I couldn’t help but notice the catch in your voice when you spoke of having pride in your white ancestry, almost as if you were debating with yourself and then reluctantly agreed to continue with the train of thought.
You have a lot to be proud of in your white heritage. Yes whites were fighting to maintain slavery in 1861, and to put it in the modern vernacular, that really sucked big time. But there were also Southern whites fighting simply to protect hearth and home from invasion.
They weren’t all racist demons in Confederate gray.
And yes there were whites wearing Northern blue fighting so that all men may be made free, and that’s about as noble as it gets. But there were many other Yankees, similar to my own ancestors in the 169th NY Volunteer Infantry regiment, (Remember the film “Glory”? The 169th was there too.) who probably joined the army more to escape the grinding poverty of their civilian lives than from any altruistic impulses.
They weren’t all Bible quoting saints in Yankee blue.
No one people has a monopoly on sanctity, or upon evil for that matter. It was as rare as hens teeth I know, but there were wealthy Southern blacks who owned slaves too. And I do believe most African slaves were sold into slavery by their own African overlords, either as spoils of war or in trade for bartered goods, yes?
I’ve been astonished to read that many folks will be attributing a vote for McCain/Palin to really be a vote in favor of “White Privilege”, whatever that is. “Wealth Privilege” would be more to the point, but even that discounts the simple fact that many folks just plain old disagree with Obama the politician, and race be damned.
The level of invective being hurled in Sarah Palin’s direction is another thing entirely – that’s just plain ugly no matter how it’s sliced, yes? No body is burning any crosses on Barack’s front yard, but the hate being thrown at Sarah sure sounds like a verbal cross burning to me.
These are all valid historical points. I was saying that when a person who proudly displays the confederate flag tells me that as a black woman i should not be offended or made uncomfortable by it because it does not stand for racism/pro-slavery, but stands simply for southern pride – i cannot buy that explanation/theory because this speech clearly states that the confederacy is founded on these beliefs about the inferiority of the negro and his natural condition as a slave. the flag represents the confederacy, yes? the confederacy was founded on these beliefs, yes? so the flag stands for what? it’s a very specific issue. and has a bit to do with the responses i got to another video in which i talked about the confederate flag. pardon my lack of punctuation, please
it was not easy to say “i’m proud to be white.” it felt weird. like i didn’t want to let it out. you’re so right about that
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because 8 0every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator , two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”
I couldn’t help but notice the catch in your voice when you spoke of having pride in your white ancestry, almost as if you were debating with yourself and then reluctantly agreed to continue with the train of thought.
You have a lot to be proud of in your white heritage. Yes whites were fighting to maintain slavery in 1861, and to put it in the modern vernacular, that really sucked big time. But there were also Southern whites fighting simply to protect hearth and home from invasion.
They weren’t all racist demons in Confederate gray.
And yes there were whites wearing Northern blue fighting so that all men may be made free, and that’s about as noble as it gets. But there were many other Yankees, similar to my own ancestors in the 169th NY Volunteer Infantry regiment, (Remember the film “Glory”? The 169th was there too.) who probably joined the army more to escape the grinding poverty of their civilian lives than from any altruistic impulses.
They weren’t all Bible quoting saints in Yankee blue.
No one people has a monopoly on sanctity, or upon evil for that matter. It was as rare as hens teeth I know, but there were wealthy Southern blacks who owned slaves too. And I do believe most African slaves were sold into slavery by their own African overlords, either as spoils of war or in trade for bartered goods, yes?
I’ve been astonished to read that many folks will be attributing a vote for McCain/Palin to really be a vote in favor of “White Privilege”, whatever that is. “Wealth Privilege” would be more to the point, but even that discounts the simple fact that many folks just plain old disagree with Obama the politician, and race be damned.
The level of invective being hurled in Sarah Palin’s direction is another thing entirely – that’s just plain ugly no matter how it’s sliced, yes? No body is burning any crosses on Barack’s front yard, but the hate being thrown at Sarah sure sounds like a verbal cross burning to me.
Anyway, that’s my two cents.
These are all valid historical points. I was saying that when a person who proudly displays the confederate flag tells me that as a black woman i should not be offended or made uncomfortable by it because it does not stand for racism/pro-slavery, but stands simply for southern pride – i cannot buy that explanation/theory because this speech clearly states that the confederacy is founded on these beliefs about the inferiority of the negro and his natural condition as a slave. the flag represents the confederacy, yes? the confederacy was founded on these beliefs, yes? so the flag stands for what? it’s a very specific issue. and has a bit to do with the responses i got to another video in which i talked about the confederate flag. pardon my lack of punctuation, please
it was not easy to say “i’m proud to be white.” it felt weird. like i didn’t want to let it out. you’re so right about that
and i LOVE the movie “Glory”!
White privilege
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because 8 0every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a “fuckin’ redneck,” like Bristol Palin’s boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with you, you’ll “kick their fuckin’ ass,” and talk about how you like to “shoot shit” for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don’t all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator , two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you’re “untested.”