What if Sarah Palin were Black? The Sequel (via thetart)"This is just one more example of white privilege in action: [Sarah] Palin’s actions do not blight her whole race; just like Jared Loughner’s actions don’t throw into question whether white men can be trusted with guns (compared to, say, attacks by Muslims, etc.).
By extension, Palin’s despicable behavior is in no way taken as a comment on white women as as a whole. In the United States, women of color are afforded no such luxury. They are marginalized both because of their gender and their race. Ultimately, to be a member of a racial minority in a society where Whiteness is the norm is to be collectively linked to strangers. For example, when white men go crazy, commit acts of political violence, try to kill police because Glenn Beck told them to, behave irresponsibly, or act with poor judgment, it is neither a comment on Whiteness nor on white men as a group. No, it is the deed of one person—an individual who has the privilege of embracing the “I” as opposed to the “we” of collective blame and responsibility.
As W.E.B. Du Bois famously asked, “how does it feel to be a problem?” Because of the shield that is Whiteness, white folk—and Sarah Palin in particular—have rarely (if ever) had to ask that question."
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
What If Sarah Palin Were Black? pt 2
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