No, No, Don't Worry. Racism is Pretty Much Over.

[Dr. Medulla]

B was telling me about a book she's reading right now, about a Native American band. Despite being prize-winning, she's less than impressed. What she mentioned to me, tho, is that the author, a white woman, inserts herself in the story, which she justifies because she learned that she has aboriginal ancestry and gained a tribal name, and now feels she has a spiritual bond with that people to the point of being a spokesperson. What the fuck is it with white people that they can be so arrogant and presumptuous that they can lay claims on other people's culture and history, so much so that they feel they can speak about it? Like white people who discover the blues or hip hop and decide that they get black life enough to claim blackness as their personal identity. Or who decide they are Japanophiles. Do non-whites pull this shit? Certainly not in any close to the same numbers.I told B to write a satirical piece about how her Christian name opened her eyes and now she feels she can express the Euro-Canadian experience.

Every Chinese kid I grew up around changed their name to Chris.

But did they claim to understand white people in an earnest, almost proprietary way? I'm not talking about some kind of intellectual and cultural segregation, but the arrogance of taking something very superficial and asserting deeper commonality.

[matedog]

B was telling me about a book she's reading right now, about a Native American band. Despite being prize-winning, she's less than impressed. What she mentioned to me, tho, is that the author, a white woman, inserts herself in the story, which she justifies because she learned that she has aboriginal ancestry and gained a tribal name, and now feels she has a spiritual bond with that people to the point of being a spokesperson. What the fuck is it with white people that they can be so arrogant and presumptuous that they can lay claims on other people's culture and history, so much so that they feel they can speak about it? Like white people who discover the blues or hip hop and decide that they get black life enough to claim blackness as their personal identity. Or who decide they are Japanophiles. Do non-whites pull this shit? Certainly not in any close to the same numbers.I told B to write a satirical piece about how her Christian name opened her eyes and now she feels she can express the Euro-Canadian experience.

I think there is a difference between finding out you have that blood within you vs. just being into hip hop or anime/asian girls. That being said, growing up "white" and everyone perceiving you as such, what does finding out you have a minuscule amount of non-white blood mean? White people love to do that shit because being non-white is edgy as fuck to white people. So being non-white while being white is pretty awesome. If that makes any sense.

I've told this story here before, but my mom has been super into geneology for years now. One of her geneology friends is super skilled at it and Justin Timberlake's people asked her to find out if JT had any Cherokee blood. Side note - all whites in the south claim they have Cherokee blood. Pretty much none do. Anyway, the kicker is that not only did she found out he had no native american blood, but his ancestors owned slaves.

[Wolter]

Side note - all whites in the south claim they have Cherokee blood. Pretty much none do.

Oh man, this is the truest thing you've ever said. I think I was the only white person at my elementary school who wasn't "1/16 Cherokee."

[Marky Dread]

B was telling me about a book she's reading right now, about a Native American band. Despite being prize-winning, she's less than impressed. What she mentioned to me, tho, is that the author, a white woman, inserts herself in the story, which she justifies because she learned that she has aboriginal ancestry and gained a tribal name, and now feels she has a spiritual bond with that people to the point of being a spokesperson. What the fuck is it with white people that they can be so arrogant and presumptuous that they can lay claims on other people's culture and history, so much so that they feel they can speak about it? Like white people who discover the blues or hip hop and decide that they get black life enough to claim blackness as their personal identity. Or who decide they are Japanophiles. Do non-whites pull this shit? Certainly not in any close to the same numbers.I told B to write a satirical piece about how her Christian name opened her eyes and now she feels she can express the Euro-Canadian experience.

I understand the Blues well enough to appreciate it and undertsand the pain someone is singing about. Do I feel their pain? like fuck I do and why would I want to.

Can anyone with a decent knowledge of musical heritage write about the Blues? sure of course they can. I know more and listen to more Blues music than any of my black friends in fact they wouldn't know Leadbelly from a lead pipe. I expect that most of the great music writers will be white as for the Blues being "other people's culture" it's all our culture be it villain or sufferer.

[Dr. Medulla]

I think there is a difference between finding out you have that blood within you vs. just being into hip hop or anime/asian girls.

No, I'm talking about, well, wiggers or blues fans who make solemn pronouncements about really really really understanding the black experience because they get the blues. It's a claim on another people's history without doing anything to earn it. White people do that shit all the time. In Canada, way too many guilty whites decide that they need to become Indians, and then go around talking about how they're actually Indians.

That being said, growing up "white" and everyone perceiving you as such, what does finding out you have a minuscule amount of non-white blood mean? White people love to do that shit because being non-white is edgy as fuck to white people. So being non-white while being white is pretty awesome. If that makes any sense.

I get why white people do it, but it's an example of colonial privilege, taking something of another people because it makes them feel better about themselves, filling some kind of self-perceived gap, but having no justification for doing so. It's a belief that a marginalized person's experiences are more authentic and therefore more desirable, a variation of the noble savage myth. It's superficial interest because they give it up just as easily as they took it. Totally rooted in racial privilege.

I've told this story here before, but my mom has been super into geneology for years now. One of her geneology friends is super skilled at it and Justin Timberlake's people asked her to find out if JT had any Cherokee blood. Side note - all whites in the south claim they have Cherokee blood. Pretty much none do. Anyway, the kicker is that not only did she found out he had no native american blood, but his ancestors owned slaves.

Ha! Yes, the famous Cherokee princesses in every Southerner's family tree. I may have shared this story before, but a professor friend worked at the archives at the University of South Carolina. They'd regularly get people driving in, looking for "mah people." Depending on how the staff were treated, the person making the inquiry might be presented with evidence that their great great grandmother was a slave. Enjoy that heritage, bubba.

[Marky Dread]

Thinking about this some more that woman does appear to have her self righteous head up her backside. But then again how does anyone really lay claim to that period. Do modern day black people have any more of a claim to that culture really? Is it really their culture or just part of history.

[Dr. Medulla]

Thinking about this some more that woman does appear to have her self righteous head up her backside. But then again how does anyone really lay claim to that period. Do modern day black people have any more of a claim to that culture really? Is it really their culture or just part of history.

That is a good point. A prof of mine who taught Southern history once asked those of us in his seminar who had a better claim to more keenly appreciating the history of slavery, a black kid born in Seattle or a white kid born in Natchez, Mississippi? Neither have anything like a perfect claim—and, of course, no one ever has a perfect claim—but what is more important, blood or geography? More importantly, tho, his question is something I keep in the back of my head because it's a constant reminder of our limited claim to speak on any given subject. We can speak and argue and critique, but there should be some humility there born of our limitations of experience, knowledge, and history.

[Marky Dread]

Thinking about this some more that woman does appear to have her self righteous head up her backside. But then again how does anyone really lay claim to that period. Do modern day black people have any more of a claim to that culture really? Is it really their culture or just part of history.

That is a good point. A prof of mine who taught Southern history once asked those of us in his seminar who had a better claim to more keenly appreciating the history of slavery, a black kid born in Seattle or a white kid born in Natchez, Mississippi? Neither have anything like a perfect claim—and, of course, no one ever has a perfect claim—but what is more important, blood or geography? More importantly, tho, his question is something I keep in the back of my head because it's a constant reminder of our limited claim to speak on any given subject. We can speak and argue and critique, but there should be some humility there born of our limitations of experience, knowledge, and history.

That last line is brilliantly put and says it all.

[JennyB]

It's really just a racist example of one-upmanship and trying to be a precious snowflake.

[eumaas]

Adolph Reed interview; might be of interest to some.
http://www.theblackscholar.org/neoliber ... te-editor/

[Dr. Medulla]

This could have gone in any number of threads, but I think it makes sense best here, with its focus on privileged angry white male dunces.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/fe ... mp-w435754

[Inder]

[Flex]

God, clickhole is so good.

[Dr. Medulla]

http://deadspin.com/girls-high-school-b ... 1786690393

Extra points for also telling Native Americans how they should interpret the poster.

[JennyB]

http://deadspin.com/girls-high-school-b ... 1786690393

Extra points for also telling Native Americans how they should interpret the poster.

Loved this comment:

"So maybe cross town rivals, the Christians, could a hang a basketball hoop from a cross? Out of respect, of course."