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DEAR WHITE FOLKS: You Don't Know How Easy You Have It (Über hurl warning)
Ebony Magazine ^ | April 6, 2012 | Professor David J. Leonard

Posted on 04/10/2012 7:51:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

David Leonard has spent years fighting racism and White privilege--and he's ready for his Caucasian brethren to get on board and see just how wrong things still are in this country.

Dear White folks:

Between the racist comments, the constant use of the race denial card (this country's most frequently used "race card") and the absurd claims of White victimhood, you have really grated my last nerve.

Sure, we got teary during The Blind Side and Antoine Fisher; we maybe even gave money to KONY2012 and after Hurricane Katrina; we maybe even donned a hoodie to protest the murder of Trayvon Martin. I don’t even doubt there are individuals out there who are genuinely concerned about racism and injustice; I don’t doubt that there are many Whites that marched with Dr. King and whose “best friends” might be Black. None of this matters if African Americans continue to die at the hands of guns held by security guards and police officers all without justice.

I have heard that “we are all Trayvon Martin” over the last few weeks, yet we are not Trayvon Martin – and we never could be. White America is never suspicious. White America can walk to the store without fear of being hunted down. White America can count on justice and a nation grieving at the loss of White life. We aren't Trayvon Martin, we are George Zimmerman: presumed innocent until proven innocent.

I want you to close your eyes for a second, and imagine that your son or daughter, sister or brother, granddaughter or grandson, ventured to the corner store for some Skittles and tea but never returned? Can you imagine if Peter or Jan were gunned down right around the corner from your house and the police didn’t notify you right away? Can you imagine if little Sydney or Bobby sat in the morgue for days as you searched to find out what happened them? Can you even imagine the police letting the perpetrator go or the news media remaining silent? Can you even fathom learning about background and drug tests on your child? Can you imagine the news media demonizing your child, blaming your child for his own death?

Can you imagine the outcry if seven White youths had been gunned down by police and security guards in a matter of months? Can you imagine the extensive political interest, the media stories that would saturate the airwaves? Can you imagine Fox News or any number of newspapers reporting about a school suspension for one of the victims or doctoring pictures in an attempt to make these victims less sympathetic? Can you imagine a person holding up a sign calling these victims “thugs” and “hoodlums.”Just think about the media frenzy, the concern from politicians, and the national horror every time a school shooting happens in Suburbia or every time a White woman goes missing...can you imagine if women routinely went missing from your community and the news and police department simply couldn't be bothered?

No, you can't. And you don't have to.

Yet, from Florida to Los Angeles, from Atlanta to Wisconsin, from Chicago to Ohio, Black families are burying the innocent and the future. Doesn’t that make you sad; doesn’t that make your angry? Our silence is telling. We can barely say their names much less acknowledge the epidemic in our midst: Stephon Watts. Trayvon Martin. Ramarley Graham. Wendell Allen. Dante Price. Bo Morrison. Rekia Boyd. Kendrec McDade.

All have lost their lives; and we don’t even say their names. All have died under similarly disturbing circumstances. All should have prompted national outrage and action; or at the least for us to say their names.

I don’t care if you cried during The Help and if the 'feel good' movie of the year featuring chicken-frying maids and affluent White women made you feel all post-racial tingly on the inside. Did you cry at the report of yet another lost Black life? If so, what have those tears done – have they led you to join a rally, to demand justice? I don’t care if you voted for President Obama; have you demanded dramatic changes to our criminal (in)justice system? It is time for us to check ourselves, to listen and demand a better America starting with ourselves. It is time to stop denying racism and defending White privilege, distracting and deflecting with “what ifs” and excuses. It is time to demand justice for the Trayvons and the Rekias, not because it could have been one of our sons and daughters--it couldn't--but because it is simply the right thing to do.

Sincerely

A member of White America


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: florida; georgezimmerman; trayvonmartin; zimmerman
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David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. He is author of After Artest: Race and the War on Hoop (SUNY Press, spring 2012).
1 posted on 04/10/2012 7:52:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I have never had it easy. I don’t know what the hell they are talking about.


2 posted on 04/10/2012 7:53:28 PM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I have never had it easy. I don’t know what the hell they are talking about.


3 posted on 04/10/2012 7:53:41 PM PDT by television is just wrong
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University"

ROFL

Folks...you can't make this stuff up!

4 posted on 04/10/2012 7:54:43 PM PDT by traditional1 (Don't gotsta worry 'bout no mo'gage, don't gotsta worry 'bout no gas; Obama gonna take care o' me!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Can I quit sending them ‘Da Check’ Now that they woken up?


5 posted on 04/10/2012 7:55:06 PM PDT by Sundog (When Hollywood defines reality there is none.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

None of this matters if African Americans continue to die at the hands of guns held by security guards and police officers all without justice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“why does he have the poundcake in his hand in the first place?”

Bill Cosby


6 posted on 04/10/2012 7:56:48 PM PDT by mamelukesabre (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Bull. My black kids in my AP class got MILLIONS in scholarships that kids of other races would have to murder for with their GPA’s and SAT scores for free.

I have family that are black and the reason why they are successful is they WORK THEIR ASSES OFF and DON’T BLAME OTHERS.

Try it sometimes. It works.


7 posted on 04/10/2012 7:57:38 PM PDT by struggle (http://killthegovernment.wordpress.com/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This slob sounds like he’s got a guilt complex about being born white. A good shrink might be able to help him with that.


8 posted on 04/10/2012 7:57:41 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (ObamaCare is like a stool sample. You have to pass it to see what's in it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

A professor with a made-up job whining about white privilege.

How come I never see a Black professor (and this one from Chicago!) complain about the Black on Black slaughter in their own ‘hoods? Too inconvenient perhaps?


9 posted on 04/10/2012 7:58:28 PM PDT by VeniVidiVici (The Democrat Ku Klux Klan is alive and well as the New Black Panthers, CBC and the NAACP)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Gender and Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman.

Here's how useful this guy really is. America get's EMP'd. There will be NO electricity for several years. How much are this guy's skills worth?

10 posted on 04/10/2012 7:59:52 PM PDT by Michael Barnes (Obamaa+ Downgrade)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I have heard that “we are all Trayvon Martin” over the last few weeks, yet we are not Trayvon Martin – and we never could be.

He's right. I could never live like a gangster thug, act suspicious in a gated community and when confronted, play the angry Black thug card and then physically assault a night watchman.

Well actually I could. But I wouldn't.

11 posted on 04/10/2012 8:00:17 PM PDT by Alt Right (Voted for Clinton in 92 (my first election) and the Republican Revolution in 1994!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
What a joke that article is. I didn’t see “The Help” because I am not going to support the liberal 1% with my hard earned money. I wonder if the writer of the article shed a tear when 3 black punks killed and maimed an elderly white couple who were married for 65 years? He must be crying all the time since black on black violence is out of control I better get stock in the Kleenx company.
12 posted on 04/10/2012 8:01:16 PM PDT by funfan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
the absurd claims of White victimhood, you have really grated my last nerve.

Someone got the relevant crime stats handy to destroy this Uber-azz's "point" here? /bazooka barf

13 posted on 04/10/2012 8:01:16 PM PDT by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
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To: television is just wrong

I go without a lot of crap that people on welfare take for granted and I don’t know how easy I have it.


14 posted on 04/10/2012 8:01:37 PM PDT by cripplecreek (What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I want you to close your eyes for a second, and imagine that your son or daughter, sister or brother, granddaughter or grandson, ventured to the corner store for some Skittles and tea but never returned?

Is he trying to channel John Grisham here? FAIL.

15 posted on 04/10/2012 8:01:56 PM PDT by Alt Right (Voted for Clinton in 92 (my first election) and the Republican Revolution in 1994!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Too bad about the kid, I saw a squirrel run over
today , felt bad about that too.
Life is short, then you die.
Get used to it.


16 posted on 04/10/2012 8:02:21 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

17 posted on 04/10/2012 8:02:38 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Major, epic HURL!


18 posted on 04/10/2012 8:02:55 PM PDT by Student0165 ("If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun." Barack Hussein Obama)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I don’t have it easy. I’ve never had it easy. The anti-white racism around here is so thick you can cut it with a knife. I have to drive by a “Cracker Barrel” ad sign every day. How do you think that makes me feel?


19 posted on 04/10/2012 8:03:17 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Yes I backed over the vampire, But I swear I did not see it in my rearview mirror.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

A good shrink might be able to help him with that.


How about a swift kick in the azz or a slap upside his honkie white face.


20 posted on 04/10/2012 8:04:07 PM PDT by unkus (Silence Is Consent)
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