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Why I Wouldn't See 12 Years a Slave With a White Person
The Atlantic ^ | November 27, 2013 | Enuma Okoro

Posted on 11/27/2013 4:45:00 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

I’m not a racist. But I do have a race problem. I finally owned up to it as I was anticipating seeing 12 Years a Slave. In the weeks leading up to its opening in my state of North Carolina, I tried to think of whom among my friends I could see this film with. I have a number of racially and ethnically diverse friends and acquaintances who would love to see it, and yet, I knew I could only see this movie alone or with another dark-skinned person.

This is hard to admit. I will hurt the feelings of people I love. But isn’t confession the first step to being reconciled? I have good, healthy friendships with a range of people, but I could not think of one white person where I live with whom I would feel emotionally safe enough to see this particular movie about slavery. I did not want to have to entertain any of the likely responses from anyone who could not see themselves in the skin of the enslaved men and women on the screen. I had no desire to dissect the film politically and theologically, engage in well-meaning social commentary, marvel at the history conveyed through the movie, or grieve over what was done to black people.

I did not want the burden of the social translations that black people so often have to do automatically on so many internal levels while engaging in discourse with whites in this country. There are things we learn to do almost subconsciously in order to keep some whites comfortable enough around our blackness. Things like gauging their actual level of interest or understanding of black culture in order to know how far to take a particular conversation....

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
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To: ckilmer

Really?

I was thinking it was a transsexual. Not just the looks but the over thinking and emotion. It’s overboard—more like what a guy would do trying play the part of a female. On looks— that makeup and style doesn’t look much like the choices a woman would choose.

Male or female the pose in the picture posted to this thread, well, it comes across as obnoxious. Whatever it is, this person tries too hard at whatever it is going on in that head. That caked-on green eyeshadow is horrendous! All the bold clashing colors and her pose—gads! Run! This person will drive you crazy.


81 posted on 11/27/2013 6:57:59 PM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheel barrow)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Please add:

300,000 WHITE MEN DIED to FREE the BLACK slave.


82 posted on 11/27/2013 6:58:57 PM PST by 2banana (My common ground with terrorists - they want to die for islam and we want to kill them)
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To: ckilmer

If you read some of her writings (and I don’t mean lots and lots I mean look at the titles and then read a line or two here or there), you may come away with the same thought I have …. to wit, she is not interested in getting a man black or white


83 posted on 11/27/2013 7:03:44 PM PST by Nifster
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To: Toughluck_freeper

And the Chinese who built the railroads. NONE of those you mentioned, or the Asians, reverted to beasts. They welcomed their freedom and lived the dream while retaining their identity.
Almost everyone who has found freedom here were slaves at some point in their ancestry. It was the way of the world.
Why is it? When I was a child in school, we all had the same opportunity to learn. We sat side by side in classrooms everyday. Same teachers, same books, same tools. No racially motivated fights. We were friends, all of us. We had Samoans, Jamaicans, an immigrant from Italy who didn’t speak a word of English when she first arrived, Gypsies, blacks, two Jews of which I was one, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans....
We lived in the same neighborhood. We were neighbors. We hung out at each others’ houses. It wasn’t that long ago. Where did all the hate come from? I will never understand that mindset as long as I live.


84 posted on 11/27/2013 7:23:50 PM PST by MestaMachine (My caps work. You gotta earn them.)
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To: ckilmer
"Typically more black men have relationships with obese white women..."

There, I fixed it for ya.

85 posted on 11/27/2013 7:28:18 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: Nifster; Irenic
Well you two raise still a third possibility.

She's not getting any action from lesbians either.

I wonder how Maya Angeliou fared in that department

She managed to age gracefully. But in her younger years she was much like this woman.


86 posted on 11/27/2013 7:32:11 PM PST by ckilmer
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To: Errant

Sure, what you say is true. The thing is: most of us just don’t care anymore.

We used to care. We tried to bow and scrape and make amends. Didn’t work. They hate us anyway, and all signs say that they will always hate us. So why should we bother caring about how they feel when nothing we can do, short of all killing ourselves, will do anything to change it?


87 posted on 11/27/2013 7:32:21 PM PST by Boogieman
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To: CatherineofAragon

My favorites are the Law and Orders. Every criminal is a White male. People in NYC should be runnin’ from White folk.


88 posted on 11/27/2013 7:33:56 PM PST by EEGator
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To: Errant
"Most people don't have a clue how black folk feel when it comes to issues of race"

Lord have mercy, blacks and race is one of the most talked about subjects in this nation.

Why is it always implied that how blacks feel about race is paramount?

89 posted on 11/27/2013 8:06:36 PM PST by Altura Ct.
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To: golux
So, which of these things is phony? Her name? Or her whole being?

Thank you for posting her CV. What do you think? After reading that entire vacuous history of institutional socialist non-thought, I'd say we can safely go with the second option—"her whole being."

90 posted on 11/27/2013 8:32:17 PM PST by SamuraiScot
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To: golux

I would say it’s a pretty poor movie that can’t cast
it’s viewers into the set and setting of it’s charactors.


91 posted on 11/27/2013 8:38:22 PM PST 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: DuncanWaring

No, Obama’s ancestors sold their catch in the Middle East. Obama’s ancestors grabbed all the non-Muslim’s they could handle, Uganda was a favorite hunting ground for the Obama’s, and they ended up in Baghdad, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, and Cairo. The Obama’s used the proceeds to buy larger herds of cattle. It would be a pretty could bet that Obama is the first president that is descended from slave raiders and traders, not just owners. It is bizarre when you think about it. It would be like American Jews looking to someone descended from a SS man as their leader.


92 posted on 11/27/2013 8:41:48 PM PST by gusty
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To: golux

“2. Women and the transformative power of personal narratives”


She lectures on that?

Must be REALLY interesting../s

.


93 posted on 11/27/2013 8:49:10 PM PST by Mears
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
 photo RACISM_zpse62f4d22.gif
94 posted on 11/27/2013 8:53:32 PM PST by baddog 219
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To: Errant
Most people don't have a clue how black folk feel when it comes to issues of race.

Agreed. I've had some conversations with the black folks that would blow most white people's minds. Most recently was a black lady I worked with whom I got to be fairly close friends. She made an offhand remark one day about the big boss (an old white guy) and how she wouldn't be surprised if he were in the KKK. Surely you're joking, I told her, he's the most harmless fuzzball around and the KKK are some nasty fellows. She answered that, as far as she was concerned, any and all white people are members of the KKK until proven otherwise. Mind you, this is in California, which is not exactly a KKK bastion. You get that? As far as she is concerned, simply by the virtue of the color of your skin, she'll see you as one of the most vile, nasty people around.
95 posted on 11/27/2013 9:05:52 PM PST by fr_freak
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To: ladyjane

“It is very clear how black people feel. Many of them are very angry and hate all white people.”

Is there any way to research the changes in the anger level of black people over the years, from 1900 to 2000? I’m pretty sure that black people (outside of the biggest cities) were pretty content before 1965, but that anger level began to build coincident with the onset of the Great Society.

Big cities are a separate issue because of race pimps like JJ, Al and Barry.


96 posted on 11/27/2013 9:09:25 PM PST by Rembrandt (Part of the 51% who pay Federal taxes)
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To: fr_freak

KKK?

What do they have, 9 members? and 4 are federal undercover agents


97 posted on 11/27/2013 9:09:50 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: MestaMachine

“Where did all the hate come from?”

I think enterprising types like JJ found that expressing hate (real or feigned) brought in money, then a cycle began.


98 posted on 11/27/2013 9:20:30 PM PST by Rembrandt (Part of the 51% who pay Federal taxes)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Why I Wouldn't See 12 Years a Slave With a White Person

This sentence is gibberish. It needs punctuation.

99 posted on 11/27/2013 9:24:46 PM PST by ROCKLOBSTER ("The government" is nothing but a RAT jobs program)
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To: fr_freak; Boogieman
You get that?

I get it, and what I was trying to get across - but poorly. When I say "most people", that exempts "most" Freepers. ;) Like you, I had many outgoing, never meet a stranger, black friends reveal pretty negative and deep seated preconceptions about whites; kind of shocking when you realize what a deep chasm still exists between us after all of these years. I believe this administration understands this better than we and is using it to divide us even further for some future end. It would be better for all of us not to allow ourselves to be tricked by the old tactic of divide and conquer.

100 posted on 11/27/2013 9:44:07 PM PST by Errant
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