I write poems not anger.
so you think that you can make grandiose statements about "all white men" but i can't make an educated guess that your comment is an example of internal racism? surely ye jest?
Jon1, I do not believe that the statements made as regards white privilige and how it is manifest in the world were "grandiose". Grandiose means that something is exagerated inorder to impress, in this case, the other readers of this thread.
I know that many white men do not "feel" priviliged but that does not mean they are not the recepients of privilige. Just because an individual does not feel something does not, in any way, prove that a certain dynamic, object...does not exist. Certainly the individual or group can be unaware of many aspects of their environment. And in this case, because the US has been led by, governed by, white people for so long a great deal of the privilige is simply...it is like the old fish in the water story where the water is so dominant a reality that the fish does not see it.
This is even more so the case when discussing oppression. If a woman is talking to me about some of the struggles she faces as a woman how can I, as a man, really tell her that she is wrong. I can not. Now obviously if she says that 1,000 men have guns pointed at her she is out of touch with consensual reality and I can certainly confidently know that. But that is really all I can know. There is simply no way that me, as a man, can understand the internal world of a woman in this culture. I probably can only be a bit aware of the external factors in her life but in terms of understand how she experiences this society and what her emotions are about that. I really owe it to her and to myself to take a position of deep humility.
Now from that position of humility one can certainly think critically about any statement anybody makes. But I am trying to lay out a basic format of respect when discussing an oppression that one group faces when you or I are not part of that group.
It is your decision whether or not you want to try and adopt the above perspective. But you are also responsible for refusing to take on a perspective of respect towards others.
if you had read my comments from the first one and not been so busy worrying about trite "anger" innuendos made, you'd figure out that i said quite a lot about internal racism and what it means as applied to you. i wasn't personally attacking you at all - i meant that in the academic sense based on the previous remarks you left.
Jon, when you write statements like "been so busy worrying about trite anger innuendos" you are first off basically saying that someones sense of respect or being the target of un-explained rage are not important...that in your opinion they are making a big deal out of nothing. But this is a huge mistake in a philosophical and personal sense. Again, how you view the world is not how others do and it is not particularly helpful to totally invalidate other peoples views, especially if they are trying to point out how they feel.
Now you have written many times about how people in this thread are lumping all white people together. But what are you doing when you say that you have written a lot about internal racism "and what it means as applied to you"
You barely know the person. But you feel very confident that your general comments about IR apply to her. Lets have it be one way or the other ok? Either there are situations where one can make general statements about a large group of people and, if they mirror objective conditions, such statements can be considered valid. Or not. If you want white people to be thought of with a great deal of respect and thought of both as a group but also as individuals then it would seem prudent to model that approach when you write. You do not do that and it makes me want to know what is really going on.
how do you suppose to know everything about the white male race (which includes me) based on the comments you made here?
If knowing that white men receive priviliges is the same as knowing everything about them then I guess there is not much worth knowing about white men and since I am a white man I most ardently disagree.
it just so happens that the folks in this category are mostly black and hispanic.
It just so happens? What does that mean? Would you be bold enough to say that the economic, educational, societal conditions of black and hispanic people...just so happens. I mean, I can not think of one example where something "just happens." Again, this is a philosophy forum and I do believe in the fundamental logic of cause and effect. I know that there is a great deal that can be discussed about cause and effect but for now lets just accept, for argument sake, that all things have causes. What are the causes for the low educational levels in poor communities and communities of color.
We are not talking about a few isolated cases here. If that were true then your points would have merit. We are talking about the vast percentage of the communities of color in this nation. Now I suppose it is theoretically possible that a repeated and repeated phenomena can "just happen" but I can not come up with one example.
It's very interesting to me that i never once met an Asian in the United States who whined about the system holding him/her back, in spite of the harsh treatment and systematic racism once waged by the US government against them via Chinese labor of transcontinental railroads/anti-chinese immigration laws/Japanese detainment camps, WWII. they study hard, go to college, get good-paying jobs, all while overcoming the language barrier. many obtain college scholarships and they're actually proud to be American! and they never petitioned the government in the spirit the black community did to make EBONICS a legal form of black language.