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Fri 23 Oct, 2009 10:15 pm
...and this letter from an angry white professor explains why better than I could have...
Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph.
Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King . Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan , the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?" How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?
Until this past November 4 , I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan: First, every day that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service ) will protect him and his family from us white people.
Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.
Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome."
@snood,
Fine editorial, that. Thanks for sharing it, snood.
@snood,
what an idiot, you do not control the outcome by attempting to control the dialog. Let people say what ever they damn well please, if they are wrong tell everyone why they are wrong, and if you are right then the majority will move in your direction. In the meanwhile make sure that the Secret Service is able to do its job.
Great editorial, snood. I absolutely agree with the writer.
Excellent, thoughtful editorial, Snood.
Thank you for posting it here.
I don't know how wide my experience would be considered, but I haven't heard a single person, in person, say anything negative about the president's race or say anything of a remotely threatening nature. I have heard people insult his character, but that's all. Again, I'm speaking only of what I've seen in the world, not what I've read.
Good piece of writing and one I will pass along to others.
I live in Texas. I come in contact with a wide range of white people, re age, financial situation, etc. I hear the ignorance and barely stifled rage fairly often. But we are known for that. I wonder how the more "progressive" states are faring?
@edgarblythe,
I really haven't heard a lot of this in coastal NC.
@snood,
snood's article wrote:How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
I think this sums it up pretty well.
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@hawkeye10,
hawkeye10 wrote:what an idiot, you do not control the outcome by attempting to control the dialog.
But then you say...
hawkeye10 wrote:Let people say what ever they damn well please, if they are wrong tell everyone why they are wrong...
The author isn't saying stop anyone's freedom of speech. He is saying tell people they are wrong when they continue to promote inequality with racist jokes and uncouth comments about race.
As for assassination, we don't have the right to spout out assassination threats, valid or otherwise.
hawkeye10 wrote:...and if you are right then the majority will move in your direction.
We live in a country governed by laws. Laws which cannot enact majoritarian rule. You are incorrect. No majority is required to move forward on creating equality amongst our country's citizens.
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@edgarblythe,
Most of my friends in New Jersey, a northern, progressive and traditionally democratic state and North Carolina, a southern and less traditionally progressive and more conservative state, happened to have voted for Obama - so there is none of this among those people.
I haven't spoken to my friends in Maine specifically about Obama's election.
In terms of my family members - all of whom are politically conservative and voted Republican (except for one sister-in-law) -but none of whom are racist and hateful, no one has expressed such sentiments in my hearing - and I can't imagine that they say such things outside of my hearing- they just are not racist and hate mongering people who would wish harm or ill to anyone - no matter what their political beliefs.
@Diest TKO,
Quote:The author isn't saying stop anyone's freedom of speech. He is saying tell people they are wrong when they continue to promote inequality with racist jokes and uncouth comments about race.
Yes, this idea that we can't joke around about subject we really care about has gotten very out of hand. Getting all offended by what others say did so long ago
Quote:As for assassination, we don't have the right to spout out assassination threats, valid or otherwise
the threshold is "credible threat", and should remain so
Quote:We live in a country governed by laws. Laws which cannot enact majoritarian rule. You are incorrect. No majority is required to move forward on creating equality amongst our country's citizens.
as California shows with majority going against gay marriage and the minority saying that the majority has no right to say no because the legal equality theory supercities, your view is not universally agreed to. The courts tend to agree with you, which is something that the GOP has been up in arms about for well over a decade, but I submit that as always the power in a democracy rests with the people. If the people want to reform the courts and thus go in a different direction they will succeed, and they will have been with-in their rights.
@hawkeye10,
hawkeye10 wrote:
Quote:The author isn't saying stop anyone's freedom of speech. He is saying tell people they are wrong when they continue to promote inequality with racist jokes and uncouth comments about race.
Yes, this idea that we can't joke around about subject we really care about has gotten very out of hand. Getting all offended by what others say did so long ago
If it was mere offense, this probably wouldn't be an issue. But imagine you hear your boss joking about how he didn't hire someone because he could "still see the water on the dumb spick's back?" All joking fun right? No. This kind of thing should be confronted, and taken to HR. It's inappropriate, and very unprofessional. It hurts others, and places a person's bias ahead of company needs.
hawkeye10 wrote:
Quote:As for assassination, we don't have the right to spout out assassination threats, valid or otherwise
the threshold is "credible threat", and should remain so
Listen carefully. Bullshit.
It's illegal to yell fire in a theater whether your threat was credible or not.
hawkeye10 wrote:
Quote:We live in a country governed by laws. Laws which cannot enact majoritarian rule. You are incorrect. No majority is required to move forward on creating equality amongst our country's citizens.
as California shows with majority going against gay marriage and the minority saying that the majority has no right to say no because the legal equality theory supercities, your view is not universally agreed to. The courts tend to agree with you, which is something that the GOP has been up in arms about for well over a decade, but I submit that as always the power in a democracy rests with the people. If the people want to reform the courts and thus go in a different direction they will succeed, and they will have been with-in their rights.
Cute. However, what took place in California was NOT within the rights of the people. It was reprehensible.
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@edgarblythe,
I have heard none of this in Washington State. I run in military circles and highly educated circles. I am sure that there are a fair number of people who think that obama sucks because he is black, but there are also a fair number of people who think that the government developed AID's or that Fox news is fair and balanced.....you gotta consider the context.
@Diest TKO,
Quote:If it was mere offense, this probably wouldn't be an issue. But imagine you hear your boss joking about how he didn't hire someone because he could "still see the water on the dumb spick's back?" All joking fun right? No. This kind of thing should be confronted, and taken to HR. It's inappropriate, and very unprofessional. It hurts others, and places a person's bias ahead of company needs
YOur example has nothing to do with the subject. We joke about our leaders, we deride our leaders, always have and always will...and always should, it is good for the collectives spleen. Obama and those who support him need to grow a thicker skin, this timidity and fear mongering is not good for America.
Quote:
It's illegal to yell fire in a theater whether your threat was credible or not.
because the panic thus caused would likely cause grave harm and possibly death by trampling. Is it your contention that someone saying that Obama should be killed will cause such injury? You seem to think that once the idea is proposed a whole lot of folks will say to themselves "OMG, I never thought of that, what a good idea, I should go do that"
You have a very low opinion of your peers don't you.
Quote:Cute. However, what took place in California was NOT within the rights of the people. It was reprehensible
1) you are not King, you don't get to decide
2) the question is in the process of being decided
@hawkeye10,
Quote:I run in military circles and highly educated circles.
Those would be two distinct groups. Why would the latter group tolerate you chasing them around?
@JTT,
thank you for yet another example from you of the lack of common courtesy and fairness that has infected a2k....
Was this REALLY necessary?
When will we realize that a person's skin is just that - a different color of skin, no different than having blue or brown or green eyes? I don't care what color Obama is, but why does he frequently refer to himself as a black man when he is half white? That, in my opinion, is extreme racism and does great harm to the world's perspective on "racial equality."
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