My eyes are much worse, & web sites are nightmare, though I can 'conquer'
them if there is a strong enough reason.

But when I don't even know the name of the person being cited, and when the
purpose of the post is implicit to be immplicit in a juxtaposition  rather
than in a discursive statement,

Fuck it.

Carrol

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:pen-l-
> [email protected]] On Behalf Of Joseph Catron
> Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2012 11:15 AM
> To: LBO; Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition; Progressive
Economics
> Subject: [Pen-l] Michael Muhammad Knight in VICE: The Innocence of White
> People
> 
> (I usually find a similar "blame Whitey" discourse, when deployed by white
> commentators like Tim Wise, insufferably annoying. But for some reason,
that I
> can't quite put my finger on, this just rings true to me.)
> 
> 
> 
>       ... The reason for my silence on 9/11 is that I am not only Muslim.
I am also
> American. I am also white. I am male and heterosexual. However, I am not
asked,
> as an American, to reflect on the yearly anniversary of our atomic bombs
falling
> upon Japan, or our countless military interventions throughout the world.
There is
> no date on the calendar for me, as a white person, to demonstrate that I
have
> properly reflected on slavery and the generations of inequality and naked
white
> sadism between the slave era and our own unjust present; we could
potentially
> have such a day, but often turn it into shallow self-congratulation. As a
white
> person, I am not asked to consider the wanton murders of young black men
by
> white cops or white civilians, or the white terrorism of shootings in
gurudwaras, as
> directly relevant to my identity. Nor do I have a designated anniversary
for
> reflection, as a straight man, on the horrifying statistics of rape or the
ways in
> which heterosexism makes this country unsafe for so many.
> 
>       As a Muslim, however, people do expect me to show evidence of my
soul-
> searching over a single event, and I am regularly instructed by popular
media to
> imagine 9/11 as a cancer within my own self. Journalists ask me about
Islam’s
> “crisis” as though it’s a private demon with whom I must personally
wrestle every
> day; meanwhile, my whiteness remains untouched and unchallenged by the
> decade of hate crimes that have followed 9/11. Journalists don’t often ask
whether
> “white tradition” can be reconciled to modern ideals of equality and
pluralism, or
> whether the “straight male community” is capable of living peacefully in
America.
> When it comes to my participation in America, my whiteness and maleness
are far
> more likely than my Islam to wound others, and thus perhaps more urgently
in
> need of “reform” or “enlightenment” or whatever you say that Islam needs.
Again,
> this is only if numbers matter ...
> 
> 
> http://www.vice.com/read/the-innocence-of-white-people
> 
> --
> "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen
> lytlað."

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