February 12, 2005

One-Point Plan for Racial Goodwill

The Sailer One-Point Plan for Racial Goodwill: Readers respond:

There's a kind of White liberal archetype. Like the ultra liberal Vermont/Oregon/Madison, Wisconsin National Public Radio types who are over the top "liberals" on racial issues yet live in the most white bread areas on planet earth.

For them blacks exist mainly as a touchstone to determine their own moral correctness vis-à-vis other White people. It's a variation on the movie theme of the Magical Negro who arrives to sprinkle the pixie dust of joy/wisdom and salvation on depressed/confused or conscience ridden White people.

You're never going to get through to these kinds of White people when discussing racial issues.

Their racially narcissistic ego can't give up on viewing the world as being made up of 3 basic types of people:

1. Bad Whitey = Republicans, right wingers, racists, sexists, homophobes, social Darwinists, Christians, NASCAR lovers, et al.

2. Good Whitey = Democrats, liberals, feminists, gays, "antiracists", et al.

3. Good "People of Color" (unless they're Republicans or cops).

That's it. So once the issue is RACE the issue becomes which category does the speaker/writer/agent fall into.

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Your one-step plan to end racism only works for middle-class kids. What about all the working-class white kids who already attend public schools with lots of blacks. Presumably they get into fights lots of times. Do they turn out to be any more racist than their middle-class counterparts in private and parochial schools? Or even better, than their working-class counterparts in rural white areas? Surely there are studies on this?

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