I don't understand this really

[james_davis_nicoll]

But apparently white people whose relatives were progressives back when that was dangerous get full credits for that even if they had no choice in the decisions or actions involved (In my case, because I was not born yet). Yay me! I can claim at least two generations of social liberals on my father's side and while I have never done anything of note in this field [1], at least I have not been an active impediment.

I understand that those people who were denied the basic rights due any human are supposed to be grateful to that handful of oppressors who somehow managed to meet the minimum level of human decency and who worked to mitigate some of the obvious social inequities of the time. Will the oppressed know to bask in the pearly white glow of my good luck in picking my relatives or will I need to hand out cards announcing that that my ancestors weren't the complete assholes most of the rest of their social class were at the time?

What else is covered by this policy? Can I claim to be an important engineer because my father and grandfather made notable (but distinct) contributions to that field?


1: I have voted for politicians who grudgingly did the right thing once the polls made it obvious which way the public leaned and after the courts made it clear they had no real choice in the matter.

Comments

[marydell.livejournal.com]

But what was for black people in the south at that moment was part of the greater struggle for everyone, most definitely including whites. Which was why whites were willing to struggle and die with then.

So, you think whites supported the civil rights movement because it ultimately was about white people too? And that's the legacy you are claiming as your own?

Is there anything that ever happens that is not ultimately about white people, in your view?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Well, since you seem to be lumping everyone who doesn't follow Will Shetterly school of thought in the set of "racialists", let me supply you with the disconnect you lack the self-control to achieve yourself: your next comment will be deleted and you will be banned from this LJ.

This should free up valuable time to post the next dozen or so "This is my last post on LJ EVAR" entries on your own account.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

I am, as you say, a racialist, in that I think people of different races ("race" being a social/cultural group with particular genetic, physical or semiotic markers, not "race" in the sense of 19th century bad science) have profoundly different experiences in life, and that those different experiences are the result of racism--conscious and unconscious; institutionalized and personal.

I am also a feminist. I'm particularly concerned with equal rights for women. I don't find it difficult to care about more than one kind of social justice--in fact, I care about several. I don't understand why your being "the class guy" makes you unable to support people who want to engage with the problem of racism.

The problem I have with your position is not that you dislike the concept of race, but because you're so all-fired certain that you have hold of the moral center of life, and that everyone else is wrong, and that we need to stop talking about what matters to us and start talking about what matters to you. In person, you don't seem like that kind of guy, but out here on the internet, you do. It confuses me, to say the least.