Can there be a more racist piece of f*cking sh*t on American television than this show called "Aliens in America"?How in the hell can anyone at CBS-Paramount think a show about a Muslim exchange student from Pakistan, who plays "coon-face" for post-9/11 America, would be anything but offensive?
I ask this question knowing full well that this country (the US) is filled with f*cking racist neanderthals who think all Muslims are aliens from a planet called "Terrorism".
Still broer. How stupid can whiteness get hey? Is there a level of depravity it can't reach beyond?
But don't take it from me, watch episodes here.
I just had the displeasure of seeing "Raja" the Muslim teenager embody all the "cooning" genuis of JJ from "Good Times" except he is prudish and Orientalized just like Joe Sixpack may expect.In the episode I watched tonight, Raja, which is not a Muslim name by the way, is found working in a (wait for it) convenience store. A big part of the 'plot' revolves around him administering the sale of alcohol with legal conviction.
Huh?
Raja is a staunch Muslim kid who won't watch people kiss on TV but he will sell alcohol without even a hint of religious conscience. Go figure broer!
As usual, whiteness is displayed against the backdrop of the habitually pathological Other and its uncomplex character. In this context the race hierarchy is kept intact with all the symbols of white complexity and dexterity in place.
Raja plays the 'brown-faced' buffoon who is in-service to the typically conflicted white kids who wanna get laid but can't, wanna drink but can't, and just don't get why the whole f*cking world is so stupid except them, of course.
Will a time arrive in American mass culture when brown and Black people are more than just dysfigured and racialized figments of the white imagination?
Is this even possible?
I am tired of this kind of bullsh*t. Tired of the manner in which racist stereotypes are reproduced for the less than deft masses that inhabit this intellectual and moral wasteland of Bushizm.
Yeah I know that these are damning and broad brush strokes. And I can't hardly wait for the d*ckwad who is gonna come on here and invite me to go back to Africa.
Or, the racist f*ckwit who is going to tell me that "my elephant is double parked" like happened on my girl Nunya's blog today.
I frankly don't care to be circumspect in this regard.
It is high time that whiteness takes stock of itself and stops pissing on the degraded bodies of color it can't but mine for its survival. Maybe after taking some historical stock whiteness can tell us who the real f*cking "Aliens in America" are.
CBS-Paramount should be ashamed of dropping this bullsh*t when that maniac in the CrackHouse is busy murdering innocent Iraqis and Afghans.
Is that not enough degradation?
Oh yeah, today is another one of those days when a rightly aimed cap in the ass of whiteness will do me just fine.
Now where did I put my AK47?Onward!
33 comments:
SO, I guess there is a new piece of shit show on Mondays??!
Unfortunatly, there is so much racism in the media. You know the average idiot believes in what they see, so its DANGEROUS to have these stereotypes.
Be careful with the caps in whiteness, I was just reported for being a mobster/terrorist myself... g'dam *&*&^%%$$!!!!!!!
lol.
Its time for a show on public access :) theres an idea! -> those can be some topics and you can be real controversial. I would LOVE to help with that. How about a goofy segment called pin the devils tail on bush. Pin the penise on Hillary. The police are comming now, gotta go :)
Have a good one
Dione
*Blank Stare* I see you too are contemplating becoming a member of the NRA! I agree, CBS should be held accountable for airing such a minstrel show when we have Jethro and em up at the trailer park park just havin a good ole time with not a care in the world!
I can't waite for the time when we can sit around the campfire and commence to whippin "white"house ass!
Hello Dione:
Even if I did not use the closing line and image, I would remain a terrorist in the imagination of whiteness.
I used to appear on a public access show here in PDX called "Brothers and Sisters Can We Talk?".
It was on at 5pm every Friday (live). And a former student of mine was the host.
I remember it fondly. Got known on that show too :0)
At first people would call in and say:"I agree with the middle eastern man: ...
But it changed over time, and then ... well you know.
It went on for about 2 years.
Good memory.
Peace,
Ridwan
The show appears on a channel called CW. But is produced by CBS-Paramount.
And yes it is a minstrel show!
Oh no Erica, I am nowhere near being or wanting to be an NRA supporter.
And I wonder if the NRA even allows members to own this 'communist tool' of guerilla revolution?
It would come as a surprise if they did. Maybe I should give their 'god' a call (Charlton Heston).
Please let me know when we sit around that fire ... I will bring a keg and some other nice things for the celebration!
I trust you are well sista.
Peace,
Ridwan
Ridwan,
I have noticed you always talk about white racism (in SA and beyond), white imperialism, the evil whites did this, the evil whites did that, but I am yet to see you address things that blacks do, in racial terms, unless of course they are the epitome of (at least according to you) 'good will.' Of course, you will deny there is systematic racism against whites in SA, or will, at the very best, dismiss my complaint as the product of my 'white imperialist' mindset. You will also no doubt vehemently deny that many (if not most) blacks hate whites and make no distinction between 'good' whites and 'bad' whites. In other words, judging people merely based on the colour of their skin, much like you accuse 'us' whites of doing. Ironically, we are extremely divided amongst ourselves, not quite the image you present of a united white movement or some sort of conspiracy against 'coloured' people that all whites are in one way or another party to... I should like to see you address, for once, black racism. That'd indeed be the day... I hope you will take up my offer/challenge (whatever you want to call it).
Ed Carson:
I started to read your comment and thought OK, so this expat South African who flies the old racist flag wants to debate.
Well that is what one can gather from your contrived ramblings about my alledged talk of "evil white" and "good will" Blacks.
Have you even read my blog?
Anyway, so I navigated over to your blog and this is the title of your newest post:
"Civilized kaffirs? An oxymoron"
At first I was simply just shocked that a white man will still use the term "kaffir" with such impunity.
It is afterall 2007 and the term is illegal in South Africa!
Moreover, the term is hurtful and brutal in the mouth of a white SAfrican.
For those of you who are not familiar with this term, Ed is essentially calling members of the Black government uncivilized
'niggers'.
And Ed wants me to take him serious.
I wonder if we were doing this face to face whether you would call me a 'kaffir' or a 'coolie' or a 'nigger'?
Would you be so 'brave' Ed?
I want to be frank, you and yours are the reason why we waged war against apartheid.
Our struggle to topple apartheid was a noble and moral endeavour that toppled racists like you from power.
So what is left Ed?
You are a loser who wanders without an anchor outside South Africa, holding onto the old flag your NP leaders sold, and you call the government and others
'kaffirs/niggers'.
What kind of meaninigless existential nothingness has life brought to you and yours?
Geez, so if you were so superior why do you think you lost it all?
And lost it to uncivilized
"kaffirs"?
What happened to the nonsense about the herrenvolk, die boere en die trek, they myth of invincibility?
I will tell you what happened. You were simply defeated.
Kids in the streets armed with just stones and moral fibre made your racist myth implode.
Your brutal wars and contrived religioisity could not deter these revolutionary children, ANC/PAC guerillas, Cuban forces, and good folks all across the world (of all races), who would not stand for apartheid.
In fact, the whole world rose up and slammed down the old racist republic of South Africa.
That pitiful boere flag was taken down and replaced by a new democratic reality.
Not a perfect reality, but a better one than apartheid no doubt.
Now there is nothing left for you Ed. And why would I want to debate you or any other racists like you?
To debate you would mean that I think you still have relevance.
You don't. Apartheid is no more. And, therefore, you are no more.
And whiteness is on the decline everywhere.
This means that in just historical moments you will hardly exisit anymore.
Your kind will just be a bad memory very soon.
But we will remember that you and yours stole our land, murdered, and raped among our people.
Still, I don't doubt your point that white people are not all the same. That goes without saying hey.
But the kind you represent is the kind no nation needs anymore. And certainly not post-apartheid SAfrica.
So Ed, we have nothing to debate. The racist crap you represent was defeated when we took up arms.
What your pathetic blog and comments here reflect are acts of a dying relic.
A vrot relic!
In a sense, you are already a dead man.
A dead man who should be thinking about the Black people who died at his and his peoples hands.
You should be begging for forgiveness and seeking redemption from the fire that will consume you eventually.
By the way Ed, how many Black people did you kill while you fought for your white right to rule an African country?
How many Ed? How many did your pa and boeties murder in the name of apartheid?
How many Black women did your pa and boeties rape while you looked the other way?
Do you remember what your people did in SAfrica and Zimbabwe?
Or are you in such denial that you can now live without moral conviction?
And what the hell you doing in the middle east now Ed? Making a living off the very kind of people you despise?
Or are you one of those murderous white SAfricans who have joined Bush to kill more brown people?
One thing I can say is that these hands of mine have never killed a single life ... and I have never stood idly by in the name of racism.
That is what makes you and I different.
There is no blood on these Black hands.
Amandla! (power to the people)
Ridwan
Dude,
I'm supposed to be studying for the midterm, but I had a conversation with my friend (I hope he can call me friend, anyway) that keeps distracting me and breaking my heart. He was trying to help some people evacuate and he got called "nigger."
I keep hoping we are more evolved than that.
Frightened people say stupid things. That's not excusing what she said, but I KNOW that white people are taught to fear brown people.
I know that in MY life, there's been a hell of a lot more brown people who reached out to help me when thing were rough than white people. Especially when it came to understanding human nature.
Anyway, thanks for the heads up on the teevee show, I think I can safely I can pass on that one.
I hateed that show with JJ on it. Even being raised in an all white neighborhood, it just seemed stupid to me.
I think everyone else covered Ed Carson's comments well. My question is, what in the hell is someone like you Ed, doing in the middle east. I went to your profile, and i'm shocked you would go there.
Your comments about whats happening in South Africa between white people, and not white people again, remind me of history. Hitlers Germany, and Isreal and Palestine. You immediatly try and make someone a savage, when you use the words Nigger, or Kaffir. I know you are well aware of this too, because after reading some of your stuff, it seems apparent that you are educated, however ignorant.
I will say, that Ridwan is not a racist, he like most intelligent individuals will give you the benefit of the doubt, untill you prove yourself to be an idiot. Fools can be any color. Thats pretty much the way I feel about it as well.
Look at the dedicated people who fought for rights in South Africa, people like Ron Dellums, you don't hear about as much anymore. They didn't put themselves out there for just black people. It was for people..
Dione
What I see this as is the continued self-apologetic behavior of many white folks. You see, many blacks are racist, and therefore the racist genocide and oppression done by white folks is OK. And those who benefit and privilege from said racism and genocide can now rest happily as you see, they claim it happens to whites as well.
Yeah...OK...
Obviously Ed has NOT been reading your blog, or doing SELECTIVE reading of your blog.
"We don't have to look at ourselves. We can continue to commit oppressive crimes because now there are blacks benefitting from our implaced whiteness. Now whites are having racism enacted against them, and therefore all racism is just fine."
Take responsibility for his own racist behavior... Take responsibility from the privilege gained to himself at the hand of genocide and oppression... NEVER! He never has, he never will. This type of privilege sees itself as the end all and be all of the universe. There is no end all and be all, but he will NEVER see it that way.
That said, genocidal behavior is a commonly accepted practice in the states here I'm discovering. If you go to Akha.org, you will find a post about Sprague High School principal, Cheryl Bowen is complicit in the crime of genocide against the Akha in SE Asia. I sent her an e-mail pointing this out with the actual law, and she is alleging to pass it on to her superiors...blah blah blah.
This is one f***ed up world and things have gotta change.
It is with shock that I read the utter racist rubbish on this blog. It is time that you get over apartheid as an excuse for your own uselessness.
You are becomming as pathetic as the American Afro Americans who are still bitching about slavery.
Pathetic.
And yet another colonial racist sticks their tired ass in here.
Listen, I will put my credentials up against all the sh*t you stole from my people and I bet I still come out ahead.
And I achieved my stuff while you stood on my back like a parasite.
If you can't understand the analysis here don't get all pissy.
Black folk and fair minded others don't give a sh*t about your wank.
You are not in charge anymore.
And what is "pathetic" is your sorry and deluded ass.
By the way, you should know that the term is African American or Black.
Go and school your ignorance before you attempt to fight outside your weight class.
Ridwan
My Dear Anonymous......you are a tired, useless, cowardly asshole who probably don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of. I suggest you leave you're trailer park mentality somewhere else and go fuck yourself.
Now go and as you say.....bitch about THAT! (cowardly son of a bitch)
Hey Ridwan I want to believe that most whites who are still in South Africa want to contribute to nation building as to how I am sure we will always differ because of our background. I believe that those who could not see themselves being ruled by a black man chose the easy way out left the country. Ed Carson is one of them, in their twisted minds they thought South Africa would collapse so we disappointed them. They are now embracing their newly found moral high ground and are trying to rubbish everything that South Africa does. They are trying everything in their power to discourage FIFA to host World cup in South Africa yet they never said a word when ICC brought world cup and T20 world cup. Some of them are coming back for what I don't know. they made their choices why can't they live with them. As for Anonymous I rest my case.
Muzi it is good to hear from you broer. I agree with you on white South Africans and their place.
Sobukwe and the early Pan-Africanists spoke of "loyalty to the continent" and to its peoples.
In these terms there is place for whites in South Africa.
What is needed is an ultimate loyalty to our soil and its contents.
Change in 1994 did not come with an ultimatum for whites to leave.
Thousands did and now live in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the US.
May they find happiness hey. But it is not that simple.
Among the expat community are some of the most vicious racists anywhere. They attack South Africa and Blacks every chance they can.
They live here in the US as first generation immigrants and hate African Americans just as much as they hate Africans on the continent.
I looked at some of the stuff on "Ed's" blog and it is an absolutely disgrace.
And he is not alone. There is another expat blog called "I hate South Africa" which even rivals "Ed" for its level of vile racism.
I do not highlight them here or in my work as an academic because they are irrelevant in terms of where we are in South Africa.
The lies and hatred that emanate from these sources cannot hide the fact that we declared South Africa a democracy for all.
That is more than the likes of "Ed" and "anonymous" were able to achieve in more than 450 years.
No-one has to agree with everything our leaders do in South Africa. We are a democracy.
Our votes count!
And we have a constitution that protects our basic human rights.
Where inside of our new dispensation is their a
"systematic plot" to "oppress" whites?
Yet this nonsense is flung around all the time by those who have an axe to grind, and these folks are often the same ones who want South Africa to fail.
Muzi you know we are going to be OK in 2010. And we are OK now too ... it has indeed been a long road to liberation.
That is what makes this era one that must be honoured and defended.
Thanks for writing broer, I was reading your two new posts earlier today.
Be well and thanks for writing.
Peace and struggle,
Ridwan
Dear Mr. Pathetic White Fella,
I know that the best way you can deal with the illegal occupation and the genocides that brought you here (if you're not in Europe, you're in an illegally occupied territory that you gain privilege from). I know it can be quite scary when you face up to the crimes that brought you to your privilege. But you see, here in the land of alleged equality, for us to get over it would be mighty convenient for...You. Then you wouldn't have to face justice for, say, living on stolen property (whether or not you paid for it, it is still stolen which makes your purchase null and void). I know all the slaughter, brutality and oppression are crimes that if you haven't committed, you gain privilege from, and are therefore complicit, and therefore criminal yourself, and therefore, what you are really saying is:
Dear people of color,
I don't want to have to face any justice for any crimes I may have committed, nor for any crimes that I am complicit in and gain privlege from. You see, people of color, the privileges I have gained illegally, I just don't want to give up. Mind you, as a white fella, I have the weight of the system set up for...white fellas. Therefore, even if you wanted any form of real justice, we as the privileged white fellas aren't gonna let you have it because we rule the roost ("It's my ball, we play by my rules or we don't play at all.")
I know this shit, Mr. Pathetic Anonymous White Fella. You all keep crying about never wanting to face justice for crimes committed or complicit in. Whah Whah Whah. What about us white folks. I hear it every time race is brought up. You consider yourselves the end all and be all. The superior master race. Well...you ain't. You ain't nothin' but a human being, and as a human being, you possibly have engaged in crimes against your fellow human beings or are complicit in crimes against you fellow human beings that brings you to the place of privilege to tell the victims of crimes that you benefit from to, "just get over it."
I would say you are just too chicken to face up to these crimes and want no justice in the world because it would effect your privilege. What do you say, Mr. Anonymous Pathetic White Fella?
Thanks for breaking it down Eugene. Damn brother, it is a daily task reminding whiteness about its history.
How can anyone just forget genocide, slavery, colonialism, apartheid, neo-colonialism, globalization, etc,?
Well you can when these oppressions are not weighing in your being. And you must 'try' to forget if you are a racist part of it all.
Yeah brother this is a crazy world.
The tone of Anonymous' post is one I know very well.
It is usual among many white SAfricans to express disdain with a closing comment like "pathetic" or the more popular one
"disgusting".
The manner in which these kinds of comments are levelled often includes a turning up the nose.
And it still goes on today. We are pathetic and disgusting and they are moral and brilliant, and more.
Whiteness is a delusion. And a pathology. I spend more time in my academic work on its socio-political histories.
But others, look at the manner that its histories have manifested in psychological diseases.
And when it comes to diagnosing the disease, denial and amnesia are primary symptoms.
Onward!
Ridwan
Eugene, that was an excellent post. Some of this should be used in a class room discussion about racism.
Dione
Back on my feet enough to be thoroughly appalled!
Sometimes, busting a cap is the only real answer, i swear.
"Ed" has written back but the post is too large to put here. So I will post a few pointing selections which refer to the body of his argument.
Let me begin by saying that I am still shocked by the level of racism that this post (and by implication my blog) has elicited in recent weeks.
So these are the paragraphs that constitute "Ed's" response:
--------------
Ridwan,
Yes, I have read your blog. I came across it via Tony Karon's blog..
I've read a number of your posts, and all of them revolved around the same 'concept', "blacks were oppressed, apartheid was bad, whites are evil, power to the people, onward soldiers of black supremacism!" These were mixed with humanities-type ramblings / 'analyses' about 'the Other' ...
You should know better than to dismiss one's argument based on one's character or set of beliefs.
I might not have had the chance to pursue a PhD, but I know quite a bit about academic discussions/debates and can identify fallacious argumentation in the blink of an eye.
You are afraid that the mere act of debating me would attach 'some' value to my otherwise (according to you) worthless arguments?
You are wrong about me on many counts.
... blacks are tribalists ... They have no independent thinking of their own. They like to follow because they can't make their own path in life.
You ask me if I would be 'brave' enough to call you a kaffir in your face. Courage is relative, isn't it. Some consider staying in SA an act of bravery. I consider it one of the highest stages of stupidity. Nonetheless, I think that if I was 'brave' enough to face a loaded gun, I'd be 'brave' enough to call you a kaffir.
No, you did not wage a 'war' to topple 'racists', or to 'liberate' SA. You waged a war for power.
And when they (blacks) are dealing with their equals in terms of mental capacity, it is all about 'marking territory' like animals do. Can you name one black African contribution to humanity, ...?
Africa belongs to those who value it and hold it in their hearts even when they are chased out by savages, not to those who squander its wealth and turn its fertile land into killing fields. I am African, blacks are NOT. They are invading hordes who can go and live elsewhere (and they will -- provided of course they survive famine and AIDS) in a little corner of Africa where they can feel free to kill each other 'till Jesus returns' ...
So when you say the term kaffir is illegal, do you really think I care about legality? I don't live in SA, so the 'law' does not apply to me. But even if I were and it did, what in God's name are you talking about china? You mean the law is in actuality APPLIED in SA? Are we talking about the same SA my friend? The SA where criminals roam the streets and rob people of their belongings in broad daylight, enter people's homes and torture and kill them (often for the sole 'crime' of having a white skin) with impunity...?
And you might think that you are doing your black brethren a favour by defending them against
'racists' like me, but what do you know you are complicit in the crime against them. You see where I'm going with this now, hey? Blacks hate us more than they love their kids / each other.
Yes, I am a wanderer. Pity you don't understand the soul of a wanderer. You don't feel what he feels, you don't know how much he yearns for home, a home that no longer is. You don't know what it feels like to be uprooted and banished from the only home you knew, or to be considered a foreign implant in the country that you love with all your heart and for which you would give your life (if only it would serve a purpose -- which staying in the country only to be killed by filthy black criminals most certainly does NOT). You know why you don't know what it feels like? Because you have not learnt a thing from apartheid.
You are right, there is nothing left for me now. But does that really make you feel good and victorious?
Another thing, the privilege issue. My family was never privileged.
Yes, there is nothing left for me now. I am a landless countryless wanderer, going to foreign lands and pretending like I belong there, or searching for a place I would feel I belong in, dreaming of a home, a country, every day, but knowing that I might never have it. So, Ridwan, you can add another star to you victory. I will never find that place, because that place -- the 'new' SA that we thought would materialize -- never was.
I have not laid a harmful hand on anyone. I have not stolen anyone's land, murdered, or raped anyone. I refuse to bear the guilt of what others might have done, just because they share the colour of my skin. You want whites to suffer from collective guilt for the acts of the few, while absolving the minority of 'innocent' blacks of the guilt of the majority of their brethren who go around raping, torturing, decapitating, etc.
You know nothing about my moral convictions. Nothing about my past. Nothing about my experiences. I have seen the hatred in their eyes. Ever had that moment, a loaded gun in your face, where even the smallest whisper can put a bullet in your head? You look in their eyes and all you see is boundless hate and thirst for the blood of a white person?
I have tried hard to learn the language (Arabic), not because it would help me 'make a living off the people' I presumably despise, but because of my genuine interest in Arab culture and history (unlike blacks who have not contributed ANYTHING to humanity, Arabs boast of a rich history of scientific and philosophical contributions). I have never felt safer than I feel today, living in the midst of Arabs. They appreciate my skills and express willingness to learn and share knowledge. They do not bring race or religion into the equation. They just do business ...
I do have issues, though, with those who are not only uncivilized, but also refuse to be civilized, and what's more, fight those who are civilized. I KNOW GOOD WHEN I SEE IT. Black Africans are up to no good. Even the Arabs, many of whom live/work/invest in Africa, tell me this. If anyone is irrelevant in the 21st century of modernity and advancement, it is the blacks, who STILL cannot solve the problem of famine that white Europe and practically the rest of the world solved centuries ago.
You want to talk about victory? Victory can only be achieved when you can safeguard human dignity, my friend. And blacks are centuries away from getting through their thick skulls what human dignity is all about. You can't preach HUMAN dignity to a bunch of farm animals, can you? Well, that's essentially what trying to explain to blacks about human dignity compares to.
________________
Ed ,why dont ya put on your white sheet with the eyes cut out, then your set aye. You are a eurocentric, white supremacist, racist piece of *&$#.
Respect to my bro Ridwan
Ana
"Ed" I am still stunned at the level of debasement to which you will go when describing Blacks.
This is not a debate. I still believe you are irrelevant to where we are in South Africa, and where we are as human beings in 2007.
I have decided to put your comment here because many of my students read these exchanges and it may be of interest to them to see the inhumane violence your commentary portrays.
Black people are Africans and Africans are a complex mosaic of many civilizations that trace back to more than your narrow and racist assumptions about what constitutes "humanity".
You were obviously scarred by some violent experience that has soured you. And I assume that you have family back there and worry about their safety.
I know everything about not being a citizen in your country. Apartheid defined me as coloured and 'managed' my humanity accordingly.
I left when I was 17. Left my family to fight apartheid from outside.
And I am proud of standing tall and fighting apartheid with all my being.
In South Africa I learned that whites hated me and despised me.
Just down the street from my childhood home the police and secutity forces murdered children in the streets of Galashewe because they were 'Bantu' or the 'kaffirs' you still want to deride today.
Young white men clad in uniforms made our lives a misery and we fought for freedom not power.
Our struggle is much more complex than what you want to believe.
But I don't want to tell you about what we lived ... you make a mockery out of our oppression.
SAfrica is no doubt beset by crime today. I have been a victim of a violent car jacking that put me in an emergency room.
I am not unique though. Thousands of people suffer crime each day.
And the vast majority of victims are black.
The statistics are clear. Black people suffer the consequences of violence at greater rates than whites. A black person is twice as likely to be a victim of violent crime than a white person.
Still, crime aimed at anyone is wrong and harmful to our beautiful country and its development.
But, to put things in perspective we need to avoid paranoia.
A recent UCT study has shown that white men are more likely to commit suicide than to be killed by black folk.
So I am always shocked that many whites think they are singled out for murder. This is absolutely nonsense.
Many whites seem to be comforted by the distortion of crime.
But let it be known that crime in South Africa is directed at all. There is no race war against white people.
Still, one can have this wrong opinion and not have to stoop to the inhumane racism of likening black people to "a bunch of farm animals".
And the word "kaffir" is a telling signal about your mentality.
You find nothing wrong in waving your hand across the face of millions of people with contempt that looks just like Nazism.
I get the feeling that you would be pleased if a genocidal tide rose and killed all black people so you could return to the farms of your childhood.
This is what is brutal savagery. Not the kind that looks like animals but worse.
I don't know any animal who would hurl this kind of hatred at millions of innocent people.
Also, don't get me twisted into apartheid categories "Ed".
I am a black man and follower of Lembede, Sobukwe, Biko, Fanon, Malcolm X, etc.
None of these leaders hated white people. In fact all called on white people to live in peace and work toward greater measures of universal humanity.
I am also human and no manner of hating what has been done to my people will reduce me to the savagery of your comments on the nature of blacks.
In fact, among my associates, colleagues, friends, and loved ones, there is not one heart that will beat out the kind of hatred that hopes HIV/AIDS will kill all blacks.
You have made an attack here that is grievious and absolutely racist.
Black people are not responsible for the depths of despair that describe your pathology.
Your mindset is dangerous and inhumane.
These are my closing comments here.
Onward!
Ridwan
Shusli I expect that the exchanges here will hurt ya again.
Be careful sista.
Be well hey.
Peace and struggle,
Ridwan
Ana thank you for looking in my sista.
Your presence here is always a source of great inspiration.
It was great to watch you read the riot act on the 'terrorism charges' a few days ago.
Keep charging my sista. Whiteness is on the decline!
Thanks for the respect and shout-out.
MuchLuv to you and yours. I'll holla on the other side too.
Peace and revolution,
Ridwan
"Africa belongs to those who value it and hold it in their hearts even when they are chased out by savages, not to those who squander its wealth and turn its fertile land into killing fields. I am African, blacks are NOT. They are invading hordes who can go and live elsewhere (and they will -- provided of course they survive famine and AIDS) in a little corner of Africa where they can feel free to kill each other 'till Jesus returns' ..."
Are you fu**ing serious???????
Ed....You really make me laugh actually. I laugh because you don't even realize how much of a ignorant idiot you look like with these comments.. All you are doing is just being a living example of racist whiteness that Ridwan is talking about on this blog.
Ed- let's hope that the next time a gun is pointed in your face... whoever is holding it PULLS THE DAMN TRIGGER...
Nicole
Lots of good comments about humanity here… There is a very long list, an insanely LONG LIST, of African Americans, as well as those whom are considered Black or colored ect, who have made contributions to humanity- to counter one of Ed's comments. I also have to mention that there are most likely countless not white individuals whom did for sure, not get credit for their contributions because of their being enslaved by whiteness, OR just having been a slave!!!!!!!!
Were forgetting that race is a socially constructed concept. I once clued in a racist Arab man I knew, from Libya, who became an American Citizen even though he claimed to hate America. I informed him that technically he was an African American. Wow, what a concept for him! But I proved to him, that he was a racist.
We forget that there is one race, the human race. We are not a different species; we are all of the same species. Our lives have become what they are, fighting and hating because of all of man's unevolved SAD ignorance. I read Ed's "abridged" post, and I hear the same anger and hatred that causes war, the same war that will end all of humanity if individuals like Ed, don’t learn to let go and grow from their ignorance. One of the best ways to become a big looser, the worst mistake anyone can make is to make a prejudicial assumption upon someone, and then react to them in a dangerous hateful way. I say this because a part of being human causes us to think this way, no matter how hard we fight it. Still, even in humanities unevolved state, we have free will, and we can choose to be civilized, we can choose to accept, rather than reject. In the end, people surprise you no matter how educated, or all knowing we think we are. Race, socially constructed/ real whatever, it’s a part of everyday life. Ed is going to shit his white pants, but one day soon from a scientific point of view, Darwinism too (survival of the fittest), the human race will one day be all “brown”. By the time we all get over what we see physically, it won’t matter anymore; except knowing the human species we will find something else, but let’s hope not!!
Peace,
Dione`
Ridwan,
I am disappointed that you did not publish my comment in its entirety. Every word I wrote in that comment was for a reason (ditto for every word I write in this comment). In cutting out some parts while publishing others, you essentially decontextualized my entire reply. Yes, it was a long one, but so what? Why take away the chance to read it from those who have the time and curiosity to do so? Also, do you think that by marginalizing me and others like me (by branding us 'irrelevant') you are contributing to the success/advancement of SA? You are wrong, my friend. Nations are not built and do not advance by shunning segments of their populations -- no matter how extremist they may be. In fact, in dismissing me the way you did, you are basically saying that my experiences do not matter; that causality is irrelevant when it comes to whites -- while it remains the standard explanation of black behaviour.
I have been called many things in my life. Racist is one of the minor ones. I do not wish to reproduce here the set of words that I have had the 'honour' of being referred to as. You want me to realize that my descriptions of blacks are disgraceful and digusting, but you do not wish to address -- or even acknowledge the existence of -- black racism and the terms black supremacists use to refer to us. You see the whole world in black and white, as simple as that. You endorse blackness and debase whiteness. In fact, the term 'whiteness' that you are so fond of, is a mere cover for your hateful, racist, stereotyping rhetoric about whites.
I am one of those people who are willing to admit to a lot of mistakes and wrongdoings in 'white history', but the problem is, you do not wish to have dialogue with those who do not subscribe to a complete replica of your mindset. You and your people STILL view me as an invader, as a guest who has overstayed his welcome, as someone who should be dispossessed because what he has today was taken 'illegally' (at a time when there was no law in Africa, mind you). What you are essentially saying is this: the academic discipline of migration is a joke, as the only rightful owners of a land are those who were there 'first'. But let me ask you this, as someone who is obviously sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, how do you deal with the 'who was there first' argument, given that the Jews were 'there' (in what is now Israel) long before Arabs settled there?
So tell me, Ridwan, how do you view us white S. Africans? Do you not view us, deep inside, as invaders and settlers? I am not talking about what you think about my ancestors, I am talking about what you think about ME and others like me, who do not know any 'home' other than SA. Do you know how many times I have had to deal with the "what's a white man doing in Africa?" question? Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? (Try imagining what a black man would feel like when asked "what's a black man doing in Europe?") Do you not realize that the 'new' SA that you speak of, the so-called 'rainbow' nation, is not at peace with itself, precisely because people refuse to come to terms with the idea that we are a legitimate part of this country, notwithstanding past sufferings? Some people here, in this very post, have commented about how we refuse to pay the price of our presence anywhere outside of Europe. Why should I have to pay the price for something that took place centuries ago? Why should we live in the past and make wars to 'right' its wrongs, when we can instead work together for peace and humanity? Am I saying these things because I am a white man who is already privileged and takes many things for granted that others cannot because of the colour of their skin? Or am I saying it because it stems from a genuine human desire to live in peace and enjoy safety and acceptance in my country? Is love for humanity merely a product of personal experiences? If so, those who have been subject to oppression will -- without exceptions -- become oppressors themselves, and humanity is doomed to repeating this cycle of oppression until, well, until humanity ceases to exist. But even when talking about oppression, you refuse to acknowledge that whites are capable of being victimized/oppressed (individually or collectively), because 'white history' somehow would not allow it.
So tell me, Ridwan, why am I not afforded the same right -- the right to have a different perspective based on my experiences -- as black people practise by default? I notice you left out the part in my comment where I talked about what type of environment (at home) I grew up in. Why is that? Is it because you do not wish to admit, or allow others to realize, that the behaviour of black people, and the way I am defined and treated in the 'new' SA, has turned me into what I am today?
To speak of a 'souring' experience is an understatement. I have seen and experienced far too much violence to recount here. Far too many unspeakable things. But sometimes I think that I would be able to put all that behind me, if, somehow, I were accepted in my own country, and treated as an equal. If my job application would be judged not based on the colour of my skin, but the level of my skills and knowledge. You and/or others are probably repeating in your minds now, with immense satisfaction, "now you know what it feels like." I have heard this sentence too many times. I do not want to hear it again. I was not one of those who supported apartheid. That statement is so disgracefully stereotyping of white people, that it has managed to turn the most anti-racist of people into the 'monsters' nostalgic for the apartheid days that their accusers have portrayed them as.
I do not have family in SA anymore, save for a few elderly distant relatives who have chosen to die in their country. I have nothing to return to. You dismiss my experiences as merely 'typical' cases of crime (for material possessions). Only a few of these have been about that. The rest, the ones hat I am talking about, weren't.
I could have been a professor now, lecturing at universities around the world, done my country proud. I could have been lecturing or teaching about Zora Neale Hurston, whose novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" I devoured when I was merely 12; or Toni Morrison's novels, which never failed to give me the goosebumps, every single time I re-read them. Or Coetzee's Disgrace, whose narrative of hatred, crime, and reconciliation I readily embraced, thinking, in my naive teenage mind, that reconciling with the perpetrators of horrifying crimes would be as asy in real life as it seemed in the novel. But in the 'new' SA, my father was kicked out of his job for the colour of his skin, and I was forced to leave my studies, and try to find work. I could have been so many things, including a married man, but I am not. Apparently, for you and/or others here, I deserve such punishment, because I stand for everything that is unjust and inhumane. My skin colour is, apparently, testimony to that.
For you, only blacks are justified in hating those who have hurt them. The whites who have been victimized -- if you even acknowledge their victimhood -- are supposed to grin and bear it, because of the 'sins' of their forefathers.
The crime statistics that you talk about, are nowhere to be found. The claim that blacks suffer from crime more than whites do (of course they would, blacks outnumber whites 10 to 1), does not say anything about the deliberate and indiscriminate targeting of whites. You don't know how ridiculous your claim that there is no race war against whites sounds. Do you realize that it was Mugabe himself who reassured white Rhodesians that they had nothing to fear, that they would not face persecution?
You talk about your black leaders who have called upon whites to embrace peace and work for humanity. It is easy to utter words and preach love. But it is not so easy to get the black man to realize that the white man has been working for peace and humanity for quite some time, saving blacks from total extinction by feeding them and reaching out to them as fellow human beings. It is not so easy to get the black man to realize that blacks never miss the opportunity to miss an opportunity to co-exist and work together for all of humanity. All that blacks do is talk and preach and speak about tolerance, but do they walk their own talk?
I wish you would publish this comment, and publish it fully. I wish that Nicole, who hopes that I would end up with a bullet in my head, would read it, and read it fully and absorb every single word I have written. I doubt that it will change her attitude, but I can only try, and hope that it would.
I am amused Ed that you talk about working for peace and harmony and spew vile violence on your blog and here.
It was Eugene a Native of what is the occupied US who called whites to account for the genocide that took place after Columbus.
You speak of being a professor if this and that did not happen.
I am a professor despite the fact that apartheid did not allow too many of us to get a university education. Let alone a graduate education.
My inferior genes achieved what your superior genes could not.
Why?
I did all this even though your forefathers brought my ancestors from Malaya and what is Indonesia now in Chains. We came aboard as slaves of the Dutch East India Company (remember Ed?).
On my father's side he could not be in the Orange Free State for more than 24 hours because he was Indian.
White men spat on him in my presence and your apartheid government jailed him for standing up for freedom.
Don't call me a liar on statistics Ed.
See the SAHRC and the SAfrican Medical Association statistics on "Race and Crime" you can find a reference and discussion here under "The Price of Black Life 5".
You have an elemental understanding of racism that betrays your pretension toward academic prowess.
Racism is a system not just a set of values or ideology.
Apartheid was racism.
Today there is no system where blacks disempower whites and abuse them like you and yours did.
You don't want to be held responsible for slavery, colonialism, apartheid, etc, but you will sit there glibly talking about what whites have done to help blacks over the centuries.
So you will take credit for contrived and racist imaging of 'help' when it suites you.
Are you helping anyone now that you are wanking for blacks to assume the oppressed role again so you can be free?
And how do you get to take responsibilty for white people who work toward equity and universality?
You are a racist who thinks blacks are doomed to destroy themselves.
I am quite certain that progressive whites will want nothing to do with you.
You want to collectivise your whiteness when it suits you. And when it does not you say 'how am I supposed to be responsible for what happened ages ago?'
Well mostly because whiteness, and you, are an outgrowth of that brutality. And a structural one too!
You are a product of that history and use its rationale to posture your new-found victimhood.
And what is particularly funny is how you appropriate black struggle terms and references to describe yourself.
Still stealing after all these years. You can't even play the victim without referencing blackness.
And I know you are not even close to understanding what I just said.
You are more comfortable in ignorance and denial.
The theft of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, and on and on is a mere matter of migration to you?
A migration that must be contextualized by law!
What law proceeded enslavement to the new world? And the murder of millions of Indians and Africans?
Your law? Are you now taking credit for law too? You, personally. A man without a country and a violent grudge against innocent people of color?
It is apparent that you cannot delink your assumptions of superiority from your stridently useless and racist arguments.
I understand what Nicole was saying. She is a young black woman trying to make her way through life here in the US.
You come onto the blog and call black people "kaffirs" (niggers) and then defend this sh*t by saying that all blacks/Africans are "a bunch of farm animals".
You are a disgusting man Ed. I would not be too cocky about all this warmed over crap you sell as an analysis.
You need remedial schooling. Crime in South Africa has not singled you out because you are white.
Crime is linked structurally to poverty and the main of that poverty is to be found in the structure that apartheid wreaked.
Muzi is in South Africa and is a black man and comes on here and says that whites belong there.
Not good enough hey?
I have done so countless of times and in this thread. This is true of my academic work too.
Not good enough hey?
I harbor no hate for whites as a general category of people. My critique of whiteness is one that sees it as a structure in which the individual is not central to the analysis of racism.
Systems are what make racism.
Now you are in the 'middle east' living off Arabs and you see them as superior to blacks but you don't see how your parasitic behavior continues.
You can't live anywhere on your own steam. Why not go back to Europe? Is it because Europe has no need for you?
Could this mean that a whole continent of 'civilized' people are oppressing you too?
Also, you want to bait me into a conversation about Palestine. What do you care about the Palestinians? They are not white, right?
And Israeli Jews? What is your interest there? You represent a modern Nazi mindset so what do you care about who was there first?
But if we accept your asumption on 'first' then we should do the same in Africa.
Africans were there first Ed. So you should go back to Europe, right?
Nowhere in this blog or in any of my larger body of work will you find me advocating violence and hatred toward anybody, group, and especially not white people.
I do not write off whites in the manner that you ascribe indecent and murderous attacks on blacks.
And you do so without impunity. With absolute unmitigated hatred.
What does Nicole, for example, have to do with your condition in life?
Should she, and other black people (and white people for that matter), have to feel the brunt of your sour hatred because she was born black?
She has nothing to do with your failures. If you failed under apartheid it was because of you.
Your failures. Not the black folk who cooked and cleaned for you. Not the black folk that the white government murdered to hold onto power.
Apartheid was set up to steal for you, put you in charge of everything, and still allows for you to talk ignorantly and think you are a civilized sage nontheless.
You are a hopeless case in the sense that your mind is so fixated on your contrived oppression.
Who is oppressing you now? You don't live in SAfrica or among
"kaffirs" anymore.
So it is all in your mind then? A disease perhaps, a pathology that describes the hatred and racism that you want to see in me here.
No one in their right mind is hearing you here Ed. But for some strange reason you want to be heard on this blog.
Is it because you want us to accept you but don't really know how to overcome your racist beliefs and actions?
Is it because you want black folk to assume an in-service stance so as to soothe your self-inflicted pain?
You are not going to reach anyone but other embittered and lost-forever wanderers like yourself.
This is your hell Ed. Purgatory. A fire that burns red hot even when you are so far away from the country that is everything to you.
You should therefore expect that folks are enraged here. It is only the human thing to be in light of your racist attacks.
Perhaps if you genuinely wanted peace you could start by removing the word "kaffir" from your blog and then apologize for the hurt that it has caused innocent folk.
It would be a start.
But I expect that we will remain animals to you.
You hate us because Erica, Nicole, and I got together and put a gun in your face.
We are the black criminals who robbed you or did the other unspecified violent acts you supposedly faced.
You will not accept anything said here because you want your apartheid SAfrica back and hope that Muzi and I die of Aids really soon; we have achieved nothing and you have achieved everything; it means nothing to you that no-one here has called for whites to be hurt or thrown out anywhere because you have made up your mind that it is not so; and you think you are a victim above all the genocide, slavery, apartheid, and colonialism that white civilization represents.
You are not merely in denial Ed ... you are essentially dead.
I expect that in existentialist terms (given that you are a self confessed intellectual) you know what metaphorical death implies?
It has just been 13 short years since the end of apartheid. I spent half of my life under apartheid and all of it under the boot of racists like you.
And I don't ascribe my success to anything other than my will to survive.
In the quest to build a better world I have joined forces with communities that really despise neo-colonial subjugation and each one of my days are about struggle.
Inside of my classroom are eager minds of every stripe.
Inside of my community of comrades are Idigenist folk, black, brown, Latino, southeast Asian, and white.
No exclusions just humans fighting for universal rights to dignity.
Our aim is at whiteness not white people. This is so because we are careful to know the difference.
I am proud to belong somewhere!
You have a long long road to travel before you can see that black people don't owe you a damn thing. You stole it all already and what you are left with is the consequences of your brutality.
Life is a balance Ed. And you are on the wrong side. The pain you are feeling came at your own hands and at the expense of black bodies.
Onward!
Ridwan
I do not want to make light about mental illness and suicide in South Africa and I take exception as an academic when a comment says I am lying about statistics I refer to in my blog and my academic work.
In South Africa a white person is more likely to die from suicide than from homicide. There is data to back this up.
The same set of data shows that a white person is more likely to take their life than to be killed by a black person.
The rates are staggering. I do not have enough fingers to count the folks who took their lives in my community.
For detailed discussion start here:
"Living Circumstances of Suicide Mortality in a South African City: An Ecological Study of Differences Across Race Groups and Sexes", Stephanie Burrows and Lucie Laflamme, in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, October 2005, Volume 35/Issue 5,pp 592-603.
We are a nation in a serious mental health crisis too!
Please see this newspaper article that references the data that shows more whites dying from suicide than homicide, and black homicide in particular:
http://www.aegis.com/news/suntimes/2005/ST050607.html
See also my post that contains references to data on race-crime variables:http://ridwanlaher.blogspot.com/2007/09/price-of-black-life-5.html
What is interesting to note is that being white in South Africa makes you 50% less likely to be murdered over the national average.
Whites make up 10% of all South Africans yet only account for 5% of all murders.
Where inside of this reality is there place for conjecture about blacks murdering whites systematically.
More black lives are lost to violent crime!
Or is the matter that any white life lost to crime is more valuable than all black lives lost?
I don't like quoting the US State department but in its Country Reports on Human Rights Priactices (2006) it says:
"There were no politically motivated killings by the government or its agents"
also,
"There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees."
and pointedly,
"Killings and other violent crimes against farmers and, on occasion, their families continued in rural areas. Despite concern among white farmers that they were targeted for racial and political reasons, studies indicated that the perpetrators generally were common criminals motivated by financial gain. According to the 2005-06 SAPS report, there were 636 farm attacks and 88 farm killings in the 12 months prior to March 31. These figures have been similar for several years."
You can read the report here:
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78758.htm
Onward!
Ridwan
Ed I am not posting anymore of your ramblings on my blog.
There is no point. We are entirely different on every point that you raise.
And we are going in circles. This must be exhausting for you too.
You accuse me of making up stats. I provide links and references. You claim they are not reliable sources.
I quote one article, you do a google search and show me another article where the same authors deal with a different aspect of suicide.
You have made up your mind and there is no reaching you. And frankly it is not my business to reach you.
You move in-between Zimbabwe and South Africa and speak of the two countries as if they are one.
I do not support Mugabe. You will be surpeised to find that many of the poor citizens do not approve of him too.
Also, I am not going to publish all of your last comment because it attacks the credibility of too many others here.
I think you should appreciate that folks are angry because you called black people "farm animals" ... I understand their anger because it has incensed me too.
But still no-one here has vented violence at you.
I think you should know that I am not in Europe so do not have to leave there.
There is no where to go from here in terms of a discussion.
Except that readers should know that Ed offers an apology for using the word "kaffir":
"Is it all about me calling blacks 'kaffirs', and apologizing for it? And who will apologize for the hurt that I have been caused? Or was I not 'innocent'? Again I ask -- (I guess a rhetorical question at this point, since you are not answering my questions) -- can whites EVER be victims, even individually? Can whites who do not shun their whiteness ever be considered innocent folk?
Very well (and it did take a lot of courage to say this, contrary to what you might think), I apologize for using the word, and for the hurt that it has caused. But know that the real issue is not the word itself. You should be worried more about WHAT has made me say it (however unjustified the usage of the condescending term might be), and work on raising awareness about the REAL face of the 'new' SA. All is not well with SA. Nothing is well with SA. Know where your priorities should be. You should be worried not about what I call you, or what our rugby emblem or racial make-up is, but what SA has become, what 'our' leaders are doing (and how they are using/abusing the racial card), and how black S. Africans are behaving. If you do not view things with a critical eye, you are doomed to repeating the mistakes that other African nations have made/repeated before you.
That said, I still do not think that, even after my apology (which will earn me quite a few accusations of treason from those who previously accepted me), you will find it in yourself to step down from your moral high ground and extend your hand in acceptance and friendship. You will continue to view me through your whiteness/blackness lenses. You will continue to ignore the human side of me. You will dismiss my points as the paranoid workings of a racist mind. And worst of all, South Africa will continue down the African slippery slope."
No Ed I don't hold a moral high ground. I speak of what I know. Friendship is not the issue really is it?
I know that South Africa has challenges. Your apology is a step but it seems tenuous at best.
In closing, yes white people suffer violent attacks at the hands of thugs. It is unacceptable. We (all of us) would want to live in a country where all people can live and move about without fear.
The one thing that is left unsiad here is that Ed assumes that the criminals are all black.
This is a mistaken bias. Much of the syndicates that run car jacking operations, for example, are directed by white criminals.
And I will leave alone the massive fraudulent operations in the investment/banking industry, for example, that have been directed by white criminals.
Still, crime is an 'everybody' issue in South Africa. Not a black on white issue.
And crime must be addressed. I have just written an extensive post on this.
We are a democracy and the leaders must be held accountable to all of us.
I'm done with this thread. And South Africa is done with apartheid ... and it is a good thing for all its different peoples.
Not perfect, but decidedly better.
If anyone else other than Ed and I wants to add to the discussion it is still open to you.
Onward!
Ridwan
Dear Ridwan,
My apology was not tenuous. It was genuine and deeper than you think it was. It might have seemed otherwise because of the paragraphs that preceded it. Suffice to say, I did not write those with the intention of continuing the circular debate. It was more of a dialogue not only with you, but also with myself, and, I guess, an attempt at arriving slowly to an appreciation of some (if not all) of what you have said (getting rid of one's biases is a process that takes some time, especially when there is a personal element of pain and anger to it). You will notice, if you re-read my latest comment, that I talked more about how I felt about SA than stubbornly re-iterate the old arguments. In that sense, our 'dialogue' has moved a long way, even though you clearly think it has not.
You are correct; friendship is not the real issue here. But I mentioned it because it can be an agent of change. Sometimes when you are lost in the depths of hatred and despair, all it takes is an extended hand, an offer of friendship, to help you out of it. Earlier, you said something that I did not have the courage to admit: "Is it because you want us to accept you but don't really know how to overcome your racist beliefs and actions?" Yes my friend, it is precisely that; and not just not knowing how to overcome my racism, but also being a coward, afraid of what those who agree with me now would think of me. The fear that I will be completely shunned by one side, and not fully accepted by the other. There, I said it.
I am willing to admit to a lot of things, but that requires that you and others are willing to listen.
Anyway, I don't mind if you wouldn't publish this comment. I just wanted to let you know.
Take care,
Ed
Ridwan- (and the rest of us who still have a lil sense)
I’ll admit I have been slacking on your blog, so I thought I would take some time to catch up; however it looks like I have missed nothing, the ugly head of whiteness has emerged yet again. (Not white people, the ideology of whiteness) It always amazes me that the most ignorant people usually have the most to say. The funniest thing of all is that these same people and their privilege are totally oblivious to when they have made a complete fool of themselves and maybe even pissed a few people off along the way. Before I commence to chopping up MR. Mighty Whitey, I would like to make it known to those who are unaware that in no way, shape, form or fashion is Ridwan a racist nor is he “Stuck.”
Now…two things, then I’m done, because I can’t even give Hitler and the new SS the satisfaction.
1st-Racism is a form of oppression, based on power. Just as other similar words associated with it imply. Words like imperialism, colonization, and Slavery all exemplify the dichotomy of strong/weak or at least perceived to be weak (before anyone gets excited over the pathetic ass argument they can piece together out of that) That being said, I don’t recall too many Black people that have divided and conquered, especially before the law came and shut that shit down with a wack up side the head or a bullet. Basically, the obvious point of my argument is that essentially Blacks and the rest of the people of color are not truly racist. Yes, Black people have prejudices and also discriminate; but at the end of the day how that has has a negative effect on so called whiteness? Conversely the whole ideology of racism is based on the negativity created by Europeans about people they perceived to be different from them; with the primary difference being based on peoples outward appearance. Needless to say there is no basis for the argument that our skin colors dictate whether we get to identify with the word that has been used to define light or the word that has been designated to define darkness and deviance.
2nd-Just like racism, whiteness is a contrived concept that is ignored once again by privilege. If you need it more plainly: Whiteness is a LIE, something that was appropriated by those who needed to further the divide that had already been created by skin pigmentation. So there’s another weak as argument that you can peace together from this: Black people refer to themselves similarly. Ok, that could be said, but then I’d say this: those who consider themselves to be truly white more than likely have not been stolen away from their native land and thus torn away from their heritage and history. Many white people can trace their ancestors back to Italy, France, Spain, Austria etc. just as for the most part black people cannot get past the ship manifest that recorded their new status as a slave. Thus it is my opinion that “white” people should be grateful to have such a privilege; but they can’t due to the multitude of privilege they have already benefited from.
Now don’t get excited cause that’s the extent of my so called fixation with something that we obviously should have been able to get over long ago; Mr. Textbook racist, calm down. Besides as Black people we no longer have to “fixate” on slavery, it may seem as though we have progressed enormously in terms of racism, and I will agree that we have progressed but not as much as some would like to believe. Discussions regarding slavery are no longer necessary because racism is still a very real thing, there are enough post slavery situations of race for us to contemplate, get angry over, and if we so choose, to fixate over. Its funny how guilt so often allows us to continue to point our fingers in blame.
K, I’m done.
Meggin thanks for weighing in here. This thread kept growing but I am happy to see it end on your analysis.
You raise excellent points here and do so with conviction and principle!
The selfish part of me is beaming and filled with pride (had to throw that in there).
Thank you for pointing out the need to understand racism as a system.
So many folks are just ignorant about the manner that race, racializing, racialism, racial prejudice, racial discrimination, and racism differ.
Of course this will not stop folks from claiming that these social science markers are semantic excuses which hide this and that agenda.
Race is no doubt a controversial topic and it is not about to change.
Still, some of the stuff up there is unecessary and hurtful.
Thank you for bringing light.
You know I already miss you and it is wayyyy early.
Peace and luv to you my sista,
Ridwan
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