Thursday, March 30, 2006
White Is Right
I've spent many a day frittering away the time at Leonard's LJ. Be it dissection of cultural artifacts ir ripping James Lileks a new one, he fails to disappoint.
Yesterday, he posted about Michelle "Slap the Jap Right Off of the Map" Malkin's latest braindropping, talking about those uppity- I mean, "rebellious" Latinos protesting against H.R. 4437 in LA, and the "Latino supremacism" of people waving the Mexican flag and signs that read, "BROWN IS BEAUTIFUL" (Christ, just wait until Cinco de Mayo, Malkin will probably think there's a fucking coup going on). On the latter, Malkin asks, "Can you imagine if someone had come to the rally holding a sign reading 'WHITE IS BEAUTIFUL'?"
And therein lies the problem with Malkin and many other conservatives. You know the type I'm talking about; the kind who rail against rap music in all its forms, or bitch about how ridiculous Kwanzaa is, or talk about how it's right to be afraid when Arab musicians get on your plane. They want everyone to be white. They want every person in this country to act like they have the same cultural background, cultural interests, and opportunities as your average middle class white person.
As anyone who actually knows about the history of race in this nation could tell you, this is a ripe pile of bullshit. Latinos have been brought into this country mainly for jobs paying less than minimum wage, going back to the implementation of braceros among migrant workers. Japanese-Americans were shuffled away to prisons and had their property taken away from them on the grounds that they looked like the enemy. Black people... oh, Jesus, black people. Everything from the slave trade to Jim Crow to the KKK to fucking Katrina. With all this hanging over their heads, how can anyone with a working knowledge of American history begin to think that everyone has the same background, just different skin?
And there's the thing. As long as this is known, the argument falls apart. That's why there are people who try to make it look like people of historically oppressed races have no ground to stand on. This is why Michelle Malkin wrote about how internment camps were justified. This is why people argue that slavery wasn't that bad, or how blacks should be thankful that slavery gave them the chance to get to America. By attempting to downplaying the factors that explain why these people might want to celebrate their heritage, they hope that it will make those who stand up and realize the truth about how the deck's not stacked in their favor look "uppity."
Well, I say, fuck them. Wave high your flags, be they Mexican, Japanese, Irish, or Saudi. Realize that, despite all the shit you've been through in the past, you should be proud that you weathered it all and survived. And most importantly of all, give Michelle Malkin a reason to lose her shit.
Yesterday, he posted about Michelle "Slap the Jap Right Off of the Map" Malkin's latest braindropping, talking about those uppity- I mean, "rebellious" Latinos protesting against H.R. 4437 in LA, and the "Latino supremacism" of people waving the Mexican flag and signs that read, "BROWN IS BEAUTIFUL" (Christ, just wait until Cinco de Mayo, Malkin will probably think there's a fucking coup going on). On the latter, Malkin asks, "Can you imagine if someone had come to the rally holding a sign reading 'WHITE IS BEAUTIFUL'?"
And therein lies the problem with Malkin and many other conservatives. You know the type I'm talking about; the kind who rail against rap music in all its forms, or bitch about how ridiculous Kwanzaa is, or talk about how it's right to be afraid when Arab musicians get on your plane. They want everyone to be white. They want every person in this country to act like they have the same cultural background, cultural interests, and opportunities as your average middle class white person.
As anyone who actually knows about the history of race in this nation could tell you, this is a ripe pile of bullshit. Latinos have been brought into this country mainly for jobs paying less than minimum wage, going back to the implementation of braceros among migrant workers. Japanese-Americans were shuffled away to prisons and had their property taken away from them on the grounds that they looked like the enemy. Black people... oh, Jesus, black people. Everything from the slave trade to Jim Crow to the KKK to fucking Katrina. With all this hanging over their heads, how can anyone with a working knowledge of American history begin to think that everyone has the same background, just different skin?
And there's the thing. As long as this is known, the argument falls apart. That's why there are people who try to make it look like people of historically oppressed races have no ground to stand on. This is why Michelle Malkin wrote about how internment camps were justified. This is why people argue that slavery wasn't that bad, or how blacks should be thankful that slavery gave them the chance to get to America. By attempting to downplaying the factors that explain why these people might want to celebrate their heritage, they hope that it will make those who stand up and realize the truth about how the deck's not stacked in their favor look "uppity."
Well, I say, fuck them. Wave high your flags, be they Mexican, Japanese, Irish, or Saudi. Realize that, despite all the shit you've been through in the past, you should be proud that you weathered it all and survived. And most importantly of all, give Michelle Malkin a reason to lose her shit.
