It appears that many people linked to WoC PhD’s post “On Shame” but few linked to her second post, on a certain “I Have a Black Friend” moment – so I will. While I am at it, I will also link to Ridwan’s post about a colleague who has clearly never had any Black friends but would surely claim she has.
The reason I stopped reading the Blog Which Must Not Be Named over a year ago was that I got disgusted at its attitude on race. I am now surprised by nothing, so I am not moved to comment extensively. I will say, however, that the Blog In Question pays lip service to racial equity in the way my university pays lip service to gender equity. I can certainly see how patriarchal the institution is, but raise this to any of the men there and they will point out that women are in fact appointed to positions of power.
And speaking of privilege everyone, of every race, living in the United States, Canada, and Europe (in which I do not include any portion of the former Soviet Union) has it because not only are none of the world’s ten most polluted places in our countries – none of the thirty most polluted are.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
See, I would have missed the implication of that reference in reading BitchPhD’s blog, without you having pointed out its actual political and social meaning.
You mean the “I have a Black friend” reference?
In all of the Americas it is one of the most famous ways of deflecting discussions of racism. “I could not ever do anything racist because I have a Black friend, which proves I am not….”
So, after criticism from a PhD of color about poormouthing, we get, “But in this fancy house we are having a campaign event for Barack Obama….”
And it is hard not to think the message is, “But really I am all right, my husband is helping to support one of yours….”
Which confuses and conflates several different issues….
Yeah, like I said, I understood what she seemed to be saying, but only after you pointed it out. I’m not sure that such an approach would work in Australia, but it might. We are cruder and more brutal here, in many ways, especially about issues of race.
On a totally different note, It pleases me to have black friends who are not particularly western, because I can relax and let down my guard with them, and almost totally so. I can’t do that a lot of the time in western society because of the kinds of subtleties that play into this whole BitchPhD debarkle — I don’t like playing games with regard to race.
It’s the whites who are the game players, I think. Cruder and more brutal in Australia … so, do I take it that it’s more overt, not covert as in the B PhD discourse?
Yes, more overt. Where is is covert is in the whites using ex-colonial whites as a contrast to their own superior moral purity (ostensibly against racism and towards modernity). That game is played ALL the time. Yet in relation to the Australian blacks themselves the opposition is very overt. They are seen as morally inferior because they will not pull themselves up by their bootstraps, so as to enter modernity.
The problem with these “I have a Black friend” people is they make it harder for me to talk about my black friends. LMAO!
Kitty – LMAO too!
J – yes. We have versions of this also (e.g. the idea that only Southerners are racist, or that they are more racist, usually espoused to cover for racism in places like Boston and Berkeley) … and there is reams of Latin American writing on the race / modernity thing: along the lines of “the problem is not that they are of another race but that they refuse to enter modernity” … it is all these covert things which make everyone oversensitized to nuance like the things on B PhD … but now there are a lot of overt things happening too, things which mostly haven’t happened in my lifetime but which are reappearing, like nooses in trees … !
[I wonder – is this resurgence related at all to current foreign policy … ?]
Yes there is always a goat with more obvious horns than the goats who are respectably moral.
I also wonder about the phenomenon that I am seeing online that we can purify our moral characters by sensitising ourselves to our own internalised racism — all done online of course. Really, I am not sure if this racial purity movement is not a huge waste of time. If you want to learn about the disadvantages that other people face because of their race then make friends with such a person (online, or even better, in real life). Going around censuring others and reprimanding yourself (or whatever other affectations you adopt in order to be a better person) is simply tiresome. However, there are people in third world countries whose lives can be made or broken by your directly sponsoring them. The disadvantage in this direct means of improving the world that I am suggesting is that you won’t make yourself whiter than white with moral purity by following my advice. And you risk dirtying yourself, if not indeed sullying your complexion by such involvement which can include cultural misjudgments and financial errors.
“I also wonder about the phenomenon that I am seeing online that we can purify our moral characters by sensitising ourselves to our own internalised racism — all done online of course.”
Yes – I understand what it is supposed to be for, but I also wonder about the moral purity test aspect of it all, and the abstraction. I could go on but it’s late…
Yeah, it is sort of difficult to actually leap into the deep dark waters, I think. The shallow waters of self-policing look so much lighter, and reasonable!
Yes – self-policing means extreme safety, no risks. Self-policing is I think what has replaced politics in this country … if I ever write my book about Reeducation that will be one of the key points.
Yes! And the other thing about self-policing is the presumption that it gives us purity points — which brings us back to the topic of B-PhD’s original intention. The self-policing and the self-aggrandising (in moral purity) are spiritual brothers and sisters.
Thanks for this – I’m off to class now but I loved dropping in and listening/reading – it’s like a visit.
Boston is the #1 example of the racism of the North. Most of the time when I tell a black acquaintance that I am from Boston they immed. tell me how racist it is. I used to try to defend my city (without denying it exactly), but it has an ugly legacy, and remains highly segregated, and most recently, I just said, yes, it is, I have relatives who would fulfill that expectation of yours and honestly, I just don’t get it (although, analytically I do). This defused my conversation partner – an older black man – who then proceeded to tell me how the positives for him of living there included dating an Irish woman (with whom he could be seen in public, unlike his home in the South) and he began reminiscing about her and all he learned from dating an Irish woman. I am of Irish descent, and it was late on a Sat. in a bar with a dwindling group of colleagues, and then I felt it was time to go home! (Beware the men who like to tell you about their escapades!)
Boston – racist, yes, it’s palpable. I did not know to expect this the first time I went … but yes.
“Beware the men who like to tell you about their escapades!” … yes, it isn’t a good sign! 😉