Ideas

Barack Obama is not a black leader. He’s a leader who’s black. This is not an insignificant distinction. In order to become President, he had to promise to be President for all the people and not be someone who would be a special friend to the black community, and he has lived up to that pledge. Black America has enjoyed the spiritual boost and pride injection that’s come from seeing the brother break the highest glass ceiling and strut through the White House lawn and parade his beautiful family before the world. But when Obama turns to governing, it’s a different story.

(MORE: Touré on the New Black Irony)

When he spoke of Trayvon Martin, Obama did so in a humane and paternal way, though he was careful not to bias the ongoing Department of Justice investigation. But more crucially, he was careful not to racialize the…

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Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed

Racist Hunger Games Fans Are Very Disappointed

Via Gawker. An interest read into strong reactions to the casting of three characters within the recent movie release, Hunger Games.

Interesting read.

social.butterfly.experiment

If I haven’t learned anything else as an Americorps member, it’s that we all have a story and a struggle.

So you’ve heard of white guilt, right? Basically, it’s a sentiment that white people have that they should feel bad for things that their people have done to other cultures, especially black people in terms of racism and discrimination. It’s a fascinating phenomenon, and something that everyone should read up on. Here’s how Wikipedia defines it:

White guilt refers to the concept of individual or collective guilt often said to be felt by some White people for the racist treatment of people of color by Whites both historically and presently. The term is generally used in pejorative way (and in a partisan fashion within American political circles).

White guilt has been described as one of several psychosocial costs of racism for White individuals along with the ability to have empathic…

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Tim Wise on Trayvon Martin

“Black males are, for far too many in America, a racial Rorschach test, onto which we instantaneously graft our own perceptions and assumptions, virtually none of them good. Look, a black man on your street! Quick, what do you see? A criminal. Look, a black man on the corner! Quick, what do you see? A drug dealer. Look, a black man in a suit, in a corporate office! Quick, what do you see? An affirmative action case who probably got the job over a more qualified white man. And if you don’t believe that this is what we do — what you do — then ask yourself why 95 percent of whites, when asked to envision a drug user, admit to picturing a black person, even though blacks are only 13 percent of users, compared to about 70 percent who are white?”

– Tim Wise

http://www.timwise.org/2012/03/trayvon-martin-white-denial-and-the-unacceptable-burden-of-blackness-in-america/

Fox News Commenters React to Trayvon Martin: ‘Good Shot Zimmy’

Fox News Commenters React to Trayvon Martin: ‘Good Shot Zimmy’

But this is the world we live in? Post-racial America.

How to talk to young black boys about Trayvon Martin

It’s unlikely but possible that you could get killed today. Or any day. I’m sorry but that’s the truth. Blackmaleness is a potentially fatal condition…Being Black could turn an ordinary situation into a life or death moment even if you’re doing nothing wrong.

– Toure  http://ideas.time.com/2012/03/21/how-to-talk-to-young-black-boys-about-trayvon-martin/?xid=gonewsedit

The New Jim Crow

Reading The New Jim Crow has been hard. I felt very upset at what I was reading and I realized that this entire semester of race and ethnicity has brought up some feelings that as a person of color I have experienced before but not to this depth. Every day I have to reconcile immense feelings of rage towards the man oppressor with feelings of love for humankind. Every day this struggle becomes increasingly harder as I see the ignorance and hatred of others as injustice reigns supreme. Oh and oppressors is just a nice codeword for white people, I won’t lie. However that’s an unfair generalization, so I don’t make it. White people are not inherently oppressive.

On a related note, Rick Santorum is going to be at the hotel I work at. I’m very glad I won’t be there. Which leads me to think and ask, what has the Republican party and conservative America ever done for people of color? Easy answer, you’re thinking they ended slavery. However, I would argue that to compare the modern Republican party with the historical one would be inaccurate. This is also true for the modern Democratic party. The modern parties are not better or worse but different. I would also argue that ending slavery was primarily a political move aimed at crippling the southern confederates, not an ethical move to end a human rights injustice. I honestly feel that the poor white voter might be the most brainwashed person in America. Race has been used to create a dynamic in which the poor White American sees the poor Black American as an other. The reality? They both are facing the same plight, however the socioeconomic elite have convinced the poor White demographic that simply being White makes them better than Blacks of the similar situation. This, in my opinion, results in people who vote against their best interest simply because they still feel that the Democratic party is a Black party for their previous support of the Civil Rights Movement.