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Thanks for taking this on. I’m eager to check out the links you offer…and offer one of my own favorites: Shankar Vedantam’s blog, http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-hidden-brain.

More awake,

DOUG

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To address your example, the Africans have their own section of books or what have you, because that’s what they want. The Africans are proud of their race, for whatever reasons and support their own kind. If they want to hear from whites they’ll go to the other sections in the store.

Now as far as white priviledge goes, what’s the problem? My ancestors survived true climate changes, war, invasions, disease and a myriad of other complications throught history without any altruistic help from the “minorities” ( a misnomer if there ever was one) and came out on top. That whites should fall over themselves in giving away all that was bestowed upon us by our forefathers to an ungrateful and never satisfied intrusive, invading “minority” mass is foolish beyond comprehension. There are no white versions of the NAACP, NCLR or AIPAC. The “minorities” in positions of power aren’t looking for equality, they are playing ‘king of the hill’ as evident in all the groups, organizations and laws that place their race as their foundation. Judging from this article of yours I can see that the preposterous white guilt angle is working well with you.

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And Southern writers are probably more popular in the South.

Maybe you don’t think of KY as being the south, but I spent most of my life there (so far) and I see where you’re coming from.

I have also been party to many a generalization because I have white skin in which people have imparted to me their views of “them” and you can insert racial slurs into that slot. Even though you say everyone where you’re from gets along, I’m sure you also have recollections of hearing racial slurs and seeing discrimination.

Relatively peaceful existence doesn’t always make for equality. I’m sure band aids are the same color in Mississippi that they are in the rest of the US, for example. Television is biased toward the majority. Media paints people according to race as good and bad. Even in Mississippi, I’m sure this holds true.

I appreciate your perspective here!

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Maybe that’s how we should be, Arissa, but that’s not how we actually are. You seem to be so adamant about your supposed color-blindness and the way you feel things should be according to your literary quote that you’ve totally refused to look at the way society often works.

“I do not wish to examine “white privilege” because to me it is a load of malarkey, regardless how “society” sees it.”

Well, maybe to you “it is a load of malarkey,” but I think that actually tends to prove Kate’s point, not to debunk it. You make it pretty clear that you’ve never actually had to confront race as an issue in your life because you seem to think race is “the way you respond to your own genetics.” I guess this is a handy, if somewhat illogical and bizarre, way of thinking about or relativizing the idea of race when you don’t actually have to confront the reality of being judged according to your skin color.

To give you one example form my own experience – I have been in two mixed race relationships and am now married to a Mexican man. My boyfriend of two years was African. Every single time he and I went through airport security, they stopped him. Every single time my Mexican husband goes through airport security, they stop him. Just to test the system, I have taken all of our bags through – way more bags than I should have, and with alcohol and all sorts of random stuff in them- and I am never searched. I am white. My husband is searched every time.

Also, I wonder if you’ve ever had to deal with hate mail berating you, your race, and your language for ruining U.S culture? I wonder if you’ve ever had to confront people who assume, from the start, that you have no culture or education and are inherently inferior? It seems to me that it takes a lot of confidence–or ignorance–to declare white privilege is “a load of malarkey” when you are white and apparently have little to no awareness of what it means to be of a different skin color.

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If you think you’re not talking about race here, you just said a white privilege mouthful. You’re showing your ass and you look like a child and I hope that you do some reading (starting with HyderbadChick’s post below yours) and then do some more and think about this.

I hope you think about what you wrote enough to turn red and feel a little sick and the next time you feel like posting some garbage like that, that you instead do some thinking and reading and shutting up for long enough to think about the way other people might feel about what it is you “have to say.”

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If the post offends you, I apologize. It is not meant to be a post against having specialized sections on book stores to cater to a specific audience, but to be thought provoking for people who otherwise may not consider these issues at all.

I appreciate you adding your perspective here.

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