I hate using the term "It's A Black Thang, You Wouldn't Understand", but sometimes it's so apropos. Peep this latest nuttiness from the The Show Me State. Black Snob, rep yo' home state and stick up for your peoples!!!
A middle school teacher in Missouri was suspended Monday for putting a video on YouTube of his students chanting lines from Barack Obama speeches and wearing military fatigues.Okay, and here's the oh-so-controversial video. Clutch your purses, Middle America. It's sooo scary.
The video, called "Obama Youth -- Junior Fraternity Regiment," was posted by a YouTube user named "keepitwildtv" on Oct. 2. The school learned the video was on the Internet and took action against the teacher Monday morning.
Joyce McGautha, superintendent of the Urban Community Leadership Academy, a charter school for students in fifth through ninth grades in Kansas City, Mo., said that the video was probably taken last May during the Junior Fraternity's morning meeting at the school.
Students at the school have 30-minute group sessions four times a week during which they are supposed to work on reading and writing. Once a week they are allowed to have "activities," McGautha said. There are 12 groups at the public charter school.
The Junior Fraternity students studied Obama's economic plan with the teacher, and the superintendent did not know whether the teacher or the students scripted the routine. The group should have also studied John McCain's economic plan, the superintendent said.
In the video, eighth- and ninth-graders wearing military camouflage pants and navy t-shirts chant and perform a routine in the style of a step show, a dance popular among African-American fraternities at universities.
The students enter the room chanting "Alpha. Omega. Alpha. Omega." Then, one at a time, they state things they were "inspired" to do by Barack Obama, including becoming an architect and a sheriff. At the end of the video, the students make statements about Obama's healthcare plan. "Obama's healthcare plan will be able to provide participants the ability to move from job to job without taking their healthcare coverage," one says.
"People are upset that possibly taxpayer money is being used to support one particular candidate," McGautha said, "and now I can understand that. And I didn't condone them. I try very, very hard to remain within the limits of the law. I think this is unfortunate."
I've heard this video dissected on Fox News contributor Laura Ingraham's radio show as "terrorist training". Some on the web are calling the poor young men Nazis. One prominent, perpetually politically out of touch black blogger actually referred to the young men as Black Panthers in the making. Many Conservatives are decrying the fact that the kids are chanting for Obama, but not McCain. The internet is goin' nuts, and most of the comments about this are wildly critical of the kids and blatantly racist.
Wigga Please! Are ya'll serious?
What the pundits miss here is that this is little more than trying to impose discipline and forward thinking in these young boys by way of rote[1] memorization and military style marching routines. Actually, the military thing is off base, it's more like the typical stuff you see in step shows. None of what the kids are chanting is even remotely offensive. They're just repeating Obama Talking Points for chrisakes. They can't even vote yet.
The "routine" doesn't look too different from what you'd see in a typical step show, and isn't too far removed from some of the stuff I did back when I pledged[2]. It's also not too different from the "step teams" you see at most churches, or community centers, or after school programs in most "urban" areas. The mentor program I participated in last year did some of this. Hell, I even use some of this stuff to keep the basketball team of 5th graders I coach in line.
None of this is offensive. Just because it's somewhat foreign to those unfamiliar with black folks doesn't make it dangerous. These kids are inspired by Obama. They clearly aren't inspired by Cotton Hill. That doesn't make this a waste of taxpayer funds, or some sort of illegal public partisan display anymore than that time Sarah Palin shouted out some middle school in Alaska during a debate. Let it go.
Of course, the image of young black boys, dressed in black, and fatigues, and talking very loudly and forcefully is going to offend, if not scare some segment of the population, thus the outcry. But the kids are talking about "taking full (personal) responsibility for their own lives", not breakin' into someone's house in Kirkwood. How anyone finds this offensive is beyond me.
All the teacher intended to do was to make the whole Barry-4-Prez thing realer to these kids by using it to tap into their future dreams and aspirations. What's so wrong about that?
Question: Is Obama Psi Phi an egregious waste of taxpayer money or was the teacher simply trying to show these kids some discipline?
Middle School Teacher Suspended for 'Obama Frat' Spat [FoxNews]
[1] $10 word. Look it up. I'm so proud of my HBCU education. Woo hoo!!!
[2] Yo! Yoooooo!!!!!
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As I tell about my NPHC affliations, or lack thereof, no shock that gold (Jodeci) boots and fatigues have caused some problems.
Yeah, I did drill team when I was in 8th and 9th grade at church. It's the only reason I know so much scripture now.
But, yeah, this is a bunch of codswallop. I think that this yet again proves my Second America theory: larger America doesn't know that Black America exists. We operate as a subculture and still don't receive equal respect for our cultural isms and idiosyncracies. Instead we're reduced to a Talking Points segment on the Bill O'Reilly show.
What further drives the division is the white ignorance of such atrocities against the black community. Blacks internalize being looked under a microscope like this, and then when some ish hits theee fan, whites take a step back and wonder why race is still a factor in this country. Only white privilege can buy such wanton ignorance in the bulk quantity purchased by much of white America.
This white ignorance and privilege allows for millions of whites who have little interaction with blacks to further draw negative opinions on "who we be" at the hands of a media and culure that has already relegated our "is-ness" to being secondary to their idea of what America should look like.
It's yet another reminder to black folk that if you don't think like them, you aint worth shit.
JLL
Questions:
1) If Obama went to an HBCU what school would it be?
2) If Obama pledged a frat at said HBCU what would it be?
I know Greeks hate the stereotypes, but when have they ever been wrong?
Obama Psi Phi...Genius LOL. You better trademark that, AB!
To answer Uppity's questions:
1) Howard. No Question.
2) Me and my aunt, who is an AKA, had a long discussion about that LOL. She says that he would be an Alpha because she knows many Alphas working in the public sector. But me, I don't know.
I'm getting tired. Really tired!
First, it was "black liberation theology" that frightened them, and now it's a handful of boys dressed in fatigues chanting how Obama has inspired them, that sends shivers up their spines.
If blacks deviate from the cultural norm (white norms), if we dare to have a mind of own, live a life that they didn't approve, then somehow we're perceived as threatening.
Blacks have for years developed a timeline all their own. Not being fully accepted by the larger society, it became necessary for us to create our own rituals, our own language, our own music, and our own theology.
Even with that, the timeline didn't morph into something weird, strange, and bizarre. It still existed by borrowing much from the larger society, but adding it's own special flavors, it's own spices, it's own home cooking.
These young men are going to have a tough enough time fighting against the massive low expectations that will be thrust upon them by the realities of living in the midst of poverty, and the perception of the larger society that they're not suppose to excel, and achieve.
Rather than applauding their efforts, that larger society is pointing derisive fingers at them, and imparting the message that somehow their difference will not allow them to measure up.
This political year, with a black so close to the White House, has really revealed the racist attitudes still lurking in the nooks and crannies of our national psyche.
I'm tired. I'm really tired....
@uppity negro:
1) Morehouse
2) Alpha
@lack D.:
I'm tired too. I happen to believe that if an action helps the esteem and hope of our young folks, then it is acceptable. To me this is a non-issue.
However, for the "fearful middle Americans" all activities must be sanctioned by them in order to be deemed acceptable. If it is different, it is automatically unacceptable. The bottom line is that if they were country line-dancing to a McCain-themed song there would be no issue.
All of that aside, I can see the issue of them partaking in what could interpreted as polital assembly on the taxpayer dime. However, this as merely the excuse given for the critics' discomfort with anything related to black empowerment.
I had to laugh... really
i just felt the whole thing was distasteful. I don't consider them nazi's
to be honest, they need to lay off McDonald's.
All i can say is cracker please
I'm not a fan of the military attire and I don't think it's smart to use a candidate's talking points in a chant, but otherwise it's a very positive chant isn't it?
Being inspired to go for your goals, exclaiming that you want to take ownership in your life and such. All good right?
And something positive:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7665925.stm
No offense to the non-minority commenters, but your comments exemplify exactly what Uppity and Diaspora just said - you don't get it. It is cultural! I know it seems contradictory, but really the military fatigues have NOTHING TO DO with being MILITANT in the conventional sense! And I don't know what Wilma means by "I don't think it's smart to use a candidate's talking points in a chant..." like it's voodoo or something. lol - y'all don't get it. Sorry.
i've heard it said before so i can't take credit for this nugget of truth - but if those young men were playing basketball or football there would be no issue with 'taxpayer' money. but white america is scared, very scared, that these young men have the nerve to ASPIRE to be more than entertainment.
I'm with Diaspora. I'm really tired as well. Nothing else to say.
@Black dispora
Co-sign
@AB
You are correct sometimes it truly is a black thang. People need not concern themselves unless you want to understand and learn. Otherwise if you have NO knowledge of what steppin is Sit down and Shut Up
I'm curious to see our resident Republicans' comments on this matter.
I have yet to watch the video as I can't at work, but Nazis? Come on now. I agree if it was anything McCain there would be no problem. However there I see why they would be concerned that they did not do what their task was. I bet the teacher wouldn't be in any trouble if he or she did this off school property, off school time and taxpayer's dime. I'm not saying they were wrong for what they did, just there could have been a different way to get it done.
I may have more to say after viewing the video.
this is garden variety fear-mongering!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
LOL @ AB "Obama Psi Phi" lol I'm WEEEEAAAK at work. lol
1. Morehouse, Howard, or FAMU
2. The coldest and the oldest
Obama Psi Phi is pretty funny.
As far as the issue at hand, none of this should be suprising. As election day nears and the mainstream media continues to report on Obama leading in the polls, the racism is becoming far more overt. Just see some of AB's previous posts for more proof than you probably care to see. The blatant lies are giving way to down right rage and anger amongst those that could care less about issues, but more about keeping a "niggrah" (note the spelling) out of office.
As a member of a NPHC organization, I do feel folks need to ease up on the teenage step shows. Yeah, it's positive but honestly I never cared for it. But they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery so, I guess it's no big deal?
@ Uppity
Thanks for hijacking my post and posing a very good question to the other commenters in the process. I don't know whether to thank you or be upset. So, I'll just answer myself.
1) Morehouse or Howard. I only say this because coming from the West Coast, other HBCU's don't have the same name recognition. Could he get as good an eduation at Shaw U. or NC Central? Sure. But he prolly would have never even heard of these schools growing up in Hawaii.
2) As much as I'd like to claim him as a Nupe (Super Achiever!), his demeanor screams Phi Beta Sigma or Alpha.
@ Ciara
It took me a half hour to come up with Obama Psi Phi. Too bad I couldn't figure out how to go the whole nine and make up the greek letters in PhotoShop.
@ Black Diaspora
Totally concur.
@ Omi
Okay, the kid in the front did look a bit like Latarian in 5 years, but come on, cut the boys some slack.
@ KimH20's
True. If they were in fatigues chanting anything (gang affiliation, favorite NFL team, Maino lyrics) this wouldn't be newsworthy.
@ MissJay
I think our resident Republicans have moved on. I'm sad to see them go, and I wonder if this has something to do with the election. Hopefully they'll stick it out.
@AB
Sorry didn't men to hijack your post (Big)Avg.Bro.
Don't be mad please.
@ Uppity
Considering the fact that you gave it legs, I suppose a thank you is in order.
Preciate it.
I'm around still! Long weekend with 40+ friends at my house (no they didn't all sleep over).
I'll have to dive into the comments later and see what questions were asked...
It reminds old school white folks of the Black Panthers.
Obama Psi Phi - props for that one!! (Are there any Ques that post here?)
@Uppity
1) Morehouse
2. Omega Psi Phi
Could you imagine Obama having went to Southern or Grambling and pledging? LMAO.
Whatchu think his line name woulda been? Lol
@ Uppity, bravo. well said. We African Americans have a culture that is distinctly our own, and most white folk know nothing about it. Nor do they ever bother to try and understand it.
@ciara, you'd better trademark that Obama Psi Phi thing fast, before the tee-shirts start appearing at the swap meet.
I agree with vinindy, The House and Q.
I would buy one of those shirts! LOL Now that I've seen the video. There really is no reason to call those boys Nazis. They talked to fast for me sometime where they jumbled the words but other than that it wasn't that bad.
@ EBW:
Soit'ny, but I would venture that when white folks DO try to understand some cultural element, they are sometimes villified for doing so, their motives being second-guessed as paternalistic or invasive.
I feel as though this neverending waltz has compelled white and black America alike to pigeonhole each other into the mutually suffocating role of "can't win." (The white-on-black aspect of it being, of course, on full display in the hysterical media reaction to this video, which is only the latest item in the growing list of hysterical media reactions.)
I saw this 10 or 12 days ago, as a compliment to the other creepy Obama Kids singing video child exploitation thing. I just shrugged... every comment I read referenced it as being similar to black fraternity practice and not that big a deal. The only real report I read took the teacher out behind the woodshed because his principal warned him beforehand there would be job repercussions if it leaked out.
The Fox News link AB provides says basically the same thing, in a very straightforward report with no bias whatsoever. Refreshing.
Is there a hysterical media reaction? I've missed it, and I frequent the right-of-center news sources (what little of it there is)
Where's the wild-eyed reaction to this? Better question: given the left's fascination with calling Republicans Nazis for the last 8 years, what room does anybody here have to bitch anyway? puh-leez.
No room to talk.
-----------------
This seems like the making of a lefty meme here. The reaction in the comment section here is completely out of proportion, and most interestingly is the shared delusion that this would be acceptable if it were white kids chanting for McCain. Sometimes I wonder how two completely contradictory thoughts can occupy somebody's head... then I read comments here and I see the proof of it.
OK, look. If this was a bunch of white kids chanting McCain talking points:
It wouldn't be reminiscent of HBCU frat step dances, because it'd be white kids! White guys in army fatigues = neo-nazi skinheads or racist rednecks. OF COURSE THE REACTION WOULD BE DIFFERENT!! It'd be blood in the water for the entire left blogosphere and their constant 8-year conflation of Republicans and Nazi fascism.
To claim
a) people don't get it because "it's a black thing"
b)no one would care if the kids were white
Just plain doesn't make sense. The people who have a problem with this are speaking out mistakenly because they are reacting similarly to how they would if the kids were white! If they understood or were familiar with the subculture (black frat traditions I assume) the reactions would be different... which proves b) is false!
People, please try to make some sense here. Pick a grievance and stick with the inherent logic... I know this election season has been tough on your victimology and complaints you're used to making now conflict with each other but please try to remain consistent.
@ spool32,
"People, please try to make some sense here. Pick a grievance and stick with the inherent logic... I know this election season has been tough on your victimology and complaints you're used to making now conflict with each other but please try to remain consistent."
Dear Lord man! You know, I can appreciate your different point of view from time to time. But other times, like this one, you can be so unbelievably condescending. Full disclosure: I haven't read all the comments here. But your point about people just not being familiar with the black frat subculture sort of PROVES what folks have been saying. Everything that black people in America do, no matter how absolutely normal to us, seems bizarre and foreign to the rest of America.
For most people on this blog, their life experience shows them that something as simple as a damn fist bump gets analyzed and studied, and reinforces the notion that even though we've shared this country for centuries, white people, for the most part (but not you, I'm sure. You don't even *see* color) see us as exotic and foreign. For you to come here and belittle that experience by calling it illogical victimology is garbage! You try being treated as foreign, as the "scary" other, as a commodity, as an oddity most days of your life. You would feel a lot differently if something as simple as the way you wore your hair became a symbol for "radical" views you don't hold, or open for discussion at business meetings, or the object lesson for people who just want to learn more about "your people." If you were *rightly* annoyed, would you just be a victimology-loving whiner?
I've noticed in your comments that you don't see us as the same. I still haven't seen you show the outrage you had over Sarah Palin being called a chess piece with breasts, over any other female discussed on this board. Even when the men here intimated that the young lady in the McD's video probably deserved to be assaulted by an adult male, you showed no such outrage. What's my point? Was it illogical victimology when you boldly defended a woman more like you and ignored greater slights against women like me?
I think that fear, ignorance and misunderstanding have totally destroyed what hopes I have for social/race relations in this country now.
America was founded on social imbalance. There were no blacks of 'equal' footing at the table when the Declaration of Independence was signed.
It's 2008, and some white women still clutch their purses when I walk past them in the grocery store. Some white men won't look me in the face and acknowledge me when I greet them.
I've since stopped trying to understand the reasons for that.
I personally think that after this article and the subsequent discussion, it's best to stop trying to understand anything.
You're supposed to say "Never say never," but now I'm saying "NEVER."
It's no use even bothering.
EG
Yes, it's clear you didn't read my comment either. Let me see if I can cover a lot of ground quickly:
Of course my response to Palin being abused was illogical victimology... that was the whole point. I figured I'd just join in with everyone else, except in reverse. Either outrage is universally acceptable (it wasn't - I was attacked as oversensitive for being outraged) or else it's not universally acceptable... yet here I am being attacked again for incorrectly applied outrage. Consistency, please!
I was raised in the south... you don't hit a woman - it's wrong, end of story. I didn't feel the need to state the obvious in that McD's beatdown thread and I had another point to make... plus, Uppity made a strong point about the fragmentation of a cultural system that had some parity in the past (you don't hit a woman, but women don't say things that would earn a man a punch in the mouth) into a disparate structure of gender roles (you don't hit a woman, but women talking all kinds of sh!t is proof of liberation and equality or something) and he got pounded for it. I get enough of a beating around here without taking yet another one for stating the obvious.
I'm going to pass over comments about whether or not I believe/accept/understand the experience of racism. I'll pass over the snarkiness about not seeing color as well... the last time I tried to discuss my own past and experiences with race, I was so severely abused that I deleted the post.
I'm not belittling the experience as illogical victimology, but I am belittling two common (and sometimes justified) complaints (whites don't understand black culture, whites get treated differently) when they are deployed simultaneously to comment on something but end up contradicting each other.
Finally: Yep, I was being condescending. Why should I be nice about something so obviously contradictory and ridiculous? It deserved ridicule. It's no surprise that I'm unfamiliar with black fraternity traditions... I didn't go to an HBCU, and I didn't pledge a frat of any sort... I'm entirely unfamiliar. Being unfamiliar, and reading a news report that pointed out how similar it was to a tradition I'm unfamiliar with, the whole video was a big "so what?" for me.
The contradictory logic here deserved a highlight, but I think you missed the point. I'm not sure how much more clear I could be, so please read it again... yes, people are unfamiliar with HBCU frat step dancing, pledge rituals, etc. That's why they're reacting like it's a big deal... because they view it through the lens of their experience with people in fatigues chanting slogans. The reaction proves that were the kids white, there would be reaction... which is the opposite of the claim "if they were white it'd be no big deal".
This should be obvious. In the case of outrage over reaction to this video, you guys need to pick one theme or the other and stick with it... the two together are contradictory. That people are apparently comfortable with contradictory outrage leads me to question the sincerity of their feelings in this case.
In regards to the criticism of the press in regards to these young brothers, I refer to the immortal words of Cypress Hill's Sen Dog:
"Eat A Dick Straight Up!"
These are just young brothers who chose to express (by way of their culture)how Barack Obama has inspired them to strive to be better men mentally and spiritually (and hopefully lay off the donuts).
This is the essence of White Privlege:
Pointing out the splinter in our eyes, but ignoring the 2x4 in theirs.
To falsely accuse defenseless minors of racism, yet ignore the fact that out of the almost three thousand people who came to RNC Convention, only 35 of them were Black.
The fact that NOT ONCE during his campaign has McCain ever made an attempt to address the black community(and no, that NAACP shit don't count, homey).
The fact that his "do-girl" Sarah Palin is doing his dirty work by riling up the most hateful, bigoted, ignorant portions of his supporters by accusing Obama of being a terrorist.
But a bunch of middle-school kids are gonna be the end for us all.
Bitch, please.
spool32,
I read your comment a few times. Clearly. I just didn't like the tone it took. When people react strongly to something that affects them in their day-to-day lives and someone else, completely unfamiliar with that experience swoops in to minimize and trivialize said experience, the result is the reaction you typically get here. If I am outraged at a story that ONCE AGAIN paints my traditions as foreign or weird or terrorist training, I have every right to that outrage. I don't accept the response that people just don't know, because that's the problem. As a black woman I know my cultural traditions as well as many mainstream (read: white) traditions. I don't have a choice. Even if I never wanted to know, those traditions have been a part of my upbringing, my formal and informal education, and have informed much of my professional life. "I'm not familiar with the things you all do" has never been an adequate excuse for me.
You may feel that black people are oversensitive and perceive reactions in a racialized way even when they are not intended that way. In fact, I would agree with you **sometimes**. However, I just find it nothing short of rude to suggest to people that their response, their outrage, is unwarranted. I would agree, though, that sometimes the intensity is. It is simply something that you don't understand. You may sympathize, but you don't understand.
I remember commentors wondering why you had so suddenly come to understand sexism because you seem to always dismiss any accusations of racism, or at least deflect to something else. It was just an interesting turn of events. I know that Palin has been treated with sexism, though not all her claims of sexism seem to have little respect for the concept. I don't believe you were just trying to make a point. I believe you just reacted more strongly because you could identify more strongly. It's possible I've misread you, though.
And no, you don't have to be condescending just because you disagree with the sentiment. You just don't. I think saying that white people just don't understand us (which you have admitted) and that white people would not have been that worked up if it were white kids is not contradictory. Just because YOU think whites would have reacted in similar fashion doesn't negate other people's OPINIONS. As evidenced by how often you are the dissenting opinion here, obvious to you does not mean obvious to me.
But rarely do you approach that tension in a way that says, "Hey, here's another take on that." Instead, it usually takes the tone of "Oh for crying out loud! Not this again!" People don't respond well to it, you do it over and over again, and then complain that people aren't hearing you out. Seriously, if the common thread is you, why don't you consider a different approach?
It most certainly is contradictory. If somebody encounters a new experience, they view it through the lens of their existing understanding. They react in ways that are inappropriate or mistaken because they are using what information they have, but their information is inadequate.
People reacting poorly to this video is a result of ignorance. I'm not excusing ignorance, or making comments about whether ignorance is acceptable, but it is a simple fact. If it were otherwise, saying "you just don't understand this subculture" is irrelevant... the implication is that if only people did understand, their reactions would be different.
So... people don't understand, because they're ignorant. OK. They make dumbass offensive comments that show their ignorance. OK. yes. I agree.
Because they are ignorant, they make comments showing how they view the video. Their comments, while ignorant and offensive, are also a window into how they see things. Since they have no experience in the subculture, they must see things as colored by their own experiences.
Their own experiences lead them to believe actions like this video are (insert stupid comment about brainwashing, Nazi Youth, etc), and they make assumptions based on those experiences. Why in the world would they react any differently were the kids in the video white?
There's no reason to believe they would , and every reason to believe they would not... including the internal logic by which you condemn them for being ignorant of the subculture. They've already expressed their opinions about brainwashing and nazi youth nonsense. The thing that would change their opinions is understanding of the culture, not changing the skin tone of the kids.
Arguing that both are true is contradictory.
----------------
You might have a point. A lot of the conservative thought process and worldview is completely foreign, and people view what I write through the lens of their own liberal upbringing and experiences. I should probably take more of my own advice. ;)
oh spool, how we continue to disagree. I think what you don't understand is the feeling that many people of color have that white folks are willfully ignorant about us. Like they *could* know better, they just don't care to. I know that's how I feel sometimes in conversations with you. Like everybody is trying to give you a different perspective, but you choose to swat it down instead of hear it out.
I agree with you about how liberals can oftentimes totally tune out a different point of view. It happens to me all the time, because from my appearance I think people expect me to be "radical" when I'm slightly right of center. Still, I haven't lost my racial sensitivities, and I hope I never do.
I really do wish that you would take more time to hear people's frustrations, instead of attacking them as whining and victimology. You're conservative. Everyone gets that. But I don't, get your motivation.
That's a good point about willful ignorance... I can only speak for myself and say the list of things I don't know wasn't one I wrote, if you take my meaning. I like crossing stuff off that list.
That's probably not anywhere near a universal trait.
This kids need stop worshipping people and hit those books. Thats the problem with black folk they get caught up in the hysteria of things but don't actually get stuff done.
@ i.l.l.
"'I'm not familiar with the things you all do' has never been an adequate excuse for me.
You may feel that black people are oversensitive and perceive reactions in a racialized way even when they are not intended that way.....I just find it nothing short of rude to suggest to people that their response, their outrage, is unwarranted."
I won't insult you by pretending I understand, and I won't tell you that the constant feeling of marginalization wouldn't drive any human being nuts.
But I have to stress that as a person, you don't know what you don't know.
And despite what it may look like at times, there is an enormous difference between innocent ignorance and willful ignorance. I have no sympathy for willful ignorance, and I completely understand your anger at those who practice it. But what spool was probably getting at, in part, is the tendency (or so one can perceive) to not distinguish between the two, displaying the same kind of anger at both. This is unfair to those who have no ill will, but are unaware of how ignorant they are.
Forget race for a sec---just apply that premise to life in general. Anyone would feel exactly the same way, regardless of the context.
If your life has never given you a reason to know, you won't know it, unless you take it upon yourself to find out. And many people simply haven't had the kind of experience or upbringing that would lead them to realize there IS anything to find out. (And while that goes for everyone and not just whites, whites have a lot more to find out, since blacks are the ones who are forced to be culturally "bilingual".)
@ i.l.l.
"'I'm not familiar with the things you all do' has never been an adequate excuse for me.
You may feel that black people are oversensitive and perceive reactions in a racialized way even when they are not intended that way.....I just find it nothing short of rude to suggest to people that their response, their outrage, is unwarranted."
I won't insult you by pretending I understand, and I won't tell you that the constant feeling of marginalization wouldn't drive any human being nuts.
But I have to stress that as a person, you don't know what you don't know.
And despite what it may look like at times, there is an enormous difference between innocent ignorance and willful ignorance. I have no sympathy for willful ignorance, and I completely understand your anger at those who practice it. But what spool was probably getting at, in part, is the tendency (or so one can perceive) to not distinguish between the two, displaying the same kind of anger at both. This is unfair to those who have no ill will, but are unaware of how ignorant they are.
Forget race for a sec---just apply that premise to life in general. Anyone would feel exactly the same way, regardless of the context.
If your life has never given you a reason to know, you won't know it, unless you take it upon yourself to find out. And many people simply haven't had the kind of experience or upbringing that would lead them to realize there IS anything to find out. (And while that goes for everyone and not just whites, whites have a lot more to find out, since blacks are the ones who are forced to be culturally "bilingual".)
nikki mo in fl said...
No offense to the non-minority commenters, but your comments exemplify exactly what Uppity and Diaspora just said - you don't get it. It is cultural! I know it seems contradictory, but really the military fatigues have NOTHING TO DO with being MILITANT in the conventional sense! And I don't know what Wilma means by "I don't think it's smart to use a candidate's talking points in a chant..." like it's voodoo or something. lol - y'all don't get it. Sorry.
I am sorry for offending you like that. I did not intend to use the word chant as in some sort of voodoo-thing. English is my third language and I do make mistakes translating from my own language. Voodoo certainly wasn't on my mind. And there are a lot of aspects from American culture that I will never get regardless of differences between black and white America.
But I do what it's like to be part of a minority culture and to have the culture that you inherited with your mother's milk to be marginalized, ridiculed, belittled and misunderstood by the dominant culture and I know how much that can hurt. So, I'm sorry if I offended you.
@spool - another example of white privilege; you acknowledge your comments (on a blog written by a BM) are condescending and can't understand why said comments p*ss folks off. It's rude also.
A group of white kids wouldn't have done a step show, they'd had a puppet show or had a drinking game about McCain/Palin, because that's your culture.
@uppity...his line name would be dumbo!
A group of white kids wouldn't have done a step show, they'd had a puppet show or had a drinking game about McCain/Palin, because that's your culture.
And it would NOT be all over the news/internet like this video was. We may be having this conversation, but not to this long dragged out level. It would've been talked about for a couple of minutes and then we'd all move on to the next subject because stuff like that(drinking games, etc) happens everyday.
@missjay:
In fact that creepy-as-hell Obama kids song video was all over the net for just about as long as this was.
@vinindy:
Huh? Sorry, you'll need to explain yourself... that was completely incoherent. Where did I say I don't understand how being condescending can make people angry? What the hell does this have to do with "white privilege"?
Every time I start to listen to commenters here and think there might be a component of that phrase that has merit... good grief.
Yall have to forgive me if I don't know how long stuff like this stays on the net. I don't look for stuff like that or go to sites where I would find it in abundance. It might be just me. But then again as I've stated many times before, I don't like politics.
@ Spool
I'm assuming you mean THIS creepy Obama kids song?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdPSqL9_mfM
I bunch of suburban soccer kids singing off key?
Yeah, really creepy.
Man, you're beginning to scare ME.
@ AB:
The soccer kids aren't creepy. The existence of the video is.
Although it's been a lot less prevalent theme in the media lately, the cultishness that seems to surround Obama is something I find obscene and ridiculous. That's partly because I'm genetically incapable of being a "follower" of anything, but it's mainly because politician worship is damned dangerous.
I've gotten in a lot of arguments with knucklehead backlashers who rant and rave about "Messiah" Obama till the cows come home, but seem to have completely forgotten the absolute FREAK SHOW of orgasmic, over the top hero-worship given to George W. Bush during the peak screwball years of 2002 to 2004. (You even had people openly speaking of him as "a man of God"!) It felt like everyone had lost their minds. So I personally find it depressing when I see similar cultishness sprouting up around the guy I actually support, even though it has thankfully gotten nowhere near as cloying as the almighty Cult of Bush.
@ Marbles
Exceptionally well stated. If I weren't envious, I'd give you Cyber CapriSuns for that one.
You mention a great point: folks followed Bush like mindless sheep in 2004 and 2000. It was indeed worse, given all the religious overtones and pandering.
I think it's possible that you simply don't see such displays for McCain because people don't "love" him like they do Obama or Bush. That says more about Cotton Hill than it does about America.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mccain+supporters&search_type=&aq=f
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