Thursday, June 22, 2006

Suggested reading in Lane County

The following are some "resources" you can read as suggested by Lane County:

Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge To White America.

Enter the River: Healing Steps from White Privilege Toward Racial
Reconciliation.

Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice.

White Awareness.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Not that they are focused on skin color or anything...

38 comments:

Mike Lewis said...

So diversity means preaching against white people?

Isn't THAT racist? Not very diverse or tolerant. I didn't see one on the list about Christians. I guess they haven't gotten that book on the list yet.

Mike Lewis said...

Why do I feel like I am not wanted in America anymore?

Scottiebill said...

It looks as if the White Supremacists from northern Idaho are slithering west. Time to break out the slug bait.

Anonymous said...

when you add up all the black, hispanic, asian, rag heads etc ---white people are a minority. how about books on speaking english

Kaelri said...

It might seem strange, but I think I can understand why those interested in providing resources on the subject of racial diversity might want to pick some books that focus on race.

And, going a step further, if they want to promote tangible equality of the races, then it could, in theory, help to focus attention on the imbalance, and when the imbalance favors a certain race, that's the one they're gonna talk about.

You try to tell these people that logic and reason are anachronistic, but will they listen...

Bobkatt said...

Suggested reading: Black Rednecks and White Liberals by Thomas Sowell. This book will shed a whole new light on racism and it's cultural effect in America.

Anonymous said...

What privilege does a white person earning minimum wage have that a middle class black person not have?

Anonymous said...

Explaining "White Priviledge" to those bigotted by nature and heart is a tough task.

Reading these might help those that apply understand it:

Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge To White America.

Enter the River: Healing Steps from White Privilege Toward Racial
Reconciliation.

Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice.

White Awareness.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Anonymous said...

Big Mike, maybe you don't feel like you belong in America anymore because you act, talk, look and whine like a second class citizen. Grow up and quite feeling sorry for yourself.

For you thick heads that don't get "White Priviledge" and this goes for you too, Big Mike. In the simplest scenario, picture this: You are dark skinned, maybe african american or latino. You need a bandaid. You go to the store, Wal-Mart, if you hate American Workers. You find that the only ones they have are white skin toned ones. Those that don't match your skin tone. Which stick out to everyone alerting them that you have a boo-boo. Are white skinned people the only ones that need bandaids, you ask yourself. Silly you think.

Then picture you as a white skinned, say caucasian. You cut your hand and need a bandaid. You go to the store only to discover that you can't figure out which bandaid to buy. You say to yourself, "There are so many to choose from. I love the selection" never having to worry that the color of the bandaid would not match your skin tone.

That is white priviledge. So subtle that you whities don't even notice it.

MAX Redline said...

Anonymouse:

"You go to the store only to discover that you can't figure out which bandaid to buy. You say to yourself, "There are so many to choose from. I love the selection" never having to worry that the color of the bandaid would not match your skin tone."

Gee, and I always buy the decorative designs. Your "argument" is pure, unadultrated b.s. on so many levels that it's hard to know where to begin.

Let's see: band-aids are designed to support whitey's dominance by matching only his skin tone so that folks won't see that he has a "boo-boo". Yeah, right. That's an idiotic premise, and you just go down from there.

Get real.

Anonymous said...

I don't feel guilty that WHITE people have accomplished more of EVERYTHING than any other race.

Other races can continue to have a chip on their shoulder or copy what the white people do.

At least WHITE people let all others have a choice, unlike minorities that prefer to only deal with same colored persons.

Isn't it amazing that Rome had indoor plumbing 2,000 years ago and Mexico, our next door neighbor, still does NOT!

Is that the fault of WHITE people or those BROWN people?

Anonymous said...

How much friggin guilt must white's have to bear! this is ridiculous. I've spent a considerable amount of time on the job working in predominantly black and hispanic communities. You want racists? Look there. They hate everyone except themselves, and it's everyone else's fault that they are in the "Predicament" they are in.

Cracker Please!

Anonymous said...

Well, if you want darker band-aids anon, it looks more like an opportunity than a problem. Start a company producing darker colored band-aids in order to serve a need. Stop bitching, and do something about it.

R Huse said...

A Band Aid – Are you kidding me? I think we can safely say with complete and absolute certainty that white privilege is a myth. If Band Aid selection is the best one can come up with to illustrate a point then there is most certainly not a problem.

As a counter example, consider this. You have been told all your life not only are you privileged but you are to blame for all the worlds troubles. You graduate from college and go looking for a job. You find endless government and private sector jobs that say either explicitly or implicitly “reserved for non whites”. You think to yourself, “wow, I wish the biggest problem facing me was Band Aid selection”. Thats the real world.

Get over it, if something is so subtle you have to go to Band Aids, maybe it isn’t even there.

R Huse said...

Oh – and PS. What’s the biggest myth about white privilege? It is that those who espouse this myth care about non-whites. They don’t. They merely go on about it so they can feel morally superior to the rest of us. Minorities? They don’t give a rats ass, that’s why they condescend to them and treat them like children. Look, bottom line is everyone has a history of being discriminated against. My family is Scotch Irish. You want to talk about discrimination? Only the blacks beat us out, and not by much. Why did we succeed? For one, we didn’t have a bunch of whiteys trying to build up their moral superiority on our backs. Can you tell this one tweaks me? OOOoooo I would so make sock and sandal morally superior vest wearing natural food eating whole grain skinny ass sensitive white liberal guys illegal if I were in charge.

Anonymous said...

You find endless government and private sector jobs that say either explicitly or implicitly “reserved for non whites”. You think to yourself, “wow, I wish the biggest problem facing me was Band Aid selection”.

You just illustrated "white priviledge with this comment. Maybe you should quite bitching and learn a skill, then you would have a job.

Anonymous said...

Speaking reason to a bunch of ingrates IS tough as well. When bigotry and racism monopolizes ones life like it does many in anti-immigrant crowd even speaking to them lowers yourself to their level.

Maybe those that claim to be Christians can learn the true meaning of being one and move past their hatred.

Anon made a good attempt at giving some examples of white privilege. The following are more examples of ways white individuals have privilege because they are white.

1. I can arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed
or harassed.
3. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my
race widely represented.
4. When I am told about our national heritage or about ìcivilization,î I am shown that people
of my color made it what it is.
5. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the
existence of their race.
6. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a
supermarket and find the food I grew up with, into a hairdresserís shop and find someone
who can deal with my hair.
7. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work
against the appearance of financial responsibility.
8. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing, or body odor will be taken as a
reflection on my race.
9. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.
10. I can take a job or enroll in a college with an affirmative action policy without having my
co-workers or peers assume I got it because of my race.
11. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.
12. I can choose public accommodation with out fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated.
13. I am never asked to speak for all of the people of my racial group.
14. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk with the "person in charge" I will be facing a
person of my race.
15. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven"t
been singled out because of my race.
16. I can easily by posters, postcards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys, and
childrenís magazines featuring people of my race.
17. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in ìfleshî color and have them more or less match
my skin.
18. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
19. I can walk into a classroom and know I will not be the only member of my race.
20. I can enroll in a class at college and be sure that the majority of my professors will be of my race.

MAX Redline said...

Mary -

You just may be an idiot if

everything that has to do with your life revolves around perceived slights.

Anonymous said...

Mary S
you are what can only be called stupid

Anonymous said...

Excuse me ... when did the appearance of having a booboo constitute a disparagement of a person's race??? It's a freakin' owie, for pity's sake. I personally like colorful ones because they're more "fun" if you have to deal with an ouchie! If someone happens to notice it and offers me a little sympathy and a "how did you get it?", heck, I might get a little interesting conversation ... even from a stranger ... even of another race or economic level. It had just better be English, 'cause my Spanish is awfully rusty.

I don't freaking *CARE* about your skin color or your background anymore than you should care about mine.

If you have to look at my "melanin-impoverished" person and think bad thoughts about me just 'cause I'm "beige" ... that makes *you* a racist, too. My mother taught me better than that!

I don't give a rat's ass if your skin color is black, white, purple, pink, plaid or polka dot. If you bleed red, you're human, and that's good enough for me. If you bleed red and are a bitch, you're a bitch no matter what color your skin is. If you bleed red and you're a bastard, your skin color "ain't gonna make no difference"...

You don't have to be white to be a racist! Grow up whiny-assed liberals and stop looking for slights in every little human interaction so you can feel morally superior to the rest of the "unenlightened". I don't think you're that "enlightened" ... I think you're awfully DIM!!!

Anonymous said...

They don't make Band-Aids pale enough for Michael Jackson.

I prefer the ones with Bob the Builder on them, or maybe dinosaurs.

Bryan said...

Racism still exists in society, and government promotes racism. Conspiracy theory? Then answer me this:

Why does government refuse to provide funding to schools in historicly black and impovershed neighborhoods (such as Compton) which are in dire need of funding, but allow gun and liquor stores to be more prominent in their residential areas than corner marts?

I guarantee you, if whites were treated the same way by government, they would be in the same situation.

Anonymous said...

bryan saxton

"allow gun and liquor stores to be more prominent in their residential areas than corner marts?"

Gun and liquor stores are owned and operated by private enterprise, not the government. The government doesn't "allow" these businesses to be more prominent in these areas. These businesses are established and operate under the same market forces as any other business based upon demand for a product.


Mary S.

you're nuts.

And anonymous talking about band- aids, you're nuts too.

Bobkatt said...

Bryan, racism will always exist. Institutional racism may exist but your example is pathetic. First, the government does fund public schools everywhere. If schools in Compton are lacking it's because the residents don't want to pay more for schools. 90% of their funding comes from local taxes. The argument about the liquor stores and gun shops has already been established. Perhaps the residents would rather spend their money on guns and booze. It's still a free country, for now.
"I guarantee you, if whites were treated the same way by government, they would be in the same situation."
Whites are treated the same way. What no whites live in the Compton area? It has to do with income level, not skin color. I know that you are not going to agree, but, a lot of the funding problem in all aspects of government has to do with the burden of illegal aliens. According to the CUSD, the average expenditure per student is almost $8000. How many illegal aliens pay anywhere near that in taxes for even one child. And of course by law they can't refuse education even if the child is illegal.

Anonymous said...

White privilege still exists to some extent, although it it not nearly as blatant or pervasive as it once was in the past.

As a poor white person, I can say white skin has helped me live in better places than if I were black.

But today, in general, privilege is driven more by class than by color. There has been discussion lately about racial profiling in traffic stops. But maybe that is more about class than about race? What were these people driving when they were stopped? I know someone who did some maintenance work for a former employer - he said he used to get stopped on the road in his clunker, but after his grandmother stopped driving and gave him her nicer car, he didn't get stopped any more.

Anonymous said...

Bobkatt is correct in noting that school funding TODAY is driven by income. (There is also a (smaller) correlation with race because of the correlation between income and race.)

However, it is a common fallacy to suggest schools are underfunded because a community is unwilling to tax itself. In reality, poor school districts often exert much greater "tax effort" in terms of tax RATES than more affluent communities. For example, a wealthy community with a high tax base might have a tax rate of X, while a poor community with a much smaller tax base might have a tax rate of 2X or 3X - and the poor community is perceived as unwilling to tax itself even though it taxes itself up the wazoo to an extent the rest of us would find intolerable.

Anonymous said...

Mary S. you're feeling guilty to the point of keeping racism alive and well. You obviously need to continually point out the color of ones skin, to keep your guilt alive. Get over your guilt, get some therapy. If you have this much guilt and life isn't worth living, the State of Oregon offers help...geez

R Huse said...

Oh, ok, I see. This isn’t about white privilege; it’s about lack of education. What seems to be happening here is a misunderstanding of the word privilege.

To take some of Mary S’s examples – Asking for the boss and seeing a white guy, postcards etc being readily available with white images, etc.

Honey – That’s not white privilege, that’s white majority. It is because for the most part this country is composed of white people; therefore you would of course expect to see them more frequently. You would also expect markets to cater to them more.

Are you telling me that if I were in China, and I asked to see the boss and a Chinese guy pops out, that’s yellow privilege?

Come on; get your morally superior fix off of someone else.

Bryan said...

Ok, maybe some of you don't see the significance of gun and liquor stores in a residential area. In order to place one of these stores in a residential neighborhood, the store must have a licence that is issued by the federal government.

If we got these stores off the street, I beleive street violence would drop. However, I beleive that having our government put money into education (say, take 60 billion out of defense, leaving us with a HUGE budget of 400 billion in defense, and putting it into education) after a little bit of time, will result in a drop in the rate of violent crimes among these neighborhoods. Also, the people you are saying should put more of their money into education are already being taxed to the point where they can barely make ends meet.

Anonymous said...

I use Batman Band-Aids.

Thanks for being tolerant of me. Way to be diverse!

You told me to stop feeling sorry for myself? Sounds like you have some advice for yourself.

I get treated badly for other reasons. People assume I must be some horrible bigot or racist because I am white and have a shaved head...you try combing over your limited amount of hair and you'll shave your head too.

R Huse said...

Bryan Saxton

Do you think these problems would be helped by a 40% increase in education spending?

Good news is here then. Because thats how much education spending has risen, in constant dollars, since 1981! Here is the link:

http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/54/16/5416.pdf

Now, can we have the next solution please? Or should we just go back to blaming whitey?

Anonymous said...

the federal government has NOTHING to do with the location of gun and liquor stores. business permits and zoning are usually handled at the county level.

in Oregon, all liquor sales are handled by the OLCC, which is appointed by the Governor, who has been a democrat for over 20 years. so blame Ted Kulongoski.

and while the federal government issues FFL's to gun shop owners, they are given to individuals, not to locations.

oh, and if anything, gun laws only hurt minorities because the cost of gun ownership, driven by government regulations, is so high that legal firearm purchases are disproportionately made by affluent white people. thus, it is harder for a poor ghetto person to lawfully protect himself and his family.

tard.

Anonymous said...

Deep down most of you must feel guilt over your white privilege or you wouldn't be calling Anon, Mary S and others names over it. Just because you deny it doesn't make it go away. It is around every corner ready to jump up to bit you when you least expect it.

Anonymous said...

No "White Guilt" for me. In fact I am fed up with people trying to make me feel guilty for being "white"!

So, not being a "person of color" I'm supposed to feel guilty? Fuck you.

You don't have to be a "white" man to be racist.

"La Raza" of course is the exception. Oh, and the New Black Panthers. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push also comes to mind. No racism there.

Yep, the only people needing to feel guilty are those born "white".
[You mean I'm the same color as this page?!]

I don't worry though, before long "whites" will be in the minority. Then we get our turn to whine and whimper how the [insert color] man is keeping us down!

White Privilege my honky ass!

Anonymous said...

I fully understand that only minorities are discriminated against, and that whites get all the "privileges". That would explain why, when my husband and two other men were being cheated on their wages, they had to sue the employer privately. You see, BOLI would do absolutely *nothing* to help them. They were too busy helping a bunch of nurses who weren't getting paid because a hospital in Cottage Grove closed. I understand that .. estrogen trumps testosterone in our country. And after BOLI helped solve that crisis, my husband and his co-workers still couldn't get any help because BOLI was helping a bunch of illegal immigrant Christmas tree salesmen/delivery men collect on wages because *they* were being cheated. I guess BOLI understood "white privilege", too and figured that these three men had enough money in reserves to handle the expense of a lawyer. It didn't matter to them that, before the job with the cheating employer, my husband had been out of work for 18 months and we had children to feed. You see, he's a *white* male ... of *course* he had all the money he needed. After all, I had a job ... no matter that I'd had to take a 35% cut in pay to get it.

No, we didn't need BOLI's help. We paid for it with our taxes, but they decided we didn't need it.

Oh, and BTW ... one of the other guys was hispanic, and the other was of native American descent.

Anonymous said...

Anon1236:

I don't know how liquor licenses are allocated in Oregon, but in Michigan they are allocated on the basis of population. So city X might be given N liquor licenses based on population.

Local governments typically held back a small handful of liquor licenses in order to exert some degree of control over where licensees operated and who could get one.

For example, there was a college town where the bars were concentrated in a small area near the campus. So while there were a couple unissued liquor licenses available, the town would not allow any additional liquor licenses in the student area. Note that in the case of population decline, unissued liquor licenses can disappear entirely, if the local allocation is reduced.

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