'Mansplaining'
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B.B. Hemingway
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B.B. Hemingway
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"Owing the word", and "taking away it's power" have always seemed like bogus excuses to me. If the word carries so much pain within your race why would you want to call each other that? It's okay to call it hypocritical.....
The world would like us to believe we can't be critical of the formerly marginalized, but we can. It's okay.
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teachercd
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Kiyoat Husker
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Sure, as long as you do it in a non-ignorant way.
White people in South Dakota tend to shake our heads at the Indians plight, explaining to each other that "all they need to do is stop drinking so much and get jobs!" Easy as that. It tends to minimize all the terrible things that have been done to them as a people that has led to their current predicament.
It glosses over the long history of wrongs that has taken away their language, culture, way of life and identity. It also ignores the fact that their metabolisms are very different than europeans, making them extremely prone to obesity, diabetes and alcoholism. Being an alcoholic makes it hard to stop drinking. Growing up amongst poverty, crime, drugs and abuse makes it difficult (not impossible) to "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" and succeed in life.
But none of that stops us from making easy assumptions and judgements based on our few observations of them.
B.B. Hemingway
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The government has attempted to make it right with them (as right as they can anyways). There are a lot of Indians in my area (Missouri, real close to the Oklahoma border), and they get free healthcare, free housing and monthly checks from the government (size of checks depending on percentage of Native-American in your blood). That's a pretty damn good attempt at making things right, in my opinion.
You know, there are white communities that struggle with poverty, and drug abuse as well. However, there's not much sympathy there, from the sympathizing types. They're expected take their white privilege, and turn it into a decent life (It's so easy!)
Now, I don't sympathize much with the aboved mentioned white people, and I don't sympathize much with the minorities. Not everyone faces the same kinds of struggles, but I am a believer that you are a product of your own decisions. People mock the "bootstrap" cliche, and while it is overused, there is some truth in it.
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Kiyoat Husker
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I thought N@@@er Knocking was just word-play from the original Knicker Knocking. Turns out i was wrong:
http://www.academia.edu/17138480/Ding_Dong_Ditch_and_the_History_of_Nigger_Knocking
my cut and paste didn't work from this site: here's a summary:
- during slavery, overseers were sometimes called "Paddy Row Knockers" and beat errant slaves that were caught out-of-bounds during work.
- "Nigga' Knocking" was an activity that used a similar title. It was when the "White night riders" (later called the KKK) would ride through the black part of town at night, going door-to-door. Whoever answered the door would be attacked and sometimes lynched.
- Many black families moved north with memories of being terrorized in this way.
- Somehow this led to Black children and teenagers terrorizing their neighbors on Halloween by knocking on doors and pranking those that answered with eggs, hitting them with socks filled with chalk, etc.
- This is basically a case of the victim becoming the victimizer. (over generations)
this author goes into a lot of detail on what he and his friends used to do that they called "N!gga knocking"
teachercd
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Yeah, when she said it, to me and the class, I just said "Yeah...there are probably better names for that game"
I also didn't know the entire history of it, crazy!
Kiyoat Husker
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I strongly disagree. My point was not about "making things right" anyway. It was about discrimination. That is more about me than about them. Trying to understand their history and culture, rather than dismissing them out-of-hand is what I am talking about.
I believe that is what you would call a "straw-man" argument? I never said whites were excluded from "marginalized groups" "poor people" would certainly qualify as a marginalized and stereotyped group. I certainly have empathy for them, for many of the same reasons. Growing up in poverty puts you behind the 8-ball in life. You have few of the tools needed to succeed, and deserve support. As a conservative this is maybe a hypocritical example? I don't want to make that assumption about you, though.
Yes, there is some truth in it. personal responsibility is definitely important. Most people that use the "bootstrap" cliche have very little understanding of why people become poor, stay poor, or what the effective ways to help them are. They are content to criticize them and cite some version of "social darwinism".
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B.B. Hemingway
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What was hypocritical about my statement?
teachercd
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There are professors from other countries (probably some here too) that list the colonists vs natives as the longest running war in history. I thought that was interesting.
Mierin
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It's a man assuming a woman is ignorant based solely on the fact that she's a woman, and then explaining the topic to her condescendingly.
The condescending one is the man, so the man's doing the bad thing.
People who use the term "mansplain" any time a guy opens his mouth are also doing the bad thing.
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