From: cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese)
Subject: Re: Who cares what whites think about racism ?
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 7 Jan 93 04:25:35 GMT

In article <38114@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu> djohns@elm.circa.ufl.edu (David A. Johns) writes:
>In article <1992Dec28.230123.24444@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu> johnson@whitewater.chem.wisc.edu (Art Johnson) writes:
>
>#      This leads to the question of why so many whites approve of,
># say, Italians, or Jews, or Koreans, helping themselves through
># group solidarity, but disapprove when Africans propose doing the
># same thing.
>
>What makes you think "whites" approve of other groups' groups?  I grew
>up hearing that Jews were "clannish", for instance, because of all
>their self-help groups.

I had the grievous misfortune to be smart, female, and a dago in an
Irish-Catholic school back east.  I washed spit out of my hair several
times a week.  I rolled my sleeves down to hide the bruises all up and
down my arms from protecting my face from getting kicked when I was on
the ground.  I soaked up blood from my face in the girls' room.  When I
tried to stick up for myself, I was backhanded and punished in very
cruel ways by the goddamned nuns (I have no great love for the Catholic
church as a result, but that is irrelevant here).

Please do not assume that white = white bread.  I have had more than
enough experience to tell me that, as far as White America is concerned,
I am just not white enough to make them happy.  I am a greasy wop who
probably carries a knife, whose father probably got offed by the mob;
try imagining how that feels, hearing that after getting an early morning
phone call from a frantic mother telling you that your dad just died.

As far as I am concerned, I am not white.  I'm firmly convinced that a
lot of white people who care about racism do so to show their friends
how "socially aware" they are.  They don't give a shit about what
happened to me and my family because it isn't politically sexy to do
so.  African-descended people generally (this is a GENERAL observation)
don't care because they can't believe that some "white girl" could ever
have gone through that.  Either way, what happened to dagos back east --
getting the crap beaten out of them, changing their names to get jobs,
bleaching their hair, being thrown out of churches, isn't "significant"
enough for anyone to give a damn; try telling that to a 9 year old kid
who's cleaning the blood and dirt off her face in the girls' room in
school.

I'll admit that it ISN'T as prevalent as black-hatred, and I'll admit
that the problem isn't as big, but please do not make the mistake of
assuming that the dark white face you see on the street hasn't felt a
similar sting.  White people, whoever they are, are not an army of
solidarity.  Hate flows all over.  Of course a species so well-versed in
hatred would not limit itself to only one flavor. 

We have ALL been shit on to some extent.  I'd like to hear just one
person, JUST FUCKING ONE, say to someone who's been dumped on -- to an
African-American whose blood pressure is through the roof, to an Asian
who got teased in school for being "cheeky-eyed," to a Korean whose shop
got torched, to a woman who has been harassed, whoever -- "I'm sorry
this awful thing happened to you.  I didn't do it, and can't make the
problem go away on my own, but here . . . here's a shoulder.  I can't
accept guilt, but I'll listen, at least."  I've posted it before, but
WOULD IT KILL US TO JUST DO THAT?

Regards,
Janis C.

P.S.: Back from the holidays!