re: My White Problem -- And Ours

>>>>> "russell" == russell harris <[email protected]> writes:

  russell> Hello Mr. Kendall: Thanks to the gods of the internet that
  russell> you are still posting your leftist, whining drivel...

  russell> The entertainment value alone is beyond description...

I'm glad you enjoy it.

  russell> This is in large part due to your inability to deal with
  russell> the facts and everyday reality...

Which facts and reality am I unable to deal with? You never say, and
I'm curious.

Surely the 'facts and everyday reality' to which you refer isn't
described by the quote below from my piece, most of which is just a
quote from Ashcroft's public proclamations of neoconfederate loyalty.

Even you have to concede, I suspect, that Ashcroft did a *complete*
flip flop in the Senate! How embarassing it must be for your crowd. He
put all that time and effort into opposing desegregation, opposing
black and women judges, a gay ambassador -- all that work and he has
to repudiate it publicly.

  russell> I.E. from your commentary, "My White Problem - And Ours"...
  russell> "(Ashcroft, among his other confused and debased
  russell> views, claims that secession and civil war in service of
  russell> slavery's perpetuation are honorable, not perverse ends:

  russell> Your magazine also helps set the record straight. You've
  russell> got a heritage of doing that, of defending Southern
  russell> Patriots like Lee, Jackson, and Davis.  Traditionalists
  russell> must do more. I've got to do more. We've all got to stand
  russell> up and speak in this respect, or else we'll be taught that
  russell> these people were giving their lives, subscribing their
  russell> sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted agenda
  russell> (Southern Partisan; emphasis added).

  russell> Extolling the virtues of the Confederacy, with or without
  russell> criticism of slavery or Jim Crow segregation, is a
  russell> remarkable enactment of White privilege, especially from a
  russell> Senator and future US Attorney General. I wonder if
  russell> Ashcroft's pledge to "do more" to defend "Southern Patriots
  russell> like Lee, Jackson, and Davis" will include doing less to
  russell> uphold the law, including civil rights. The scornful
  russell> neglect of labor laws by the Reagan administration during
  russell> the 1980s offers a chilling precedent.)"

  russell> Being white is definitely your problem but I'm happy to say
  russell> that I'm glad I'm white and have no guilt about it...

Yes, being White is one of my problems, which I try to work on
overcoming every day. Do you generally not suffer from guilt when you
benefit from the oppression of others, or is it just in this case?

  russell> The fact that you don't know that the Civil War was a war
  russell> of succession over the problem of "states' rights" tends to
  russell> make the column even more entertaining...

The fact that you berate me for not falling prey to the historically
inane "Lost Cause" school of civil war historical revisionism is funny
enough; that you do so from the right, a viewpoint that's obsessed
over what it takes to be historical revisionism for years, is
*classic*.

Were you also happy when -- surpassing anything Earl Warren ever did
to warrant 'impeach earl warren' roadside signs throughout the south
-- Scalia and Rehnquist engaged in despicable judicial activism to
hand the election to George Bush? I mean, judicial activism is bad
when it helps black folks but good when it helps George Bush, right?

  russell> Again thanks for posting it and see if you can get over the
  russell> problem of your "whiteness"...

Oh, come now, surely you can muster a more robust sarcasm that that?
Pretty weak and tepid, doncha think?

  russell> Oh and one more thing, if you are one of those jumping on
  russell> the "reparations train" make sure your reparations payments
  russell> have, "guilt trip" written all over it...

*Ooh*, you've had the Rush Limbaugh Advanced Course!

Kendall Clark
-- 
Treason to whiteness is loyalty to humanity.