Omphfullas Zamboni
02-07-2014, 03:29 AM
Hi guys,
Recently, I discovered a lecture on YouTube from 2008 called The Pathology of Privilege. I thought it would be of interest to people seeking to learn why racism is still relevant in the United States, today. One thing I learned that I did not know before watching the video is that people of color were more skeptical of the Iraq War than whites. Says Tim Wise:
When 9/11 happened, notice the different ways that white folks and folks of color by the large reacted. Everybody was scared, everybody was angry, everybody was upset, everybody was freaking out. But now there were only some folks who went in front of the microphones, and said the following, and they were all white that I saw:
Why do they hate us? Why? Why would anyone hate the United States of America? I don’t get it. See, people of color, they didn’t say this. It’s not because folks of color hate this country, but because folks of color have historically a love/hate relationship with this society. Loving certain things about it, hating other things about it. But here’s the more important point: To be a person of color in this country is to always have to know what the other guy thinks. It is to always have to know what other people think about you. Because if you don’t, if you for one minute forget what other people might think about you, your life is in danger. But to be the dominant group is to have that luxury, or to think you do, of having to care what other people think. Because you’re the big dog. You’re the top. You’re the king of the hill. You don’t have to worry about what other people think. That’s privilege. You don’t have to know. You can just sort of laugh it off. Or at least we thought we could. We thought that we could have that attitude that says, “Well, what are you going to do about it? We’re big and bad. We spend 400 billion dollars a year on defense, fool. If you come for us, we will bomb you back to the Stone Age. And if you’re already there, we’ll take you back to whatever the hell came before the Stone Age. Because we can.”
And then 19 guys with thirty seven dollars worth of box cutters, a thousand dollars worth of plane tickets, and a pissy attitude, pretty much said, “Ok, I’ll tell you what. You spend your 400 billion dollars a year on defense. And here’s the deal. Me and my boys are bringing these buildings down anyway. How do you like us now?” So privilege didn’t allow us to see that the rest of the world doesn’t view us the way we view us. Maybe we’d have been better off knowing that. Maybe we would have been better off for decades knowing that the rest of the world doesn’t view us under the same liberatory terms that we sometimes view ourselves. Now people of color in this country already knew better, because when they asked white folks and black folks before the invasion of Iraq, good idea? Bad idea? The folks without privilege, said, “uh uh.” Black folks were just like overwhelming, “nooooo.” They asked white America said, “hell yes, we must do this! They are going to greet us like liberators!”
See, that’s privilege speaking. Privilege says, surely they know we’re liberated, surely they know.
The lecture, (posted below), is less than an hour long. For those uninterested in investing so much time, a PDF transcript is available (https://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/137/transcript_137.pdf). At seventeen pages, it is an easy read.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN8pmhQwcnY
Tim Wise on White Privilege
Racism, White Denial & the Costs of Inequality
For years, acclaimed author and speaker Tim Wise has been electrifying college campuses with his impassioned and deeply personal take on whiteness and white privilege. In this spellbinding lecture, the author of the bestselling White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son offers a powerful inside-out look at race and racism in America, surveying the damage white privilege has done not only to people of color, but to white people themselves. The result is a vivid and accessible introduction to the social construction of racial identities, and a critical new educational tool for exploring the often invoked, but seldom explained, concept of white privilege.
Tim Wise
Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the US. He has spoken to people in all 50 states and on more than 800 college and high school campuses. Wise has provided anti-racism training to teachers, physicians, medical industry professionals, and law enforcement officials on methods for dismantling racism in their institutions. Wise served as adjunct faculty member of the School of Social Work at Smith College, where he taught a Master's level class on Racism in the US.
Recently, I discovered a lecture on YouTube from 2008 called The Pathology of Privilege. I thought it would be of interest to people seeking to learn why racism is still relevant in the United States, today. One thing I learned that I did not know before watching the video is that people of color were more skeptical of the Iraq War than whites. Says Tim Wise:
When 9/11 happened, notice the different ways that white folks and folks of color by the large reacted. Everybody was scared, everybody was angry, everybody was upset, everybody was freaking out. But now there were only some folks who went in front of the microphones, and said the following, and they were all white that I saw:
Why do they hate us? Why? Why would anyone hate the United States of America? I don’t get it. See, people of color, they didn’t say this. It’s not because folks of color hate this country, but because folks of color have historically a love/hate relationship with this society. Loving certain things about it, hating other things about it. But here’s the more important point: To be a person of color in this country is to always have to know what the other guy thinks. It is to always have to know what other people think about you. Because if you don’t, if you for one minute forget what other people might think about you, your life is in danger. But to be the dominant group is to have that luxury, or to think you do, of having to care what other people think. Because you’re the big dog. You’re the top. You’re the king of the hill. You don’t have to worry about what other people think. That’s privilege. You don’t have to know. You can just sort of laugh it off. Or at least we thought we could. We thought that we could have that attitude that says, “Well, what are you going to do about it? We’re big and bad. We spend 400 billion dollars a year on defense, fool. If you come for us, we will bomb you back to the Stone Age. And if you’re already there, we’ll take you back to whatever the hell came before the Stone Age. Because we can.”
And then 19 guys with thirty seven dollars worth of box cutters, a thousand dollars worth of plane tickets, and a pissy attitude, pretty much said, “Ok, I’ll tell you what. You spend your 400 billion dollars a year on defense. And here’s the deal. Me and my boys are bringing these buildings down anyway. How do you like us now?” So privilege didn’t allow us to see that the rest of the world doesn’t view us the way we view us. Maybe we’d have been better off knowing that. Maybe we would have been better off for decades knowing that the rest of the world doesn’t view us under the same liberatory terms that we sometimes view ourselves. Now people of color in this country already knew better, because when they asked white folks and black folks before the invasion of Iraq, good idea? Bad idea? The folks without privilege, said, “uh uh.” Black folks were just like overwhelming, “nooooo.” They asked white America said, “hell yes, we must do this! They are going to greet us like liberators!”
See, that’s privilege speaking. Privilege says, surely they know we’re liberated, surely they know.
The lecture, (posted below), is less than an hour long. For those uninterested in investing so much time, a PDF transcript is available (https://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/137/transcript_137.pdf). At seventeen pages, it is an easy read.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN8pmhQwcnY
Tim Wise on White Privilege
Racism, White Denial & the Costs of Inequality
For years, acclaimed author and speaker Tim Wise has been electrifying college campuses with his impassioned and deeply personal take on whiteness and white privilege. In this spellbinding lecture, the author of the bestselling White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son offers a powerful inside-out look at race and racism in America, surveying the damage white privilege has done not only to people of color, but to white people themselves. The result is a vivid and accessible introduction to the social construction of racial identities, and a critical new educational tool for exploring the often invoked, but seldom explained, concept of white privilege.
Tim Wise
Tim Wise is among the most prominent anti-racist writers and activists in the US. He has spoken to people in all 50 states and on more than 800 college and high school campuses. Wise has provided anti-racism training to teachers, physicians, medical industry professionals, and law enforcement officials on methods for dismantling racism in their institutions. Wise served as adjunct faculty member of the School of Social Work at Smith College, where he taught a Master's level class on Racism in the US.