Actually I endorse Whiteness Studies in a way. First of all, I want to reject the vast majority of this nutty discipline.Whew! How's that for an outrageous and provocative thing to say? To which a commenter, also a White nationalist but not particularly racist, Uncle Milton, counters:
It's filled with contempt for Whites, race-denying nonsense conflated with obsession with race (tell me how that makes sense?!), White groveling, self-abjection and guilt admission and obsession in the face of an implied superiority of non-Whites. In short, it's like modern anti-racism taken to a Mad Magazine extreme of absurdity.
But there is an aspect of Whiteness Studies where the Whites in it sit around and analyze how they themselves are racist against non-Whites and resolve to try to get rid of their racism. And a lot of them have acknowledged that it is going to be a lifetime battle, and some say that they may never be over it.
I kind of like the notion that we all have racist parts of ourselves and that those of us who are better at least work to try to reduce or get rid of our racist feelings.
In anti-racist insane America, you realize that it is a mortal sin to admit that you have ever experienced even the slightest, tiniest, most infinitesimal trace of racism, especially if you are White. Ask around to just about anyone, and they will tell you that not only do they lack the tiniest hint of racism in even the deepest recesses of their soul, but that they have been anti-racist pristine for their entire lives.
Admit to having 1% racism in your 99% anti-racist soul, or that you ever uttered a racist word or thought a racist thought, and be prepared for verbal lashings or deadly stares. Such is the madness of anti-racist America in 2008, and I do applaud Whiteness Studies for their honesty.
I went to the blog of the guy named Tom who described either your posts on Black crime or the comments as racist bilge which led me to a "Whiteness" website that was filled with false statements such as Whites commit the highest number of serial murders (nope , per capita it's Blacks..) or that White middle class people have the highest rates of suicide. (nope, tragically it's native Americans..)This commenter exemplifies something that I might call guilty racism. I think he has some racist feelings towards Blacks, but he doesn't really feel good about them deep down inside. Hold on tight now, because we are getting into some religious and spiritual issues here, specifically Christian.
Most of what I have seen of Whiteness Studies is self-hating or a rehashing of stereotypes. Everyday I am in an environment where I am a minority (at my work, the majority of my colleagues are Asian..) and generally I have no problems with them since they tend to be civil and competent. However in the past when I have been forced to live or work around an environment that is a majority Black then I have been quite unhappy.
Am I a racist in need of Whiteness studies or perhaps am I reacting to repeat acts of violence towards me (accompanied by verbal epithets such as White Mutha Fucka), theft, and name calling that called attention to the color of my skin?
I'm now going to a Catholic Church and I just love it. One of the things that I love about it is the guilt. Guilt is actually a very debilitating thing, but I've been living with it my whole life, so it's very important to me, if even in an awful way.
I think that guilt is badly stigmatized. Guilty types are considered to be criminals, rapists, child molesters, and killers. Nothing is further from the truth. Antisocials are extremely violent and feel no guilt and obsessives, as one example, are the most nonviolent people on Earth and feel tremendous guilt.
The more guilt, the less violence. The more criminality, violence and antisocial behavior and activity, the less guilt. Real simple. All other things being equal, you should feel relaxed with a guilty type. Maybe they aren't any fun, but they probably won't hurt you. Alas, too many find the allure of the guiltless antisocial too delicious to pass up.
One thing I love about Catholicism is that they understood this truism long ago. The people always coming into confession all the time had never even done anything wrong, and were confessing about nothing at all. The best people were confessing the most. The worst people were never showing up at all.
It's still this way, even in psychologists' offices. Yet clinicians don't seem to get it either. Many clinicians can't even seem to reliably spot antisocials. If we train our clinicians to spot anyone, it ought to be antisocials.
Clinicians continue to confuse the worst people on Earth with the best people. This is a very interesting area of human nature, where even the best experts with most degrees and study seem to fail us. One wonders if some simple rural types somewhere would be wiser.
I've got to have a place in my heart for the guilty racist. When you go to White racist fora, you see lots of Whites on there who have had a lot of really bad experiences with minorities, in particular with Blacks.
Many are saying that they just want to wash their hands of Blacks altogether and get away from them. They want a divorce and no more troubles. A part of me feels for these folks. You get hurt, and you want to stay away. Such a perseverative human response.
I guess I'm a Catholic at heart. If you are a racist, just go right ahead and be one. Feel proud about it like 95% of them do. But there is a part of me that says that if you sin, at least feel bad about it. And racism, in my book, is a sin.
A Christian may sin, but if he feels guilt about sin, he gets +1 from me. If he resolves to stop sinning and tries to stop, then there's nothing more that he can do. At that point, one wonders if the person is even a sinner.
This is where Whiteness Studies, in all of its stupidity, insanity and idiocy, is beautiful. It had to have been thought up by a Catholic. Whiteness Studies is full of Whites who acknowledge that they have racist tendencies, but resolve to dedicate the rest of their lives to absolving them and purging them.
Who cannot love a sinner who has the nerve and courage to confess to the world and then try to go on the straight and narrow? That is Christianity in an essence.
An admission of guilt and sin is a beautiful thing to this Christian.
The world is full of those who pronounce moral purity. This has become the litmus test of our day. Moral purity in regard to race is an acid test of our times. It's hard to find a young person nowadays, or often anyone, who will admit to ever harboring the measliest racist sentiment. Oh how pure they are.
Purity, especially the probably dishonest kind, is as oppressive as smog. We are all peculiar mixtures of good and bad. We do good, and we should be proud, we do bad, and at the very least, we should feel bad.
Racism on an individual level is sinful simply because each and every individual should be evaluated on their own self-worth and nothing else. Disliking or shunning someone of one race who you would easily associate with if they were another race has got to be wrong, wrong, wrong. Dislike of groups collectively or from a distance is often perfectly reasonable and expression of self-preservation.
No, Unc doesn't need Whiteness Studies. No one does. You're a free agent and you can feel what you will. But if you want to recognize racism and combat it in yourself, you'll always get a cheer and a hug from me.
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