The voice of colour is the idea that, all things being equal, people of colour are better able to speak about racism than whites because they experience it directly. That might seem like common sense, but not to most White Americans, who believe in:
The voice of whiteness – the idea whites are better at talking about racism, about anything, in fact, because whites presume themselves to be fair-minded, unaffected by the colour of their skin, by race, by race loyalty. It is one of the Rules of Racial Standing – the rules by which whites process the truth of statements according to the race of the speaker. In America it is why:
- in most court cases where race matters the jury (and judges) will be nearly all white.
- it is hard for a black person to win a job discrimination suit without white witnesses.
- whites think blacks are emotional thinkers.
- whites think blacks imagine racism.
- Tim Wise can make a living by repeating stuff people of colour say.
Because they trust the judgement of whites over people of colour, even (or especially) when it comes to racism. Whites trust voices of colour only in so far as they agree with the voice of whiteness. Thus Rented Negroes.
Strictly speaking both the voice of colour and voice of whiteness are a logical fallacy, an ad hominem: judging the truth of statements according to who makes them. From the point of view of logic, statements are true or false regardless of who makes them – they stand or fall based on facts and reason. Experts in a field might be able to make better arguments, but they must still stand on their own.
In practice, however, the race of the speaker does matter. Whites leave out racism, play it down or fail to know even the simplest facts about it. Karl Marx, for example, lived in a time when whites kept blacks as slaves and wiped out native people to take their land – yet, despite his vast reading, thinking and writing about Western history and the nature of its society, he said little about racism.
It is not what you might think – a simple lack of direct experience of racism. At least not in the case of White Americans. After all, they do not seem to have the same trouble in knowing, understanding and talking about, say, anti-Semitism or toxic waste. White people have brains. There are tons of written accounts of racism. They can read. It goes deeper than that.
Instead it is their Fragile White Ego: They base too much of their self-image as good people on being white, as strange as that sounds. Yet it is the absurdity of that position – and deep down they know perfectly well how absurd it is – that makes them avoid any deep examination of racism. It becomes like that thing your uncle did that no one wants to talk about.
See also:
[…] The voice of colour is the idea that, all things being equal, people of colour are better able to speak about racism than whites because they experience it directly. That might seem like common sen… […]
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For sure i blab a lot on this blog, but let me make it perfectly clear, i defer to black people to define what living in a racist world is like for them
Im still going to run my mouth, but, I agree with your point Abagond
Good point about Marx, and most white political agendas
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‘It is why in most court cases where race matters the jury (and judges) will be nearly all white.”
Spot on abagond. just look at the trayvon martin jury they are mostly white women and one woman of color, that is more than likely a latino, who probably identifies as white. And all the other past trials dealing with a black person allegedly killing someone or doing something during jim crow had all white jurors, if they weren’t lynched first.
In white ppls minds they are the ones who get to say whether something is fair or not, they created the laws and the constitution. HAHAHA its funny to me that they act so unbiased, look at their founding fathers, they owned slaves yet they say every man is created equal, yes sir the white man is unbiased even when he owned slaves he was unbiased enough to contradict himself and say every man is equal while looking down on black ppl. But I guess we weren’t considered ppl so there goes my argument.
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Non-hispanic whites account for 45.0% (City of Sanford) 66.3% (Seminole County), meaning that we should have about 4-6 non-white jurors if it followed the general population
.
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Jefe, there are only six jurors.
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Personally when it comes to race, I don’t listen to a white person’s story- precisely because of this. From their actions to their thoughts it is contradictory.
PS: Abagond- what did you think about the Dark Girls documentary? I would like to know (if you watched that is)
Follow me on AdreamAwishandDetermination.blogspot.co.uk
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“After all, they do not seem to have the same trouble in knowing, understanding and talking about, say, anti-Semitism or toxic waste” very true, and maybe its because those are things that affects whites, and so they care mostly when it affects them and not everybody else. Which is the reason u have all these whites mad that the government is spying on them, yet they were ok with cointelpro . They complain when they have to go to the airport and be searched, yet aren’t as vocal when its blacks and latinos being profiled via stop and frisk.
rofl abagond where did u find this pic. is that her hand or is that a man’s hand. if it is her hand it don’t match, she looks kinda young but her hand looks old. If that is a mans hand wtf he doing with his hand over her mouth ,kidnapping her? then he has his thumb all in her eye smh. nasty mf don’t know where ur hands been.
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True! – the Fragile White Ego
If it hurts one’s feelings to acknowledge that racism exists, the problem will not be dealt with.
When I speak about racism to my family members of European heritage I get any of the following:
* silence
* blame the victim
* “every culture has their racists and oppressors so stop talking about it because your negative attitude is depressing me”
* a nod with no solutions proposed and no blaming of their own oppressive white culture
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I’m dealing with a case of someone with a severely Fragile White Ego in my blog right now.
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With Love Glenn
I’m dealing with 3 out of 4 of those reactions right now in my post about Paula Deen.
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Interesting comment about Karl Marx, he was one of the big three that Dr.Welsing discussed in her book the Isis Papers ,the other two being Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud – all three allegedly jewish – which dr.Welsing further deducted to be Semites – half black half white.
This is one of the reasons I remain profoundly impressed by the scope of her intellect as compared with three of the alleged greatest minds of european culture.
Kinda reminds me of how Alexander the great turned from Ethiopia because he didn’t want to risk defeat at the hands of a black woman – Candace of Meroë.
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The voice of color is going to take a hit, bow that the voting rights have changes 😦
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The things Tim Wise says whites will pay attention to. The very same things Black people say he (Wise) says and he is payed handsomely for this. Go figure.
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@jefe, that would still mean 3 to 4 jurors should be non-white, which is more than 1.
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@Mstoogood4yall; That is a masculine. Maybe she is a Latina and it’s a white man’s hand trying to silence her.
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@Mstoogood4yall: She is a POC and the White man is trying to silence her voice.
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@ Brotha Wolf: Reading is so fundamental. Regarding the Paula Deen thread. It said she admitted to making the offensive statements. Yet that commenter didn’t want to admit the obvious. Even Anne Rice is defending her. I saw that commenter’s blog. It was quite telling why he was responding the way he did on your blog. That commenter is a perfect example of this thread post.
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@Mstoogood4yall: Yes, They said all men were created equal, while saying Black people were 3/5 of a human being.
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mary burrell,
The commenter’s excuse for not wanting to believe it was because it was reported by the media. White people, especially the more overt racist and conservative white people, do not trust the liberal media, especially when it comes to white-on-black racism. And they get hysterical when a black-on-white crime occurs. they complain that the same media doesn’t cover the crime nearly as much if the races were reversed.
When I tried to explain it to him, he refused to see it. He spent most of the time arguing that I was being racist – to which I admitted, attacking his character, and would not see his POV.
This guy pulled every broken record from his collection, including black crime, racism against whites and mentioning his black best friend who told him he was thankful for slavery! This is no lie.
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In this video fox news interviews Paul Sorvino and after he tells them he’s more than a gangster they start laughing at him and tell him they want to see him in a “Goodfellas” type movie again. I believe he is treated just as bad as what is described here. But these types of Italians aren’t included in the “POC” club.
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@ Faith
I did not see “Dark Girls” – but I am now officially glad Oprah has a channel of her own where she can show stuff like that – since apparently no one else will. She did so little on race on her talk show that I was not holding my breath about OWN.
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@ Mary @ Ms Too Good
I chose that picture at the top of the post because it shows a someone silencing a person of colour. It is taken from a poster protesting the rape of Native Canadian women:
http://chiefelk.tumblr.com/post/40877603944/every-year-v-day-has-a-global-spotlight-to
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@ Kiwi
If you run a blog you do kind of have to answer the racist zombies (or ban them), at least half the time, either you or one of your commenters. Not so much for the benefit of the zombie – who is pretty much a lost cause – but for lurkers. A hundred times more people lurk than comment.
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“But these types of Italians aren’t included in the “POC” club.”
– – –
I’ve met a lot of italian Americans who’d probably pull out their own hair (or yours) at the very thought that they should be viewed or as ‘classified’ non-whites, or “PoC”.
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*viewed or ‘classified’ as…
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“I chose that picture at the top of the post because it shows a someone silencing a person of colour. It is taken from a poster protesting the rape of Native Canadian women:”
sorry but that looks like a white female – person of color – like the majority of “white” people with hair and eyes as black or blacker then many “black” people.
kiwi said –
There is a point where spending your energy to educate people who refuse to learn is futile. Your efforts are just pearls before swine. Do yourself a favor and save your strength. Is it really worth your time?
I get the impression (rightly or wrongly) that you spend more time responding to trolls than to commenters who care. I wasn’t sure why it seemed that way, but now I see.
………………..
I generally feel the same way ,now I’m not above dishing out a little smack down now and then ,but most of the exchanges between commenters and “trolls” does appear to be futile and redundant
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Well, then the burning question is: Why do Black people follow white people wherever we go if we’re so wicked, racist, and evil. Always trying to move into the white neighborhood, insisting that the really good “white” school should be forced to accept more Blacks, so the white students and the teachers can be beaten and assaulted with all the violence swept under the rug. Every city has mall that’s a crime ridden dumo universally known as the Mall The White People Used To Go To. We’re the Devil Incarnate but you want to live next door to us.
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White people don’t want Blacks living next to them. Black people are not following them around.
Prison Guard, eh?
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