TNC likes to portray himself as above the fray ... all the while lecturing white people on history and how we are supposed to feel about it.Well kind of. I actually think I'm down in the mud with all the other pinko, commie bastards. But I do like lecturing white people, but not just on history--on dress, food and culture also. Plus is there really anyway for white people to feel besides guilty? OK there's guiltier, I'll grant you that. But the key is guilt. Yes. More white guilt please.
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Commenter poolside offers his take:
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Professor Coates, will you be grading on a curve?
and it even pays bills...scandalous
and we keep coming back for more
keep on keeping on
I read you daily so I can feel as guilty as possible. Thank you, sir. I will now go volunteer at the local Boys and Girls club right after having myself a good cry. Bless you!
By spotlighting people saying silly things, you're probably going to get a whole new fresh crop of silly things. (Please don't quote me!)
I suppose they'll go well with this new batch of guilt you're getting in. Help help, I'm being oppressed--I mean, guilt-stricken!
I think poolside needs to order a margherita, or skip that and go straight tequila. Helps the wallowing.
There's definately a movement to make racism taboo.
That was a great way to respond.
He is who we thought he was.
I mean, I definitely think there's some racial essentialism going on here, or maybe just racial obsession. A hiree of the Clintons can't say something nice about them without you asking what said hiree has against Obama, and claiming that his thinking a black guy could never make it far is the answer. A redneck can't pop off on youtube without you going, "hey, look, white people believe in conspiracy theories too," like this is some kind of revelation. We're in an economic crisis and the only thing you can think of to say about it is "black people didn't cause this." No, they didn't! But nobody important thinks they did either, thankfully. If all you're willing to blog about is race, at least talk about issues where it's actually germane, instead of occasionally blurting out redlining, wealth gap, schools in the middle of one of your racism-is-real arguments, without ever seriously talking about these things at any length or offering any suggestions as to what to do about them.
Well, as a white, it's really either read your blog or return to my ritual self-flagellation.
As Krauthammer notes:
"When John McCain runs an ad with a white woman, Paris Hilton in it, he is accused of racism. He runs an ad with Franklin Raines, the former head of Fannie Mae in it, who is African-American, and that's racist. And then he runs an ad with William Ayers, who is a white male in it, and that's racist."
Our whiteness is the new stain of original sin.
So are we exchanging our white guilt for white crybabying?
I don't think you can cry. You simply have to repent every day, knowing that someone who is not white wants and expects better of you, but that you can never achieve that due to your whiteness.
I wonder if there are the equivalent of confessionals we can utilize?
Sorry. I feel horrible, it was all my fault.
Again, sorry.
And Krauthammer, for once in his life, is correct. There's the "biggest slut on earth/Obama wants to sex your white daughters" ad, the "scary unidentified black man leering at you" ad, and the "if we say Obama pals around with terrorists you'll think he's scary and Muslim because you'd never connect terrorists with white" ad. There are plenty of other ways to make the points the ads make. These people know exactly what they're doing and what a dog whistle is. They've been doing it for decades. I'm a white man in the deep south, I should know.
"as a white"
We prefer the term "person of pallor".
"But nobody important thinks they did either, thankfully." Unfortunately, that's not true. I heard the CRA scapegoating in the other room at a party last weekend. It comes up in all kinds of media. The CRA scapegoating is most definitely racist.
I don't read TNC for the guilt, by the way, I read him for the ROFLcopters and the LOLocausts. And because I failed my saving throw.
Adam,
I think they identified Franklin Raines in the ad. The only reason to be afraid of him is if he asks to be your personal financial advisor.
Guilt is soooo left-wing, east-coast elitist. I prefer shame. Shame and shamier.
"Our whiteness is the new stain of original sin."
The idea of original sin is a useful concept -- one of the important ideas underlying conservatism (and, for that matter, American governance).
TNC is doing wonderful work in reminding the American majority of that fact.
Increasingly, I'm coming to believe that many of our social problems spring from (American) white folks' difficulty in acknowledging original sin... and particularly their/our enthusiastic embrace of the idea that original sin could be erased by faith, not works.
Which would be one reason why Rev. Wright struck such a cord -- his is a hard-line, fire and brimstone sermon from the the tradition of works, not faith.
You handled that with humor and aplomb, I've got to say. Something else to lecture white people about, though, is that they need to grow up. It kills me how whiny and touchy white people get about race issues and "reverse discrimination." I'm always reminded of that white guy who sued the UC Berkeley law school because they let a black guy in instead of him - I wish the judge, instead of ruling in his favor, had told him to grow up. Sometimes you don't get what you want. Life isn't fair, and if a few white people have to tough it out so that society can work toward being more fair in general, then so be it.
(I'm white, by the way.)
1. I have no clue why you engaged this fool in the first place, but anyway.
2. I understand what Matt and Asher are saying. The problem is, it's "Response to Jesse Jackson #1" from the White People's Playbook, 1982 edition. Yeah, the argument might have some merit, sometime, someplace. It's just essentially useless TO THIS BLOG. TNC spend half his time talking about D&D, for eff's sake.
Krauthammer is an ass, and on this topic, I think he knows he is an ass. It is not the color and gender of the people in the ads that were at issue. It is that each one of those ads used the person, in a different way, to convey the impression, "Oh noes, Obama is a scary black guy!!1!"
At this point, if McCain ran an ad with Antoin Rezko implying that Obama was a crooked Chicago pol (just like all the other crooked Chicago pols, white and black) it would be a step forward.
The Franklin Raines one was especially egregious since Raines has little affiliation with Obama other than mutual membership in the Scary Black Guy club.
1. I have no clue why you engaged this fool in the first place, but anyway.
2. I understand what Matt and Asher are saying. The problem is, it's "Response to Jesse Jackson #1" from the White People's Playbook, 1982 edition. Yeah, the argument might have some merit, sometime, someplace. It's just essentially useless TO THIS BLOG. TNC spends half his time talking about D&D, for eff's sake.
It appears some of you are wwwwaaayyy too scared of black people simply because they're black. You should be scared of Franklin Raines because he has cost you a lot of money, and of Obama because he resisted attempts to rein in Mr. Raines and the quasi(now fully) governmental entity he ran.
I don't know that you should be afraid of Paris Hilton, though. Unless you're sleeping with her.
I just needed a laugh DB.
Still, I love that Asher and Matt spend so much time here, not just lurking but commenting. Life is oh-so short. But they've elected to spend some of that short life here with me. It's like watching someone berate McDonald's, while scarfing down Big Macs.
"I read you daily so I can feel as guilty as possible."
Only daily? Someone isn't feeling guilty enough. And you call yourself a white guy...
It's like watching someone berate McDonald's, while scarfing down Big Macs.
bwahahaha
As a European-American, what does it say about me if I like being lectured to by TNC?
I'd like the worst right-wing crazyness in any responses please...
Guilty as charged!
"Still, I love that Asher and Matt spend so much time here, not just lurking but commenting. Life is oh-so short. But they've elected to spend some of that short life here with me. It's like watching someone berate McDonald's, while scarfing down Big Macs."
Reading you is enjoyable, as is talking politics. And talking politics is a lot more fun with people who you disagree with than someone who says "right on" every time. Plus it's a chance to have a little harmless fun, as literally every post in this thread is in jest. Talking politics, unless you've got $10K to give to a politician, is sport, nothing more.
Would you prefer that only people who agreed with you wholeheartedly on every issue read you and commented? Seems like a good way to get pretty stagnant in your thinking (oops, did I just figure you out?). It doesn't appear that's your goal, but maybe I've misread. If I have, my apologies.
As a white person of British and Jewish extraction, I have a very high daily quotient of guilt to achieve. TNC does, indeed, fulfill a portion of the required guilt inducement, but not all. Other favorite sources:
-how my favorite sports team still has a massively racist nickname in the year 2008
-every book sitting on my shelf that I haven't read, am not currently reading, and may never read
-whatever portion of blame I am due for disco
-&c.
I'm white.
And I was brought up Catholic.
And I'm gay.
And I read this blog. At work, sometimes.
Do you think I might qualify for a prize?
Contra Matt, it's not so much that the ads and tone of the campaign is that he is black as that he is the "other," be it black, an arab, a muslim, or a terrorist (or all 4!).
That he can't be trusted not because of clear examples of poor judmgent, but because of blood or becaue he has spoken to or met "sinister" people.
Also, the whole ACORN/Raines thing of democrats forced banks to give evil minorities $ is the closest to being actually racist; it implies that Obama has used the levers of government to reward "his kind" (in conjucnction with Raines, who is black) at the expense of both whites and America.
The Paris Hilton stuff... he probably could have gotten away with it if it weren't for the echos of that "Hey Harold (ford), call me" ad in 2006. But that meme had already been laid, so McCain's campaign needed to be aware of that. There are lots of celebrities you can use, and they picked the slutty blond celebutante instead of Tim Robbins. So if McCain got racist blowback on that ad, he should blame the Tennesee Republican party.
"TNC likes to portray himself as above the fray ... all the while lecturing white people on history and how we are supposed to feel about it."
Poolside...what are you talking about? Mighty defensive there "my friend". And with that statement, you're just proving correct what Greenburg & TNC were talking about in the original post.
You too, Matt & Asher.
Whether you're conveniently/blissfully ignorant of the fact or not, or maybe just don't give a damn, Blacks & Whites in this country still have very different & separate experiences in our society, even if they dwell within similar socio-economic classes. That is fact.
And the whole "getting past it" or healing process has just stagnated largely because the majority of White America is either unaware (what a luxury, a luxury Black people don't have) or refuse to acknowledge that, on a lot of levels, racism is alive & well & that Blacks, as a whole, still don't have it all too good.
And uncomfortable as this topic is for a lot of us, it needs to addressed properly before we can all move past it.
This country has done A LOT of destructive shit to Black people. It was deliberate, intentional & consistently malicious, so much so, that we are still seeing it take its toll on us today.
The legacy of slavery,Jim Crow,lynchings, Tuskegee Experiments,Greenwood, Okla., etc, I could go on & on, is too horrible , I think, for this country & White America to ever officially acknowledge & apologize for. They're never going to cop to it. Especially when they're still reaping the benefits from it. That's why they get so defensive about it.
You have to cleanse the wound first if you want it to heal properly.
Oh hell. Here I was, congratulating myself on how completely cool I was because I was listening to the quartet version of Coltrane's Meditations. White guy picks up on Trane. White guy flatters himself on saying "Trane." White guy pictures himself with mirrored sunglasses talkin' 'bout "Miles" in public. No "Davis" needed. Dream on, white guy. But hey a guy can dream, can't he?
Anyway, I was even listening very happily. And then I thought, oh hell, I don't really like this at all, do I? Do these guys even know how to play their instruments? Can that drummer keep time? Would I know if I did like it? Or am I spending all my internal time running through hoops about what I should like, and would like to like, and wished I was cool enough to like?
Shit. Maybe I'm listening as self-punishment. Maybe I'm really longing for Billy Joel. Or "American Pie."
It's just too hard being white. The crosses we white folks bear....
"But I do like lecturing white people, but not just on history--on dress, food and culture also."
Aren't all black people entitled to do so? Y'all dress better than we do, use spices in your food, and created jazz, blues, and hip hop.
As Krauthammer notes:
"When John McCain runs an ad with a white woman, Paris Hilton in it, he is accused of racism.
Absolutely. If McCain wanted to go the 'Celebrity' route with Obama, he had any number of actual celebrities in photos with Obama that he could have chosen. He chose two white blonde women that Obama didn't have contact with for a reason.
He runs an ad with Franklin Raines, the former head of Fannie Mae in it, who is African-American, and that's racist.
Absolutely, if Raines has had, what, 2 conversations with Obama, while the former head of Obama's Vice-Presidential team, who also was high up at Fannie Mae, was not included in the commercial. Who is closer to Obama? A man he had a handful of conversations with - AT MOST...
or..
one of three people he was trusting to find his Vice-Presidential running mate?
Hmmmmm...
But, the one used in the ad was the one with the handful of conversations....hmmmm
Oh yeah, the other guy was White.
And then he runs an ad with William Ayers, who is a white male in it, and that's racist."
Um, yep.
You got it.
That was funny as hell!!!! Had me over here rolling..Thanks for the laugh.
TN: I'm Jewish; which means that I come with a basic set of guilt already pre-programmed into my BIOS.
Does Jewish guilt count as a substitute for white guilt, an adjunct to it, or do I have to get some supplemental guilt for being "white" AND "Jewish"?
Sorry if I'm not clear. My bad.
Don | October 15, 2008 7:10 PM
Thanks for the laugh.
Oh, damn. I forgot to feel guilty about the accident of my birth today. Where can I go to properly self-flagellate?
We aren't pinko commies this year; we're Marxist socialists. I don't know why, but evidently the red menace is so last millenium, and right wingers don't think anyone will take them seriously if they call people communists.
But Marxist is an acceptable and topical slur.
I can see where "we oppose commies, like our MFN partners the Chinese, and those North Koreans being all batshit in their little corner" sounds weak, but "Swedish!" just makes me think Swedish bikini team, and who's afraid of the Swedish bikini team?
ETA: Okay, I forgot Rove's country club comment from the spring; clearly, Rove is afraid the Swedish bikini team already went for Obama, like the young lady above only without the roots.
When I want some liberal guilt I read Slacktivist, or the kids on Unfogged arguing over Stuff White People Like and whether they really ought to go off grid and grow their own potatoes. This blog isn't even close--it's fun.
I'm a foreigner, so not only am I exempt from slavery-guilt, I get 5 smugness points for my ancestors being on the right end of the Underground Railroad.
Now I only need to feel guilty about every person in history, whatever their race, who had less food, education or shelter than myself.
And those poor saps in my D&D campaign who couldn't believe the Bottomless Well had no bottom.
I'm a 29-year-old white middle school teacher who lives in Fairfield County, CT and was an English and Africana Studies major at a small liberal arts college in Maine.
And Ta-Nehisi, you can lecture me anytime.
Very classy, TNC. Am I supposed to feel chastised?
Of course, you stripped away just part of my comment so that everyone could have a laugh. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose.
However ...
I was responding to Matt's point that despite your claim that you can't judge what is in men's hearts (when that man is Jesse Jackson), you had no problem at all pretending you know what John McCain is thinking, feeling or knowing when he -- oh, the shock -- questions Obama's background.
And as I said in my comment, there are clearly partisan -- and racial -- reasons why you feel comfortable defending some while castigating others. Would you disagree?
"Increasingly, I'm coming to believe that many of our social problems spring from (American) white folks' difficulty in acknowledging original sin... and particularly their/our enthusiastic embrace of the idea that original sin could be erased by faith, not works.
Which would be one reason why Rev. Wright struck such a cord -- his is a hard-line, fire and brimstone sermon from the the tradition of works, not faith."
That last is Catholicism in a nutshell, and judging from the rest of that comment, Carrington, this is bound to come as news to you - but white people have been real familiar with Catholicism for a long, long time and Rev. Wright doesn't have much to do with it.
And more news for you, Carrington - Catholicism and especially works vs. faith doesn't strike much of a cord with the huge section of white America that is Protestant. Fought some really horrible wars over that kind of thing; you may have heard something about that. Then again, probably not. Anyway, it was centuries of antagonism and suspicion, and not so long ago. It was still a live issue for JFK.
Which what makes your formulation "fire and brimstone sermon" so hilarious in the same sentence with "the tradition of works, not faith." That's a little cultural nuance probably lost on such an insightful social critic as your self, with such such piercing insight into "white folks' difficulty in acknowledging original sin". Let me enlighten your deep illiteracy about Church history and the development of dogma - white folks INVENTED the doctrine of Original Sin. You might google "patristic teachings' or the like.
LOL... this is the awesomeness