End of an era
posted by saurabh in Rice-ism |In response to Sonia Sotomayor’s old remark, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” Newt Gingrich said: “The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. Since then, some who want to have an open and honest consideration of Judge Sotomayor’s fitness to serve on the nation’s highest court have been critical of my word choice.”
Now, if you’re not mentally impaired, I would hope that Sotomayor’s comment seems sensible - that is, that life experience can teach you things, and hopefully Sotomayor’s (viz., a “wise Latina woman”) rather tortuous life course renders her capable of finer discernment. It certainly seems hyperbolic to label her statement “racist”, as if white males had suddenly become some sort of oppressed class, and Sotomayor’s appointment would inaugurate a reign of terror in which the white male is subjugated and brought to his knees.
Newt is one of a parade of white men we’ve seen trotted out recently, men who by all rights should be utterly disgraced and ignored, but whose voices are, paradoxically, magnified almost in inverse proportion to their degree of humiliation. Dick Cheney, for example, a man who left office with his approval rating in a sub-basement sometimes used as an adjunct circle of hell, a man whom even his supporters compare to Darth Vader, is given equal standing to broadcast a reprehensible, pro-torture viewpoint alongside the currently elected president.
What the hell is going on? It’s quite simple, I say: Whitey is nervous. A black man is president. He’s appointing Latina women as Supreme Court Justices, for God’s sake. And worse, these people aren’t interested in being subservient to any white overlord - to the contrary, they’re armed with an alarming amount of gravitas, such that any white male challenger is swept from the podium by a casual brush of their elbows. To the cartoonishly racist this is probably an alarming turn of events. So it’s time to grandstand, and counter those minorities with strong, white figures who can detract from their stolen authority, and win it back where it belongs.
Unfortunately for humanity, they’re not exactly correct. Whitey is still in charge, and the balance of power still rests in the hands of white males, as we’re seeing by their frantic exercise of it to correct the current perceived threat. Too late, though. The crown is slipping.
Lest this seem too positive a note for this blog, let me end with a quote from Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”:
[T]he oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors, or “sub-oppressors.” The very structure of their thought has been conditioned by the contradictions of the concrete, existential situation by which they were shaped. Their ideal is to be men; but for them, to be men is to be oppressors. This is their model of humanity.
The king is dead; long live the king.
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“this is the model of their humanity.”
for a long time in the rich west a soft-hearted vision of cultures among the global poor had them as an alternative to institutionalized vandalism.
so it’s interesting, right, that as the industrial revolution’s rewards really start distributing among the whole (much larger) population, the downsides are getting downright biblical.
maybe this means that history will remember whites as planetary criminals, because the story, driven by geography and technology to an extent, is turning toward a more equal society “cleaning up the white mess.”
important to remember that very white skin is a legacy of diet and location. so it’s a marker of early assumptions that way outgrew available space, over thousands of years. will it stay that way? i don’t think people are that superstitious anymore…?
At a time like this, this historical or hysterical moment, I think the true calling of all enthusiastically White people is reification of Whiteness, with a view to fratricide and increased paranoia. It won’t help them in any way, save perhaps aesthetically, but it’s a noble cause. What I’m getting at is I’d love to see a raging Dick Cheney shoot Newt Gingrich in the face. Later, they could kiss and make up and go on speaking tours in undisclosed locations, where they’d recount the legend of Virginia Dare for the edification of their undisclosed location-dwelling friends.