heh
Excuse me, that title should read a brief non-factual, totally opinionated and not very flattering history of White People. That, however, seemed a little less catchy. But indeed, this is MY history of white folks. These are some of the factoids and impressions I have received throughout my life about White People, factoids and impressions that have shaped my understanding of this world. Factoids and impressions that may or may not be 100% accurate or true, but quite a few (but by no means all) of which were taught to me as ‘history’…..by White People. Factoids and impressions, thus, that are not completely veritable. Factoids and impressions that are definitely chockablock with irony and snark. I have been on a lifelong quest to understand this crazy mixed up world…and I like to think, outside of the context of who is on my side or who I should root for or defend. Perhaps part of my value as an observer and commenter on these issues is that I have not been as indoctrinated into our current society quite as completely as most folks….but have also lived in it my whole life, and so have a different, if skewed, perspective.
The purpose of this psuedo-history? Know thyself. I think we would all agree that there are some changes that we as a world need to make and certainly that we as a culture, that we as White People, need to make. To do that, we have to be able to look in the mirror. And our culture, just as every other culture, is so ingrained and part of us that we need to look in that mirror from as many different angles as possible. This (most likely sporadic) series is my angle. Please keep in mind that I make NO claims to accuracy, especially in the more scientific aspects. Please also keep in mind that I am…as nearly always…willing to admit that I am dead wrong. Especially when confronted with actual evidence of my wrongishness!
If the (mainly white) scientists with their wild and very much scientifically proven theories on “evolution” are to be believed, White People migrated from Africa back at the dawn of man, eventually settling in…..the places white people come from. The Caucasian mountains and….Tumbridge Wells…and eventually…Dayton. WHY did they migrate? Was it…the neighbors? Did they choose to migrate due to some deep and basic difference with those around them? Or ….were they cast out? Or did they just have the wanderlust that has caused humankind to populate the entire planet…or was it on their neighbors insistence? Who were these folks and how did they become…white?
Either way, it wasn’t because of skin color…since if we believe the science boffins, their unique coloring did not exist yet, but was an adaptation to their new surroundings, when they eventually reached their more northern destinations. This brings up the whole question of race….the whole question of race being….what is it?
Something caused these particular people to band together and migrate together and end up in the same place and settle down together and…adapt their skin color together. What was that bond? Was it ‘racial’… or societal …or familial? We don’t know. But we do know that some folks, after leaving Africa, developed ‘white’ skin tones or ‘red’ skin tones or ‘yellow’ skin tones or ‘brown’ skin tones….and thus ‘race’ was born.
Supposedly there is no measurable genetic difference between the races, so what is race, just skin color? Just a surface adaptation to different climates? That makes sense to me, people are people in my experience, and outside of cultural differences, I have not in my nearly fifty years of ‘research,’ noticed a noticeable difference among my fellow humans based on skin color…or ‘race.’ I grew up with people named Tim Wong and Diana Goldfarb and Tony Palapes and Juanita Sanchez and Alonzo Jefferson in the….upon reflection and comparison….INCREDIBLY diverse and egalitarian world of the San Francisco Public School system of the 1960’s and ’70’s. I spent time in their homes and got to know their parents..and again, aside from cultural differences, did not observe any differentiating characteristics based on ‘race.’ They were people. Just like all other people. Just like me.
And growing up with that experience has certainly ‘colored’ the way I look at my fellow humans. They are indeed humans first, and representatives of whatever race they may be a distant second.
As I grew up and lost my innocence and was acculturated, that did change. As the sixties and seventies progressed and race became a huge issue….or to be more accurate…as I grew out of childhood and adolescence and grew to perceive that race was indeed a HUGE issue, my perceptions changed. But that early experience was always with me and always influenced the way I thought and, to be self-flattering, I believe it has helped me to cut through much of the prejudice and propaganda about….’race.’
And after all these years, after all this ‘research,’ I must admit that I have BECOME prejudiced against a specific ‘race.’
White people.
You see I do not have a very high opinion of what has come to be called the white ‘race’…yes…I freely admit it…I am a racist! I am prejudiced against the White ‘race’…not individuals of the white race you understand, but the race as a whole. Shucks, some of my best friends are white! I am, in the terms of the discussion on race…that have been dictated by White people, btw, what an extreme critic might call…a self hating Whitey.
Okay to be completely accurate…I am prejudiced against the culture that the White ‘race’ has developed.
I like to think that that condition is somewhat predicated on facts. After all it was white people who set about colonizing and “conquering” the world. Sure, others may have had the same idea, people of other races have always made war, and always amused themselves and passed the time by trying to kill their neighbors. There is no doubt that human beings have always had that urge within them, and have been acting on it and honing their Kill Your Neighbor skills since that very same dawn of man. One might say that to some extent I am also a self-hating human being for that very reason!
The one thing though that is completely factual and not based on my prejudices is….that white people were the ones who have perfected it. It is after all, right there in the history books. The Chinese did conquer and subjugate, well for lack of a better word, China. And evidently Japan (though that would come back to bite them in the ass later) and Africans have conquered various bits of….Africa. The Moors had a very successful European tourism plan for many centuries, centered around Spain. But no other race displayed the white race’s diligence, attention to detail, innovative creativity and just plain stick-to-itiveness when it comes to traveling the world, meeting interesting people…and killing them.
That is where my prejudice comes from. That is what I am seeking to understand so that I can…in my small way, change things. Hopefully, both my prejudice…and the reality it is reacting to. I want us to NOT be races. I want us to be ONE race….the Human Race. Not only is that, in my view, a desirable thing…..but, in order to ‘save the planet’ from global warming and to deliver it from thousands of years of continual warfare, an absolutely essential thing.
Part 2 to follow….later.
But perhaps to help you all understand where I am coming from, here is a video that reflects my views on what could be said to be the ultimate achievement of the white ‘race’…the settlement and establishment of the United States of America by….White People.
via videosift.com
PS. I am having satellite trouble today, so if I am late or slow in responding to comments, please forgive me! I am not trying to dodge any controversy that this may create!
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In December 2005, the Washington Post ran a story: Scientists Find A DNA Change That Accounts For White Skin.
…though the idea that the white race is worse genuinely undermines the original argument. It also shifts the discussion from universal human failings to just another group of (real) assholes. China wasn’t always China, of course. I’d argue that what the west perfected was weapons technology and Christianity :}
most people appear most comfortable dealing with the question of race, and I find this totally acceptable. I must add my own perspective to the semi-serious (no doubt) comments that will probably follow. Until I arrived on these pristine shores at the beginning of the 60’s I had no idea what a ‘white person’ was. It was not a part of the intricate, incredibly convoluted ways and nuances in which the British categorise socially and culturally whether an individual is U or non U. For those who don’t know what that means read the Mitford girls! it basically rests on the somewhat shaky foundation of how you fold your napkin or serviette and whether you say what or pardon, excuse me is a real johnny come lately. Of course that is all so yesterday because now the country is no longer even a country it is part of a union and is a meritocracy. Right!!!!!
However i have managed to work it out to my satisfaction and have survived several residential stints of extended time in the deep savage jungles of Conrad’s heart of darkness in Africa, the West Indies, which of course as everyone knows are nothing of the sort as they are nowhere near the Indies, although I’m not sure where they are either? Not to mention surviving being British in the former Raj (India/Pakistan again for those who don’t keep up with their imperial shifts). Despite how beastly we were to the natives actually having a British passport in former colonies proved to be a lot better entree than having an American one. Never could figure that one out.
Anyway, a note of seriousness here. This is a really good time for those who have not read it to re-read Howard Zinn’s brilliant ‘A People’s History of the United States 1492-Present’. It might help you slash your way through the almost impenetrable thickets of ignorance, prejudice, moral superiority and inferiority, gender and race, cultural and social, class, creed and country which maybe for the first time ever an entire nation is going to be forced to face head on.
What’s that commercial ‘Apply directly to the forehead’.
The first I haven’t read, but caught most of a special on pbs with the author, its Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond. From the synopsis:
The second one I have read and is The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict between Word and Image by Leonard Shlain. From the synopsis:
FACTOID: The word “factoid” is often misused to mean “little fact”
when the word actually means the opposite. The word is a neologism
invented by Norman Mailer in his picture book about Marilyn Monroe from
the 1973. In the course of addressing the various myths that had developed
around Monroe, such as how she engineered her rise to stardom and various
liaisons she may have had with prominent people, Mailer came up with the
word “factoid” to refer to untruths or urban legends attached to
celebrities that have the ring of truth because of uncritical media
repetition.
In the book, Mailer explains that factoids are “facts which have no
existence before appearing in a magazine or newspaper, creations which are
not so much lies as a product to manipulate emotion in the Silent
Majority.”
The word’s current common usage as a reference to “little” or
“cute” facts is a good measure of how quickly the language is degraded in
our society. In well under 30 years, Mailer’s invention has gone from a
clever portmanteau word defining something new and unique in popular
culture to an empty, if not a completely reversed, term devoid of its
original intent.