Under slave laws, the necessity for color rankings was obvious, but in America today, post-civil-rights legislation, white people’s conviction of their natural superiority is being lost. Rapidly lost. There are “people of color” everywhere, threatening to erase this long-understood definition of America. And what then? Another black President? A predominantly black Senate? Three black Supreme Court Justices? The threat is frightening...
...To keep alive the perception of white superiority, these white Americans tuck their heads under cone-shaped hats and American flags and deny themselves the dignity of face-to-face confrontation, training their guns on the unarmed, the innocent, the scared, on subjects who are running away, exposing their unthreatening backs to bullets. Surely, shooting a fleeing man in the back hurts the presumption of white strength? The sad plight of grown white men, crouching beneath their (better) selves, to slaughter the innocent during traffic stops, to push black women’s faces into the dirt, to handcuff black children. Only the frightened would do that. Right?
These sacrifices, made by supposedly tough white men, who are prepared to abandon their humanity out of fear of black men and women, suggest the true horror of lost status."
Please feel free to use this thread to express your feelings, stay up to date on what is going on, and find community. I think we all need that now.
Posted: 5/29/20 at 8:41pm
A little surprised there's no existing thread on this topic yet.
Words are hard, but it is very important we stay involved and aware of what is going on in this country. Here's the latest: New York Times
It is difficult for me to articulate what is going through my head watching the country the past week. I am devastated, heartbroken, pissed off, agonized, disgusted, and a thousand other emotions. As I often do in times of intense devastation (systematic killings, racism, anarchy), I turn to Toni Morrison. From Mourning For Whiteness:
"This is a serious project. All immigrants to the United States know (and knew) that if they want to become real, authentic Americans they must reduce their fealty to their native country and regard it as secondary, subordinate, in order to emphasize their whiteness. Unlike any nation in Europe, the United States holds whiteness as the unifying force. Here, for many people, the definition of “Americanness” is color
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