Sergeant Hustle said:
Either way, I always enjoy playing the devil's advocate. I ususally argue the other side (the side that the minority generally argues) to any situation whether I completely agree or disagree because you can never know your argument if you don't really understand the other side. Being in radio I am forced look at things from all perspectives and really learn a lot about a lot of different issues.
But see this is a non sequitur because 1. you are a minority(or at least not full white) or you *identify* minority and 2. depending on the situation and local climate, the "non-mainstream minority view" may actually be the mainstream view.
You could look at the big picture of America and say yes we see this gigantic, patriarchal, racist, oppressive system which squelches the minority viewpoint, the non-Bush viewpoint, the woman viewpoint, etc. However, who today largely influences the politics of America? White males, right? How many white male Republicans would be considered on the cultural "cutting edge"? Who holds more sway in the mind of the people, Chris Rock or Owen Wilson? What kind of culturally or intellectually dominating white men do you see among the youth culture of today? As a matter of fact, do you see a huge amount of white people dominating popular music or film? I don't. Even Justin Timberlake, a highly regarded musician in the pop charts, (haha) is still seen as paling in comparison to black performers. He is kind of "Man Lite", the sweetener with less calories. I personally think he's a fuckin pussy, but mine is a bit more harsh than the general viewpoint.
In any case I'm becoming tangential here. The minority viewpoint is often heard "less", at least in some cases, in our society today. But among mainstream and left-leaning white people, there is a huge realization of this fact, and efforts have and are being put into the correction of this, almost to a point where in literature, music, thought, etc., the 'speaker', and the card that speaker is able to play as a claim to legitimacy, almost matters more now than the message, a kind of cultural affirmative action.
Yes, we have Rush Limbaugh, and Bill O'Reilly, and whoop di whoop, but these guys are slowly on the edge of fading out. New voices will soon emerge, the faces of which very much changing with the times. I almost see your viewpoint- "I am minority I will be and am heard less", as antiquidated. I, as a white male, feel very underrepresented, but not on the basis of race, on the basis of culture. I don't highly identify with hip-hop or rap, and I also am not into the pussy ass whiteboy bands that are on MTV these days. I find nothing of interest on TV, I hear nothing of value on the radio...which leads me here, to the internet, so I can express a viewpoint and filter out what I take in.
On the surface, as a whiteboy, I should look around and say "Hey, this world is geared towards me! This good country is created in my image, and run by my fellow brothers!" But that's not my mindset. One could claim all sorts of advantages I have, all sorts of reasons why I am not disenfranchised or disconnected, but that doesn't mean shit to me. Just as racism is as intangible as a glass ceiling or an inheld view, the "white advantage" and the "white viewpoint" is as far from me as it could be. I scored higher on the SATs than two friends of mine who were Latino, yet I was denied admission to the same college we all applied for. Before I learned to speak well and defend myself, I had to basically sit back and eat shit in class and school, especially when matters of race were discussed.
The area in which I live is very liberal. The teachers in school would go so out of their way to "accomodate" minority students that the students sometimes felt uncomfortable. Some kids took advantage of this fact, but others got the nagging feeling that they weren't being honestly evaluated. My friend once said an answer in class that was such incredible bullshit I had to hold back laughter, and the teacher praised him for it, while gently adding that it was in fact wrong. If it was me or someone else the teacher would have made a funny comment or some such. My friend was very cognizant of this, and it was a source of irritation.
The whole "minority is minority" mentality often produces this same kind of false empathy and uneasy hesitation between black and white people. I've been to jail, I used to sell, I've seen whiteboys who sure as fuck did not grow up in Beverly Hills, or reap any benefits of the white advantage. If you look at most successful black people in any area *besides politics*, they did not "Jesse Jackson" their way to the top. They were just as disconnected as a black person in white america as I am with piercings, satanist beliefs, and thick scars on both wrists. What is really at stake is the New Generation versus the Old. If you want to make it White Vs Black, fuckin Spy vs Spy, you can. The seeds of racial division are latent in our society. Touting the "minority viewpoint", ignoring class, cultural and philosophical divions in society is a prime way to do that.
None of my friends hold the "Black viewpoint", or the "Mexican viewpoint", on anything. We feel that the kind of thick racialism that permeates minority cultures is just as salient as the supposed latent racism of every white person in America. But you can stay in the 70s, or the 80s, with your "minority viewpoint", if you choose to. Being white, I am not a member of some country club that I can just walk right back into when I feel like it. The elite in our society exist to perpetuate their own success, not that of their race. I highly doubt that Bill Gates or Larry Ellison frequently use the "N" word in daily conversation, and daily plot with David Duke to uplift the white race.
Racism is created when minorities ignore commonalities and choose to racialize and segregate themselves because of their marginality and dissolution in society. You can jump on that boat as well, and conjure up more of the white beast you are trying to attack, or you can see that there is a new generation that does not see along color lines, and realize where the real struggle lies.
Believe it or not, this whiteboy feels nothing in common with Bill O'Reilly, and I don't listen to The Goo Goo Dolls, or watch Frasier, or gay ass Friends. And I'm not disconnected because I choose to be...I'm disconnected because I simply am. Through my experience my division is just as imperative and unending than the different skin pigmentations which supposedly divide our society today.
Which brings me back to the fact that the more you know, the more negative things you see come to the surface. All that glitters ain't gold.
If you need reason to worry, or be sad, or be outraged, it will always be there. The collective wail of suffering and injustice in our world is so loud it's deafening. We accept it as an everyday fact of life in the name of our own sanity. So just be American, have a beer, and watch some WWF. The world will be cold, harsh, and cruel in the morning. Thank you, have a nice day.
