It rained today. It's Portland, so that's not terribly unusual. I'm slightly convinced that the weather adjusts to when I'm planning on doing things and downpours accordingly.
On my way back from travelling an hour on the bus, enjoying a Great Adventure in finding a place (the trip planner did, in fact, drop me off at the closest stop to my destination address -- the only problem was a pair of railroad tracks and a barbed wire fence between us), and purchasing a new, shiny, 250 gig hard drive to replace the click-deathed old one, I crossed paths with the roommate as he was leaving for the evening.
A fair warning, this is pretty offensive at a first read. I make a point to be excessivly offensive when I realize I'm being potentially offensive, so the easily-offended will get really offended, slam out angry comments that I can easily ignore, and feel better after. For those not easily offended, keep in mind that I really am not being an asshole. If something strikes you as racist, offensive, or mean, imagine it is being said sarcasticly, perhaps with arms in the air, and naked. Unless being naked would be offensive. Then write an angry comment.
Durings his day, he likes to collect all the various independent news papers and pamphlets and so forth and so on and haul them home, as if I didn't read all that stuff on my painfully long bus journey.
One of the things he managed to get -- God (Goddess?) knows where -- was a pamphlet on gentrification.
Now, that particular issue is fairly sticky, and all I will say about it is "Yes, it happens." Please note the lack of both a formed or expressed opinion on the subject.
While reading the above literature, I came across a line where the author was talking about a shop owner in an about-to-be-gentrified neighborhood who "makes up for her whiteness by holding weekly community meetings".
This isn't the first time that sort of things has struck me as odd. I had to read that sentence several times before I got the word "whiteness" -- I kept thinking it was some other word because, in my mind, you don't make up for your skin color with meetings. I read it was "witness" (which made no sense), "waitress" (again), and then finally got it right.
Now.
I'm not going to say that the White Man is a minority. At all. In fact, I'm not even going to bring up the tired "reverse racism" argument, be it false or true. What I do want to talk about is the idea that my skin color has any bearing, what-so-ever on anything.
I found that author's ancedote confusing. What would some shop owner be doing "making up" for being white? Did this shop owner commit some grevious offense and, like the scarlet letter or the mark of Cain, get turned white?
I realize, quite acutely, that the black1 population is, for most intents and purposes, part of a lower class of American citizens. However, that lower class is not, by any stretch of the imagination, limited to the black population. It is full of all sorts of poor, working-poor, and underpriveleged (I despise that term, by the way. What the fuck does it mean?) citizens.
You know what? I'm white. I'm poor. I consider myself lucky to have a computer. It's old. It's slow. It barely works. Maintenance on it (as it ages, more things are breaking) takes up a large chunk of my monthly budget these days. I bet that, in the houses around me, right now, at least three of which I know are black families, every single one of them is richer (monetarily) than I am. I bet they have better (paying) jobs than I do. Hell, I know the guys across the street drive a nice car (I was going to say better, but I don't drive any car2, so.)
So why was this woman "making up" for being white? My only guess is some perceived wrong done by someone's ancestors do someone else's ancestors. At the risk of offending all the overly sensitive people that will read this because they saw "white" in the title and braced themselves for a racist remark -- and have been combing through looking for one, here it is: I know another country where racial tensions are high. It's been in the news lately. There, get your outrage out. In an act of wild hyperbole and in an highly offensive fashion, I have just compared slavery to Iraq. Someone call O'Reilly, I'm ready!
If that didn't offend you, then maybe this will: Go get a grape soda and come back when you're calm.
Seriously, though. I know that my ancestors (well, some of your ancestors, mine were German) did some awful things to the true African-Americans -- you know, the ones from Africa. And that it was only very recently that blacks had any semblence of fair treatment in this country.
But you know what? I have never done anything to perpetuate that unfairness. I have gone out of my way to correct racist things when I see them, and fight against racism when it attacks. I can, with fairly high certainty, say that this shop owner never did anything unfair to a black person (at least that she didn't also do to a white person). She has nothing to "make up" for. Nor do I.
That she has to apologize, constantly, for something she didn't do, won't do, and never does, is not her problem. It is the problem of those she is apologizing to. Again, at the risk of sounding like a racist or an intolerant bastard, if, as a people, you're going to demand equal treatment, take it as it comes. You don't get to pick and choose -- you don't get to demand fairness in all things, unless you want to go up against the White Devil. Whoops, time for some more grape soda.
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1I will, for the sake of brevity, use the word "black" instead of "african american", because, quite frankly, I'm not "anglo-american", and most black citizens in this country aren't from Africa -- they're from the United States, just like me.
2Not driving a car is sort of a financial decision, but justified almost entirely by the environmental impact. Some people recycle their cans and put in compact flourescent bulbs. I sell my car and take the bus.