This...
...Is an excellent piece on racism, esp. the casual racism amongst white liberal types.The writer makes some really good points--bounce-up-and-down-pointing-at-the-screen-and-going-YES-THIS! points--and makes them in accessible, relatively jargon-free language, yet. (Wow, who knew it was possible to write about racism and social justice from a
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Comments 14
I've noticed before that Americans tend to talk about race and class as synonymous - or, I mean, that when they say 'black' and 'white' (or 'of colour' and 'white') they mean 'poor black' and 'middle-class white'. And there's a big overlap/relation between class and race, of course, but you're right (you're being right a lot today...) about a poor/working-class white girl facing the same questions as Fugitivus' black friend. (Though I wonder whether this is more true in the UK, where we do love to hate on the chavs? I mean that I think class hatred is more visible in the UK than the US.... Hmm.)
This, though:
Classism relies on conjuring up phantom weaknesses of character--impulsivity, laziness, stupidity, greed, etc--and attributing poverty to these.
Yes. (I can't remember where I came across it now - a random 19th-century book in a library sale, I think, but I can't remember if it was early genetics or early anthropology or, like, that thing where you look at the bumps on ( ... )
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Yeah, totally - I just realized when I said 'Americans' up there I meant 'middle-class white Americans'! I don't think that classism doesn't exist in America, or that class and race are synonymous in the US, but... class seems to be less obsessively represented/talked about in the US liberal mainstream than it is in the UK? It's a whole set of strange translations, which sometimes work and sometimes... don't, and now my brane has gone to sleep and I can't figure out what I mean anyway, so I'm going to stop.
(Though I am quietly beaming to myself at being called awesome by someone who IS IN FACT hirself awesome. Hee.)
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It's not just the healthcare issue. It's the fact our entire social service system is a giant pieced together patchwork of services that may or may not actually come together to form a quilt.
(Not to mention how much variation there is by state. That's a whole other issue.)
There are definitely white poor people in the US (a lot of the heathen & pagan folks I interact with are on/near the poverty line). But you sort of wouldn't know it to hear not-poor white people talk. I don't know why, it seems so odd.I think at least some of this is visibility. Poor whites are often rural/small town, poor minorities are in cities and sometimes highly ( ... )
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Even if you hit hard times and were reasonably prosperous at one point people get like this. Story of my life.
In one breath they say "but your shoes have holes!" and in the next it's "why did you buy new shoes? you have bills!"
It's the same for food and everything else and for gods sake here in the US all about medical care...let's not even go there. Even though huge numbers of people here are uninsured it's like it's some kind of horrible personal secret that the medical staff wince at when they find out you're self-pay. They look at you like "OMG how do you not have health insurance what will you DO???" *grumbles*
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Nobody makes these kind of judgements to my face (the government have yet to stamp our heads with the words BENEFITS SCUM) but the Daily Mail do a good job of presenting me and people like me as something to be vilified, feared and hated. I try and keep Richard Littlejohn and his ilk out of my head and just get on with my life. It can be a pain in the arse when the personal gets dragged into the political. I'm not looking forward to what might happen after the next election...
Jo
P.s One of my windows has been broken for three years, but it is my landlord's fault...Honest =P
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Must be something in the water cooler.
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and we lived int'cardboard box int'middle oft'road etc...with a lump o' poison f'tea...
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