I took wifey and a friend of hers to the Oregon Literary Arts presentation for an evening with poet Claudia Rankine. http://claudiarankine.com/ $80 each.
Her talk came in 4 sections.
The first was that we still live in a white dominated society and she used some interesting examples of how whites are still what stirs the drink. Things like whites still in most of the commercials, white men still make all the money (and are 100% republican is they make over $100K per year), white still have all the opportunity…
The second was a fascinating historical view of white privilege. One, of several, example was when we had film for cameras how it was designed for white people chemically as predominantly whites used it commercially. It was only changes a few years before digital cameras due to complaints from companies that the current film makeup couldn’t tell milk from dark chocolate and the same with commercial wood marketing.
Her third section was to state emphatically how republicans were entirely evil, are all white supremacists, and were against every decent sort of humanity. They want women to die in illegal abortions, want all blacks to be subservient, want no free healthcare for any person, want to deport 100% of all non Americans… She stated that children of mixed parents are ashamed of the black parent and love the white parent more, yet couldn’t bring themselves to establish a relationship with them as they are white.
Her final part was that during the Obama administration more white males committed suicide than in any prior Presidential administration and this was due to an inability to live with a black as President. She hoped the trend would continue.
As Portland is politically left 8-1, she received rousing support.
So far as a debate is concerned, I found her historical perspective of white supremacy interesting and most likely true. But does it still exist? Are all commercial, political and personal decisions made on a notion of white supremacy? Are all blacks still seen as subhuman (she supported that view)? Is there no hope or justice for blacks still?
I think her viewpoint contains some truth but it is also a distortion and taken to extremes. She is clearly, herself, racially prejudiced (no group is 100% anything, and celebrating suicide is just sick.)
Does white privilege still exist? Yes, it does, in hundreds of subtle ways. But things have improved for non-white people in this country and society and show every indication that they will continue to improve.
Having read her New York Times essay from September of last year and an earlier interview with her, I’m struggling with the idea that she used the broad brush in her speech that you’re describing in the OP. Much of what you claim she said is easily proven false, and such sweeping statements would serve very little purpose for her, I would think.
Do you think there’s a transcript of this presentation available?
I think people will forever [in general] have racial tendencies. But to me it’s equality. Non whites have every bit the same chance to excel as whites. Education, jobs… Heck, I can make a case they have more opportunity.
While I normally differ with our esteemed colleague from the Riding of Clotha-on-Humpery, I also must question if this was an optimal use of eighty bones.
Not sure. Perhaps on the Literary Arts website. But I have to say I was shocked as some of her stuff was just garbage. To be fair, some was fascinating and I took it to heart. Also, afterwards she admitted that she has had a good run in her life (widely published, Yale professor, writes plays, makes good money…) but she seems to see racism in every faucet of life. I might also add she is married to a white guy, which made her speech all the more odd.
So make that case – if they have more opportunity, why are so many industry and political leadership positions dominated statistically by white men?
Also, are you a white man? If so, do you believe that you can have a realistic understanding of the perspective and experience of millions of people with entirely different experiences from yourself purely from your own experiences?
…What? I am pretty sure people like Mark Zuckerberg, Al Gore, Tom Hanks, Al Franken, Michael Moore, John Kerry, all the Kennedy men, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean all make well over $100k a year and are NOT all Republicans; ditto for millions of other rich white men in America.
My understanding is that in the highest echelons of Fortune 500 companies non whites are still not making headway, but non whites have 100% equal opportunity in education and trade work, starting businesses… I can make a case that non whites and women now have a better chance of obtaining jobs. We see more non white males in politics, government jobs…
I have been turned down flat for 2 jobs and was told straight up it is because I’m a white male. So I think non white males have excellent opportunity now. It’s just a matter of taking advantage of it.
One of the problems with making social progress towards addressing social ills is that, as progress is made, it ceases to be completely accurate that the inequality is so omnipresent. But it’s hard to drum up outrage and righteous conviction on behalf of a diluted description that acknowledges that progress.
We don’t have slavery any more. The end of the institution of slavery did not fix the problems altogether. We’re quite aware of that, having grown up long after the demise of slavery and with the civil rights movement probably prominent in the formation of our own political attitudes and sensibilities. Yet more progress has been made: it’s not the era of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” and Bull Connor and Lester Maddox and George Wallace. But yeah, the problem still exists, just ask #BlackLivesMatter. Watch the videos on YouTube. Are “all commercial, political and personal decisions made on a notion of white supremacy”? That’s probably too absolute. I’d discard most expressions with “all” in them as hyperbolic. Likewise “no”, as in “no hope or justice”.