Blogging About Race

One of the basic rules in writing is to write what you know, or at least write about stuff that you might spend a little time learning about. When I write about airplanes, I write about small airplanes. I don't know from jets. I don't know from home decorating. Unlike Scully, who has spent the last few weeks rehabbing her new house, I'd probably would have just bought somewhere else. I know about some small arms, but you're not going to get a discourse from me on the proper uses of a 120mm smoothbore tank gun. I know about my cats. There are also things I know about that, for one reason or another, you won't seem me blogging about.

Which is why, as a white chick, I feel funny writing about racial discrimination, for doing it without sounding inauthentic is hard. It's sort of like listening to a man prattle on about discrimination based on gender or a straight guy talking about how awful homophobia is. Except in those situations, the speaker may have a sister or a gay sibling, so it's real to him.

I don't have to allow time on cross-country road trips for being stopped by cops. One of my classmates from law school was from Atlanta and I asked her how long it took to drive there. Her answer was about three or four hours longer than I guessed and when I asked why so long, she explained, in the same tone of voice that she might have used to mention Orange Barrel Season, that she planned on being stopped, on average, three times each way. But that's something I have never experienced.

Discrimination is there, it is real. It is not an "isolated occurrence." And it is wholly evil. We are closing in on two generations since Dr. King's "I have a dream" speech, can we not get past this? When are we going to break the code that discrimination means the cream does not rise to the top, just the scum? If person A thinks he is better than person B because person B is (insert racial or ethnic group here), doesn't that just mean that on some level, person A is recognizing that he can't compete on a level playing field? If a guy says "a woman can't do my job", is he not really saying that he is afraid, on some level, that she can do it better? Those two idiots dragging around nooses from their pickup truck have, in all probability, probably peaked in their lives and will wind up being nothing more than mean-spirited crackers at the bottom rung of the economic cesspool, but their hate makes them feel superior.

Does anyone not understand the concept of "white male privilege?" For example, if it wasn't for that, Chimpy would be a golf pro at some fourth-rate country club.

Discrimination is a waste of talent. That, for any true capitalist, should be the bottom line of the matter. And that we even have to talk about such things and bemoan crap going on like the Jena 6 is a goddamn shame.

Are we ever going to evolve a little?