White is the color of the canvas on which we paint diversity....

[Skidmore]

so some Americans think. Being white is somehow construed as a passive condition, when it has been historically an excuse for active and agressive political and social oppression of other groups within and outside of the nation. White culture has historically been viewed as the norm...an absence of color...a neutral backdrop on which all other human experience can be projected in sharp relief. It has not been viewed as a distinct color with an accompanying culture all its own. Throughout much of US history, whiteness has been associated with power and privilege, and there are white people who make assumptions about other groups from the perspective of a white culture they do not recognize as even existing. Stepping outside of that culture to recognize the value and contributions of the "others" in our nation can becomes a threat to a well ensconced worldview in some circles. Whiteness is not the backdrop on which the universe is painted. It is one color among hundred of other hues and values. Until we recognize the beauty of the pallette, the sharp lines of divisiveness will not soften or blend.

[astonamous]

1. Very well put...thank you!

Trudy
www.richardpryor.com

[Lost-in-FL]

2. Bravo!

:applause:

[annabanana]

3. The fish is the last to discover water....

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. . .

It's not necessarily evil, just ignorant or uninformed. A thoughtful person will admit to the color of the canvas if it's pointed out to them. Not to adjust their behavior in light of this new information, however, makes them culpable.

[Skidmore]

4. Yes, indeed.

[Catherine Vincent]

5. Nice!

Thank you!

[sweetheart]

6. silence is the present without assertions

shoosh, don't talk about racism, nobody wants to hear it, gerrymandering is not questioned,
the drugs war is not scorned for being a thinly veiled state racism, and the gross inequalities
in our world across racial lines, are painted over with splooge, not white, not black, but
money, painted on green.

[MADem]

7. I am no scientist

But I honestly thought that white was a combination of all colors. When you put white light through a prism, you get a rainbow. http://www.astrosociety.org/education/publications/tnl/35/rainbow.html

Maybe we need white folk to channel their inner prisms!

Eventually the Pat Buchanans are gonna have to deal with and get used to an increasingly diverse America. If they don't like it, too damn bad. Maybe those types should get used to the fact that despite our outward differences, we're all pretty close when you get down to DNA.

[Sparkly]

8. K&R

Excellent post. :thumbsup:

(Similarly, in many ways our culture sees being male as the "norm," and female the "other.")

:kick:

[CollegeDUer]

9. I think you're right. Assimilation is not tolerance

Sure many immigrants can be treated well if they assimilate and become exactly like us. But if they can't practice their own religion, cultures, languages, and ways of life -- well then it's still bigotry, discrimination, and racism. It's no success if the foreigners just become exactly like white americans to fit in.