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This is a letter I sent to a friend as we were discussing the protests against excessive use of police force.
The Black Panthers made change, sure. So did the Weathermen. But those changes weren't much to talk about. Probably their biggest claim to fame was carrying out Open Carry protests in California, that scared white people so much that it made Ronald Reagan push for gun control laws. (Want to see a Republican's brain explode? Remind them of this fact.)
The more successful of their numbers, like Bobby Rush, moved on to mainstream politics. So far Bobby Rush's main claim to fame is that he defeated a young upstart named Barack Obama the first time BHO ran for Congress. At over seventy years old, it's unlikely Rep. Rush will gain more prestige.
Even so, I'd join the Hewey P. Newton Gun Club if they would let me. I'm tired of white Republicans having all the fun of defending their Second Amendment rights.
Enough about the Black Panthers. Let's move on.
Privilege is a tough thing to talk about, because most of us don't know it's there. It's even harder to talk about when we're keenly aware of other people's privilege (OPP) but not our own.
"What privilege? I might be white, but I'm female!"
"What privilege? I might be white and male, but I'm poor!"
"What privilege? I might be white and male and upper middle class, but I'm gay!"
"What privilege? I might be white and male and heterosexual and cisgendered and upper middle class and educated and subscribe to a mainstream Christian creed, but I have Asperger's Syndrome!"
And so on.
Regardless of whether we're rich or poor, male or female, etc, being white means we literally don't have skin in the game. The fundamental assumptions are different. My brother and (redacted) are on the same side, but they don't see eye to eye precisely because my brother doesn't get the urgency of this movement and (redacted) does. As a white man I'm not privy to those aforementioned assumptions. If I want to be an ally, I have to remind myself that black people have different assumptions, for good reason, and that the first step of being an *effective* ally is to shut up and listen.
Nor am I privy to all the different assumptions that go into being a woman in America. I've been working very, very hard on learning those. It's pretty fucking frustrating at times, and once in a while it makes me want to say, "fuck it, people are hard, I'm going to stop working on this and just focus on computers from now on." Once I figure things out, though, it improves my communication, and that makes things more enjoyable overall.
Millenials are keenly aware of this, because they have been engaged in a rolling discussion (some would say "echo chamber") on Tumblr for years. Generation X, maybe not so much. I think a lot of us bought into Reagan's bullshit and never looked back, which means there's much bigger generation gap between us and the Millenials than there was between Baby Boomers and the WWII generation. At least the WWII generation appreciated the New Deal.
Anyway, back to work.
(maxomai)
