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Interesting article over at alter.net on the contexts and subtext of the TV show The Walking Dead. I suggest you read it. As I was linking running I came across the comments section of a different article by the same author. The exchange that will be reproduced here is instructive to how the white narrative dominates our culture and how it shapes our lives.
For clarity – Don’t be this guy, ponder what this guy is saying.
“You are trying to find racism around every corner. Complaints that white people confide in black people. Complaints that black people are being written as entirely badass. Complains that blacks are being written as brutes, despite the fact that the show’s first and only real recurring super-brute is a white redneck.
I see what your game is and I reject it every bit as much as I do when Republicans do it. You’re the person seeing Tinkie Winkie as a gay icon and Sesame Street as socialist. Only you’re applying that kind of insinuation into minority politics. […]
I read diaries like yours and I’m always surprised to find out how evil, undermining, controlling, privileged, and world dominating I am just on the basis of my race. News to me. My family lived in an isolated mountain village for most of modern history, to the point of where people of my family’s native country can see I look different from most and guess the approximate area.
The simpler answer is that you just resent poorly written black characters. Fair, but not diary worthy. Guess what? White characters largely suck too. Watch an HBO show and see how long until a white person rapes someone, savagely beats an innocent, or goes all incestuous. TV characters thrive on extremity. Welcome to the club. Unless they’re going all Mammy, chill and stop looking for a reason to be outraged.”
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“Not seeing racism hiding under every surface is not racist. It’s just a rejection of race based politics no matter where it lies.”
That is a classic colorblind racism appeal. It minimizes the obvious that white supremacy and racism still structure outcomes and life chances in this society on a day to day basis and also structurally. How does it do this? By putting the responsibility on poc to “prove” to the satisfaction of Whites that racism is “real.” Hell of a trap, no? Proving to someone that a system they are invested in is real to their satisfaction?
“Race based politics” is also another nice rhetorical move in terms of post civil rights era racism. It falsely makes equivalent the justice claims of people of color regarding racism, with white people’s denials of racism and/or silly claims or “reverse racism” and “white victimhood.”
I can engage in any number and/or types of conversations on this matter. But, I call out racist foolishness, such as what you offered, when necessary.”
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–That is a classic colorblind racism appeal.–
Being colorblind is the goal, not racist. You’re reading racism into a shlocky television show. Nevermind kids being shot in the street. It’s the same thing as accusing Tinkie Winkie of being gay and Sesame of being socialist. You haven’t proven your point again. You’re just using the same circular reasoning fallacy.
[…]
All racism is equivalent. All bigotry is equivalent. Your misery doesn’t trump anyone’s on the basis of skin.
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–Being colorblind is the goal, not racist.–
Colorblindness is not the goal. An appreciation for human difference in all of its forms, and as part of our full personhood is the goal. Noticing racial differences is not the problem; it is the value that is placed on such judgments that is the problem. Conservative colorblindness is integral to post civil rights era racism. The racial identity of people of color is not a problem to be overlooked or ignored, a la the white privilege classic phrase, “you are my fried, I don’t see your color.”
–All racism is equivalent.–
More fictions. Racism is a relatively new invention. Racism is about color and or other social markers, i.e. what happens to Jews and others during WW2 as marginalized, exploited, and made subject to exclusion by Power and the Racial State.
In this society at this time racism is the social ill of white people. Only white people can be racist in this society because they have the most institutional, social, political, economic, and cultural power. Race is a fiction; it is also real. Other people can be bigoted and prejudiced. White people have the unique ability to be racist. Remember prejudice plus power equals racism.
The exchange goes on for bit, as Dude You Do Not Want To Be digs deeper and doubles down on his ignorance. This, unfortunately, is typical conversation featuring someone who lives comfortably within the dominant paradigm and someone who experiences the oppression firsthand each and everyday. Full marks for chaunceydevega for his explicative prowess.
Introspection can be difficult to take seriously on a blog post. I mean, what are the author’s motives? How genuine is the feeling behind the words? I read a lot of brilliant in your face posts over at Shakesville. The stable of writers they have are earnestly committed to identifying, deconstructing and laying the smack down on the patriarchy and its associated evils. I respect that and try to do similar things here at DWR.
Speaking of associated evils, the article on Rape Culture from Shakesville is illuminating and if it does not stir your sense of empathy and humanity then you may have something seriously wrong with your inner workings. Highly recommended reading.
There are so many things fundamentally wrong with our culture: capitalism, patriarchy, religion, Steven Harper… that need a great deal of time and effort to rectify (how is that for an understatement). The obstacles to the progressive evolution of our society are huge. But what is worse, the largest obstacle we all face is complacency.
Complacency. We in North America have it all. Most of us in the Blogosphere do not worry about which has priority; food or rent. We do not worry about being assaulted or murdered or exploited in horrendous ways. We take for granted the security, the comfort, the privilege that comes with living in North America. We pour out our frustrations on the web others view and agree or disagree and we move on. Do our criticisms matter once you switch the power-bar off? Does our discontent transfer to the rest of society? In most cases, due to what I believe is endemic complacency, I believe the answer to the last two questions to be “No”.
Is the Blogosphere a safety valve for mainstream society? It could easily fit that role because for the most part because bloggers ignored, while the elites maintain business as usual. Canadians and Americans seem to be okay with this. Social justice is good to talk about, doing it is a completely different proposition. Inertia and complacency (nurtured by our media) rot the very foundations of our culture, but then who cares “mad men” is on and we need to be up on our soaps (sports works as well in this regard) so we can engage in meandering persiflage as opposed to discussing what is actually happening in our society.
Must it get so bad that the powers that be forbid collecting rainwater after privatizing the water utility as they did in Bolivia? How far will we need to fall before people wake up to the forces shaping society for their benefit?
Will you take action or shrug your shoulders and put your head down and accept the ‘inevitable’?
The internet has drastically changed western culture. It has opened up new avenues of communication and ways for people to share information and ideas. Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society and Author of Free Culture a work the essay is based on. Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, I used his article Siren Songs and Amish Children: Autonomy, Information, and Law to look at issues of autonomy, freedom and how they intersect with the digital world.
It is a long essay, so I will post it in 3 parts over the next couple of days.
** Note, this essay and other essays on the site are for educational purposes only. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. This blog is not going anywhere so cite a reference if you use my work. Plus, if you can google this essay, so can your prof. **
The introduction and thesis: Read the rest of this entry »
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