Posted on 07/10/2015 2:59:07 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
It’s true.
Black America spends a good amount of time discussing race, thinking about race, experiencing race, and living through the trauma these conversations and incidents based on race bring. No surprise there — our Black and Brown skin has for so long bound us to a contentious relationship with a country that created a system of privileges and rules that disenfranchise and oppress minorities.
That’s true, too.
And although conversations about race have dominated media and social media, although Black and Brown people are still being unjustly treated or killed, and although a gunman stormed a historically Black church just two weeks ago with the intention of killing people based on their skin color, race continues to be something that only Black people are expected to confront and discuss.
As if we made this mess alone.
Something else that’s true? White people are straight up uncomfortable even thinking about race. And according to a New York Times Op-Doc video by Blair Foster and Michèle Stephenson, that’s why many of them steer clear.
The Times video, titled “A Conversation With White People On Race,” was created in an attempt to “lean into that discomfort and prompt some self-reflection.”
“We are all part of this system, and therefore we all have a responsibility to work toward dismantling it,” the Times writes. “If we’re going to have an honest conversation about race in America, that includes thinking — and talking — about what it means to be white in America. It might be uncomfortable, but it’s a conversation that must involve all of us.”
“The people we ultimately found to start the conversation on this fraught topic were uniformly well-meaning and in favor of equality. Certainly they didn’t consider themselves racists. Racism is something that is perpetrated by other people — the ones complaining about affirmative action, refusing to take down their Confederate flags and sharing racist jokes. But if so few people identify as racist, why are racial tensions so pervasive right now? Subtle racism is harder to confront.”
But how well-meaning can you be if you willfully ignore conversations about race because they make you feel weird? How well-meaning can you be if you willfully ignore a set of privileges that benefits only those with your racial identity? And for the woman who outright said discussing race is “not something” she does, how well-meaning is that, given the recent Charleston AME massacre that ended in the death of nine Black parishioners in a house of worship?
For many of us, we’re talking life or death. And for many White people, it’s a matter of comfortability.
That’s why projects like the NYT video matter. It forces White Americans to truly examine their Whiteness and their privilege and what that means for others around them. And while many won’t get it just yet — responses varied from “I am feeling apprehensive,” to “I don’t want to say anything, you know, that would offend anyone,” and “Maybe I am a racist” — there are others who we hope can start the conversation in their communities to become allies in the most responsible and helpful of ways.
But the video is just one of many projects in recent weeks that examines how uncomfortable White people are discussing race or their racial identity and frankly, we’re not so sure we’re here for it.
In a matter of days, MTV plans to premiere White People — a documentary headed by undocumented journalist and activist Jose Antonio Vargas that explores what it really means to be a White person in America.
It means a lot of privilege, a lot of ignoring race, and a lot of tears, if the trailer is any indication (at one point, one of the White subjects says she feels like she’s being discriminated against).
And while we’re hopeful that a documentary that explores White privilege on a millennial channel will spark a much-needed conversation about racism, both the blatant and the systemic, in this country, it’s also a little alarming that the first conversation many White people will be having with themselves about race is how awkward it makes them feel.
Because, you know, that’s the worst thing about confronting racism, right?
Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think about the new show:
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
Unfortunately, it’s along the lines of “Honey! Did we save the receipts for these people?”
White people feel uncomfortable about race...
Every time something comes along whites get their heads handed to them like form an ISIS terrorist.
The only “privilege” I see is for minorities in affirmative action, set-asides, quotas, etc.
No. Not a good thing. That issue was settled by us ‘white guys’ long ago. Racism is a only an issue for the ‘black guys’.
...welfare, food stamps, Job Corps, Section 8, free laptops & Internet, Obamaphones, government cheese, WIC, EBT, free college, etc., etc...
I don’t give two cents, Christina Coleman. I am sick to death of this.
"Uncomfortable" is not the word. We have heard incessant BS about this for so many years, in so many ridiculous ways, it has become like Chinese water torture. All I hear anymore from these morons sounds like the adults talking on a Charlie Brown cartoon . . . wah, wah wah . . . wah wah. . . .
I only hear it 12 hours a day, so there's plenty of time for more.
It really is incredible.
No. They just want to impose their Marxist monologue on race.
Let’s start a racial discussion with Mexicans of Spanish descent and heritage. Let’s inform them that they’re really white people, not so-called hispanics, and to come and get their white privilege.
I’d bet liberal heads would explode, as Mexicans desert the rat party by the millions.
There is no white privilege. Well maybe... Since white are now a minority in California, can I compete as a minority-owned veteran-owned small business?
We “white people” like to talk about how racist blacks are and how hung up they are on their inferiority complex of their skin.
“We are all part of this system, and therefore we all have a responsibility to work toward dismantling it,”
Job applications haven’t had race on them since the 1970’s. If you ever see one, grab it and run out of the building towards a lawyer’s office.
I am no more uncomfortable thinking about race than I am thinking about eye color. I'm indifferent to both, in myself and in others. I don't know why anyone with a real life would give more than a few seconds of thought to "black or white" or to "paper or plastic" or to "Coke or Pepsi". I put my effort into building a successful company, raising successful kids, and other real priorities.
I feel apprehensive when I am unarmed and see young urban blacks dressed in thug-video pants-halfway-down loser uniforms, or young urban Hispanics dressed like thugs, or young urban whites dressed like thugs. Race doesn't make me apprehensive, but racists dressed like thugs do.
I don't care about offending the people whose feelings are so delicate that they can be offended by "micro-aggressions". If hearing "America is the land of opportunity" or any other ordinary phrase makes a sissy cry, I don't mind offending him, because he's too delicate to be permitted out in public.
I'm absolutely certain that I am not a racist. The racists are in our White House, and those who follow a drug-addled bigot who managed to fool enough people to put two presidential elections within the margin of fraud. Real Americans, who judge others by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin, are the exact opposite of progressive democrats. Democrats have always been and still are the party of racists.
How come only white people need to be “self reflective” and “honest”?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.