AmeriKKKa

[laklak]

The wool uniforms can be a bit stifling on an August afternoon, I must admit, and wearing the cavalry sabre exacerbates my sciatica.

[Sean Hayden]

[Svartalf]

There's too much pressure in being a Southern Gentleman for me. I take some aspects of the proper decorum, but can do without all the dueling.

Who needs duelling when you can just have a mint julep on your porch?

[Seabass]

I don't know where to start for you either Seabass. I thought you might find the fact that young biracial women often prefer to identify as the more meaningful non-white interesting and relevant.

I don't believe it. In America, we have the one-drop rule. If you cannot pass for white, then you're not white, you're something else.

I know you've identified as both in different context, so clearly there is some "meaning" behind your whiteness and non-whiteness for you.

I'm afraid you've misunderstood me. I don't identify as anything. I've never really been the identifying type. I've always seen race and racism as stupid social constructs. The society I live in identifies me as Asian-American. It's not my choice. If I could get away with it, I'd identify as white, but judging by the number of times white people have asked me "where are you from?", that shit ain't gonna fly...

[Sean Hayden]

You've emphasized your being Asian or white in different contexts e.g. when discussing Trump's contributions to stirring up hate against Asians, and when imploring me to understand you don't hate whites, as you're half-white yourself. Your whiteness, and non-whiteness therefore clearly have meaning to you.

That either is a social construct is an interesting fact, not a means to dismiss the issues you face.

Is your conception of your whiteness authentic? How about your asianess? I don't know, but it's possible that either or both contain many inauthentic constructions e.g. ideas about inherent intelligence, tendency towards book smarts, money etc.

--//--

As for not believing many young biracial women prefer to identify as non-white, I'm inclined to believe the peer reviewed articles I've posted.

[Seabass]

You've emphasized your being Asian or white in different contexts e.g. when discussing Trump's contributions to stirring up hate against Asians, and when imploring me to understand you don't hate whites, as you're half-white yourself. Your whiteness, and non-whiteness therefore clearly have meaning to you.

That either is a social construct is an interesting fact, not a means to dismiss the issues you face.

I'm an ethnic minority and I'm half white. Both of these are always true. These are just facts. Neither has any sort of special "meaning" to me. My status as a minority is relevant to a discussion about racist presidents stoking bigotry, but I also felt it appropriate to remind you that I'm half white when you were insinuating that I am racist against white people. My whiteness and Asianness have relevance to certain discussions because I live in a racist society, not because I find any sort of special "meaning" in them.

Is your conception of your whiteness authentic? How about your asianess? I don't know, but it's possible that either or both contain many inauthentic constructions e.g. intelligence, book smarts, money.

I don't understand the question.

[Sean Hayden]

The meaning doesn't have to be special.

You and Hermit and probably others have stated you don't know what an authentic sense of whiteness means, or how you would go about starting to understand it.

Believing certain things about ourselves and others based on our understanding of what it means to be white, or Black or Asian is just part of life. Now, if you've never examined your understanding of what it has meant to be white, or Asian, how likely is it that your beliefs and feelings about such things contain contradictions and don't align with how you really see yourself or would like to?

An example was provided earlier in the article I posted of the white "gentrifiers" who were most like the literature on white privilege. Presumably they have not examined their whiteness, or at least not objectively, and so have a distorted view of what being white has really meant for them.

Personally I always hated being regarded as book smart on account of being white, and it's good for me to see how that's not really part of my experience as a white guy. I am in fact a high school dropout who only developed an appetite for book learning relatively late.

Maybe this example is too simple or silly. But there are other more complicated distortions possible e.g. whites are less family oriented...

[Seabass]

If you're asking me if my experience matches up with stereotypes, then the answer is 'no'.

[Sean Hayden]

If I had an interest in generating an authentic sense of white-ish/yellow-ish-ness, how would I go about doing that? I don't even know where to start.

This is starting to read as disingenuous.

--//--

I think I've provided enough to at least begin to understand what I meant by authentic sense of whiteness. At a minimum one examines what being white has meant to them. Hopefully one is then interested in creating their own identity from the reality of their situation and who they are, or would like to be, rather than what anyone else or society says they are/should be according to their race.

[JimC]

To me, any real differences between Seabass and Sean seem to be shades of semantics...

[Sean Hayden]

Well, I'm also more likely to be fumbling around and bouncing ideas off Seabass, than he is to be doing that with me.

[Seabass]

If I had an interest in generating an authentic sense of white-ish/yellow-ish-ness, how would I go about doing that? I don't even know where to start.

This is starting to read as disingenuous.

Disingenuous? No. Facetious, yes. I was illustrating how absurd notions of racial identity seem to those of us who are not racially "pure". It's kind of hard to "identify" as a "race" when one is a mongrel. Sorry if it was not clear that that comment was made with tongue in cheek...

[Sean Hayden]

It's always seemed absurd to me too. But a lot of that seems to have just been denial on my part.

[Seabass]

No, race and racism are absurd, but unfortunately, racists are very much a real problem.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Oh, by the way, won't somebody pleeeze think of the children (you know--the ones that really matter)?

'GOP Operative Says It Hurts White Kids When "Kids of Color Feel They Belong"'

A Republican campaign manager for school board candidates in a Connecticut town has sparked controversy by telling participants of a virtual education forum that “helping kids of color to feel they belong has a negative effect on white, Christian, or conservative kids.” Mary Beeman put forth that bizarre argument during a virtual education forum where the right-wing boogeyman known as “critical race theory” was discussed, according to local news outlet WFSB. She later sought to clarify her statement, which she admitted was “poorly worded,” and claimed it had been shown “out of context.” In trying to mop up the mess, Beeman said she’d been referring to “students who may have staunch Judeo-Christian values, or simply are conservative thinkers,” and are now being “bullied into submission by their teachers and fellow students with left-leaning ideologies.” Bill Bloss, the Guilford school board chairman, made clear he wasn’t buying Beeman’s excuses for the racist remark, questioning “exactly what context would that comment be positive in.” He has called on Beeman to step down, blasting her remark as “false, outrageous, negative (and) destructive.”