I wonder if part of the problem is that, because they've generally been top of the pile, white people don't feel as attached to their history as PoC? Because they feel they've never been seen as a single group - despite all the misogynism, classism, ageism, fattism, homophobia etc etc. They've had just enough agency in their lives to feel they're their own creation?
The idea of feeling my ancestors' pain is alien to me. I don't really know why. Upbringing, temperament, western society? Or perhaps it's because I can't do anything about it? Then again, maybe as a member of the latest generation of a not-at-all-remarkable, working-class family, my history has been denied me?
The extended family has become less and less important in western societies. We're expected to sink or swim as individuals. And, as a result, white people's baggage has possibly become invisible to them?
I'm not sure. All I know is that, although I'm horrified by the things white folk did to PoC in the past (and still do), I can't really *own* it. To me, it's another aspect of a system that exploits by fostering divisions and uses those very divisions to justify exploitation.
I haven't read a lot of the RaceFail stuff because it seems like there's a lot of shouting and not a lot of listening in some quarters. (I know the quarters I've read are limited but it's interesting to me that people like WS, people with a bit of power/status but not a lot, are so defensive. They've got a rung or two up the ladder and are desperate to maintain that superiority. That's what I mean about our exploitative system - it sets people, who are really much alike, against one another. Tosses some folk a tinsy bone, a bone that everyone wants/needs but which the vast majority is denied. The resultant scrabbling results, IMO, in a distraction from the important question: who is all this fighting benefiting?)
I don't know if I've said half of what I wanted to say or if the words I've used convey what I really mean. But I hope it shows I'm at least listening. I haven't quite abandoned my colour blind ideal but, after our last conversation about it, I'm seeing it slightly differently.
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Date: 2009-03-11 09:23 am (UTC)The idea of feeling my ancestors' pain is alien to me. I don't really know why. Upbringing, temperament, western society? Or perhaps it's because I can't do anything about it? Then again, maybe as a member of the latest generation of a not-at-all-remarkable, working-class family, my history has been denied me?
The extended family has become less and less important in western societies. We're expected to sink or swim as individuals. And, as a result, white people's baggage has possibly become invisible to them?
I'm not sure. All I know is that, although I'm horrified by the things white folk did to PoC in the past (and still do), I can't really *own* it. To me, it's another aspect of a system that exploits by fostering divisions and uses those very divisions to justify exploitation.
I haven't read a lot of the RaceFail stuff because it seems like there's a lot of shouting and not a lot of listening in some quarters. (I know the quarters I've read are limited but it's interesting to me that people like WS, people with a bit of power/status but not a lot, are so defensive. They've got a rung or two up the ladder and are desperate to maintain that superiority. That's what I mean about our exploitative system - it sets people, who are really much alike, against one another. Tosses some folk a tinsy bone, a bone that everyone wants/needs but which the vast majority is denied. The resultant scrabbling results, IMO, in a distraction from the important question: who is all this fighting benefiting?)
I don't know if I've said half of what I wanted to say or if the words I've used convey what I really mean. But I hope it shows I'm at least listening. I haven't quite abandoned my colour blind ideal but, after our last conversation about it, I'm seeing it slightly differently.