The other day, a guy at work told me that, "the white male is the most discriminated person in the US."
He really means this. Even though he has held a great job for almost 25 years, and has suffered no discrimination in the job market himself. He could look around himself and see that his white male co-workers are, for the most part, financially secure and have no problems finding a decent home and good schools for his children. In addition, when his children were young, his wife was able to stay at home and take care of his children. Even now, his wife just works for something to do, or to bring in an extra few dollars for entertainment.
Another co-worker, a woman, constantly points to her skin, and says insulting things like, "they are all ghetto", even though I have expressed my feelings to her about how insulting and false, she just keeps on assuming that because I am white, I am in her club of agreement. No matter what or how I convey my disagreement with her position, she continues to upset me, and does not seem to notice my displeasure with her words and actions, to the point where I now just wear a blank mask around her.
I sometimes wonder to myself, do I ever sound like that? Do I say or do things that are offensive, naive, obnoxious, toxic? I guess it would most likely be true, I probably do say things without knowing it, my awareness is continually evolving, things that I would never have seen before all of a sudden become clear. It takes a constant vigilance for somebody like me, a mixed up coagulation and product of American made racism.
I don't think I am alone in this situation; there are some bloggers who write really well thought out blog posts, and who have extensive knowledge, who have read and studied, and who can really write with conviction, most importantly,so convincingly.
But I am often left to wonder, if we paint a beautiful picture as bloggers, what are we really doing in our real life? The other thing I wonder about is, how best to approach the white people in our lives? I often read, over and over, that there is a certain way to present our ideas so as not to put other white people on the defensive, which seems to be a fairly constant occurrence, even among white liberal progressives.
Thanks for any suggestions you may have.
c.c.