Star Member kpete (47,209 posts)
White America emotionally abuses black people
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015
White America's Emotionally Abusive Relationship With Black People
by: CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
.....................
People show you who they are. Black America saw the truth of Zimmerman and Wilson. White America chose to look away. Moreover, as is the habit of physically and emotionally abusive people, White America told black and brown folks that they were crazy to believe that Zimmerman and Wilson were racists.
This is evidence of a deeply felt hostility towards black people’s humanity.
.......................................
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Black folks are only human. Racial battle fatigue still grates and stresses. Racial battle fatigue also kills those who live under its shadow. Black people are not superhuman: there are many victims, those who were somehow broken by life in a racist society, they shamble on, their lives and life chances diminished and unfulfilled.
............................
Black America has made basic justice claims. For centuries, Black Americans have only wanted fairness, justice, and perhaps even a simple and public acknowledgement that people of color are not crazy in their critiques of the color line and its many injustices—as in many ways black folks have been and remain the prescient, amazingly insightful, and "miner’s canary" of American democracy.
Black Americans are a people who are made to suffer in an abusive relationship because they tell white Americans truths about themselves, out of love, and in an effort to heal and improve the United States so that the country can live up to its full potential. Unfortunately, those truths are unpopular, and too many of our white brothers and sisters are loathe to hear them.
much more of this well-written & timely piece (mho):
http://www.chaunceydevega.com/2015/09/white-americas-emotionally-abusive.html
Now THIS is rich. Kathy sees probably one black person a week, and then only when she leaves her gated community.Because Kathy is inarticulate and unable to form thoughts of her own, she cuts and pastes about 99% of her posts. When she does open her yap, she often deletes what she's typed, as though an imaginary husband is sitting on her shoulder telling her to stifle and go get him a beer.
But the focus of her post is on one of the new tentpoles of DU:
Black Good. Whitey Bad. While some resist the rigorous dichotomy, others fall in line. The ones who fall in line are by and large of a certain socioeconomic profile: aging, white, rich, and have never had to turn a shovel for a meal (see Randy, PhDDs...). Onward:
Star Member Nye Bevan (21,053 posts)
1. Of course saying "white America" instead of "some white Americans" pisses off more people
and gets more of a response. But that's just how this game is played.
You can always count on Nye for some meta.
Star Member malaise (132,574 posts)
2. It's not a game and white people can be as pissed as they like but they are not the ones
who are victims of institutional racism. Instead of telling African-Americans to stop being so sensitive as they hear every hour of the day, it's time for whites to stop being sensitive. All rational African-Americans know that not all white people are racist.
The fact is not enough white people are fighting institutional racism. Not enough are offended by the open season of killing of African Americans by agents of the state.
Malaise doesn't even live in this country, so she is inert.
Star Member Nye Bevan (21,053 posts)
4. Those who start a conversation with a phrase like "all black people" or "white America",
followed by something critical, have no interest in having any kind of useful or productive conversation.
Which is true. I can't go on DU and make a sweeping statement about black people unless it's of a particularly obsequious tone. But the obsequiousness must be flavored by self-critique, or you face the Wrath of Randy.
SEEMINGLY COOL ON DU, BUT REALLY NOT:"Black people are awesome!"
COOL ON DU:"I so wish I, as a white person, could be as awesome as black people. But I'm not: I'm white."
EVEN COOLER ON DU:"I so wish I, as a white person, could be as awesome as black people. But I'm not: I'm white. All white people should say this, too."
And for once, kpete the Newly Penitent and Cognizant Rich White Lady replies in her own words:
Star Member kpete (47,217 posts)
8. I believe
the OPPOSITE is true
I found this article thought-provoking.
Would you have preferred that I CHANGE the title of this Beautiful and Thoughtful essay?
Would that have made the article more comfortable?
I believe that as a country, we need to SEE ourselves for who we are.
ALL AMERICANS NEED TO OPEN THEIR EYES & THEIR HEARTS.
even when we DON'T like what we SEE.
By "Americans," of course, she means WHITE PEOPLE. Yes, Kathy. We should all put on our Talbot's and pull out of our wide driveways, drive 25mph to the gates, wait patiently for them to open, make sure no spics sneak in while the gate is open, and drive out onto the major roads, loudly proclaiming that our hearts are open. And we shouldn't complain one bit that it takes us 30 minutes to FIND a black person to whom we can grovel.
Kathy: shut the **** up, you sorry hypocrite.
