Appreciate the update – I grew up in Charleston, SC with James Brown’s, “I’m Black and I’m Proud!” ringing in my ears and it’s been my beacon my whole life.
Not only is whiteness a construct, the WHOLE “race” thing is. But white folk, particularly, needed to create us “niggers” so they could have somebody to be better than (punching down’s always better and easier than punching up, after all).
“Most groups have gone through that process… but while there may be some legitimacy to these problems, it is simply not equivalent to what Black Americans have had to deal with.”
Be forewarned, young man, that sentence right there will drag your ass into some of the ugliest “Oppression Olympics” conversations in which you’ve ever been involved! Though we were brought here, AGAINST our will, for free labor and any other atrocity white folk chose to visit upon us on any given day – our “Never Again” keeps happening.
To your, “All that bootstrapping talk is nonsense...”
All I’m gonna say is – if we had damned BOOTS!!
"…thinking about DW Griffith more than Rupert Murdock here.”
On point, given Woodrow Wilson screened “Birth of a Nation” IN the White damned House!
Again, I agree that a lot of kids just get it. My kids are now old-assed men of 38 and 41 with kids of their own. We are our own mini-UN here. My sons are half Italian & Black; my daughter-in-law is half Native American and British; my baby’s, baby’s Mama is Chicano and yeah, they do get it
“As I said in the article, one way to deal with white supremacy is to stop teaching it constantly. It doesn’t even serve most white people, TBH.”
Totally agree! And no, it really doesn’t serve most white folk. By blocking the teaching of REAL American history, they keep their kids dumbed-down and allows the "Other,” whom they fear so much, to keep excelling because they, unlike their kids, know the WHOLE story!
"There is no understating the enormity of what has been perpetrated upon Black people in the US (and other places — for centuries at this point) and the deflection and reversals (gaslighting, etc.) is an ongoing part of that."
Again, agreed. But what’s bothering me lately, especially as I look at my hometown, is how white folk continue to profit off our pain before we do no matter what.
"Gratefully, this is not a big thing for my wife and I, but a constant conversation."
Good, and it should and has to be (after 41 years, we’re still having constant conversations!).
"Several years back, I actually told one of my cousins that, should they find themselves talking to a Black person at a party and didn’t know what to say, trying talking about the food. Or the weather. Or, I dunno, cars? Try offering them a beer. Small talk. It was like a lightning bolt. He looked like the idea had never occurred to him."
Sadly, it probably never did.
Thanks for the convo, James (apologize for the delay in responding), appreciate your frankness.