Posted on 05/11/2015 2:16:16 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The notion of checking one’s privilege — white, male, cisgendered, and otherwise — has caught on to the point of triggering the inevitable backlash. And while the right has always scoffed at the notion as being divisive and unhelpful, even when they agree with the idea of class war (sort of), the left is beginning to find it all a bit heckle-worthy too. Over at the heady and increasingly influential Jacobin, Connor Kilpatrick condemns the idea of privilege-checking as a deviation from issues of real power:
Right now Americans are inundated with a variety of liberal politics that try to turn what should be political reckonings against the truly powerful into an epidemic of guilt and complicity in which a huge portion — or, sometimes, nearly all of us — are to blame. That’s not only not true — it’s politically ineffective.
If conservatives’ focus on abolishing the capital gains tax and poking fun at the postal service undermines its populist appeal — which I believe it does — privilege-checking does the same for the progressive left. How? By rendering Joe Blow a fatal blow: condemnation for being part of the majority, and merely by existing. At the New Republic, Phoebe Maltz Bovy seconds Kilpatrick by highlighting a bizarre manifestation of the “white privilege” meme, namely that of elite white parents instructing their school children in the evils of…well, themselves. Not that they can’t be redeemed, of course. There is light at the end of the tunnel (though putting things in terms of light and dark is probably “problematic”). From a NYT profile of the Friends Seminary school near Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood:.......
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
" DEDHAM, MASS. - Over the years, schools have celebrated Black History Month in myriad ways, but it's doubtful any staged a play that draws on the controversial genre of minstrel. Until now.
Earlier this month, seventh- and eighth-graders at the exclusive Noble and Greenough School performed Douglas Turner Ward's "Day of Absence." A satire first produced in 1965, the play reverses the tradition of "blackface" minstrel shows. Set in a sleepy Southern town, it puts actors in "whiteface" to show how lost whites would be if a racist fantasy came true and all the blacks suddenly, mysteriously disappeared.
Director Nina Freeman, a black graduate of the school, had hoped her mostly white cast might generate a flurry of discussion about race among playgoers - through their frequent usage of the term "nigra" on stage and depictions of pathetic white people unable to care for themselves. Yet those most changed by this provocative production may have been the provocateurs themselves.
"At our age, all we've done are happy plays like Cinderella, and this is a dark subject," said Caroline Eisenmann, a seventh-grader from Wellesley, Mass., as she took a break from folding programs before a final dress rehearsal.
"At first, we didn't want to do it, didn't want to say the word 'nigra'.... But we learned this is a way to bring a message. I hope [the audience] figures out this isn't a negative message."
Fears lurked near the surface among her fellow thespians-in-training. Maybe blacks in the audience would take offense at references to "darkies" or "jigaboos." Or whites would resent being portrayed as fumblers who couldn't change a diaper or cook an egg without help. Or maybe everyone would sigh impatiently at yet another lecture on the virtues of diversity.
"I'm sure I'll get comments, like, 'Enough of this white-bashing,' " said Ms. Freeman, a 22-year-old English and theater teacher. "Of course, I worry about it, but I'd rather that theater be provocative than predictable."
The students' production of "Day of Absence" opened with actors in white masks - a modified version of the original use of white face paint. Soon they lifted the masks, but they continued to caricature the white characters, whose panic spread with news that their nannies, garbage collectors, delivery persons, and switchboard operators had vanished. ....."
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Ivy League School Holds Funeral For Michael Brown And Non-White People Killed By Racism
"Preparing for the soon expected grand jury verdict in Ferguson, Missouri, students at the University of Pennsylvania held a ceremonial funeral on Friday afternoon for “black and brown bodies” oppressed by the evils of capitalism and the racism of police officers.
Known as the Students Organizing for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), the multicultural student group founded in 2012 has held a litany of stunts on the Philadelphia campus to “create a more conscious and active community at UPenn and in Philadelphia,” according to the group’s Facebook page.
Since the beginning of the school year, SOUL has deemed Friday “#FergusonFriday,” a day when members wrap-up the work week with symbolic graveyards, performances featuring blood-drenched bodies and most recently a mock funeral to demonstrate against the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson.
“Judicial system + capitalism + police brutality = representing the systemic oppression that has contributed to the genocide of black and brown bodies. Indict, convict, send those killer cops to jail. The WHOLE damn system is guilty as hell,” warned one Facbook post from earlier this month........
In addition to eulogizing Michael Brown, the couple dozen members or supporters of SOUL circled around the ceremonial coffin on Friday, pleaded desperate words on immigration reform, and even how the American public is misinformed about the true story of the Civil War. Once these justice seekers finished lamenting the state of the horribly racist world in which they live, group members grabbed and hugged-out their feelings. The hugs were described as “solemn,” according to Campus Reform.
The ceremony wrapped up with the students walking single-file to the casket, where they poured water into a bucket, an African tradition."...
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Children sing about changing the world:
I’m so tired of hearing about race I can’t describe how annoyed I feel. We seemed to be doing a lot better before we got a president who says racially divisive things and throws in his indictment of police before the facts are in. What this president has done to America and race relations is treasonous. He is the enemy from within.
This has put me entirely off my appetite. argggh...
Child abuse, plain and simple.
Those 2 are domestic terrorists and should be treated as such....glad I am no longer in LE. ...not worth it. ...dealing with idiots like that and rising ones life over scum Ike that. The media is all about division and we’d take the side of those 2 before or ever taking the side of an LE officer when faced with a grey situation. ...
While I would be willing to believe individuals within the Baltimore police committed a crime (depending on the evidence), I want a fair, evidence-based trial. If there is not enough evidence for a conviction, or if the evidence in a show trial cannot be trusted, then I do not want a conviction. These police should be treated exactly like any other accused criminal should be treated.
2016 is coming, 2016 is coming.
Yes, but I'm afraid that it will be demographics, and not issues, that will determine the outcome of the election.
It could very well be more of the issues though, and NOT the demographics that you fear.
Our maids and general around the house workers were....surprise...our parents. In short, most white families didn't have maids, servants, or hired help. That was true for many communities in the north. Outside the big cities, most smaller towns and cities had few to no black people living in them.
I went to a link he put in his article “everyday feminism”.
WHEW! It’s bad. Real bad.
When reading to your child and stressing education is considered White Orivelege the world has gone insane
***to show how lost whites would be if a racist fantasy came true and all the blacks suddenly, mysteriously disappeared. ***
Strange. I’ve lived in towns with no minority populations and everyone survived just fine.
Now we’ve got lots of Latinos, Asians and others, and as far as I can tell, everyone still survives just fine. The jobs poor whites used to do are now filled with minorities who are using those jobs to reach better jobs.
Unbelievable how European whites managed to create Notre Dame, classical music, the Industrial Revolution, etc, without their black nannies and maids.
Well whites just don’t know how enriching diversity is, when they keep committing white flight to get away from all the lower crime rates, better schools, maintained homes, etc /s
In regards to the “Dayof Absence play.”
I’ll just have a diet coke.
Funny, I don’t feel “privileged”, where do I sign up to get mine?
I feel like you. Never once has our President, with nappy hair and cafe au lait skin, called America on the content of our character. The behavior of some of the youths killed by the police was not civilized and decent.
The character of the police must be controlled. We cannot allow bullies with guns. But with that said, the character of our citizenry should be controlled — if only by families insisting on decency to others. The President, raised by whites only, has never dared to use his bully pulpit to exhort for all Americans to be decent to one another. He heaps pity on black people as if he is prejudiced against them himself. It is the bigotry of low expectations that he repeats when he takes sides with blacks who have a beef with the police, anywhere.
If Walter Williams had been our first black President, how different things would have become.
YES!!! I haven’t been this stoked since my bris!!!
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