So now I'm a racist

Submitted by Prometheus 6 on May 9, 2004 - 6:29am.
on

At least Joe Taylor seems to think so.

Oh, well…

Blunted at Blunted on Reality actually responded as well as I could, and Tomato Observer gets blogrolled immediately, but here are my specific responses:

Actually blunted, this is an old, old gripe that has no basis.

Joe, read my site. Find something you consider racist other than my partisanship for Black issues. In fact, read Where we stand, published right here on OSP.

I wonder if you consider women's rights activists to be sexist. Is Abe Foxman racist? How about all the people that march in St. Patricks Day or Columbus Day parades?

I'm curious too why you think masking my being Black is a good idea. Do you mask being white? Can you? Being Black, the culture, the experiences, is part of my identity and I will mask it no more than I will mask my American-ness: an equally conceptual, socially constructed affair. If you can speak of American interests…America being as diverse as the Black communities…you can speak of Black interests.

I'll cross-post this thread at P6.

and

Just occurred to me:

Anyway, Earl Dunovant is black. He's not black like some people I know, who simply have a black skin; Earl is a self-professed "black partisan" who has a strong black identity. He quotes Malcolm X: "Who taught you, please, who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin, to such extent that you bleach, to get like the white man? ... Who taught you to hate your own kind? Who taught you to hate, the race that you belong to?"

Now, Malcolm X is an interesting figure. Reverse everything he says - i.e. replace white with black, etc. - and you get something that David Duke et al would say. What I quote above is pure, unadulterated racism;

Let's try that reversal you suggest:

Who taught you, please, who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the color of your skin, to such extent that you bleach, to get like the Black man? ... Who taught you to hate your own kind? Who taught you to hate, the race that you belong to?

Doesn't parse. Because no one taught white people to hate themselves. That's that the whole "replace Black with white" this is just so much bullshit. It makes as little sense as grabbing Gloria Steinam's stuff and replacing every instance of "men" with "women."

Finally—seriously finally—you really should have linked to the post you're complaining about so people could see I was linking to Ampersand at Alas, a Blog talking about womens issues.

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Submitted by ej (not verified) on May 9, 2004 - 7:45am.

I wonder if he would have sat down and read what he had written, if he would have realized just how asinine (I won't use the word stupid, because then it's almost as if I'm dipping to the same level he is) what had written was.

Submitted by P6 (not verified) on May 9, 2004 - 8:08am.

No, he wouldn't. You see, I've come to realize the major effect the civil rights movement has had on mainstream America…the mainstream has become afflicted with the same dual soul problem Black folks have, the one DuBois described so well…but from a different perspective. While Black folks feel forced to prove we are worthy to outside eyes, mainstream folks feel forced to prove they aren't unworthy.

Back in September I posted an old essay of mine

Mathematics is often presented as a way to train the mind to think rationally. It exists, though, because it's useful; you can solve practical problems with it. But there's a class of equations that are unsolvable by the techniques you learn up through high school, equations like 8 - 4x2 = 0, where you need the square root of a negative number. Engineers needed to solve such problems, so it was resolved that a number, the square root of -1, existed, and calculations were carried on as per usual from that point. In other words, a rule was created to allow the problems to be solved. This is one of two general methods for proceeding past an intellectual deadlock:
- reexamine the rule that caused the event that generated the deadlock
- create a new rule that accepts the deadlock as a genuine event, essentially legitimizing it

In this case I wish I had written "acknowledging" rather than "legitimizing," but hey… Anyway, Joe is trying the first method to resolve the cognitive dissonance caused by the Dual Soul Syndrome. Sadly for him and everyone who tries to take this tack, denial will no more work for white folks than it did for Black folks.

Submitted by In Search of Utopia (not verified) on May 9, 2004 - 9:24am.

Trackback from In Search of Utopia:

And I am about to piss some people off. Ask me if I care!
I have been reading Prometheus6 for some time now. I jokingly refer to him as my "Yoda"
But the truth is that I simply find P6 to be the kind of intelligent Black Man who I look up to and ad......

Submitted by mark safranski (not verified) on May 9, 2004 - 7:27pm.

If Earl's a racist then I'm a communist.

Submitted by P6 (not verified) on May 9, 2004 - 8:20pm.

Now there's an endorsement!

Submitted by blunted on reality (not verified) on May 10, 2004 - 6:22am.

Trackback from blunted on reality:

Joe Taylor over at Open Source Politics posted something yesterday that really got my goat, and effectively called Earl over at Prometheus 6 a racist. Anyway, Earl Dunovant is black. He's not black like some people I know, who simply have a black skin;......

Submitted by r@d@r (not verified) on May 10, 2004 - 10:35am.

the "malcolm x = david duke" line is so damn ancient. i have read x's writings and listened to his lectures quite thoroughly, and i have also [much to my pain and discomfort] had to listen to a speech by duke on pearl street mall in boulder, colorado. so i think i possess enough authority to say that joe is, to put it succinctly, full of shit. the essential distillate of malcolm x's message, in my estimation, is one of african-american self-determination, whether it be economic, political or psychological; the essential distillation of david duke's message is "white people are the only people entitled to reap the benefits of the american dream." i don't think you can get any further divergent than that.

maybe if somebody sat joe down in front of his TV with a copy of spike's "X" and a bag of popcorn, and forced him to watch it all the way to the end, he might receive some important information he otherwise seems to have missed. i have to think the guy just doesn't like to read, so maybe visual instruction would help.

Submitted by blunted on reality (not verified) on May 11, 2004 - 8:34am.

Trackback from blunted on reality:

Yesterday, I discussed Joe Taylor's personal boycott of cultural pride. Joe had something to say that I'd like to expound upon: Race, unfortunately, is not something that can be ignored by masking, like sexual orientation; the minute a person walks int......

Submitted by white girl (not verified) on May 11, 2004 - 2:18pm.

Dear P6,
I found your website in error. But I couldn't help but notice the heading "so now I'm a racist."
If I may, please be advised that not all white people hate black people. I, myself like them. I believe that a man should never be judged by the color of his skin. Remember too, that black people were not the only one that needed civil liberty. There were many "endentured servants" that were white, the irish for examle. Additionlly, women had to fight for their rights also in this country. White women included. One other thing that I learned along the way was that white men did not origionally sell black men into slavery. The africans sold their own people to the white man first and then they were sold by the white man. Please consider these things before you call yourself a racist. That is a heavy burden to carry

Submitted by P6 (not verified) on May 11, 2004 - 2:28pm.

Please consider these things before you call yourself a racist. That is a heavy burden to carry

The title was satirical.

Submitted by startle the echoes (not verified) on May 11, 2004 - 8:54pm.

Trackback from startle the echoes:

I can't take it. Can't listen to one more ignorant white man tell me what it is or what it should be to be black in this country. It goes past nerve, gall, arrogance, It flies by common sense, (proving......

Submitted by Mama (not verified) on May 12, 2004 - 12:53pm.

Well, in less than 50 years, whites are going to be the minority...my daughter is bi-racial and is majoring in theatre...I made sure she didn't go to an all-white party school and even now am glad they hired a black president for the school.
She was told this week that she will be in demand because you really can't tell what nationality she is...she could be from Italian, Black, Mexican/many others and the fact her father is from India...so it's only a matter of time before we are all blended like Brazil where the most beautiful women in the world live...only a matter of time...and once we are all one color in this country, perhaps racism will completely disappear!

Submitted by Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs (not verified) on May 16, 2004 - 11:18am.

Trackback from Al-Muhajabah's Islamic Blogs:

I'm really slow getting on this, but I just wanted to point people on over to Prometheus 6. Brother P6......