I read a post by Wildflower that got me to thinking: “Is It Neutral and Normal Because It’s White?”
White Americans as a whole do not have a neutral point of view. They do not see the world in a fair, open-minded way like they think.
This should be as plain as day, it should go without saying. Not so.
I will go further: most whites have a dishonest, self-serving, closed-minded, narrow way of looking at the world that is far from neutral, far from fair, far from objective. They are more interested in maintaining a false image of themselves as a kind and good and just people than, say, the truth.
White Americans are born with perfectly good minds, just as good as anyone else’s. Most have at least 14 years of schooling. America is a remarkably open society – it was before the Internet came and now it is even more so. There is every reason to expect them to be the most open-minded, knowledgeable people in all of history.
The trouble comes because of their power:
- It makes them believe they have all the answers – so why listen to others? Why care what goes on in other countries? Why take people of colour or other cultures seriously? Why even take voices from their own past seriously?
- It fills the world with their own voice – with television shows, news, Hollywood films, magazines, blogs, etc. They can barely hear anyone else but themselves.
- It makes them morally blind – they turn a blind eye to the evil done in their name.
- It makes them think the world is juster and less screwed up than it is – not just because they are morally blind but also because in their corner of the world things are fine. Most seem to believe in just world doctrine, which is hardly the way the world works.
- It separates them from other people – most live in an all-white world and rarely hear forthright, honest opinions seriously defended that are far from their own except of a narrow political sort. It also makes them blind to their own skin colour so that they think they are raceless, that their race does not affect how they see things.
- It allows them to write their own history – and fill it with lies and half-truths, putting themselves at the centre, making themselves its heroes, making themselves what all of history was leading up to!
In short, there is little to keep them honest. They believe what they want to believe. Not just in regard to history, race or foreign affairs, but even personal morals. In 1900, for example, abortion, divorce, illegitimacy and same-sex marriage were all beyond the pale and had been for at least 1500 years. But now?
Most do not seek out other voices from other times and other places, not even from people of colour from their own time and place. And so in spite of all their money and power they live in a very narrow world that does not extend much beyond the white middle-class English-speaking world of the last 30 years.
See also:
- Wildflower: Is It Neutral and Normal Because It’s White?
- which was partly in reply to a post of mine: Are most white people benevolently clueless
- How racism helps and hurts white people
- What this blog has taught me about white people
- the single story
- just world doctrine
- racelessness – the opposite of race conscious
- white gaze
Is it just White Americans?
Here is an article about the rising racism in the UK:
http://www.clivedavisconfab.com/2009/11/at-the-coffee-house/
Here is an article about the rising racism in China (interesting since China is investing heavily in African resources):
http://www.forbes.com/2009/11/08/china-race-racism-opinions-columnists-reihan-salam_print.html
I know that you cannot comment on all racism worldwide, but I don’t think White Americans hold a monopoly on racism. Racism is international – and unfortunately, Blacks are always the target.
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Whites hold the power and the ability to hurt other peoples more than others do.
We aren’t Chinese.
We comment on the pervasive White American racism that they are so eager to deny.
It’s pertinent to us as Americans.
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[…] Jerk Love Abagond was kind to comment on my post about Whire folk thinking they’re neutral all the time with his usual […]
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Hey Abagond. Ain’t by to visit you in ages; sorry for that. When I redid my link list awhile back, yours got left out.
Anyhoo, Wildflower rocks. I’ll be back again.
~Kit
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Cool.
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Whites hold the power and the ability to hurt other peoples more than others do.
We aren’t Chinese.
We comment on the pervasive White American racism that they are so eager to deny.
It’s pertinent to us as Americans.
You mean we aren’t in China? LOL.
Do you not realize that they are putting racism into context when comparing it to North America versus internationally? Did you not know that they treat their culluds better than any other place in the world? Why, the culluds should be grateful! That is my interpretation of what Jamdown’s post is actually saying, albeit I am being facetious. Oh, he/she, manages to throw in a dollop of paternalism for good measure. Racism is international – and unfortunately, Blacks are always the target.
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I get what you’re saying.
I got that Jamdown was trying to derail an uncomfortable argument in one of the usual fashions–so and so does this too, so we aren’t bad after all. And everybody hates Nigras anyway, so there.
Typical.
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Jamdown:
I fail to see how racism in China affects ny argument. I never claimed White Americans had a monopoly on racism.
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I never quite understand why all of us non-whites are ‘people of colour’. I mean, pink/white is a colour too, isn’t it?
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