Racism on a Spectrum
For people who think that the HP / Word Use Discussion (I refuse to call it a wank) is minor and people should be discussing real racism, I'd like to point your attention to the Jena 6.
There were nooses on a tree in a schoolyard. Nooses. A black kid sat down under the tree at lunchtime, a place where white students usually sat and the next day there were NOOSES.
And then when complaints happened from black parents, the white students were given an in-school suspension for a 'prank'.
The threat of lynching was called a PRANK by the white school administrators.
There are lines, continums - ladders if you will. And some actions are near the bottom of the ladder and some actions are near the top.
The treatment of witchqueen by the d_d mods in their open letter, and the name calling and reviling concerning her by some of the d_d members are near the bottom of the ladder.
The Jena 6 are near the top.
But the reactions are all about black people 'who got uppity and insisted something was racist, hurtful, dangerous and wrong'.
No one has threatened WQ's life (as far as I know) but they have tried to bully her and belittle her and make her, and me, and other people feel that we're not welcome because we're harshing their squee by not keeping our oversized lips shut.
The students at Jena were beaten, given harsher administrative discipline by those in power, and were charged with bigger crimes than white students also involved in the outburst of fighting and hair-trigger feelings.
Why?
Because they were harshing the concept of the town as being a happy, pleasant place by not keeping their oversized lips shut.
Top of the ladder. Bottom of the ladder. Same Ladder. Same willful ignorance. Same privilege. Same expectations that black folk will just shut up if they get called bad names enough, or pushed down enough.
I've a friend who lost a friend today because she called a statement racist and her now former friend got huffy because hearing the term racist applied was too horrible to be imagined. And anyway...
"If this was real racism, then I would be more concerned"
And suddenly she was being picked on by someone (my friend) who thinks she's too good for everyone and racism works both ways and she was being oppressed.
My friend? Suddenly she's now 'another uppity person of darker skin tone'
If no one challenges the status quo, it doesn't get changed.
I don't like the status quo.
ETA: More on the Jena 6: Video
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
- Billie Holiday
There were nooses on a tree in a schoolyard. Nooses. A black kid sat down under the tree at lunchtime, a place where white students usually sat and the next day there were NOOSES.
And then when complaints happened from black parents, the white students were given an in-school suspension for a 'prank'.
The threat of lynching was called a PRANK by the white school administrators.
There are lines, continums - ladders if you will. And some actions are near the bottom of the ladder and some actions are near the top.
The treatment of witchqueen by the d_d mods in their open letter, and the name calling and reviling concerning her by some of the d_d members are near the bottom of the ladder.
The Jena 6 are near the top.
But the reactions are all about black people 'who got uppity and insisted something was racist, hurtful, dangerous and wrong'.
No one has threatened WQ's life (as far as I know) but they have tried to bully her and belittle her and make her, and me, and other people feel that we're not welcome because we're harshing their squee by not keeping our oversized lips shut.
The students at Jena were beaten, given harsher administrative discipline by those in power, and were charged with bigger crimes than white students also involved in the outburst of fighting and hair-trigger feelings.
Why?
Because they were harshing the concept of the town as being a happy, pleasant place by not keeping their oversized lips shut.
Top of the ladder. Bottom of the ladder. Same Ladder. Same willful ignorance. Same privilege. Same expectations that black folk will just shut up if they get called bad names enough, or pushed down enough.
I've a friend who lost a friend today because she called a statement racist and her now former friend got huffy because hearing the term racist applied was too horrible to be imagined. And anyway...
"If this was real racism, then I would be more concerned"
And suddenly she was being picked on by someone (my friend) who thinks she's too good for everyone and racism works both ways and she was being oppressed.
My friend? Suddenly she's now 'another uppity person of darker skin tone'
If no one challenges the status quo, it doesn't get changed.
I don't like the status quo.
ETA: More on the Jena 6: Video
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.
Here is the fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
- Billie Holiday