My philosophy of writing is to write the truth as best I can in the fewest, simplest words possible, avoiding saying anything that is outright unclear or untrue. Something I got from George Orwell, James Baldwin and especially Thucydides.
That is my aim, not always achieved.
Only the truth is worth writing. Anything else is a waste of time. That is why I use a pen name – that way I do not have to guard my thoughts or my words.
When I have trouble saying something or I say it and it comes out a mess, it is mainly because I am avoiding the truth, I am not being straight. Likewise when I find myself using too many long words.
I try to write in terms of facts and arguments. I know that people are not as simple as that, that they are not just thinking machines, that they have hearts and loves and loyalties and that they have a dark side too that they do not want to look at.
I know all that – I am like that too – but I do not have a rhetoric that can reach that part of them. I am neither poet nor prophet nor adman. As a boy I was not even a good liar: my mother could see right through me. The truth is the only rhetoric I know.
It does not always work. I tend to blame my writing. I think that maybe if I say it some other way, then they would understand. You see that in this blog where I write about the same thing from different angles, like “Whites are still racist” and “white privilege”. It was the same post written two different ways.
I run into the biggest trouble when I step on the self-image of certain people. So far it has been thin black women, fat feminist women and white people. The last one I expected, the first two blindsided me.
It is hard for me to talk to such people. I find myself talking in circles, repeating myself, rarely getting through. Maybe part of them just does not want to understand. But maybe I am not saying it right.
I keep thinking there is some set of magic words and that if I say them the scales will drop from their eyes and they will see just what I see and understand just what I understand. Maybe I am too new at this or maybe it is impossible. I cannot tell which it is.
With thin women and fat women it is not so important. I hate being misunderstood, but I could learn to live with it in their case. Cut my losses, move on and all that. But with white people it is way more serious. Their blindness affects the whole country. If nothing is done, one way or another, it will affect even my grandchildren.
See also:
- Why write?
- The post that I wrote two different ways:
- rhetoric
- ad copy
- my own rules for writing
- classic prose style
- Some more rules for my blog
” You see that in this blog where I write about the same thing from different angles, like “Whites are still racist” and “white privilege”. It was the same post written two different ways. ”
tell us more about the relationship between racism and white privilege.
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Much of what blacks experience as racism, whites experience as privilege. They are two sides of the same coin. So when I wrote the post on white privilege I just thought of cases of racism I knew of and put it in terms of how whites benefit.
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when i first read of this concept of white privilege i found it on peggy mcIntosh’s site. there is an extensive list here:
http://geekaygee.wordpress.com/2008/06/25/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack/
now if i can avoid making a perfect and irretrievable ass of myself let me pose the next question:
1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
this is the first listed privilege. plz apply your rule and define the specific corresponding racism which begets this privilege. yes im asking you to answer for another persons definition of privilege.
as a side note would there be reasons other than racism to live in a gated community.
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This is a huge privilege, one I need to add to my post: blacks have to live in a white world, but whites do not have to live in a black world. The reason I missed it is because there are white privileges that come not from racism but demographics.
On the other hand, while the country as a whole is 75% white, most whites live in places that are far whiter than that. That comes from racism, not from simple demographics.
Unless you are very rich, if you live in a place that is less than 1% black, as many whites do, there is a good chance racism had a hand in that. I gave an example of how this works in “Whites are still racist”. See #4 and #5:
Also look at this about sundown towns:
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” #4. About 90% of suburban whites live in a place that is less than 1% black. It is not because blacks cannot afford to live there: about 9% of the American middle-class is black. I am a part of that “missing” 8% so I know where it went and why:
#5. When I got married and wanted to move out of New York, I was shown a dozen or so houses in this one place that was south of some railroad tracks, but only one house to the north of those tracks: a small, strange-shaped house no one wanted. The people north of tracks were no richer than I was – but they were white. South of the tracks, where I was shown so many houses, was where the blacks lived. ”
are you saying that whites are still racist because a real estate agent did not show you houses north of the railroad tracks.
im not a real estate agent.
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sundown towns:
” One sign in Hawthorne, California in the 1930s said, “Nigger, don’t let the sun set on you in Hawthorne.” Blacks were allowed in town during the day to work but had to leave before nightfall. ”
clearly racist sentiment by a city council or other governing body in the 1930s which sentiment and racism and hatred i categorically condemn.
this translates to my understanding of racial relations in what way?
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” On the other hand, while the country as a whole is 75% white, most whites live in places that are far whiter than that. That comes from racism, not from simple demographics. ”
i live in the western united states. there are vast geographic areas where there is no significant black population. there are significant hispanic populations who tend to migrate to those places seeking employment. plz be clear. if a person lives in a geographic area in which there in not a significant black population how do we understand that persons relationship to blacks.
” That comes from racism, not from simple demographics. ”
plz explain this sentence.
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roger, you said:
are you saying that whites are still racist because a real estate agent did not show you houses north of the railroad tracks.
im not a real estate agent.
Yes, I am saying that. It is not just one real estate agent. I have lived most of my life near colour lines like that in and near New York City. They are not an accident. They are created by white racist bankers, real estate agents and homeowners.
I am not saying that you, roger, are racist because of it. As far as I know you had nothing to do with it. I think you said you live out west.
But I am offering it as an example of the sort of thing that still goes on.
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I offered sundown towns as a precursor of what is going on now.
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Right, some parts of the country are whiter or blacker than others.
About half of blacks are middle-class. So if you live in a middle-class neighbourhood, it should have the percentage of blacks of the region as a whole divided by 2.
Example: if 16% of the people are black who live in your metro area (or county if you live far from any big city), then your neighbourhood (or high school) should be 8% black. Not 16% because not all blacks can afford to live there. But not 3% or 1% either – that means blacks are being kept out.
That is just my rule of thumb to give you a rough idea. Maybe civil rights organizations have better measures.
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Roger: since this issue keeps coming up – racism in the housing market – I will do a post on it some time next week.
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Very insightful. Only correction: the U.S. is actually 66% non-Hispanic white, according to the last census. According to a current news item, non-Hispanic whites will be a minority by 2042.
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