White privilege diminishes our humanity: 10 Commitments for meaningful change

Seattle Times ^ | February 9, 2018 | Stephen V. Sundborg [SJ]

[C19fan]

At Seattle University, we challenge our students to engage in the difficult issues of the day with an open mind, respect differing viewpoints, discern the moral choices involved and act for the greater good.

I took this Jesuit approach to heart after being asked to keynote Seattle’s annual Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast in January. My instructions were as a white person to speak to white people about the system and culture of white privilege in our country, which oppresses blacks.

[MoochPooch]

If I were black, and if I were sitting in a pew listening to this priest, I would be seething.

Would you want someone to invite you over for dinner because they “felt sorry” for you? Would you want to walk around with people staring at you in pity, as if you were an invalid? Or talking down to you, as if you were a child?

That’s what this guy suggests. He is not only naive but patronizing beyond belief.

How dare he assume my life is terrible (because I’m black, of course) and I need him to make it better? I’m not capable of improving my life myself?

He reminds me of some do-gooders in my community who try to organize get-togethers for singles or widows. Somehow these women aren’t allowed to have or create their own lives — or they’re supposed to identify with their condition and depend on others for validation. These do-gooders get upset and confused when these women refuse to follow the script.

His whole approach reeks of egotism. He is someone who needs to feel important by assuming everyone else is downtrodden.

[blueplum]

There's a movie on Netflix called Chaka Zulu. Lots of realism-depicting footage of African tribes, specifically the bloodiest tribe, circa turn of the 20th century. Several episodes and worth watching for historical background, including the burning of crops and enforcement of starvation for a year as 'tribute' to mommy, who was buried along with 30 still-alive wenches to 'attend her'. The Zulu practiced complete annihilation down to infants of any community that resisted the Zulu or violated the starvation order. Impalement was SOP for men and women, as was slavetaking.

Chaka was not an exception to African history, but one in a line of many murderous gangs that roamed the continent over millennium (and still do) eradicating populations at will and leaving, what seemed to European explorers, unoccupied land. Perhaps the jesuit or anyone else can explain how is life in America is so much more oppressive than life in Africa under murderous tribal chiefs that would have persisted same as ever had not wypipo tried to introduce civilization based on peaceful discourse? I'd even settle for the Jesuit explaining how the slavery and persecution of blacks in the arab world that also persists same as ever is comparable remotely to any mythical American 'oppression'?

[teeman8r]

No, really I meant what I said.