the right to sell marijuana.

3: abortion

Rick said...

How do you know it wouldn't solve anything?

Anyone with even a passing understanding of economics knows this. The first clue is that it isn't designed to solve the problem you claim to be addressing. Instead it's designed to reward a few loyal elites and create a mechanism for buying the loyalty of more. In this way it resembles the Clinton Foundation.

I'm not framing anything.

Of course you did, as "do this or you want to do nothing". Which when added to the hysteria is logically equivalent to "we must do something, this is something, so we must do this". More intelligent people believe better than nothing is a high standard.

The 600,00 dead were not reparations, they were the price to be paid for engaging in slavery in the first place.

The argument for reparations from un-involved parties rests on the assertions that they benefited. Yet the same people asserting that refuse to consider the costs. This proves their bad faith.

William said...

What caused the Germans to go crazy was not their sense of racial superiority but their sense of racial grievance. At Versailles and for many centuries previously, the Germans had been treated unfairly by the great powers. During the Thirty Years War, major cities lost 70 to 80% of their population. By lost I don't mean took a wrong turn. They were starved or put to the sword, and their inhabitants killed. The Germans had an exaggerated sense of grievance, but there were certainly others in Europe who suffered crueler fates. .....,Just so with American blacks. When the serfs in Russia were freed, they were required to work for the landowner four or five days a week to pay for their emancipation. The landowner reserved the right to impose physical punishment on his serfs. The serfs were not punished with that pussy instrument, the cat of nine tails. This was was used to punish British navvies and American slaves. It inflicted pain but not death.. The serfs were beaten with knouts. Something like 20% of those beaten with knouts went on to die from the trauma.....More arguably, the landless peasants of Ireland suffered worse than the slaves or the serfs at least if you consider death by starvation worse than involuntary servitude,......There's just too much evil in the world to ever redress all the grievances, and attempts to do so nearly always add more grievances.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

And in the category of "Best Self Abnegation Hoax Letter" the winner is … (envelope, please)...

Dust Bunny Queen said...

If he can get around how Americans made black people into 3/4 of a human being,

Here you go.

First of all it was 3/5ths of a person.

This was devised by the North to suppress the South in Congress

how, slaves would be counted when determining a state's total population for legislative representation and taxing purposes was important, as this population number would then be used to determine the number of seats that the state would have in the United States House of Representatives for the next ten years

The numbers of Blacks in the South, IF counted in the census as 1:1 would give the South an accurate representation of the number of people. The North didn't want that because the South would then have more Representation in Congress. So they came to this 3/5ths Compromise

People who were against slavery and because the slaves couldn't vote were of the mind that the Blacks shouldn't be counted at all to keep the South less powerful. Others who were PRO slavery wanted all to be counted.

It was just a big fat power play that didn't solve anything and made everyone mad.

Then there is the MONEY issue: It also started because of how Congress wanted to tax the States

The amendment was to have changed the basis for determining the wealth of each state, and hence its tax obligations, from real estate to population, as a measure of ability to produce wealth. Congress had suggested that taxes "shall be supplied by the several colonies in proportion to the number of inhabitants of every age, sex, and quality, except Indians not paying taxes".[7][8] The South immediately objected to this formula since it would include slaves, who were viewed primarily as property, in calculating the amount of taxes to be paid. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in his notes on the debates, the southern states would be taxed "according to their numbers and their wealth conjunctly, while the northern would be taxed on numbers only"

In other words double taxing the South for population by including slaves and then counting again as property.

None of those in power (politicians) seemed to give much concern about the actual people involved.....the slaves. IT was always about money and power. Just like now.

It would be nice if ANY of this part of history was taught in school. It would be nice if they taught ANY history at all in schools.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Remember all of this "Compromising" was done while the Colonies were deciding IF they really wanted to join the Union and become officially the United States. At this point in time, after they had gained independence from England, BUT there was no guarantee that the Southern Colonies would even WANT to join with the North. They had different cultures, religious persuasions, and of COURSE slavery. The north was more industrial, even then and the South was agricultural and relied on exports to Europe of it products. The terms and conditions had to be more favorable.

There easily could have been two, or even more, countries formed. Maine could have decided to just become its own Country. Everything was uncertain.

I'll leave the tariff issue alone for now, but look it up if you have any interest at all in history.

This festering mess is what eventually led up to the actual Civil War.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The 3/5th Compromise ending up giving the South MORE power than if the slaves were not counted at all. The northern states wanted to end slavery......and I suspect it was for the dual purpose of ending slavery AND minimizing the clout of the South.

Nothing is simple or even....black and white.

chickelit said...

I told you guys the day Crack returned here that he was here to get your money. It’s the same as last around. Let him argue speciously about how anybody with white skin owes him money. Let him argue with a straight face that answering racism with more racism is the way to go. It’s all so transparent and worse, so predictable. I hate that sort of predictability at Althouse. It makes me tune out the blog more and more. Povera Casavecchia. She probably thought it would be different this time.

walter said...

Silly Jay,
You thought this was about race!
Crack spun around and slapped a foster child card on the table.
He's got more moves than Jagger..who's just an appropriator anyway.
That summit is going to be might crowded...a regular oppression Olympics.
But there will be tunes.

n.n said...

Diversity (i.e. color judgments) including racism will do that. You miss the individual for the colorful clump of cells.

Seeing Red said...


I got it:

Let Native Americans listen to Jordan Peterson.

Problem solved.


Was he even a thing years ago, could be a decade or more, when I read that article?

Scott M said...

You guys are a joke.

Sorry, but I still can't get past "She'll run and she'll win in a landslide." Now THAT'S funny and has been since it was your mantra.

n.n said...

National Socialists offered the same advice. The Nazis advised people of their "Jew Privilege", often with catastrophic results. Diversity (i.e. color judgments) under a new label. Abortion rites (e.g. selective-child, recycled-child) under a Planned regime.

n.n said...

This inquiry is strangely reminiscent of a baby trial, except the target has a voice to respond to his accuser(s). Not a baby trial, but rather a witch trial. #Confess.

n.n said...

The 3/5th "original compromise" was intended to avoid a 2-front war with the would-be Confederacy and British Empire. However, the Constitution in letter and intent is diversity (e.g. color, sex) neutral, and does not endorse acts of redistributive change and political congruence. Not since passage of the Twilight Amendment, has human life been selectively marginalized based on "color" (e.g. age). It is not legitimate to assert diversity, then paint Americans with a certain color and with broad, sweeping strokes.

Milwaukie Guy said...

When the Mongol horde gives me a check for inflicting the Black Death on Europe, killing 1/3 of the people, I will sign it over to the Indians, the aborigines not the Hindus, tout de suite.

The Crack Emcee said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"First of all it was 3/5ths of a person."

Kanye West: "I'm not getting hung up on specifics, Sir."

What whites were doing, with this "big fat power play that didn't solve anything and made everyone mad" - since blacks are fully human beings and "all men are created equal" - they ("None of those in power (politicians) seemed to give much concern about the actual people involved.....the slaves. IT was always about money and power. Just like now.") were obviously betraying the most basic claims to what the nation is built on. You are betraying the most basic claims to what this nation is built on. That's why reparations are called for.

Milwaukie Guy said...

"When the Mongol horde gives me a check for inflicting the Black Death on Europe, killing 1/3 of the people, I will sign it over to the Indians, the aborigines not the Hindus, tout de suite."

This is exactly the problem you're all missing - I suspect on purpose: that this "compromise" happened HERE - Not in Europe, not in Africa, but in the United States of America. It was a disease, but one some of y'all still carry.

You can't say you, yourselves KNOW "all men are created equal" but not us because "money and power" and then claim blacks don't have a reparations claim against the very government that played these games with our destinies - or else you, too, don't "give much concern about the actual people involved" any more than they did.

You're just a continuation of the same,...inhuman behavior we always witness, when it comes to us.

The Crack Emcee said...

And I talked about being a foster child because someone said I, specifically, whine a lot:

You try it. I've known lots of foster children and I'm one of the survivors.

You guys are pussies compared to us.

Rick said...

It was a disease, but one some of y'all still carry.

Diseased whites. Is it racism or hatred that drives people to dehumanize others based on skin color? You talk about whites like Nazis talked about Jews.

Keep talking, the more you talk the more you reveal.

The Crack Emcee said...

Rick said...

"Keep talking, the more you talk the more you reveal."

And the more you misread, so do you.

walter said...

Blogger The Crack Emcee said...
And I talked about being a foster child because someone said I, specifically, whine a lot
--
Yes..an excellent refutation indeed.

"You guys are pussies compared to us."
Yes, you are the undisputed superior here in terms of wearing adversity on one's sleeve.

Douglas B. Levene said...

Assuming arguendo that the letter is genuine, then I would suggest that the letter writer ask his doctor for a prescription for valium or lithium. They might help.

Openidname said...

Yup, fake:

https://twitter.com/TitaniaMcGrath/status/1030010992816742401

LilyBart said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Amadeus 48 said...

A-HA! This letter to the Sugars appears to be the work of an English spoof artist who calls herself Titania McGrath (Activist. Healer. Intersectionist Poet). Titania doesn't care what you think if you deny her lived experience. She transitioned to polyracial at the end of July.

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