Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Trayvon Martin and Making Whiteness Visible (The acknowledgement of "white privilege")
Time Magazine ^ | July 17, 2013 | Eric Liu

Posted on 07/18/2013 11:10:35 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

If there is one hopeful note amid all the anguish and recrimination from the acquittal of George Zimmerman, it’s that growing numbers of white people have come to appreciate whiteness for what it is: an unearned set of privileges. And as a result of that dawning awareness, it’s become possible to imagine a day when that structure of privilege is dismantled — by white people.

Recall that immediately after the killing of Trayvon Martin, people of every race took to the Internet to declare “I am Trayvon Martin.” They wore hoodies. They proclaimed solidarity. That was a well-meaning and earnest attempt to express empathy, but it also obscured the core issue, which is that Martin died not because he was wearing a hoodie but because he was wearing a hoodie while black. Blackness was the fatal variable.

And so now, postverdict, a more realistic meme has taken root. On Tumblr and Facebook and elsewhere there is a new viral phenomenon: “We are not Trayvon Martin” (emphasis mine). Huge numbers of white Americans are posting testimonials and images to declare that it is precisely because they are not black that they have never had to confront the awful choices Martin faced when Zimmerman began to pursue him.

This isn’t about empathy or the posture of equivalency that empathy can tempt us to assume. It’s about owning up to the unequal privilege of being nonblack and saying, in essence, “I am George Zimmerman.” And because I am George Zimmerman, I get to have my fears trump reality. I get get-out-of-jail-free cards. I get a presumption of innocent victimhood, no matter what my own acts or attitudes....

(Excerpt) Read more at ideas.time.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blackrage; blacks; holder; racecard; trayvon; whites; zimmerman
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-109 next last
To: 2ndDivisionVet
If the white (and asian) races are in a privileged position (and they generally are), it is because the white and asian cultures involve study and work to earn it. Many blacks have also followed that cultural prescription to success, and whites welcome them to their privileged position. Some blacks lack such privilege because they refuse to join in productive behaviors (and tend to despise those who do).
81 posted on 07/18/2013 12:21:55 PM PDT by expat2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ohioan

Not that long. Time was considered right of center in the 1950s.


82 posted on 07/18/2013 12:25:17 PM PDT by expat2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: Gamecock

“Four of my last five bosses have been black women.
Tell me again about my white privilege.”

Well, Gamey, maybe you should give up being a beautician, and become an electrical engineer!


83 posted on 07/18/2013 12:28:40 PM PDT by headsonpikes (Mass murder and cannibalism are the twin sacraments of socialism - "Who-whom?"-Lenin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I am not priviledged for anything.
I work hard for everything I have and nobody ever gave me a damn thing, because I didn’t ask.
I didn’t set around and draw a goverment check ever a day in my life.
I earned it by the holes in my boots.
If someone doesn’t like that I am white they can shove it up their a$$. I don’t owe nobody a damn thing!

NOTHING!


84 posted on 07/18/2013 12:32:02 PM PDT by envisio (Its on like Donkey Kong!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: expat2
Not that long. Time was considered right of center in the 1950s.

Not by those knowledgeable. U.S. News & World Report, under David Lawrence, was the right of center news weekly.

When Whitaker Chambers woke up, and turned against the Communists, he revealed much about the Time he worked for earlier. But, personally, I was on a TV panel program in the 1960s & 1970s, and we had a guest--I believe in the 60s, who had been in our intelligence out of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, and he told us that Communist intelligence recognized that Time was the voice of those who wanted to change America; while U.S. News was the voice of the establishment.

As one who regularly saw both, I would confirm the truth of that assessment.

William Flax

85 posted on 07/18/2013 12:36:59 PM PDT by Ohioan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet; Repeat Offender; GenXteacher; Nervous Tick; BlatherNaut; ColdOne; Marcella; ...

Who the hell actually thinks like this? If someone wants to strike it rich, start making designer strait jackets. Many, many of them.

Ping


86 posted on 07/18/2013 12:38:53 PM PDT by MestaMachine (My caps work, You gotta earn them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: expat2; 2ndDivisionVet
It is not "privileged," in the ordinary sense, to have benefited from your family, community or nations' multi-generational struggle to advance.

What is pathetic about this continuous line of attack, is that so few recognize what is really behind it, and that is a snap-shot view of reality, which denies the very concept of multi-generational purpose. If you deny multi-generational purpose, you deny the fundament of Constitutional Government, which from the Preamble on, looks to same.

William Flax

87 posted on 07/18/2013 12:42:23 PM PDT by Ohioan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 81 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
White skinned weaklings like Eric Loo should bring their life saving to the nearest ghetto and give it away to its black residents. They could even ask for a beat down if it will ease their white guilt. It's our skin color that makes us successful, because every white person is a big success. Hard work, discipline, education, and making the right choices has nothing to do with your success. What would the white race look like if we all took up the black thug culture?
88 posted on 07/18/2013 1:03:48 PM PDT by peeps36 (I'm Not A Racist, I Hate Douchebags f All Colors)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cubs Fan

“The three fold strategy to silence and control white people.

1. yell racism at every white person you disagree with
2. use threats of violence
3 A. make a huge deal over it anytime a white guy is alleged to have committed a crime against a black person.
3 B. completely ignore the more commonplace black person committing a crime against a white person.”

Unfortunately their you owe me entitlement driven mind set is being fostered,perpetuated and supported by a perception of wrong doing as defined by the bizzoro world shame street media.
Case in point, a major home improvement warehouse chain with merchandise walking out of the front door has employees reprimanded by management for trying to detain and question the vandals. One told the store employee in an indignant tone” you don’t want to go there”. Its fear of factors and it will destroy the USA, too many freeloaders getting by with to many it’s OK passes. Nowhaimsaaain?


89 posted on 07/18/2013 1:04:09 PM PDT by Recompennation (Constitutional protection for all not just selectively for Democrats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

There are poor whites and lower middle white and middle whites and upper class whites. There are poor blacks and lower middle blacks and middle blacks and upper class blacks.

There are, however, more blacks in the poor category. Hussein and Holder can fix this and are on that path. When massive numbers of whites outnumber blacks in the poor category, then we will begin to approach fairness. Unfortunately, those massive numbers of whites who were once working and paying taxes, are not paying anymore.

Well, the rich must pay more to keep up with food stamps for the now many millions of poor whites and still the poor blacks. Soon, the rich won’t be rich anymore because no one has a job so can’t buy the products of the rich. Eventually, the rich are also poor. Now, we are really becoming FAIR. The only privileged class left is the blacks in government positions. NOW WE ARE FAIR.

Oh, I left out the homosexuals. They all died with AIDS or the new lung disease they get.

Until Hussein and Holder are blasted out of their positions, the above is not too difficult to believe.


90 posted on 07/18/2013 1:07:04 PM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

So I actually responded online at the Time website and posted this, which got seven “likes” before it was buried in the 2,400 + other comments.

“The scariest thing about this writer’s outlook is how closely it matches the antisemetic Jew-hating from the previous century. A group of people with privilege are manipulating society and pushing everyone else around, controlling the money and power. Of course I’m saying that the end game here is genocide - we’re just at the inflammatory mob stage of this kind of thinking. The emotionalism and sheer insanity of the racists - and I include the writer in this category - is frightening to witness. Eventually someone will make the argument that the best way to deal with “privilege” is the wholesale theft from “whites” and just killing them because they are naturally “racist.” God help us.”

Someone commented back and wrote:

“This is exactly right. This is about dehumanization.”

The left has been formulating mass murder ever since the Committee for Public Safety scoured the streets of Paris to murder priests, nuns, and those who disagreed with them. They’ve told us their next target - after all, it’ll be easy to spot them just by looking. The thing that’s hard to believe are the numbers of white leftists who promote this kind of thinking, but, then again, Lenin didn’t emerge with the concept of “useful idiots” out of thin air.


91 posted on 07/18/2013 1:08:24 PM PDT by redpoll
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ohioan

You are talking about the 60s and 70s (and I agree with you there), but in the 50s, it was a Hearst magazine and right of center. Both Time and USN&WR, later, were taken over by Democrats.


92 posted on 07/18/2013 1:13:38 PM PDT by expat2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: Ohioan; expat2
Henry Luce, the publisher of Time, was a major Republican figure, so the magazine had the reputation of being more conservative than Newsweek, which had always been more liberal and closer to the Democrats. US News was more conservative than either magazine in those days, but wasn't a strong competitor to Time or its imitator Newsweek. Lawrence's magazine wasn't big on pictures or graphics, like the other magazines.

Writers at Time and other liberals complained about Luce the way they complain about Murdoch today, to the point where many thought there was some major cultural divide between the brutish, philistine Luce and the sensitive, creative writers. But it was all about politics. Once the writers were cut loose from Luce's rule, there wasn't any great rise in the magazine's quality -- if anything, quality declined over time.

93 posted on 07/18/2013 1:18:05 PM PDT by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Every racial group that has come to the United States has started at the bottom. They live in black neighborhoods when they get here because they can’t afford better. They go to crappy schools and somehow get educated. Then they work hard, start businesses, play fair and in a short time they join the American mainstream.

The reason blacks are still at the bottom has NOTHING to do with the endless ‘help’ they’ve been given. It is NOT the fault of white people, or of Asians, or Hispanics.


94 posted on 07/18/2013 1:24:04 PM PDT by GOPJ (Department of Justice to Americans:'How many fingers am I holding up, Winston?')
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Cowboy Bob
“It's unfair that some people qualify for Mensa, but others do not.”

My son was a member of Mensa. He studied in high school, took advanced classes, lettered in tennis, work with the water study scientific group with NASA in the summers from the time he was a high school Freshman. A group of his scientific high school friends had a party at our house. When they left, the house was cleaner than when they got there.

He spent four years at Rice University where he was in Mensa. Yes, he was smart, but lots of smart people waste their life on drugs. Learning was his goal - not marijuana or PCP or Watermelon drink with skittles and cough syrup to get high.

I could apologize because he is white but that has nothing to do with what is inside him. He is a fine person and he did it. I don't think he has ever owned a hoodie - I'll have to ask him.

That black medical neurologist/surgeon (forget his name right now) followed the same path my son did. He studied and learned. What happened to that model?

I knew I was going to college from the time I knew what one was. I went, I studied, I got degrees, I got a job - had one all my life. Where is that model? Did I do it because I was white? No, I liked learning.

I just give up on this country, it's such a mess.

95 posted on 07/18/2013 1:28:07 PM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

I am the recipient of their perceived “white privilege”. Let’s see how that goes: I had a stable home with both a father and a mother who watched what I was doing and taught me right from wrong. They saw that I went to school every day, respected my teachers, and did my homework. We were lower middle class, but they saw that I was well fed and properly clothed through their ability to make do and make ends meet. More than once we gathered as a family, discussed our situation, and reached the conclusion that “we’ll just have to tighten our belts”. They knew who my friends were and what we were doing when we were out of their sight. When I entered the work force, I started at the bottom and worked my way to the top of my abilities and efforts. I’ve always found that the harder I work, the luckier I get.

The black community can defeat so-called “white privilege” by creating stable homes with both a mother and a father, and following the road map laid out above. They, and the white liberals that feed their misery, can cease trying to make me feel guilty for being white. I’m not having any of it.


96 posted on 07/18/2013 1:28:10 PM PDT by SuzyQueIN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Wonder what the meetings are like?”

My son said those people were not very interesting and neither were the meetings.


97 posted on 07/18/2013 1:30:51 PM PDT by Marcella ((Prepping can save your life today. I am a Christian, not a Muslim.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Ohioan
It is not "privileged," in the ordinary sense, to have benefited from your family, community or nations' multi-generational struggle to advance.

Of course it is. Whether it is the son of a British earl or the daughter of a US political family, both have benefited from their family's struggle to advance, and are privileged relative to others from a lower class.

However, I do agree with you on your other paragraph. Like you, I see multi-generational purpose as good, but I am willing to recognize that it results in a privileged position for the later generations.

We just need everyone to work towards gaining a privileged position, rather than deciding because of envy to attack those that have one.

98 posted on 07/18/2013 1:40:17 PM PDT by expat2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet
I can't speak for any of you, but I've had just about enough of this.

Me too. A Latino and an African-American fight and an extremely privileged Asian-American guy lectures about "White privilege," and somebody actually thinks the thing is worth publishing. I thought we "got beyond" all this nonsense.

99 posted on 07/18/2013 1:50:11 PM PDT by x
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Wiser now
Ninety percent of blacks are envious of whites. They want what whites have without doing what is required. They refuse to see their faults so it has to be the fault of those who have the things they want. What whites are to blame for is allowing blacks to say their bs out loud.

I can not help that blacks feel they are being discriminated against. They've whined about it to the point they're making it reality, because people are sick of hearing it. They're making fools of themselves over Martin, just as they did brawley, oj, and the black whore in the Duke case. By acting irrationally, they're turning whites and Latinos (who don't already have a low view of blacks) against them.

100 posted on 07/18/2013 1:57:33 PM PDT by Razz Barry (Round'em up, send'em home.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-109 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson