June 22, 2021 By: Juanita Jean Herownself Category: Uncategorized
Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
That is an outstanding and succint way to explain privilege. Although I don’t like bumper-sticker political slogans, this one is an exception.
And for our local history teachers (e.g., Nick), they’ll like to find out that their efforts are worthwhile:
https://goodwordnews.com/jan-6-accused-lawyer-gives-clients-remedial-lessons-on-american-history/
True, they may only be doing the reading in an attempt to get lighter sentences. And some of the men aren’t jumping at the chance to learn more about America, probably thinking a few months in jail are better than having to actually read a book. But it sounds like the defendents and the country would be better off if any sentences also stipulate a comprehensive course in American history. Maybe the 1619 project would be a great start. Also require a critical summary and review of each book. Although judge won’t have the time to “grade” the resulting papers, I’d volunteer to do it.
1Yes.
Succinct as the Professor noted.
The greatest difficulty a privileged person might go through is a case of affluenza, and they had to make that up.
2That’s well said and universal.
3I’m the oppressor/privileged one because I’m white-ish? Let’s have all the kids grow up either privileged or oppressed…
That’s racism, pure and simple: assigning traits, intent, actions to someone on the basis of skin color/ethnic origin. BS!
It’s also the return of the one drop rule about ethnicity.
People are crazy now, times are strange.
4Replay : Attorney General Merrick Garland gives policy address on voting rights — 6/11/2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zXQYMYLxQU
5\”Privilege isn’t about what you’ve gone through. It’s about what you haven’t had to go through.”
That applies to all sort of privilege: race, sex, wealth, class, etc.
You just can’t say it any better than that.
6Ormond, when I first started noticing talk of white privilege I thought it was a load of crap. I’d never intentionally treated anybody worse because they weren’t a white guy like I am. And I FERDAMNSURE never got anything I hadn’t earned on my own, just because I’m a white guy.
But as I see it now, white privilege isn’t as much about what’s been given to me unearned. I’ve been given the same opportunities our society tells us we’re all entitled to.
But I’ve seen folks who aren’t white guys not even considered for advancement on jobs. Seen non white guys
(NWGs) who were excellent supervisors have people walk past them to ask me a question because it was assumed that I was the supervisor. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen NWGs stop other NWGs leaving Walmart to examine their receipts, only to wave me through and continue checking other NWGs behind me.
And I ferdamnsure don’t get pulled over by cops anywhere near as much as NWGs I’ve known have.
And those are just some of the things I’ve NOTICED.
Yes I’m pretty sure there are some who think I’m an ungrateful, entitled recipient of a social system tailored for me. But I like to believe that the current consensus of most folks talking about the need for awareness of white privilege is less about how I’ve been given treatment that our society says is fair. And more about how NWGs haven’t.
While being constantly told they’re treated the same and given the same opportunities.
Talk about gaslighting.
7But to me, a big reason for such emotional polarization on the subject, and the reason repugnantcans are flogging it so hard is the children.
I imagine that there are some teachers who’ll use the opportunity to “put white kids in their place”.
But I think the vast majority will resemble Nick’s experience and just try to teach history.
But kids can be cruel. I have no doubt that non white kids can be just as cruel as white kids when it comes to alienating, or demeaning other kids just for fun.
I’ll bet that more times than not, that’s the reason for kids being traumatized at school.
Uncomfortable history is just the ammunition.
And it’s only one type.
Maybe not teaching that history would deny that ammunition to some degree.
But I think it would also help perpetuate the situation we’re in now.
As simplistic as it sounds, this is one that needs more discussion, not less.
Ormond Otvos@4: the point of the quote is that you don’t need to be an oppressor to benefit from privilege. It’s not that you are burning crosses in the neighbor’s lawn, but that as a “white-ish” person you don’t have to worry or even think about having one torched in front of your house.
It doesn’t mean you have not had to work hard for your accomplishments, whatever they are. It does mean you don’t have to wade through the extra levels of bullshit to get to them that too many American have to handle.
Although I agree that people are crazy now and times are strange, what I’ve got in mind are the Trumpoids and Qnuts – not ordinary people trying to get through life without having extra barriers that us white-ish types don’t have to address.
8This thread is going a little better than I feared it might.
It is perfectly okay to think for a few minutes and realize maybe you didn’t have it easy, but still didn’t have to wade through the crap that made life genuinely hard for others. No reason to get excited. Maybe you think about it some more and see where that goes. Have you thought about the interstate highways, for example?
9https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/984784455/a-brief-history-of-how-racism-shaped-interstate-highways
Truly great post and responses! My family insisted on sending us through a parochial school system. It was integrated way before anybody else even thought about it. The nuns were absolutely fierce about behavior of all sorts. That welded us kids together. Students transferring in from public school had a hard time understanding the old phrase”the patients don’t run the asylum”.A lot of them dropped out. Heck! A number of us who had started in first grade also dropped out. They went to public school where they very easily topped their classes as Honor Students, and, when visiting with their old school pals mentioned just how easy it was in all respects. I also recall that no one from our graduating classes ever went into the military. They had had enough of that already!
10Sorry this is a bit off topic, but what kind of diversity do you think desantis has in mind? This is absurd:
Florida students required to register political views with the state to promote ‘intellectual diversity’ – Raw Story –
https://www.rawstory.com/florida-colleges-and-universities/
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