I've just completed Shelby Steele's new book A Bound Man - Why We Are Excited About Barack Obama and Why He Can't Win. He talks in great length about how we present ourselves to white america always through a mask. He says: "Whites have trouble reading blacks because we are always showing them only what we want them to see, always pushing them this way and that. We always have two narratives: what we tell each other and what we tell whites." This one sentence has caused me some trepidation and I initially scoffed that this isn't true of me as I'm all about transparency and authenticity but if I am honest with myself I would have to admit that I would more freely share "dirty laundry" if you will with other black people rather than whites. So I'm bummed that I haven't risen above Mr. Steele's contention. But after some 2 or 3 hours of soul searching I can't come up with another example so I won't judge myself too harshly.
It was a quick read and much more substantive than this little snippet -- it's just that one sentence gave me pause.
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Very interesting, and this is coming from a Southern Redneck Conservative, lol. I like your approach.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has certain "masks." Most of us perceive ourselves differently than do other people we interact with.
ReplyDeleteVictimology has been rewarded in this country for quite some time and that's why we have so much of it.
And it's not all, or even primarily racial, there are many whites who just don't god-dmaned want to work, who've figured out various scams that get them SSI monies, maybe a few civil judgments that allow them to live better than those on welfare, even though THEY themselves are even bigger "parasites" than any skill-less person on welfare.
I've said this for a long time, racial and ethnic identity is superficial....religion is what motivated most people to conflict in the past, while ideology is what motivates most people today.
That is why, when people are honest, Conservatives have far more in common with Conservatives of other groups and from foreign lands, than they do with Liberals of their own group, from their own hometowns.