An amazingly arrogant, dreadfully disempowering, patronising, stereotype stoking, emetically emasculating, nauseatingly narcissistic, rancidly racist, sneeringly superficial, heavily humourless, divisive bag of gas converted into keystrokes.
S08 RI Forum
We liked this so much we recommended it as a CopyPasta resource in our Workers Alliance New Knowledge foundation this month, and awarded it our "Monthly along with this which may be of interest..." Award
American Dreamboat, Associate Professor of Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V Semiotic Antisemitism
Universidad de la Confusa
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American Dream » Tue Jan 27, 2015 7:36 pm wrote:This may be of interest:
http://www.paulkivel.com/index.php?opti ... &Itemid=15I'M NOT WHITE I'M JEWISH: STANDING AS JEWS IN THE FIGHT FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
I MUST ADMIT THAT I HAD SOME HESITATION over accepting the invitation to participate in a conference on whiteness because, as an activist, I am skeptical about the usefulness of academic gatherings unless they are explicitly addressing grassroots community issues.
** As a someone who has done a lot of facilitation and training, this is an astonishingly graceless way to begin an interaction with a group. It is putting the person in a 1-Up position with the audience.
I need to state at the beginning that I am writing this article1 because I hope this process contributes to ending racism and anti-Semitism. For me, the only reason to talk about these issues is to guide our action.
I come from a long Jewish tradition of using words and our intellectual tools and tradition as a guide for survival, struggle and liberation.
** What does this cloud word nonsense? We talked a lot growing up? We had to speak to others? We used words a lot?
My fear about academic discussion being divorced from real world affairs was proven by the conference itself. The conference occurred during a respite from the threat of a further bombing of Iraq, although the war continues through the economic sanctions. Every day hundreds of people, mostly children, die from lack of food and medical supplies. The local context for the conference was the daily attacks and raids on immigrant communities occurring just outside of the Riverside campus.
Both of these situations are a direct result of institutional racism but were rarely even mentioned during the course of the conference.
** This is using a propaganda technique. Stack lots of true statements together then add a ringer at the end which will be perceived as following from the previous statements.
Institutional racism directly causes children dying in Iraq??
The title of my article comes from a story I relate in my book, Uprooting Racism.
A colleague and I were doing a workshop on racism and we wanted to divide the group into a caucus of people of color and a caucus of white people, so that each group could have more in-depth discussion. Immediately some of the white people said, "But I'm not white."
I was somewhat taken aback because although these people looked white
** So a person is 'white' if that is how they look to the speaker?!!....
they were clearly distressed about being labeled white. A white, Christian woman stood up and said, "I'm not really white because I'm not part of the white male power structure that perpetuates racism." Next a white gay man stood up and said, "You have to be straight to have the privileges of being white." A white, straight, working class man from a poor family then said, I've got it just as hard as any person of color." Finally a straight, white middle class man said, "I'm not white, I'm Italian."
My African-American co-worker turned to me and asked, "Where are all the white people who were here just a minute ago?" Of course I replied, "Don't ask me, I'm not white, I'm Jewish!"
* "I'm not white, I'm Jewish ? Really?
With a little analysis we can see how each of these "I'm not white" people in reality benefits a great deal from white skin privilege including better schools, better jobs, better housing and better police protection than people of color.
** More division and separation here than a Playtex bra advert from the 60s. Where is the 'little analysis'??!! Keep a look out for it.
What is disturbing about this story is not the ignorance, denial and confusion that those of us who are white feel about being white—
** Where has this come from? Where is HIS confusion (he said we)? I am still waiting for "a little analysis". This is pulling 'proof' out of his backside.... "Look, it's proved!"
but how paralyzing this confusion becomes when we're needed by people of color to be allies of theirs.
** Having proved this by mere assertion, he has now raced on to how 'paralysing the confusion is"! This guy is quite the associational logic-free zone.
How can we be effective allies when we are stuck trying to sort out whether and in what ways we are white?
** This is associational thinking that portrays people as stupid and confused and differences of perception as something bad.
I guess this question could, in fact, characterize the dilemma of the conference and of all of us who were participants. How can we be effective allies to people of color in the fight to end racism when we are focused on the meaning of whiteness?
** And Voila! A False Dichotomy has now been set up
If our examination of the meaning of whiteness leads to deeper understanding of racism and more effective strategies for combating it then we will have taken a step forward. But it will be neither simple nor easy to do so.
** Why not?
We come to this confusion because of the history of anti-Semitism and racism and the ways to which white Christian ruling classes have used these to divide, confuse and exploit us.
**And here is the Zinger! The "confusion" might not just be a diversity of opinion and perceptions
NO NO NO - it is due to Anti-Semitism and Evil Xtians!!!
Then more
- innit