Every Monday until further notice, starting this week, the show will be about Race and Class issues. I've listened to most of the first one already and hope that others will stay awake on this issue well into the future.
A friend of mine and I were recently corresponding about a couple of old, previous entries here on blobBuoy about some other correspondence from way back that I interpreted as Hate. My new friend had an interesting perspective on how some people, and not even minorities necessarily, believe and behave as though they are entitled to certain things--like jobs and shit like that--that these things should just be handed to them. This came up in the debate over whether new people coming to our country should expect the culture here to adapt to them.
The Open Source Podcast I reference below made me think of a couple more things in light of the whole "hand-out" question. They discussed how so many of us (non-minorities) take for granted, and possibly are unaware, that we have only gotten where we each are today because of so many things just given to us. Even those of us who struggled through college have taken loans, scholarships, etc. which would not have been possible without some sort of government subsidy. Those of us who have insurance via a major, national provider are also in this category.
They also mention that at some point after the Civil Rights Movements of the 60's,
The privileged in this country believe that they truly worked their way to where they are now, with no help from anybody and that everyone else should be expected to do the same. How easily we forget the advantages we have just for being white. It's like driving, I suppose. It's not a right to be white, it's a privilege.
On class and race and inequality:
Open Source Blog Archive Rethinking Race and Class: "This is not a Hobbesian leviathan brooding over an unruly mob, using force to keep order while making sure the everyone can pursue their lives with a decent degree of security but a mafia lying to one group (genuinely conservative, frightened white Christians) while abusing another (gays, blacks, enemies of one sort or another) all the while stealing everything." --Marcellus Andrews
6 comments:
I was called open minded earlier this week and don’t want to ruin that reputation, but I might. I used to consider myself a die hard liberal and fought for the rights of everybody and wanted to make sure everybody had a helping hand. But in the last 10 years or so I’ve learned not to fight for those who are not working to help themselves.
I want to weigh in on giving a helping hand. I believe in this, but also with an end to that helping hand. For example the welfare system drives me nuts. There are families out there who have been on welfare for generations, why are we paying to support these people? I don’t think it’s that I am white that I don’t understand. I think some people take advantage of the helping hand and take it for granted that they can do this instead of working. There needs to be a balance. Help enough to give someone a fighting chance, don’t carry them.
I went to a "rethinking race" workshop recently at my new job, and it provided a lot of food for thought. I agree that many of us who are white take it for granted and don't realize how much easier our lives are because of it. At the workshop, they used the example of being right handed or left handed. Most things in our society are designed with the right-handed people in mind. We "righties" don't notice this because we are rarely inconvenienced for being right handed. We probably don't think about the fact that we are right handed that often. Left handed people, on the other hand (heh), are reminded somehow almost every day that they are left handed, whether it's difficulty using a can opener, opening a refrigerator door, using scissors, etc. It's similar with race. Most white people don't wake up every morning and say "Thank goodness I'm white!!" But black people think about being black at some point every day.
That said, I agree with Laura's comment that there has to be moderation in offering a helping hand. "Help enough to give someone a fighting chance, don’t carry them." I guess I agree with that.
I agree to some extent. Well, I agree 100% that lefties are terribly under privileged!
Really though, I agree that people shouldn't expect or be allowed to just take a free ride indefinitely. That said, I think it's important that we recognize that not all people stay on welfare by choice.
You can give me all the money, clothing, and food you want, but if I don't have a fighting chance to go out and get/keep a job, health insurance for me and my family, maybe a tad of respectful treatment, I'm going to sometimes feel like I have no choice but to come back and ask for more help.
The system that keeps people on welfare, in my opinion, is not welfare itself.
Yes the system helps create this problem. The system needs to be designed to give people incentives to get off of assistance. I know some people stay on because they make more money on welfare than working.
Race and class, when can we get past race? This is what I want to know. I know people are discriminated against, obviously I do not agree with this. In my line of work I give everyone an equal chance. When I am hiring people I don’t target to get specific races in the door, but I think if I do my job right and give everyone a fair shake that in the end my company’s racial make up will reflect that of the community we live in.
What I have a hard time with and Tula’s phrase “But black people think about being black at some point every day” reminded me of this. I understand that people who have a disadvantage will think about it, and this is just human nature. But I hate when it becomes the excuse for failure. I didn’t get it because I am black. Yes this statement can be true. Once when I was much younger a friend of mine called a company about an open nursing position they advertised. She called me said they told her it was no longer open and she thought they said it because she was black. So I called and told them my credentials (which were hers) and they wanted me to come in for an interview. I declined and unfortunately was too young, naive and incredibly shocked to tell them what they did or report them. One of those moments in life when you wish you had done something more. I did call my friend back and let her know that her suspicions were true. That situation clearly supports why people are thinking about it.
But on the other hand, and this is a silly example but it made me mad. On Rockstar INXS, there was a cast member named Ty. During the show he mentioned a few times that he was representing his race. This rubbed me the wrong way why couldn’t he just be a singer like everyone else. When he was voted off and dismissed he expressed the thought that it was because he was black. This really burned me up. He truly was not right for the band it had nothing to with race but he “pulled the race card”.
What is my point? I guess that we all have a long way to go when it comes to overcoming discrimination, but it’s not just the white folks who are contributing to the problem.
Anyone who is interested in this topic, especially commentators, please, please, please listen to the shoe I've linked to in the main post. So many of the things that we've brought up here are discussed on that show--and from more than one perspective.
Mikostinko and crabbies, thank you both so much for bringing your thoughts to my blog! Especially since we don't all agree entirely on all of the issues, this has turned out to be a very nourishing exchange. I feel so much closer to you both now--again, even though we don't agree on every morsel.
I understand and can sympathize a little with not wanting to help someone who is not helping herself, however, I think that when faced with a person that is getting assistance for more time than you consider reasonable, assuming that the reason she is still on welfare is because she isn't working to help herself is assuming to know too much about that individual.
With that thought, let me throw a curve ball out there real quick. I have a similar, less liberal, view about Affirmative Action. I believe that having a policy that arbitrarily gives certain persons an advantage based on their race or ethnicity assumes too much about the advantages or disadvantages that individual may or may not have experienced in pursuing a given goal. Assuming that we can level the playing field by legislating a tilt in that field, I feel, is a mistake. I get a lot of grief over this view from my wife and a friend of hers.
That said, when it's obvious that our government HESITATED to help the people who could not leave New Orleans and avoid the aftermath of the storm, and that those people were overwhelmingly black, I find it incredibly difficult to believe that anything resembling a majority of those victims choose to remain poor and in need of, if not already recipients of, assistance.
Finally, I think we must be careful about insisting that all assistance must be limited to those who eventually no longer need that assistance. Are we not all brothers and sisters here on the mother ship? I personally have been in many situations where everything seemed to turn to shit and there seemed to be no end to my bad luck in sight. I've always convinced myself that I can do more to improve my own situation, but that attitude doesn't always make things go right. So much of what has gone right in my life was simply a matter of timing--nothing I did, other than persevere and survive, made a difference. This seemed like luck. If there's anyone who's gonna have persistent bad luck, it's a person in the minority. I think if we give up on helping the perpetually downtrodden in our society--if we aren't willing to keep giving them even just enought to survive--we've actually given up on ourselves.
Ok I am in a bad mood today so forgive me but there are people out there who won't help themselves because they know we will. And because they haven't they don't know what they can be. I truly believe in pushing people to meet goals they never thought possible.
With that said you are right, no I do not know each idividual situation and what keeps them down.
One last tidbit, it always amazes me how people come to America with nothing, work hard, use the system to their advantage and become very successful. What is it that we are not instilling in our own citizens to do the same.
David, it's great we don't nessarily agree and I LOVE these discussions. keep throwing the topics out there.
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