Weez Blog

Don't beat your self up unduly over this. I’m betting you didn’t vote for Bush, their for you haven’t thrown him your support. This seems kinda like being white. All the f’ing terrible things that white people have done thought history, kinda make you feel bad being white. Until you realize: hey, those people who did those things weren’t me, I just have to learn from them and not make their mistakes.

So could America have done better, yes. Did we, no. Now we have to working on fixing it. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but those who wallow in the past never make it to the future.

Great analogy.

Agreed, we have to work on fixing it. But I do think part of fixing it isn't saying, "Hey, it wasn't me...it was that other dude." or the "They do not represent us."

Because they do.

It is simplistic, but we personify whole groups of people based upon the actions of a few. Women, whites, blacks, Iraqis, Israelis, Haitians, and so on. Doesn't matter that the representative sample isn't really representative...the only requirement is that they do something memorable.

We've got to do some serious good-deeding to even put a dent in our country's bad public record.

(How many decent white folks does it take to convince black ones that predjudice is something that isn't systemic?)

What an interesting turn for this entry to take. I think as long as there is a health care gap, an education gap, an economic gap....all these discrepancies in access and performance along racial lines with Whites at the most advantaged position and Blacks at the least advantaged position, there will be distrust between the groups, with other ethnic minorities left choosing sides based on their ability to assimilate into white culture. Because of the racist past of our country, which manifests itself in the quickness to attack, invade and overthrow the governments of "colored" people while peacefully dealing with atrocities by whites, like apartheid in our lifetime for example, the continuum of racist attitudes and beliefs will, well, continue. We have the luxury to point to the KKK and the Republican party as the villians in certain situations, but "good" white people feel that if they are not part of these types of organizations, they are not contributing to the racism in our culture. I believe that if you benefit from a racist society, you must acknowledge your contribution to the overall problem. The number of fraternity "blackface" incidents throughout the country are almost as appalling as the number of students who didn't participate but don't see what the problem is. Add to that the number of school newspapers that were censured for their April Fools Editions, almost universally for racially insensitive issues. We have an administration that promotes racism, and while we can all agree that James Byrd shouldn't have been dragged behind a pick up truck until he died, how many of us can discuss affirmative action with consensus across racial lines. Learn from history, but also learn from the present. Don't repeat the mistakes made as recently as yesterday.

Karma. For those of us outside the jurisdictional borders (but not outside the sphere of influence) of the U.S.A., we can crack the fishbowl but suggesting dialogue around Elaine Scarry's essay on resistence to the Patriot Act.

http://www.bostonreview.net/BR29.1/scarry.html

In other parts of the West, the discourse turns to talk of Democratic Deficit and Democratic Renewal. Of course we don't have a political party with the name "democrat" in it so that these discussions aren't likely to be taken as partisan pleadings but very much as serious attempts to articulte the relation between civil society and governance. And of course the talk turns to decent work weeks, adequate health and social welfare and publicly-supported education as vital to the participation of the population in the policy debates that shape the course of government action. And this is ramble is just to indicate that such questions are being raised, probed and discussed in the U.S.A. too. And Weez may recall a similar engagement with responsibility at Planned Obsolescence awhile ago. Nothing short of cultural transformation will do. It's as the feminists used to say the "longest revolution". Somehow the energy and time are being found to engage. And some of those hat wearers will be sporting bright kerchiefs and smart bandanas this season :) Takes a lot of sweat to think and act with karmic dignity.

A recent Ethics in IT presentation addressed Doonesbury's cartoon and the cartoon Bush's use of the term 'brown sugar' when referring to C. Rice. Few, if any, students found the term offensive. I was shocked. Was initially glad, because it appeared that, from my generation to their generation, an offensive term had died and now brown sugar was just something those organics folks used in their coffee. A further discussion showed me that students believed racism is dead. "We're all educated now...."

Uh huh.

I pointed out their reaction to the term "Arabic" or "Iraqi" and how it elicited anger. Yet not every Iraqi killed Nicholas Berg. To categorize or focus the anger and hatred at a group of people because of the actions of a few is inappropriate. Is every Iraqi responsible for what is happening in his/her country? Of COURSE not. And it is racist to classify every person, based on the biases that result from some offensive behaviors. However, it is also human nature to do so.

sad times for America. Let's hope that the next election is truly representative of all those bumper stickers that proclaim "He's not MY president: I didn't vote for him!" If more people voted, perhaps then we could collectively be responsible for our country's actions. (But I doubt it! )

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