Women attending anti-Trump inaugural march told to check their privilege

Hot Air ^ | January 9, 2017 | John Sexton

[2ndDivisionVet]

The New York Times published a story today about racial divisions that are springing up around the Women’s March on Washington, the progressive event scheduled for the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. At the core of the story is Jennifer Willis, a white woman from South Carolina who was planning to attend the march with her daughters. But after reading something online which she found off-putting, Willis decided to cancel her trip. From the NY Times:

Ms. Willis, the South Carolina wedding minister, had been looking forward to the salve of rallying with people who share her values, a rarity in her home state, where she said she had been insulted and shouted at for marrying gay couples.

But then she read a post by ShiShi Rose, a 27-year-old blogger from Brooklyn.

“Now is the time for you to be listening more, talking less,” Ms. Rose wrote. “You should be reading our books and understanding the roots of racism and white supremacy. Listening to our speeches. You should be drowning yourselves in our poetry.”

Willis felt offended at the assumption that she wasn’t already aware of her advantages but told the NY Times, “The last thing that is going to make me endeared to you, to know you and love you more, is if you are sitting there wagging your finger at me.”

For her part, ShiShi Rose tells the Times she wasn’t trying to discourage anyone from attending the march, but adds, “I needed them to understand that they don’t just get to join the march and not check their privilege constantly.”

The last word in the piece is given to Willis who asks, “Can you please tell me what that means?” I think she already has an instinctive sense of what it means, which is why she was offended. It’s progressive code for: Shut up! Here’s the original Instagram post that convinced Willis to change her plans:

For some people, their outlook of this country deeply changed on November 9th. For the rest of us, this is how it has always looked.

I want to remind you that that is a privilege.

It’s a privilege that white supremacy wasn’t at the forefront of your reality, because you benefit from it.

I want to remind you that no ally ever got very far, in any movement, without acknowledgement of their own privilege daily. You do not just get to join the efforts that people of color have been working for their entire lives to both teach and survive, without doing work, too. You don’t just get to join because now you’re scared, too. I was born scared.

Now is the time for you to be listening more, talking less, spend time observing, taking in media and art created by people of color, researching, and unlearning the things you have been taught about this country. You should be reading our books and understanding the roots of racism and white supremacy. Listening to our speeches. You should be drowning yourselves in our poetry. Now is the time that you should be exposed to more than just the horrors of this country, but also the beauty that has always existed within communities of color. Beauty that was covered over because the need to see white faces depicted was more important.

Now is the time to teach your children, to call out your family, to finally speak up. You have been silent for long enough. Now is the time to realize that you should have joined us sooner. But since you’re here now, it’s time to get to work.

Why would anyone want to join a march after being told they haven’t done enough, don’t know enough and need to shut up even if they show up? And all of this coming from a 27-year-old. Willis is right to stay home.

[Chode]

100%... kinda like chiraq, detroit, boston, la & nyc

[bk1000]

“How is “URINE” a clever screen name? It’s disgusting, really.”

First, you gotta realize this intellectual dynamo probably doesn’t know the word ‘urine’. My guess is she feels clever having ‘Rose’ (beautiful, aromatic) juxtaposed with shi shi (#2)(ugly, stinky)

[Chickensoup]

: How are YOU “complicit” with the Mexican ethnic cleansing by elite and wealthy Mexicans? How are the wealthy Mexicans “ethnically cleansing” their people?

BTW, the people of the new world are NOT indigenous to the New World. They are descendants of the Siberian hunter groups that migrated to the New World eons ago. DNA proved that a long, long time ago. The Americas had NO indigenous people—ALL immigrants.

That is OLD news.

I LIVED in Mexico two years and never saw that “ethnic cleansing.” I lived in D.F. Who ELSE would do all the work that the wealthy Mexicans didn’t want to do? I don’t think you know what you are talking about. Lo siento.

_____________________

I am complicit if I continue to permit Mexicans to leave their country and come north thus relieving social pressures endemic to Mexico. By not improving the econmy, by stripping the country and not providing services and education for these people the elites of Mexico are causing a soft ethnic cleaning.

[cloudmountain]

I am complicit if I continue to permit Mexicans to leave their country and come north thus relieving social pressures endemic to Mexico. By not improving the econmy, by stripping the country and not providing services and education for these people the elites of Mexico are causing a soft ethnic cleaning.

Nothing "soft" about a cleansing because it isn't happening. Mexicans come here to work and they send $14 billion US dollars back to Mexico every year. Google it. It's true.

THEIR country is RIDDLED with corruption and that is NO FAULT WHATSOEVER of you or any American. The governmental corruption keeps the Mexican people poor. They Mexicans are "cleansed" of their pesos and land.

By the way, what IN THE WORLD is a "soft ethnic cleansing"??

Also the Mexicans enter the USA ILLEGALLY and are thereby BREAKING our laws. No one stops them on EITHER side because the gringos get cheap labor and the Mexican government gets their money via taxes.

Believe it or not MOST Mexicans LOVE their country and DON'T want to be American citizens. They ONLY want our nassssty "yanqui dolares."

You are in no way "complicit" in anything.

I remember a common slogan down there: Lo que está hecho en Mexico está BIEN hecho. or "What is made in Mexico is WELL made." THAT is a pack of lies too...and Mexicans know it.

The Mexicans get tons of money from us, as a gift, just to keep their government from toppling. They DO send us much produce, especially during the winter. But THEIR destiny is their own. They make THAT in Mexico too.