Re: dogma protests

jason varsoke (jjv@caesun.msd.ray.com)
Fri, 03 Dec 1999 10:24:12 -0500 (EST) 

> Point is racism is everywhere -- you're part of the problem or part of the 
> solution.  You can always find a reason to be part of the problem if you look 
> hard enough...
> 
> Jim

Actually, being white, I find I'm part of the problem no matter what I do.
Good, soulful, discussions with a man whose talent for bridging gaps of
perspective I can't relate to you once lent me insight into racism.  He
said that is doesn't matter that we have the WB, BET (both TV channels
that do a lot of Black actor programming), or the Cosby Show.  He says it
will always be racism until the whites no longer get to "choose" to have a
black man or not.  I guess to clarify, he means that when a black man owns
something like a Microsoft where everyone needs his services, only then
can you think about the elimination of racism.  Hollywood is a good place
to find this example.  How many black directors are there?  Yet, quite a
few good black actors.
   Anyway, I learned that I'm still the problem, even if I don't treat
blacks differently, don't take advantage of my whiteness, try to avoid
circumstances of inherited preference, show that my family just came over
from Lithuania 50 years ago, and so on.  It doesn't matter.  I'm still
part of the problem.
   And my issue with this perspective is that there is no perscribed
action toward solution.  
   
   Also, as we all know black, whites, yellows, reds, and albinos can all
be racist; it takes nothing special.  The best time I ever had, racially,
was my freshman year of college.  I lived on a floor with mostly jocks.  I
got along with them because my feet have scene the inside of a cleat on
more than one occation.  But around my room there was a limey across the
hall, a spic next to him, a PR next to me, a nigger living with him, and a
"fucking dominican" across from them.  I was the local honkey, dude-ski,
polak, cracker, poor white trash and whatever else.  We used to call each
other these things all the time, purely in jest.  I was the one to get
brought up on charges when one womyn from the crunchy granola feminist
house notified the Dean that i was saying "PR" and african porch-monkey.
It was one hell of a discussion I had with the Dean.  I brought Jose in to
help clarify to her that it was a bond we had.  It was how we dealt with
the fact that the rest of society thought we should hate each other.
They were some of my best friends.  I still get calls from Jose every
once in a while.

dude-ski,

 -j