It is the weekend, so we must sing. Here are Junior Wells, Mike Bloomfield, and Dr. John on Stop Breaking Down. I have seen Junior Wells and Dr. John in person, but never this young. Junior Wells says, “I don’t think you really love me, I think you just like the way my music sounds.” Less demanding, I say that if you like the way my music sounds, c’est déjà tellement.
It is said that you cannot go home again, but many musical forms take you back to the beginning one more time, and again one more time. I like to take things from the top every so often. I am cleaning out my files. I am taking several projects from the top by remaking them from their roots. Something I plan to take from the top here, although not yet, are certain stories and observations about – well, let us call it sadism. Things I could take from the top in the sense of repeat right here and now, are certain observations and caveats about narrative voice and truth.
However, my youngest brother is in town, and I have much else to do, so I will say only one thing. This youngest brother, who is not white, claims that I am not, either. I claim that I am, even if I do not always feel it. Many people see me as white, I was Anglo where I grew up, and I have White Privilege. I like knowing that I have it, because this enables me to see more clearly what is going on.
I have two well meaning white colleagues who do not realize they have White Privilege. One has two Black sisters, and believes everyone should realize she is to a certain extent in Black World because of that, and that Black people should trust her because of it. She works at a Historically Black University and complains that while her colleagues and students are nice to her, they are not as familiar with her as they are with each other. She feels like an outsider and believes she deserves to be an insider. I think she expects too much.
The other is married to a Chicano, speaks native-like Spanish and Portuguese, is quite Hispanized in many ways, and has Chicano sons. She does not like the assumption, apparently made by some new people who have appeared at her job, that she will at all turns be an Ignorant White Girl, because of her looks. I agree, it is ridiculous, especially given what her job is and who she has to be to even have it. But I think it is symptomatic of the current situation. That is, a divided and hierarchical society like ours must necessarily breed suspicion and resentment. I would not take it personally, but my colleague does.
Both of these colleagues expect to be seen as individuals, and not as representatives of their races. They do not fully realize that what they are experiencing is one of the things experienced by their own family members, based on their races, on the daily. I think that if they figured this out, they would understand a little more about how race works. They would also suffer less.
I did the White Privilege Dance at my colleague who works at the HBCU. She is also an English Only advocate, by the way, so you can see that we have other political differences. I said look, your having two Black sisters does not absolve your race of 500 years of oppression, and if these people are being polite but distant, you have got to understand that they have reasons for this.
I did not do the same dance at my other colleague because, even if it is true that she also expects too much, events at her job are still ridiculous. In that particular situation, certain privileged non-blonds are using whatever means they can to be abusive to whomever they can. They are getting high on sadism, but they are doing nothing for any cause.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 