I agree that this is a deep underlying racism from someone who was trying to make a compassionate statement.
And two or three years ago, I might have given him a pass because he is trying to look out for people, like me, who have no savings or have depleted their savings or retirement funds just trying to find work. I get that what he's trying to have passed is a good thing.
But after RaceFail and a few other things like that, I realize that the unconscious racism is the one that people need to be called on because it's like fighting fog.
One of the elder's finished his mission last week and we ended up talking about race and poverty before he left because he couldn't understand why black people got things he didn't and it wasn't fair and it's not like it was forty years ago and...
J is a twenty-two year old. His fellow elder is Sudanese, and J thinks of his companion like a brother.
So, we're screwed IF we don't call people on these underlying assumptions, because otherwise the rising generations are not going to do any better.
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Re: I was torn on that one
Date: 2010-06-25 02:25 am (UTC)And two or three years ago, I might have given him a pass because he is trying to look out for people, like me, who have no savings or have depleted their savings or retirement funds just trying to find work. I get that what he's trying to have passed is a good thing.
But after RaceFail and a few other things like that, I realize that the unconscious racism is the one that people need to be called on because it's like fighting fog.
One of the elder's finished his mission last week and we ended up talking about race and poverty before he left because he couldn't understand why black people got things he didn't and it wasn't fair and it's not like it was forty years ago and...
J is a twenty-two year old. His fellow elder is Sudanese, and J thinks of his companion like a brother.
So, we're screwed IF we don't call people on these underlying assumptions, because otherwise the rising generations are not going to do any better.