Race: why do black people feel that white people want to ‘keep them down’ ?
I often hear black people say, usually with a lighthearted smile, that the ‘white man is keeping the black man down’.
To me this is interesting because:
- I, personally, have never met a white person who has expressed a desire to keep black people down;
- and even if a white person did want to keep black people down, it is highly unlikely that they are actually in an authoritative position to do so anyway ( after all, probably 99% of white people are simply workers themselves );
- and what exactly would a white person gain? Is it not true that for any position that is denied to a black person there will inevitably be someone else trying to acquire that same position?
I make this point not to be inflammatory, but because I just think that it is an interesting point. Of course now with Obama being elected ( which includes my vote ), hopefully this point is outdated.
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Black people believe that white people want to keep them down because, for so long, it was true.
That was a long time ago, though. Here’s the rub: there are a bunch of black “leaders” such as Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan, who earn their livings by keeping their flocks solidly inside their own corral. To do this, they preach about how “the man” won’t let the blacks succeed. Since the blacks believe the preaching, they don’t try to succeed. Since they don’t try, they fail. Self-fulfilling prophecy.
I don’t like Obama the least little bit, but he does seem to be even-handed about the victimhood agenda. He wants it for everybody, regardless of race, color, or creed.
beachglow said this on March 7, 2009 at 6:51 pm
The reason black people say or feel that is because it is true. Oppression is systemic and does not need individual acts of meanness to thrive. It exists in institutionalized norms and standards, of which we are not often conscious. Individual white people don’t have to be oppressive because the systems are. White people might not actively, individually, keep black people down; it is not unintentional, and for the most part, white people remain oblivious to it because they don’t have to think about it.
Here is a link to a good article about white privilege from one woman’s perspective. http://www.case.edu/president/aaction/UnpackingTheKnapsack.pdf
Unfortunately, Obama is not the cure. He is one man who represents a step in the direction towards equity. Until the systems and norms evolve, black people (and other races) will be oppressed, as will women, homosexuals, people with disabilities, people living in poverty, etc.
Carm said this on March 10, 2009 at 11:45 pm