I don't think so. I think you're right on point. I had to stop reading halfway through, because I could feel myself getting dumber by the line. It's not often I find a piece so philosophically unsound that I can actually feel myself losing a point or two off of my IQ, having given too much effort trying to make sense of otherwise non-sensical arguments. The author thinks there is a divide between white and non-white, and that this is the struggle of the brown person. This couldn't be further from the truth. The struggle is between former slaves and former slave holders. Period. All other racial divides are trivial by comparison (except maybe the Native American/white divide, but it certainly isn't in the popular consciousness to nearly the same extent). Nobody ever made a law that says that Asian Americans can't vote, go to school, or be taught to read, let alone that they can be owned, traded, abused and disposed of. I'm not saying that it's not possible for Asian Americans to be discriminated against by some people some times, but there's no institutional racism against them (look at their income demographics for evidence). Latinos suffer more from xenophobia than from institutional racism, also (although some states seem hell bent on institutionalizing their xenophobic tendencies). In the end, each situation is different (hell, Asians are super racist against blacks, from my observations. I have a bunch of Chinese colleagues, and lots of them are scared stiff of black people). We can't arbitrarily create a divide between white and non-white. It's the most dishonest attempt at defining race relations I think I've come across in a supposedly serious piece of journalism (or whatever this is).The article seems to be more about the author than about people in general, but maybe I'm just out of touch.
I think you've misunderstood what the author is expressing. From this POV, the article isn't about the divide between black people and white people. The article is about the issue of white identity and the impact that issue has on the ability of humanity to move past race relations. His argument is merely framed by examples of the black vs white struggle which as you rightfully claimed is rooted in descendants of slaves vs descendants of slave owners.
Interesting that you've used another "default", that of maleness. The author is female. None of us is immune, it seems ;) His argument is merely framed by examples of the black vs white struggle which as you rightfully claimed is rooted in descendants of slaves vs descendants of slave owners.
nope, we aren't. We just try to be better. [Also why I've been trying to intentionally not use possessive and gendered language as much as one can. It's amazing how hard it is to break a habit you never really considered until a certain moment in time.]
I agree with a lot of what you and Pribnow have said, but I'm unsure about this one. I think there's a fine line between xenophobia and racism in some cases, and I'm more inclined to believe that one can be used to mask the other with policies from states like Arizona. The interesting part of this article to me was addressing white identity, or the lack thereof and touching upon the "I am not" aspects of it, as opposed to the affirmative identity. I wish it went more in that direction and less in the direction it ended up going.Latinos suffer more from xenophobia than from institutional racism, also (although some states seem hell bent on institutionalizing their xenophobic tendencies).
It's hard to disentangle the two in a many cases. But we used to do the same thing to the Irish and Italians, and now they're indistinguishable from other Europeans. My guess is that as Latin Americans become a bigger part of the population, and they start to assimilate more into main stream America, that the xenophobia will erode. At least, I hope so. I think there is historical precedent for such thing, anyway. Blacks occupy a unique place in race relations with whites, and I think it's degrading to the memory of slavery to lump all "people of color" together, similar to how it's degrading to the Holocaust when we call every bad leader "Hitler".I think there's a fine line between xenophobia and racism in some cases, and I'm more inclined to believe that one can be used to mask the other with policies from states like Arizona.