News from the Smithsonian Institution -- Are You Suffering from Whiteness?

Sunny said:
I don't think a simple yes or no applies here. Some of the points in the bulleted items are pretty accurate for white people and probably no one else. Some of them are so general that they are meaningless. (Most people are able to choose to spend most of their time with their own race, that isn't only limited to white people. Not saying they should, just that everybody has that choice. These days, people of all races are represented in every way conceivable on TV. And so on.)

And that's the trouble with big, sweeping generalizations like this. It is based on partial truths, but carries them way over the line. That chart sounds ridiculously dated to me. It depicts an America that was presented to us as children in school. I really doubt that anyone is describing America any more in those terms (thank goodness), unless the far-right extremes of Christian conservatism are considered the norm. The ideas shown in that chart made me think of the reading textbooks I grew up with, "Dick and Jane," etc. The America shown to kids in those books pretty much matched the narrow, mean-spirited description in that chart. But that was the prevailing stereotype of what it meant to be an American back in the mid-20th century! Come on, guys, even us ignorant, egotistical white people have advanced, at least somewhat, since then!

I like the NMAAHC, have visited, and was very impressed by it. But I think this exhibit needs to polish up its accuracy, if it's supposed to be representing the America of today and not 75 years ago.
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The infographic I posted is particularly flawed because it presents assertions and opinions as settled matters of fact. There aren't any statistics behind many of these claims, and many are nonsensical. White people "don't show emotions" in communications? Really? Ever been on Twitter?
 
Yes, the history of this nation is disgusting, but it is our history.
We need our statues, we need a understanding of how economics determines
the class structure and we need to understand slavery-and how it demanded specific responses to all situations.

Why do we Think and Act the way we do?
The post on the injustice in this nations help us understand the problem;
no, we know and have know of the problems in this nation,
NOW, tell me what you are going to do about it, what have you done about the problems in the past?

The demonstrations , after a few weeks, irrigate me.
Repetitive behavior irritates me.
Yet, here I set typing a post that no one will benefit from.

I'm going to go out and microaggress my cat.
 
Where I live, it is saturated with "whiteness". Those who exemplify the infographic come from Western Europe. Those of us from the former Eastern Bloc are treated as the "other" because we don't line up with their customs. Yes we're all socialists out to destroy the Republic.
 
imo: This chart, "Aspects and Assumptions of whiteness" is the most RACIST and MISINFORMED piece of information I've yet read. And, it paints women as subordinates. It depicts INDEPENDENCE, hard work, promptness and self-reliance as being terrible things!
I find this document (graphic) deeply offensive on many levels.
 
Pepper said:
Okay, maybe not 100% accurate. Generally accurate. And no, placing the shoe on the other foot is racist. Being white IS a privilege whether you want to admit it or not. Being born white is winning a lottery at birth. Whites have forever used "attributes" of black people as an excuse to keep a foot on their necks for long enough. It's time we face it, once and for all.
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Jeez, I never thought I was privileged ….If you had my backround, I wasn't privileged I'm all Italian ....I don't know if you even know what
people did to the Italian's that came to our country....I have a book that my Dad wrote me before he died....They called my Dad Slum...And
Black...My Dad was very brown....He had to take care of his family cause his drunken father was hit by a car in the street from his home...
Grandma had 3 sons and 8 daughters....My Dad could only go to the 8th grade...He had to work....And that work was building roads
in New Jersey....So when my Dad joined the National Guard he took care of the Armory....My Dad would bring his friend Rachester for
dinner, and many other guy's cause they loved my Mom's Italian Cooking....My Dad never had a privilege and to this day I am not privileged...
I'm just happy to be in the USA....I was lucky to find a Man that didn't have a privilege in his bone....We are still married 55 years this August...
We didn't ever get a lottery at birth....And we worked for what we have....So don't tell me I was privliged….And another thing, we found out
after our ancestors died they did have Black ancestors....I don't know how back in time, but it was told to us by our cousins....
.So that's why my Dad was called, Blacky....He didn't mind it at all....I'm white as can be...My Mom was white as can be....My brother was
dark....But he also passed away....I'm really finding out all of this after all of the ancestor's passed away....
You have an attitude....
 
Gaer said:
imo: This chart, "Aspects and Assumptions of whiteness" is the most RACIST and MISINFORMED piece of information I've yet read. And, it paints women as subordinates. It depicts INDEPENDENCE, hard work, promptness and self-reliance as being terrible things!
I find this document (graphic) deeply offensive on many levels.
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That's the whole point of it, to name it. It's not in agreement, it's in opposition.
 
JimBob1952 said:
The infographic I posted is particularly flawed because it presents assertions and opinions as settled matters of fact. There aren't any statistics behind many of these claims, and many are nonsensical. White people "don't show emotions" in communications? Really? Ever been on Twitter?
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I don't do twitter or anyother nonsense stuff...Only here and another forum.....
 
JimBob1952 said:
Let's think about this for a minute. A Smithsonian website includes this infographic, which is full of absurd stereotypes, ridiculous generalizations and blindingly obvious observations:



Talking About Race: Whiteness and White Culture



Am I the only person on SF who finds this to be outrageous and so, so wrong?
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This is a very generalization of white people in America, that's for sure. We could sit and argue all day long about what's right and wrong about it. We are each different in one way or another. Some of the dialogue, I don't even understand. And, where did this come from? Did someone take like 5000 white people and have them fill out a questionnaire and then somehow come to a consensus for the answers? It's definitely not based on any science that I am aware of. Interesting for sure, but too deep for me to continue to think about.
 
911 said:
This is a very generalization of white people in America, that's for sure. We could sit and argue all day long about what's right and wrong about it. We are each different in one way or another. Some of the dialogue, I don't even understand. And, where did this come from? Did someone take like 5000 white people and have them fill out a questionnaire and then somehow come to a consensus for the answers? It's definitely not based on any science that I am aware of. Interesting for sure, but too deep for me to continue to think about.
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That was sort of my point. It's a gross generalization, unsupported by statistics or research of any sort. Anyway, the Smithsonian has taken it down, although much of what remains in the discussion about "Whiteness" is equally stupid.
 
JimBob1952 said:
That was sort of my point. It's a gross generalization, unsupported by statistics or research of any sort. Anyway, the Smithsonian has taken it down, although much of what remains in the discussion about "Whiteness" is equally stupid.
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Well, I can relate to a few pieces of it, so the more that I thought about it, I realized that I am sure that some of my black friends could also. That's what made me realize that there was no science to it.

I have heard about "White Privilege" for years. If anyone was to ask me if I agreed with it, my answer would be, "Yes and no" But, not using the chart shown here. I can remember way back when, I would hear people talking and someone would say, "Being born black is like having two strikes against you even before you get to the plate." It's a poor analogy, using baseball as a gauge for a person's social standing, but I got the drift.

So, where do we go from here?
 
Plus, I don't see anyone else reacting to how dated the stereotype is. This might have been a lot more accurate about 75 years ago.

Example: In the original post, here's one item on the list of what white people can count on:

I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

Think about that for a moment. Are they saying that there are no black doctors, teachers, cops, FBI agents, lawyers, social workers, wealthy people, politicians, pilots, technology workers, talk show hosts (and hostesses), athletes, entertainers, or Presidents of the US to be seen on TV? All of those people are white?

And all the bad guys, criminals, domestic workers, farmhands are black?

The idea of being "widely represented" was probably a novelty in the early days of TV. But those days are long gone. The whole list is so overstated that it loses any credibility.
 
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Sunny said:
Plus, I don't see anyone else reacting to how dated the stereotype is. This might have been a lot more accurate about 75 years ago.

Example: In the original post, here's one item on the list of what white people can count on:

I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

Think about that for a moment. Are they saying that there are no black doctors, teachers, cops, FBI agents, lawyers, social workers, wealthy people, politicians, pilots, technology workers, talk show hosts (and hostesses), athletes, entertainers, or Presidents of the US to be seen on TV? All of those people are white?

And all the bad guys, criminals, domestic workers, farmhands are black?

The idea of being "widely represented" was probably a novelty in the early days of TV. But those days are long gone. The whole list is so overstated that it loses any credibility.
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I didn't mention it specifically, but it's part of what I meant in a previous post- in some areas, some of the topics in the infographic aren't "outdated" at all. The nonsense about status, power, and authority, for example. Approaches that were entirely unfamiliar to some of us even in the distant past are still "alive and well" in some areas.
 
JimBob1952 said:
Hmmm....the "born beautiful" thing may explain my lack of success. I always thought it was because I was lazy.
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Trouble is, when you are beautiful, whatever the colour of your skin, people have expectations which you can't always live up to. Plain girls do have some advantages over their prettier sisters.
 

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