
Racism and Privilege

I read about this a few years ago, somewhere else.
Generations ago, the American Indian Osage tribe was compelled to move. Not for the first time, white settlers pushed them off their land in the 1800s. They made their new home in a rocky, infertile area in northeast Oklahoma in hopes that settlers would finally leave them alone.
As it turned out, the land they had chosen was rich in oil, and in the early 20th century, members of the tribe became spectacularly wealthy. They bought cars and built mansions; they made so much oil money that the government began appointing white guardians to “help” them spend it.
Without even a hint of satire, a white Wisconsin legislator is actually trying to whitewash Black History Month by honoring more people who aren’t black than those who are.
Most Americans assume that the Thanksgiving holiday has always been associated with the Pilgrims, Indians, and their famous feast. Yet that connection is barely 150 years old and is the result of white Protestant New Englanders asserting their cultural authority over an increasingly diverse country. Since then, the Thanksgiving myth has served to reinforce white Christian dominance in the United States. It is well past time to dispense with the myth and its white nationalist connotations.
According to media reports, the man, 18-year-old Matthew Thomas Bernard, allegedly killed the wife, son and mother-in-law of Blake Bivens, who pitches for a minor league affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. And when police caught up with Bernard, he was naked and running for his life.
INTRO:
On May 8th, editors and creators in the comics industry awoke to an announcement in The New York Times that Oni Press—publisher of Scott Pilgrim, among other beloved indie books—would be merging with Lion Forge, a publisher largely built by black creators, and its parent company Polarity.
It was the kind of business maneuvering that rarely makes headlines outside of the comics industry. But inside the industry, layoffs from the merger kicked up a stir that has yet to die down: several of those jettisoned in the merger were queer women and women of color. Among others, the casualties from Lion Forge included their editor-in-chief Andrea Colvin and associate editor (and Eisner award-winning cartoonist) Christina “Steenz” Stewart. Those laid off from Oni Press included its one black editor, Desiree Wilson, while executive editor Ari Yarwood resigned a week later.
To put it indelicately, something might be off about freshman GOP Senator Amanda Chase. Healthy people aren’t terrified of their own citizens and don’t pack heat on the Senate floor.
A recent incident shows how off-kilter Chase is:
It’s 1830. You’re a poor Irish immigrant living in New York’s infamous Five Points slums. Penniless and uneducated, you’re viewed by affluent white society as every bit as inferior as the blacks you live among in overcrowded squalor.
As best as you can tell, you’ll never gain an ounce of status or wealth unless you can win the social acceptance of the Anglo elites. How do you convince them you’re white – a racial category that was still new and, they hoped, malleable – like them?