From: cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese)
Subject: Re: What A White Person Learned in College About AfAm Culture
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Organization: University of California, Irvine
Date: 13 Jan 93 00:42:21 GMT

In article <ISBELL.93Jan12133204@panther.ai.mit.edu> isbell@ai.mit.edu (Charles L Isbell) writes:
>cortese@skid.ps.uci.edu (Janis Maria Cortese) writes:
>|David A. Johns writes: 
>|>brian@quake.sylmar.ca.us (Brian K. Yoder) writes:
>|>
>|># He said that he had seen very little racism. I must say that I have
>|># seen fairly little too.  That doesn't mean that either of us thinks
>|># it doesn't exist.  What it means is that blanket claims that
>|># "America is a Racist" country or that all blacks are discriminated
>|># against are quite suspect.
>|>
>|>I basically agree with you here, but that's not the whole story.  A
>|>very large percentage of whites has very little contact with blacks in
>|>everyday life.  Most whites, unlike blacks, are not conscious of race
>
>|Sure they have.  There's the maid, and the woman who works at the dry
>|cleaners.  And a few years ago, I could have mentioned Willie Horton.
>|Ple-e-e-e-e-enty of AfAm faces!
>
>Right.  It seems clear to me that the minority, en masse, always
>understands the majority better than the majority understands the
>minority.

This is something that few people understand or will admit to.  I've
always had men say tit-for-tat stuff like, "Well, women do the same
thing!!!!!" when it's quite obvious that the opposite is true.  Women ae
inundated with novels written by men about men, with movies written
about men by men for male audiences, and with having to fit ourselves
into a male-oriented world.  It simply isn't necessary for men to be
able to predict women as we can men; we do not have the luxury of
believing stuff like, "Who can fathom the mind of woman?" and all that
crap.  AfAm people likely deal with the same stuff.  The white point of
view surrounds you; you can't HELP but become intimately familiar with
it.

I don't think it's as hard to sympathize with disadvantaged groups on
the whole, though, as long as you get over the xenophobia and actually
attempt to learn about them, and put yourself in their place.  Sure, I
can't understand what a black woman sees when she opens her eyes, but by
analogy to the oppression I've suffered, I can make the attempt.  It
truly is xenophobia, I think, not wanting to admit that you are not an
immutable being and that there actually is another point of view aside
from yours.  

>|I hate to sound as if I'm lecturing, and I WELCOME any AfAm poster to
>|correct me, but I think we're not clear on how we're defining racism.
>
>|Racism is the development of premature expectations of a person based on
>|their race.  I do it, and I don't like it.  It's really impossible to
>|grow up in this country without developing racist expectations.  You 
>|can't.  You just can't.  In that sense, American is indeed a racist
>|country. 

[deleted]

>In my view, almost every White person does #2.  Blacks do as well, but
>perhaps for different reasons.  I'd argue that this is just as bad, at
>least ethically, as #1; however, I suspect I'd get strong replies
>expressing disagreement.  Whatever.  I'd be happy just to get folx to
>admit to this problem, never mind arguing about its ethical
>equivalence to #1.
>
>The kind of racism that is most often argued about is #1.  I suspect
>that most people act on this all the time.  Given the number of people
>who've crossed the street as I've passed or clutched their purses or
>whatever and the opinions I've heard ont he net, I cannot avoid the
>conclusion.  On the other hand, I'm not as concerned with these
>"small" infractions (except at a psychological level) as I am with the
>larger ones about which David Johns is more concerned.

It's important to realize, though, to beat a dead horse, that this is
sometimes automatic programming.  When I went to Penn State, I tensed up
around black people (especially black men) as a matter of course, and
the black students looked at the white students as if we were personally
responsible for it.  In that kind of environment, it is nearly
impossible to undo your programming.  It was only after I got OUT of
that -- it's almost as if it's a virus in the air -- that I relaxed and
began deprogramming myself.  However, the initial reactions are almost
automatic.  In an atmosphere like that, it's truly hard not to act that
way.  

>|progress, but has a *long* way to go.  Many white people think that they
>|want every little concession made by them to be trumpeted and earn them
>|pats on the backs for being so wonderful, when I imagine AfAm citizens
>|feel much the same as many women do -- they have ne idea what they're
>|supposed to feel so grateful for in the first place, and resent like all
>|hell having to fight at all for things that should be basic rights. 
>[...]
>
>This is a key point.  I feel no need to thank LBJ for the voting
>rights act--the right to vote was never his to give.  Similarly, I
>feel no great need to thank Lincoln--there never should have been
>slaves.  What took you so long?
>
>I just can't feel grateful.  Sorry.

Has anyone out there ever read _The Martian Chronicles_ by Ray Bradbury?
There's a part in there that (ok, it was written by a white guy, just
read it) discusses a bunch of AfAm people in the south that decide that
they've had it and want to go to Mars to start over.  The white main
character (Sam Teece) says stuff like, "Why do they want to leave?
Things are better here than ever; they make almost as much as a white
man nowadays."  Someone here had a .sig from Malcolm X that read like
"If you put a 9" knife in my back and pull it out 3", this is not
progress."  This goes for sexism, for military buildup, for
environmental degradation, for everything like this.  If you're 100' in
a hole and dig yourself out 2", it's not time to break out the party
hats.  It's time to keep putting your back to your work.  Only after
you're out can you pop the corks.

>                    "We don't necessarily discriminate.  
>                     We simply exclude certain types of people."
>                             -Lt Col. Gerald Wellman, ROTC Instructor 
>                              at M.I.T., on D.O.D. 1332.14

This would be hilarious if it wasn't pathetic . . .

Regards,
Janis C.


Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american,soc.culture.asian.american