So after reading this diary this morning I kinda lost it. Here is appeal number umpteeth million to white people everywhere. Don't get defensive, get even.
Okay.
I'm hoping that we just take it as gospel that when black people actively speak out against racism or even if they don't and they simply don't fit into some black stereotype and caricature that the right loves to use to terrify, they tend to get demonized or turned into a white anxiety cartoon. This effectively silences completely. No need to listen to a wild-eyed escapee from Fat Albert.
So this is where you come in.
WE NEED WHITE PEOPLE TO USE THEIR PRIVILEGE.
We need you to push back. We need you to speak up. We need you to state (and not excuse away, or apologize for, or feel guilty about possible benefits obtained because of) your deep-seated moral disgust for racism and its peddlers.
This is serious, everyone.
Need we recap the level of hate and vitriol aimed at the President? Do we really need to understand what this means for people going about their daily lives?
Thank god there are white folks out there like Tim Wise who are willing to be called race traitors and all manner of other insult. We need more.
And I get it...this is some serious shit to ask for. When white people fight back against racist structures, they are implicated. They are finger pointed. They, in some respects, have more to lose because they have more privilege. To upset the order that radically is to threaten everyone else trying to uphold it, which leads to serious recriminations from those who want to maintain the status quo.
But to make this world that I think we are striving for possible, we need this. We need people to stand up for equality. We need white people to tell other white people that their worth in the world doesn't need to be based on "at least I'm not a nigger."
We need white people to tell white people that the stuff being taken away from them and their families isn't being removed because of the black people, but because of the greed of corporations. Racism becomes the ultimate cover for big business as white people vote against their own interests and ignore the limitiations placed on them by the same industries that fund Fox News and its stable of blowhards.
This hurts all of us. Using racism as a cover to incite and hide (don't look at the green republican behind the curtian!) belittles all of us. It makes our society more tawdry, adulterated. Just take a look at the behavior of the past three months.
White people, we need your voices. Not just here on Kos, not to us, this happily singing choir, but to them. To the great out there.
Please. Sing to the others.
ps. and you might be mad at Kanye right now (that's okay! and i hope you are just as moved by Beyonce's response) and you might not have appreciated Serena (but ask yourself if MacEnroe or Conners faced the same reactions?) and you may have thought that Skip Gates was a rich, pompous ass, and that's okay. But this is bigger than three black people you may not like! Think of it more for the white people out there you want to save.
Updated to add that this article on Politico says everything that I'm talking about here. Obama's fear to even MENTION race, lest he be branded a "black radical," the white leadership of the Democratic party not calling out the Republican leadership who fan the flames (or willfully ignore racism), and the fact that even when politicians of color speak out, they are pretty much ignored.