THE INCREDIBLE WHITENESS OF BEING

[dismal]

Speak for yourself snowflake, a lot of those things don't apply to me.

And noticing some white people think they don't count as white wasn't on the list of things white people do, so I don't see how doing that makes me count as white.

Sorry, dis. You might think yourself black as the proverbial ace of spades. But you got whiteness. Just being from Texas makes you covered in whiteness.

A, I'm in Texas but not from it. 2, I'm reasonably sure not everyone in Texas is white. C, looking back at the list of white things in the OP I don't actually think any of them accurately apply to me so if those are the aspects of whiteness I'm out.

I shall await future posts making sweeping generalizations about other races so I can learn which race is my new ingroup.

I do like Mexican food...

 

[Rhea]

Your whiteness is showing, dis. And mine too apparently.

Speak for yourself snowflake, a lot of those things don't apply to me.

And noticing some white people think they don't count as white wasn't on the list of things white people do, so I don't see how doing that makes me count as white.

I think you missed one of the main points of the OP. It not that some "don't think they count as white" but rather that some are saying "I don't tend to vote against my own self interests due to racial manipulation"

The facts on the table remain:
Poor conservative voters often vote against their own self interest (tax cuts for the rich!) while the ads urging them to do so are dripping with racist cues.
So obviously someone out there in GOPland is quite certain that scaring them with race will be useful in securing their vote. And equally obviously many polls seem to support the usefulness of this.

I am confident in the fact that I am not voting against my own interests due to racial fears. Mostly because, empirically, the people who want my vote don't use racial fears as a tactic. I can stipulate that I have other racist baggage, and that there are other things that will make me vote against my self interest, without changing the basic truth that I am not described in the OP.

I can count myself as white, and still not be manipulated by whiteness (in this).

 

[Archimedes]

AA,
Is the above a racist rant? Of course it is. So was the OP.

Special advantages through AA.

That's all you got?

AA is discussed here mostly on these boards in terms of college admissions and jobs placement

Black students have the lowest rate of college admissions and black folk across age demos have the highest unemployment rate.

Explain please these advantages again?

AA in George S's post was clearly a reference to your forum initials AthenaAwakened, not to to Affirmative Action.

 

[repoman]

It is interesting how the elite (moneyed, not the bullshit concept of cultural elite) get us sheep coming and going with their framing the narrative.

The repubs get some of us with racist cues to whites to vote against their own interest with tax cuts to the rich.

the dems get most of the rest of us with the specter of being racist for proposals of slowing down immigration which helps suppress wages with the black market labor pool. Also helps push the construction boom.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

Did any one click the links provided? As much as I would like to be, I am not W.E.B DuBois. Whiteness is not my creation. Social scientists have for decades written about whiteness, race as social construct, and privilege (racial and otherwise)

Now I realize I have become so important to a few people here that they dedicate space in their minds to me, spend the expensive emotion of hate on me, and feel a need to feed an obssession with me, and I am flattered with all attention, but I am not originator, just a messenger.

 

[repoman]

Is this image cropped or shopped?

 

[AthenaAwakened]

AA,

Imagine a post like this:

You know, blackness is a powerful thing. You can get special advantage over non-blacks through affirmative action. You have the presidency. One of the leading astrophysicists in the world (Neil DeGrasse Tyson), a credit to the black race. You have the attorney general of the United States.

Is the above a racist rant? Of course it is. So was the OP.

Special advantages through AA.

That's all you got?

AA is discussed here mostly on these boards in terms of college admissions and jobs placement

Black students have the lowest rate of college admissions and black folk across age demos have the highest unemployment rate.

Explain please these advantages again?

AA in George S's post was clearly a reference to your forum initials AthenaAwakened, not to to Affirmative Action.

the post above yours is the post I am referencing when I speak about AA (affirmative action)

 

[Kharakov]

Poor conservative voters often vote against their own self interest (tax cuts for the rich!) while the ads urging them to do so are dripping with racist cues.
So obviously someone out there in GOPland is quite certain that scaring them with race will be useful in securing their vote.

I asked a family friend why she voted Republican when she was poor, and the benefits would go to a select few (including her losing medical benefits that her family needs). She said "There can only be so many roosters in the henhouse".

Her husband, who is from an area where racist culture was prevalent, who does not have a college degree, etc., voted for Obama despite being raised with certain views on race and culture (he said he doesn't bring up politics at family gatherings).

 

[Blahface]

I don't think poor white people are deliberately cutting off their nose to spite their face. I think they think that Republicans are going to cut off the other guys nose and take away the benefits from the “other people” who are abusing the system. I think that a lot of them who take public assistance don't even realize they are on welfare. Remember when Craig T Nelson was on Glenn Beck and said “I was on food stamps and nobody helped me out.” I'm sure that is the mindset of a lot of poor white Republican voters.

I'm sure poor white people also vote Republican because of other issues such as religion and guns. That is why really need to change the voting system and allow for more competitive elections that give voters the ability to vote for candidates that aren't boxed into one archetypical package.

 

[maxparrish]

After surveying the most commented upon thread topics, it seems that if the US were not consumed by race, few would have an identity. Export all blacks or all whites, and we can shut the board down.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

After surveying the most commented upon thread topics, it seems that if the US were not consumed by race, few would have an identity. Export all blacks or all whites, and we can shut the board down.

It is a topic no doubt near and dear to the hearts of many here. Race politics in the US is so volatile, so it gets a lot of play here. A lot of rational thought gets thrown out the window as emotional appeals take over. I find that fascinating on a board of atheists, where the race arguments become quasi religious.

I myself like to participate in these threads because I find it fascinating, as race really isn't much of an issue where I live, especially in regard to black people (which seems to dominate here). There simply are not many black people around. I haven't seen one in months. I work in Brampton, Ontario (predominantly Punjabi Indian), and I live in Markham, Ontario (predominantly Asian). I work in an office where the vast majority is Punjabi Indian, and live in an apartment building where everybody but me is Asian. Yet I hardly ever really notice race in my day to day life in either place. The only time race came up in my real life in the last year was when I mentioned I live with mostly Asians to an Indian co-worker and he was all "What? Indians are Asians!"

The big race issue in Ontario is in regard to first nations people, and even off reserve they just don't mix all that much with mainstream society. Toronto is an extremely multi-cultural place, but I rarely meet first nations folks. I do know they get some special rights over everybody else because of ancient treaties. I don't really know where I stand on that.

 

[repoman]

After surveying the most commented upon thread topics, it seems that if the US were not consumed by race, few would have an identity. Export all blacks or all whites, and we can shut the board down.

You mean like this?

 

[none]

http://www.nber.org/digest/sep03/w9873.html

Employers' Replies to Racial Names

"Job applicants with white names needed to send about 10 resumes to get one callback; those with African-American names needed to send around 15 resumes to get one callback."

seems those pesky employers are doing it, whiteness I mean.

 

[Davka]

 

[laughing dog]

The big race issue in Ontario is in regard to first nations people, and even off reserve they just don't mix all that much with mainstream society. Toronto is an extremely multi-cultural place, but I rarely meet first nations folks. I do know they get some special rights over everybody else because of ancient treaties. I don't really know where I stand on that.

Special rights for a group based on its race/ethnicity? If we were talking about black folk, you'd have a stand on it. Hmmm.

 

[DBT]

We appear to have inherited the tendency, whether genetic or environmental (most probably and combination of both) to search for self identity and our place in the World, and skin colour may be something for some to seize on and inflate in order to create an identity that raises us above the herd. Something more, something better than the 'other' - the people who aren't like 'us,' who don't look like us and don't think like us, therefore are less than us in terms of worth.

In psychology experiments where subjects have to give away money, they most often give it to people who have more than themselves, not less. The reason is because they don't want to be on the bottom themselves. Whiteness is a kind of money I suppose according to Athena.

If money is seen as a measure of self worth, whiteness is - for some - indeed 'a kind of money.'

 

[Axulus]

The big race issue in Ontario is in regard to first nations people, and even off reserve they just don't mix all that much with mainstream society. Toronto is an extremely multi-cultural place, but I rarely meet first nations folks. I do know they get some special rights over everybody else because of ancient treaties. I don't really know where I stand on that.

Special rights for a group based on its race/ethnicity? If we were talking about black folk, you'd have a stand on it. Hmmm.

Based on sovereign rights/past treaties. If a first nations couple adopted a black or a white baby, I think the black or white baby would be entitled to these special rights, no?

 

[laughing dog]

Special rights for a group based on its race/ethnicity? If we were talking about black folk, you'd have a stand on it. Hmmm.

Based on sovereign rights/past treaties. If a first nations couple adopted a black or a white baby, I think the black or white baby would be entitled to these special rights, no?

What does that have to do with the principle that special treatment for a groups is wrong? Are you saying that if the USA had engaged in a treaty with all the freed slaves after the Civil War to guarantee affirmative action for them and their descendants, that people would not be whining about how evil AA is?

 

[Axulus]

Based on sovereign rights/past treaties. If a first nations couple adopted a black or a white baby, I think the black or white baby would be entitled to these special rights, no?

What does that have to do with the principle that special treatment for a groups is wrong? Are you saying that if the USA had engaged in a treaty with all the freed slaves after the Civil War to guarantee affirmative action for them and their descendants, that people would not be whining about how evil AA is?

You claimed it had to do with race/ethnicity. I don't think it is possible to do a treaty with a race/ethnicity. This is a case of a treaty with a semi-sovereign nation. If the solution to slavery was to give the freed slaves territory within the united states that granted them special rights, I don't think it would be all that contentious. About as contentious as the treaties we have with tribal nations.

 

[Davka]

Special rights for a group based on its race/ethnicity? If we were talking about black folk, you'd have a stand on it. Hmmm.

Based on sovereign rights/past treaties. If a first nations couple adopted a black or a white baby, I think the black or white baby would be entitled to these special rights, no?

No.