3 responses to “Bill Clinton conceeds he went a little too far with the race stuff in SC”

1. 

   James

   February 8, 2008

   Sounds like you know Bill too. It has always amazed me that Bill and Hillary can get by with shrugging off things like they never happened. In another vein, a question born completely out of curiosity; Why is it ok for you to label yourself the BLACK Snob (it is pretty catchy) and have a BLACK.com web site when it would spark outrage if I had the same things labeled WHITE?

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2. 

   The Black Snob

   February 8, 2008

   Well, James, per the label “black,” I mostly use it out of irony. Black, historically, has been viewed as negative and many blacks for decades saw being called black as a negative. So it’s largely about identity and embracing that identity.In the United States because whites are the majority culture whiteness is viewed as the norm. No one says white people because the assumption is that white are just people if you are an American citizen. It’s pretty easy, if you want, to virtually never interact with people of different ethnicities. That’s part of being in the majority culture.In my opinion, the only reason why people get touchy about white people using the word “white” as a part of identity politics is because of the historically negative association with political use of the word white to separate people and justify mistreatment of non-whites. The racial label was hijacked by extremists and racists who used the term to push the “otherness” of black people and even reduce them to being less than human. And dehumanization is typically followed by violence, mistreatment and indifference.A lot of this can be blamed on the Supreme Court ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson which was twisted to separate the races in the south, hence the black and white water fountains and bathrooms, and the inferior schools. Before this there was some degree of openess. Not a lot, but there was no over-riding excuse to separate the races.It can also be partially blamed on post-Civil War politics. In an effort to move on and mend fences with the south Union troops were pulled out prematurely, leaving the freed slaves to be ruled over by an angry public who viewed them as inhuman and with suspicion. Many atrocities, from the systematic hangings of black men for little to no provocation, the advent of the Klu Klux Klan from a political organization to a hate group to total massacres like the one in Rosewood, Fla. where a black settlement was burned to the ground and its citizens hung and murdered.In my opinion, if the troops had stayed to enforce order longer (and they were doing a good enough job that former slaves and freedmen were active in politics), we might not have needed the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.And we’d be past some of these things.So all racial hang ups relate back to the history of majority/minority conflict in the United States.I could go deeper into this, but I don’t want to go on and on about the nature of racial politics in our society.But I’ve often been pretty frank with non-blacks that I meet about my race, just to sort of get it out of the way so I can dialog with a person. A lot of times white people want to talk about race, but don’t know how. So I pretty much encourage a discourse in order to combat any ignorance we may have with each other.I hope that was helpful!

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3. 

   James

   February 8, 2008

   Well….I guess I gave you the opening to explain some worthwhile history. It gives me incentive to look into the early departure of the Union troops. I think, more than likely, you are correct. Most wars are fought for ideals instead of individuals and the people are usually abandoned after the combatants have satisfied their idea of winning.I do think that a lot of blacks act like the KKK does for the whites. In other words they find it easy to be prideful, hurtful and antagonstic toward anyone of another race. I don’t understand this any more than I understand the KKK or anyone that automatically classifies someone because of skin color.I do think that you are a beautiful, obviously well educated person that took time to reply to my question. I appreciate it.Concerning Billary; if we want a return to the same old Clinton white house we had for 8 years, then vote for her. They have shown that during the campaign. On the other hand I am not entirely comfortable with Mr. Obama’s qualifications for the job. I guess I would be more confident if he had grown up in say, Charlotte NC. I’m not sure he is “in tune” with our society, even though he “talks the talk”. Frankly, although it’s not his fault, it bothers me that most of the countries that call our country the enemy, want him to be our president….

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