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Prejudice

Natasha

I was out browsing and found that the Slacktivist felt compelled to apologize recently, in order to head off any terrible misunderstandings:

As a white male Baptist, it is my duty today to denounce the violence perpetrated by Patrick Gray Sharp, 29, who yesterday attacked the police headquarters in McKinney, Texas, in a heavily armed but ineffectual assault involving a high-powered rifle, road flares, “gasoline and ammonium nitrate fertilizer.”

I understand that this denunciation must be swift and unambiguous and that, in the absence of such denunciations made by and on behalf of every and all white male Baptists, others are entitled to assume that every white male Baptist is fully in agreement with the actions of Patrick Gray Sharp and to therefore deny white male Baptists the rights others enjoy. …

And then he realized that, oh yeah, he doesn’t have to apologize for that, because no one will ever, ever, ever hold him accountable for the actions of people who superficially resemble him.

He realized that he won’t have to prove to every stranger that he’s nothing like Sharp. No. He doesn’t really have to say that he’s one of the good, white, male Baptists.

“Janie, Ah done watched it time and time again; each and every white man think he know all de GOOD (blacks) already. He don’t need tuh know no mo’. So far as he’s concerned, all dem he don’t know oughta be tried and sentenced tuh six months behind de United States privy house at hard smellin’.” — Tea Cake, from “Their Eyes Were Watching God”, by Zora Neale Hurston

It’s the difference between a presumption of innocence or a presumption of guilt. The difference between getting to be yourself and having to go out of your way to show that you aren’t any of the nasty things you’re expected to be (which means you often have to keep those nasty things just a little in mind). The difference between getting to set standards and judge or having to meet standards and play defendant.

What you might be guilty of by default varies according to your crime of circumstance–brown, queer, poor, woman–but a crime, it is. And probation never quite ends.

8 thoughts on Prejudice

  1. I would love it if people felt the need to establish that they weren’t one of “those” Baptists. Less fire and brimstone surprise attacks.

  4. I saw that post-and what a great one at that! Trying to explain to the privileged their underlying assumptions of those “different” from them is so difficult when they’re not actively trying, or wishing to see their privileges.

  6. And if the culture in which we lived did not often contain hair-triggers on certain controversial subjects, there would be less of this. Certain circles can be very touchy on topics such as these, and certain groups of people have particular topics that set them firmly on “attack and belittle”. So out of a sense of being proactive and preventative, occasionally these remarks can seem unnecessary or overcompensating.

    And if all spaces were capable of handling sensitive topics without flying off the handle, the desire would not exist.

  7. I was actually just thinking about this the other day. Where is the Christian leadership denouncing the tea party? Or various killers X, Y, and Z? Or anything a damn dumb Christan decides to do? THEY don’t need to go on TV and apologize for all Christians. Why should the Muslim community? Or any other community have to make special efforts to “prove” that one rogue doesn’t represent thousands, millions, or billions of people?

  8. I love that you quoted Zora Neale Hurston to further the point. Its curious how these truths have been observable from outside of the dominant culture to some for quite a while, and the idea of how privliedge colors one’s perspective (no pun intended) seems utterly alien to some, and a novelty to others. There’s a real power in belonging to the most populous group, and not having to justify one’s existance every 6 minutes? Sounds glorious.

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