Comments on: Media Denials of Racism: Sad Reactions to a Great Victory

By: GDAWG

GDAWG — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:18:54 +0000

My view is that those losers in Jasper were empowered by a contemptous media and policing structure, as examples, that dehumanzies Blacks to such an extent so as to allow such pathology to prevail in the violent way it did in Jasper. That they, the murderers, would or could have the notion to perpetrate such crime, with an utter disregard for his humanity, is in my view, is an example of “tenent-power” or faux power. (Cannon Fodder) Another example of the “tenant power” would folks who voted for McCain and Palin who earned less than 200,000 per year.
Finally, perhaps they, the Jasper murderers, were not VPs of the local bank but they were probably VPs in the aryan nation or some other similar group. Again no real social power at least from a legal or civil perspective but does display a type of “tenant power” Or put it another way. They all, as a result of his murder, earned their Spider’s Web.” This is an elite group indeed! Shari. Excellent!

By: Shari

Shari — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:21:01 +0000

One of the things I found interesting and frankly promising in Obama’s campaign rhetoric is that he transferred the argument to a class argument. Conservatives caught on and retaliated with “socialist” labels. If Obama continues to prioritize class as a category and backs it up with policy, he actually can make a material difference in the lives of people of color. Expecting Barack Obama to “heal” the racial divide is another White Racial Frame tactic to place the responsibility for the divide on those who had no place at the table when the dividing occurred. Typical. And it has the advantage of being able to blame any continued tension, which historically increases in times of war and economic crisis, on a failure of Obama to heal it. Again, business as usual, blame the victims.

By: Mordy

Mordy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:06:16 +0000

Everyone is entitled to their opinion G, i just can’t logically understand the delineation you are trying to make. Do the murderers of James Byrd escape your tag of racism because they were powerless tools of ‘tenant power’? 2 were avowed, active White Supremists. Does that confer power onto them in your view? My guess is that neither were Vice-Presidents at their local Texas National Bank branch, but in my view it would be nearly impossible to meet 2 people any more racist.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:13:37 +0000

GDAWG & mordy: The people I work with, unfortunately, are in a relative position of power. They are in management. Our hourly workforce is probably 85% Black, but management is mainly white males. The way people are talking makes me wonder if it’s not racism that is causing the disparity between hourly and management workers. We have some very intelligent, hard working people who are hourly workers. They are at the highest position they can be as an hourly worker with some degree of supervision over others, yet they are not promoted to management, even though we have had openings at the next level up.

And I don’t really think there is a differene between prejudice and racism. They both are a view that you are superior to another group because of your race (or, in the case of prejudice, some other factor).

By: GDAWG

GDAWG — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:22:12 +0000

Well Mordy that’s your view. To expand on your notion that “none of the despicable creatures who carry out hate crimes are ever racist if they are occupying a low and powerless rung of society” for me is true for they are mere mindless dangerous fodder whose white skin has been,heretofore, largely an ‘asset’ of sort in terms of or in the sense of being awarded unearned priviledge. That is, puppets in a larger scheme of divide and conquer, that is at play, even among whites. As such, to make the ‘priviledge’ worthy for attainment they, the lowly and stupid, are enabled by institutional forces, at least historically, to manifest a kind of ‘tenant’ power, dangerously. That is, they don’t really have true power but are allotted it, a measure of power, for convenience sake, to carry out a sacrificial offering,e.g, murders, lynchings, etc.

But oh boy. Things are a changin.

By: mordy

mordy — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:54:46 +0000

@GDAWG- I dunno G, that sounds like a pretty tortured explanation to me. It sounds like by your logic none of the despicable creatures who carry out hate crimes are ever racist if they are occupying a low and powerless rung of society. If you think you are superior to another human being based on your skin color you are racist. It seems pretty straight forward in that regard. I grant that the issue becomes much more complicated and subtle, but i never considered power as a defining characteristic of racism

By: GDAWG

GDAWG — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:46:11 +0000

I dunno Melissa. Being prejudice is one thing. Being racist is quite another IMHO. People can have what you would consider racist feeling. But its ‘their’ feeling. If they are not a in a position of power to enact those feeling in a negative way on the target of those feelings then, IMHO, it’s simply prejudice. And lord knows we all have some measure of prejudice in us. Some of us feel that racism is most measure or made evil by those in positions to hurt folks in an unduly and unjust fashion based on their prejudiced feeling alone. This is bad. Holding your prejudice feelings to yourself and not embolding or enabling bad feeling and actions onto the target of one’s warped views is quite another thing altogether. I’m just saying. It’s life in all of its complexities.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:08:47 +0000

Mordy, good point. Obama is now saddled with “healing,” an idea floating around lots of places. Notice that the language of white racism uses terms like this, to get off the subject of reparations for the racist structures and a racist system rationalized by a white racist framing. This latter kind of language and thinking is thus banned, which means once again a denial of the systemic realities. One cannot heal a racist hierarchy, one dismantles it and replaces it.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:45:38 +0000

GDAWG: Well, yeah, but it makes me sad because I’ve lost respect for some of the people I know or work with because of their racism. I mean, they must know it’s wrong because they have kept those opinions hidden for years.

By: M.

M. — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:43:14 +0000

The WSJ’s reaction is the predictable right-wing reaction. What surprises me about the polls cited is that the racial gaps in perception of discrimination aren’t bigger. While it is only a bare majority, still a majority (51%) of whites see discrimination as widespread. Only a slightly larger share of Latinos see it as widespread (59%). And more than 20% of African-Americans don’t describe discrimination as widespread. That’s more similarity in answers to this question across racial groups than I would have guessed there would be.