Dear American_Jihad
to this issue of White Privilege, I see both sides and have to
say YES and NO. There ARE some areas that YES people
do make assumptions and are conditioned to defer to WHITE MEN.
Whenever I have been part of a class, group, meeting, etc.
the members generally flock around and follow a leader,
and will naturally expect the older white man in the group to lead.
In my historic African American church neighborhood, there is some
respect to the church elders who are women, but generally the men
will either band together or divide along lines of MALE LEADERSHIP.
Besides the
1. group dynamic where people will "follow the leader"
(where white dominates, and also men will be given the lead over others)
there is also the issue of the fact that
2. American govt and property/ownership/development
was founded on European traditions of natural laws and terms that favor that culture.
This is where people are getting the concept that the White Ownership class
is what has defined the laws and govt structure from the beginning; so once
that is set up, then people keep deferring to that as the default. Everything else
is based on comparing or deriving from that established foundation as the core.
Can this be changed and equalized?
Yes, but it will take some REAL work.
Until each family, community and cultural lineage has equal history
in UNINTERRUPTED ownership "passed down" from one generation to the next
in order to sustain itself as SOVEREIGN, then people do not invoke, exercise or perceive
"equal authority" or ownership of property, the democratic process and their own rights/freedoms.
True, we can argue that every person, every race culture nation and tribe has gone through
their suffering and cycles of destruction, restructuring and growth.
If we are honest, we know that ALL people of ALL backgrounds will go through
similar stages of spiritual, social, political and economic upheaval, recovery and learning curve.
We can even argue that the social pattern of associating "white or lighter skin" with
"ownership management class" is NOT just the European/Black culture, but OTHER cultures, eg
Latino and Asian, have emphasized the value on lighter skin associated with upper class
in contrast to darker skin associated with "lower class outdoor or manual field laborers."
And who can argue that slavery doesn't affect Asians as much or more than Africans
due to populations alone in China, India and other places supplying slave labor?
Where I WOULD agree with the Black/White power imbalance is that in the history
of property owners in America, where authority of law generally follows from that,
there are whole generations of Black families and descendants who were not only
denied the right and experience of owning property, voting and participating in govt
but were managed like property themselves, owned by others legally. That had to
have profound effect for generations to come until this conditioning is healed and worked through.
The fact that Black race and skin color was used specifically to mark and identify Slaves for sale
and segregation clearly profited from dividing Black from White and valuing/treating these differently.
So that is a unique relationship and conflict that needs to heal
and open the door for equal ownership, participation and EXPERIENCE.
There are some cultural and family lines 150 years behind on the learning curve,
so that isn't something that changes overnight, but takes generations to recover and heal.
The disparity CAN be overcome, but staying divided and pointing the blame here and there
does not help. All of America has benefited from the economic advantages and development
made possible by slave labor, and we still depend on slave labor to make our goods affordable.
We share in the responsibility for resolving these class issues that have become associated
with race, which isn't the cause of the imbalance but race was used as a factor to
manage and profit off the division between rich and poor, leaders and followers, empowered and uneducated,
self-governing property owners and disenfranchised people treated as the property of someone else.
to this issue of White Privilege, I see both sides and have to
say YES and NO. There ARE some areas that YES people
do make assumptions and are conditioned to defer to WHITE MEN.
Whenever I have been part of a class, group, meeting, etc.
the members generally flock around and follow a leader,
and will naturally expect the older white man in the group to lead.
In my historic African American church neighborhood, there is some
respect to the church elders who are women, but generally the men
will either band together or divide along lines of MALE LEADERSHIP.
Besides the
1. group dynamic where people will "follow the leader"
(where white dominates, and also men will be given the lead over others)
there is also the issue of the fact that
2. American govt and property/ownership/development
was founded on European traditions of natural laws and terms that favor that culture.
This is where people are getting the concept that the White Ownership class
is what has defined the laws and govt structure from the beginning; so once
that is set up, then people keep deferring to that as the default. Everything else
is based on comparing or deriving from that established foundation as the core.
Can this be changed and equalized?
Yes, but it will take some REAL work.
Until each family, community and cultural lineage has equal history
in UNINTERRUPTED ownership "passed down" from one generation to the next
in order to sustain itself as SOVEREIGN, then people do not invoke, exercise or perceive
"equal authority" or ownership of property, the democratic process and their own rights/freedoms.
True, we can argue that every person, every race culture nation and tribe has gone through
their suffering and cycles of destruction, restructuring and growth.
If we are honest, we know that ALL people of ALL backgrounds will go through
similar stages of spiritual, social, political and economic upheaval, recovery and learning curve.
We can even argue that the social pattern of associating "white or lighter skin" with
"ownership management class" is NOT just the European/Black culture, but OTHER cultures, eg
Latino and Asian, have emphasized the value on lighter skin associated with upper class
in contrast to darker skin associated with "lower class outdoor or manual field laborers."
And who can argue that slavery doesn't affect Asians as much or more than Africans
due to populations alone in China, India and other places supplying slave labor?
Where I WOULD agree with the Black/White power imbalance is that in the history
of property owners in America, where authority of law generally follows from that,
there are whole generations of Black families and descendants who were not only
denied the right and experience of owning property, voting and participating in govt
but were managed like property themselves, owned by others legally. That had to
have profound effect for generations to come until this conditioning is healed and worked through.
The fact that Black race and skin color was used specifically to mark and identify Slaves for sale
and segregation clearly profited from dividing Black from White and valuing/treating these differently.
So that is a unique relationship and conflict that needs to heal
and open the door for equal ownership, participation and EXPERIENCE.
There are some cultural and family lines 150 years behind on the learning curve,
so that isn't something that changes overnight, but takes generations to recover and heal.
The disparity CAN be overcome, but staying divided and pointing the blame here and there
does not help. All of America has benefited from the economic advantages and development
made possible by slave labor, and we still depend on slave labor to make our goods affordable.
We share in the responsibility for resolving these class issues that have become associated
with race, which isn't the cause of the imbalance but race was used as a factor to
manage and profit off the division between rich and poor, leaders and followers, empowered and uneducated,
self-governing property owners and disenfranchised people treated as the property of someone else.
I got to say your long wind-did, watch out Al Gore will say your heating the planet...
