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Tagg Romney: Example of White Privilege?
- Thread starter MWS Natural
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Devolution
Member
Well the fear of black neighborhoods I'd lay at the feet of misinformation and the media. The only time I ever heard of various neighborhoods while living in the Bay Area was when some innocent bystander died due to stray bullets. There is definite undercurrent of fear of say Oakland because of that kind of reporting. There's rarely ever coverage of community events or anything to balance the story so to speak, so everyone who doesn't know better goes around thinking Oakland is a place you go if you want to be the next innocent bystander death. This kind of media feeds into avoiding these places at all costs and no outside funds flow through the coffers. So the area remains poor and in disrepute.
The only time this changes is when the area gets gentrified or discovered and the economically worse off get an even smaller chunk of a city they were once confined to thanks to racism in housing loans from the 50s on. You got white flight to the quiet suburbs while minorities were left to rot under slumlords and it was extremely difficult to integrate into the burgeoning middle class. Americans in general rarely talk about this, ignore that wealth disparity context and some people are convinced we're post racial now, especially with a black president. There is a kind of deaf ears approach to race talk or an extreme defensiveness that someone somewhere is being called racist when nothing of the sort is even happening.
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Where is the counter example? If you want to posit that the reaction was based on white privelidge, you need to provide some counter examples. Otherwise you are preempting the supposed bias and being guilty of the exact thing you are complaining about.
For the record, I think the number of people who blame white people for being so white all the time is minuscule at best.
We are much more likely to get worked up over people who deny that it exists, of which this thread contains a fair number.
Alligatorjandro
Banned
The thing that stands out to me is he didnt want to hit him because Secret Service was there.
Devolution
Member
Would you care to elaborate on Black Privilege?
IHaveCandy
Banned
Saying "I wanted to punch him" is not a threat.
demosthenes
Member
Realistically. Obama's kids are like 6 and 10. Romney's son is 41. If Obama's kids said it I actually think it would be seen as cute as the girls not liking someone attacking their dad. Children != 41 year old man. If Obama had a child from 20-40 I definitely agree.
We get to say "nigga" whenever we damn well please
Are you always this dumb or is there a contest going on that I'm not aware of?
Jmanunknown
Member
This guy is a fool his dad is running for president he's a grown man and his first reaction to the president of the country calling his dad a liar(which is true) is to want to run down the aisle and punch the president in the face. Wtf is wrong with him he is a grown man with kids. Its not like the president said anything offensive or that was not true.
Deified Data
Banned
Upon review, I just see a lot of people denying that it applies in this instance, which I consider to be a huge difference from denying it exists, period.
Edit: Nevermind.
I'm not sure Dennis implied that such a thing existed, but I won't put words in his mouth.
Fair enough, though perhaps could have been presented more clearly.
If Obama had a son, and that son said he wanted to punch McCain in 2008, it would've been the end of Obama's campaign and probably his political career.
methane47
Member
"Obama has raised violent kids, how can he raise this country"
Alligatorjandro
Banned
That son would have been jailed and executed.
I do not think there is any Black Privilege nor do I think there is any such thing as White Privilege.
Using the term 'White Privilege' is a way to invalidate arguments made by people who happen to be white.
It is an attempt to have debates where some participants opinions are not worth as much or as legitimate because they have 'Privilege'.
It is a poisonous concept.
Devolution
Member
You honestly don't think that white people hold advantages over blacks?
Must be nice to live in that bubble of yours.
Zoramon089
Banned
Pretty sure Kanye just saying W doesn't care about black people got WAY more attention than this
Some of the people in this thread
IHaveCandy
Banned
A threat is declaring an act that you will do, sometimes based on what the potential victim does or doesn't do. Simply saying that at one point you wanted to hit somebody is not threatening that person.
la flama blanca
Banned
At what point did white people start getting so butthurt about stuff like this? You are WHITE, for christs sake.
What kind of privilege was Michelle Obama cashing in in '08?:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/04/barackobama
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/may/04/barackobama
Alligatorjandro
Banned
What?
D
Deleted member 1235
Unconfirmed Member
something bothers me badly about that guy.... his face.
how old is he? 13, or 85. I can't tell.
how old is he? 13, or 85. I can't tell.
IHaveCandy
Banned
"If you don't shut up, I'm going to kick your ass!" is a threat.
"Yesterday you were being really annoying and wouldn't shut up. It really made me want to hit you." is not a threat.
Baconsammy
Banned
Articles like this one are why I often feel embarrassed to be a liberal. Fortunately not nearly as often as if I were a republican.
Can't blame him for wanting to hit Obama. Obama had just beaten the shit out of his dad in front of 65 million people. That's gotta sting.
Can't blame him for wanting to hit Obama. Obama had just beaten the shit out of his dad in front of 65 million people. That's gotta sting.
Being female, and using an exaggerated saying instead of an actual threat of violence. And pushing forth the notion that she was kidding, instead of saying that the only thing holding her back is the presence of secret service.
IHaveCandy
Banned
Well we don't know since it hasn't happened. You can't make comparisons with hypothetical examples.
faceless007
Member
The kind that takes a long, in-depth article about Michelle Obama researched over many days and over many interviews going over many subjects, and uses that quote as the headline.
Rather good example of the point, I think. That's what happens in the media when they hear a "threat" of violence from a black person. But from a white person? Well...
Bulbo Urethral Baggins
Banned
Finally some common sense around here. Also, he laughed before he said it. It was clear all along he was joking. This is just about the dumbest thread I've seen since coming to this site.
la flama blanca
Banned
Being hispanic, but also having white skin has allowed me to experience how being white has it's privileges. On the flipside, I've also been segregated against when someone associated me with being hispanic. You really don't live in the outside world if you have this way of thinking.
Jmanunknown
Member
Even if it was a joke it was stupid and never clarified as a joke by him which makes it really stupid to say when his dad is running for president.
Would you kindly GTFO off neogaf with your reasonable posts? Thanks </sarcasm>
Geesh, some of you people...the dude was joking around about someone calling his Dad a liar and how he would respond. Geesh.
Some of you really need to lighten up.
Agreed, it was a stupid thing to say, but he was not advocating violence against the president of the united states.
faceless007
Member
You are both assuming the controversy is over what Tagg said. This demonstrates that you did not actually read the article.
Edit: to be fair, the thread title and first paragraph rather muddies the waters about exactly what the author is referring to. So I can understand some confusion as to what is actually at issue.
Baconsammy
Banned
Which privilege is it if Candy Crowley had a son, who after witnessing Romney treat her poorly during the debate said he wanted to beat the shit out of him? It's probably a normal reaction to seeing a loved one getting treated badly. Plus he was kidding. I'm not a Romney fan in the slightest, but I'm even less a fan of race baiting. This article is stupid.
Half and half
Member
Dumb thing for him to say but it's a non-issue overall.
I'm a lot more offended by Mitt's comments that being a Mexican would make thing easier on him.
I'm a lot more offended by Mitt's comments that being a Mexican would make thing easier on him.
MWS Natural
Member
Excerpt of the interview added to the OP.
The article is still talking about what Tagg said, and race baited it into "Whtie Priviledge."
Sure a conversation can be held about White Priviledge, but this comment is a weak attempt to get there.
Do you really want to know?
Probably not, but here I go, breaking it down for you anyway, because this? This is an intersectionality issue.
If Obama had two white sons, and one of them said he wanted to punch McCain in the face, they would be Dumb White Kids. This would not immediately help Obama's case, but it wouldn't necessarily hurt him that much. In the long term, though, if these Dumb White Kids were actually smart, they could use this to their advantage -- the Kennedys are essentially a huge pile of Dumb White Kids.
If Obama had two white DAUGHTERS, and one of them said she wanted to punch McCain in the face, they would be Crazy White Bitches. This would be somewhat damaging to Obama, but you can still get away with being a Crazy White Bitch in many parts of the country. California, for example, values and embraces Crazy White Bitches. In terms of a national campaign, though, she'd have to apologize right away, at a somber press conference, wearing a dress, and then we probably wouldn't see her in public for like a year. (Note that Malia and Sasha, by contrast don't make public appearances basically ever, and certainly never make statements.)
If Obama had two black sons, and one of them said he wanted to punch McCain in the face, they would be Angry Black Youths. All of Obama's personal and moral characteristics would be called into question for having produced such a child. In fact, countless attacks have been mounted on Barack Obama over the last four or five years that can be summed up as "Barack Obama knows some Angry Black Youths." He would never win the Presidency. In 2008 I would've said that America was fifty years away from electing an Angry Black Youth sympathizer. Obama's success, and Deval Patrick at the DNC, give me a little more hope, but I still think it's going to be at least ten years.
But Obama has two black daughters. And -- follow me here -- they're attractive, quiet and not too obviously muscular. That's good, because if all three of those things weren't true they would be Sassy Black Ladies. Fortunately, if a Sassy Black Lady says she's going to punch somebody in the face people don't really take it seriously. Unfortunately, Obama would have trouble winning the Presidency if he were closely associated with an outspoken and obvious Sassy Black Lady, because people don't take them seriously. The big problem here is that, if you read Dreams From My Father, it becomes clear that Michelle Obama is, in fact, a Sassy Black Lady -- which is why she works very very hard to present herself differently in public. The "whitey tape" is an example of the persistent idea that Michelle is secretly Sassy. The article you quoted is an attempt to drag Michelle all the way through Sassy Black Lady and into Angry Black Woman, which is similar to Angry Black Youth -- less intimidating, because people don't take women seriously, but more infuriating, because women are supposed to act in a way that makes it easy not to take them seriously. (Observe Serena Williams to see how people constantly fight over which side of the Angry/Sassy line she falls on.)
Obama's actual daughters present themselves as Demure Black Women. Michelle used to do this, but as First Lady she can now just be Universal Mother Figure, which has actually worked really well for her and has probably done a good amount to help race relations all on its own. If Demure Black Women threatened to punch anybody in the face, it would be a huge shock because Demure Black Women aren't supposed to ever do that. They would zigzag wildly between Angry and Sassy in the nation's estimation and probably end up in Sassy. It would be a serious problem for Obama, but not as bad as if he had sons.
Does this help clarify how race relations work in America?
endresults
Member
I see what you did there.
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Some of the reactions in this thread remind me of an observation in a different online discussion a couple of weeks ago.
One of the problems with "race" in America is that American middle class whites, and especially white conservatives, tend to think "racism" means only one very explicit thing: a member of a majority race (like whites) attempting in directly inflict personal harm, oppression, or discrimination on a member of a minority.
By contrast, everybody else, and white liberals, tend to these days define "racism" as encompassing something more complex and often times difficult to explain in simplistic, sound-bite friendly terms: structural bias in society and culture, that result in a minority being unduly burdened in a way that a member of the majority is typically free from experiencing.
Whites tend to get very huffy and upset when racism is brought up, because over the last 30 years, public displays of outright racist attitudes and language have become extremely unfashionable and unacceptable with the exception of a few of the worst southern states. Because nobody is using direct racist language, because nobody is directly "running them lower colors out of town" with a pitchfork (again, unless you're in one of a few states...), this has allowed white people to sell themselves on a narrative. That we're now in a "post racial society". After all, nobody is going around calling black people That Bad Word (in public) and you don't typically see mobs of white people surrounding blacks in restaurants and pushing them out the door. We've solved that hold race thingy.
Further, because white people - even white people experiencing tough times - typically don't get to be on the receiving end of structural racism, of societal bias, it's mostly a fairy tale to them. It's just those "minorities who've already been giving so much, whining for more 'cause they see the chance to take it". Which is an exact expression I've heard from a white guy before, btw. And he was blissfully unaware that the very structure of the sentiment he was expressing was incredibly loaded with privilege - an implicit assumption that "those people" where only treated well on the pain of whites who had allowed them into the country club.
One of the problems with "race" in America is that American middle class whites, and especially white conservatives, tend to think "racism" means only one very explicit thing: a member of a majority race (like whites) attempting in directly inflict personal harm, oppression, or discrimination on a member of a minority.
By contrast, everybody else, and white liberals, tend to these days define "racism" as encompassing something more complex and often times difficult to explain in simplistic, sound-bite friendly terms: structural bias in society and culture, that result in a minority being unduly burdened in a way that a member of the majority is typically free from experiencing.
Whites tend to get very huffy and upset when racism is brought up, because over the last 30 years, public displays of outright racist attitudes and language have become extremely unfashionable and unacceptable with the exception of a few of the worst southern states. Because nobody is using direct racist language, because nobody is directly "running them lower colors out of town" with a pitchfork (again, unless you're in one of a few states...), this has allowed white people to sell themselves on a narrative. That we're now in a "post racial society". After all, nobody is going around calling black people That Bad Word (in public) and you don't typically see mobs of white people surrounding blacks in restaurants and pushing them out the door. We've solved that hold race thingy.
Further, because white people - even white people experiencing tough times - typically don't get to be on the receiving end of structural racism, of societal bias, it's mostly a fairy tale to them. It's just those "minorities who've already been giving so much, whining for more 'cause they see the chance to take it". Which is an exact expression I've heard from a white guy before, btw. And he was blissfully unaware that the very structure of the sentiment he was expressing was incredibly loaded with privilege - an implicit assumption that "those people" where only treated well on the pain of whites who had allowed them into the country club.
smh
Jackben
bitch I'm taking calls.
Because white people do have White Privilege. This is a fact, not an opinion. Denying it or ascribing it to be the same as being racist just makes you seem out of touch.
This assumes he would feel different about a white democrat incumbent President. I think that's kind of a leap.
sarcasm meter halted indeed.
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