Racism
Today an acquaintance of mine sent me an email entitled "Proud to be White." I'm not going to post the content because I don't want hits from freaks. Basically the email was about how white people are discriminated against because we don't have White history month, or special college scholarships and that kind of bullshit. I was frankly apalled and disgusted by this email and could not figure out why my acquaintance sent it to me. I mean, she knows that I am adopting a Latino son.
I struggled for a bit about how to respond. As I have mentioned before, I am a pretty shy person. I wasn't sure how much of a fuss to make. Finally I came to the decision that I owe it to Kit (not to mention my own self respect) to protest this kind of thing. So this is the reply I sent:
I wanted to let you know that I was very offended by this email. I am speaking here as a human being but also as the (soon to be) mother of a child of color who will face discrimination and hatred in his lifetime. The email reeks of white privilege and a misunderstanding of what racism is. White people in this country have continually discriminated against and exploited people of color from the original inhabitants up to the current hatred of immigrants from Mexico. The majority of our culture is produced by and for white people. The majority of scholarships and other privileges go to white people. There is no need for special dispensation for whites because we already receive so many benefits. Our culture was founded on exploitation of people who are different. At times in our history this applied to Irish and Italian people as well. The only way to end racism is to accept all people. Setting ourselves up as “proud to be white” will only make matters worse.
I hope this email was meant as a joke or sarcastic comment. It would make me feel even worse to know that it was meant seriously. Either way, I have to ask that you don’t send me anything like this again.
I have not had a reply yet. I have to admit I'm dreading it a bit. Still, I feel like I did the right thing.
I struggled for a bit about how to respond. As I have mentioned before, I am a pretty shy person. I wasn't sure how much of a fuss to make. Finally I came to the decision that I owe it to Kit (not to mention my own self respect) to protest this kind of thing. So this is the reply I sent:
I wanted to let you know that I was very offended by this email. I am speaking here as a human being but also as the (soon to be) mother of a child of color who will face discrimination and hatred in his lifetime. The email reeks of white privilege and a misunderstanding of what racism is. White people in this country have continually discriminated against and exploited people of color from the original inhabitants up to the current hatred of immigrants from Mexico. The majority of our culture is produced by and for white people. The majority of scholarships and other privileges go to white people. There is no need for special dispensation for whites because we already receive so many benefits. Our culture was founded on exploitation of people who are different. At times in our history this applied to Irish and Italian people as well. The only way to end racism is to accept all people. Setting ourselves up as “proud to be white” will only make matters worse.
I hope this email was meant as a joke or sarcastic comment. It would make me feel even worse to know that it was meant seriously. Either way, I have to ask that you don’t send me anything like this again.
I have not had a reply yet. I have to admit I'm dreading it a bit. Still, I feel like I did the right thing.
posted by Jill @ 4:58 PM
5 Comments:
At 4/17/2007 8:41 PM,
Anonymous said…
Way to go! We can only change the world if we speak out against racism and discrimination of our cohabitants of this world we live in. That was a very well written reply!
Love,
"M"
At 4/20/2007 3:35 PM,
Carrie said…
Yeah! That was a well worded and thoughtful response. We all need to speak out against racism even when it's hard to start a confrontation. I had to draw that line with my father-in-law last year and it was ugly at the time but has turned out for the best. Hope you don't lose a friend over this.
At 4/20/2007 8:02 PM,
Katherine Zander said…
I was driving by an intersection in a nearby city where there was a bizarre "white pride" demonstration, of sorts, walking around with signs saying how proud they were to be white.
Taking glances at the light I was waiting on to turn left across traffic, I watched with mouth agape at this bizarre sight, and a car with a man in it giving them a "thumbs up" sign, chatting with one of the demonstrators. His car began to move in the right-hand turn lane, expecting traffic to move. I watched the train wreck get even worse as he rear-ended the car in front of him.
Karma. Sucks that he had to take someone else with him though.
At 4/25/2007 2:45 PM,
erinberry said…
Good for you for speaking out against a racist email.
At 5/15/2007 2:37 PM,
Anonymous said…
Well done!
You made your point clearly and with respect.
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