I spoke with a woman today who was referring to a friend with the last name of "Houston." I wasn't sure I had caught it, so I asked "Houston? Like the city?"
"Yes," she said "but she doesn't have anything to do with Texas. She's not a racist."
People might think things but not say them out loud, unless they believe that all the important people agree with them. It takes a special arrogance to say some things out loud. Yet I suppose, if you can stereotype at that level, you are already beyond the point where reason will affect you.
It could also be something of a backhanded admission that 'racist' now has no meaning as an insult beyond simply people I don't like.
ReplyDeleteStill not a good place.
So she's saying that all Texans are prejudiced. My question for her (in the immortal words of Nodwick): "Are you shooting for hypocrisy or just plain irony?"
ReplyDeleteIt could also be something of a backhanded admission that 'racist' now has no meaning as an insult beyond simply people I don't like.
ReplyDeleteYup. It's a little more sophisticated than calling someone a poopy-head. Or Teabagger, a.k.a. testicle-licker.
Texas "progressives" can be just as snarky, self-righteous, condescending, and ignorant. Before the bar went out of business, I used to have weekly political discussions over beers with a yellow dog Democrat friend. One time we were discussing Joseph Stack, who earned his 15 minutes of fame the hard way- by flying a small plane into an IRS building. Stack was a Teabagger, my friend said. In his suicide note, Stack wrote,"The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed." Teabagger?
Two decades ago, Jasper TX made the news when James Byrd Jr., black man, was chained and dragged to the back of a pickup truck. Some years later, my sister visited me. We had dinner at my place with a guy who belonged to my sister's Buddhist group. A rather interesting person, who transformed his IT skills into a stock option bonanza with the IT company that had employed him. He used some of that money to purchase some radio stations- including one in Jasper, which he owned at the time of Byrd's murder. He told us that instead of being quiet about what they knew about the murder, Jasper residents very quickly informed the police about who had done it.Not exactly Mississippi 1964- when and where omerta would have been the rule. BTW, my sister's fellow Buddhist is black. He also told us that Ted Koppel, in his visit to Jasper, came across as not knowing as much as he thought he knew.
The basic issue is that there are those who believe that they are not racist or without prejudice. They believe that racism/prejudice/fear of other is to be found outside of themselves, in other persons. Then there are those who believe that racism/prejudice/fear of the other is to be found inside all of us.
Probably the former cannot be dissuaded. I wonder how they would respond to having that above difference being pointed out. I wonder how they would respond to being called sneering, snarky, self righteous & ignorant for saying that Texas is racist but by implication they are not.
Being born and raised in New England, with a mother from the Southwest, I was aware of regional dichotomies from an early age. Having split my life between the two places only accentuates that awareness. Courtesy of a lifelong hometown friend who still lives there, and is of the colored persuasion, I was long aware that the South had no monopoly on racism.
Another Texas story. Several years ago I was back in my NE hometown, having coffee with a childhood friend. We were discussing old classmates. My friend told of a classmate, now living in the mountain states, who was a Tea Party supporter. I replied that I could also be called a Tea Party supporter. "That's because you live in Texas."That was an understandable explanation, but in this case, not an accurate explanation.
ReplyDeleteI replied that my political changes could be traced to my hometown. (For example,in the straw poll at my high school in 1968, I was the only person in the school to vote for Harold Stassen- as in none of the above. And politics was a passion of mine from an early age. That was a precursor for my later voting Third Party, also as in none of the above.)I should have also added that my time in Latin America also changed my political views.
It’s a very revealing. It’s the sort of comment that can be a self-effacing joke from someone who grew up in and loves Texas. But coming from an outsider it’s just very revealing about their character.
ReplyDeleteShe is no doubt unaware that, by painting all Texans with an ignorant brush, she is engaging in exactly the behavior that makes racism so reprehensible. She probably has been brought up to believe that crimes in the service of the conventional pieties are no crimes at all.
ReplyDeleteTexan99
ReplyDeleteShe probably has been brought up to believe that crimes in the service of the conventional pieties are no crimes at all.
She believes that she is without racism/bigotry/phobia- in contrast to the people she is condemning, of course. As she (believes she) is without racism/bigotry/phobia, (she believes) nothing she does or says can be labeled as racist/bigoted/phobic. From her point of view, she is not committing a crime, but pointing out a crime. I call it the Chevy Chase approach: "You're a racist/bigot/phobe, and I'm not." [Though what Chevy Chase actually said was, "I'm Chevy Chase, and you're not."
I believe that racism/bigotry/phobia is to be found in varying degrees in all of us. She believes that racism/bigotry/phobia is to be found in others, not in her.
For believing that, she is a damned fool, but it would be rather difficult to convince her of that.