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(edited for intemporate language)
[ 06 May 2008: Message edited by: Makwa ]
PS: I had to rack my coffee starved brains for when I picked up the term 'white folks', and it seems to me that I picked it up from one of my favourite anti-racist writers, inga muscio (ingalagringa.com) in her "Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society." As inga is a self-described white woman, it seemed that she was using the term with affection, so it seemed cuddly to me. In the future I shall endeavor to avoid any appelation towards the dominant society which is the least bit affectionate.
[ 06 May 2008: Message edited by: Makwa ]
And why don't we do it in an anti-racism forum thread! Brilliant!
Since playing a role in starting this board in 2001, I have referred to white folks more than a few times. It is generally how I refer to whites as a group.
Funny, I don't recall my language being picked apart to such a degree by any of you now peeling the layers off Makwa.
Oh, hey, and the whole you-aren't-behaving-nicely is also a really, really nice touch!
I think Makwa knows there are rules. They've been on his neck since birth.
Hello, fellow white people of good nature! Wakey, wakey!
Hey, I'm white, and if you aren't nice to me, I will feel justified in dominating not just conversation, but the whole planet!
Yay!
You gave me an answer, unionist gave me an answer, Lagatta gave me an answer and Ken gave me an answer. There doesn't seem agreement on the issue, although Cue's answer seems to be the most reasonable.
Makwa, you don't need to be more optimistic or take anything back. One thing I know is for us to honour where we're at, and the truth of it, and why.
Oh, and if my thinking/beliefs/actions about working with allies IRL was based on what's overwhelmingly posted on babble I don't think I'd ever get out of bed.
writer: goddamn it, you rock! [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
remind: many women, yourself and me included, say stuff like "men are taught to be violent" and "men know that violence against women isn't taken seriously" and stuff like that. This is not only condoned in the FF, it's taken for granted that we don't mean ALL men (we don't), but are speaking of a system that benefits men over women as well as benefiting certain individual men. Can you see the practice of identifying white people, or white folks as the same type of thing?
Personally I'm not offended. I do find it odd that you see fit to make generalisations about Europeans, "white folks", etc., but would likely be pissed right off if I started painting "red folks", "black folks" or any other folks with such broad strokes.
It's not a matter of taking offense but why you're adopting the same narratives about race that you're claiming to be against. The notion of a "European" family, for example, is based in a period of anthropology, linguistics and history that spawned the White Supremacism you despise so.
The project of uniting the White European family under one roof, ideologically and politically, has taken on a number of different guises, some of them not so savoury. Why you would choose to use such language is beyond me, especially when the power relationships defined by that language will continually leave you on the losing end.
White people are well practiced at their condescending generalisations about "coloured people" and with power relationships the way they are, there is no way you can gain any meaningful ground on that playing field.
Figuring that you can get into the club without first making an ally out of the bouncer flies in the face of most of history's great struggles against oppression. The Civil Rights movement, The Holocaust, the Apartheid regime; none of these would've come to an end without a few "white allies" helping out those who were taking their shit kicking.
Burn all the bridges you want, but don't be surprised when you're standing on an island, alone, shouting at a windmill...
(clarification)...I was referring to Makwa's post, and not Zeebub's who cross posted with me.
[ 06 May 2008: Message edited by: oldgoat ]