Challenging racism in the media...

[loyalsister]

I am working with a group that is doing some serious anti-racism work. Anyone who has dealt with well meaning dinosaurs and disgusting bigots will enjoy this. Our group is called Race Matters Friends.

This starts with two editorials that tried to discredit us.

Human race trumps cultural divides

Regardless of your color, it is imperative to understand that the only “race” that matters is the human race — and that definition No. 3 must be everyone’s personal definition.

Race, folks, does not matter. Even the courts say so.

People matter. They are all precious in his sight. Any questions?

So name your group “People Matter,” and I’ll show up at your next meeting — at least long enough to see if you really mean it.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/arts_life/community/human-race-trumps-cultural-divides/article_ab778329-4d7f-5aac-ae9b-36becd001f6d.html

Next came an editorial by the owner of the paper. He said.....

Ol’ Clark
Race doesn’t matter

We can understand why some of today’s black citizens remember and react when they think they see vestiges of the old bigotry, but Clark has the most profound point of all: So long as any of us cling to divisive attitudes defined by ethnicity, our problems of assimilation will remain unsolved.

Clark has a legitimate example with Race Matters, Friends, but it won’t be fair to identify particular groups on either side as bearing the primary responsibility for reforming attitudes. Ideally, in some imaginary never-never time, all of us might come to believe race does not matter.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/opinion/the_tribunes_view/ol-clark/article_c7518a80-2bdb-5bdb-be5a-ed5fb8869f99.html?comments=focus

[loyalsister]

1. Some of our responses....

These are being published in the paper owned by Waters. The managing editor is on our side. He is publishing one LTTE after another that is slamming the owner of the paper. These are some of my favorites.

The time has passed for white people to be content with the suffering of others just to protect their own comfort. This is a strong community that can face racism and our legacy of racial injustice. And we must do it. Put your big boy pants on, Waters and Ol’ Clark, because we are not going away!

http://www.columbiatribune.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/fair-treatment-trumps-discomfort/article_fe3c29fc-b1db-5234-b7b0-5db31a54be7b.html

Privileged writers’ comments irksome

I found myself gravely disappointed as I read Bill Clark’s article on race and Hank Waters’ enthusiastic praise of what, when boiled down, amounts to a lumpy mass of colorblind ideology and white privilege. I am sure they had good intentions, but we know where that road can lead.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/privileged-writers-comments-irksome/article_ddd4eede-c86d-5e13-aa06-7695430b0e5e.html

Fair treatment trumps discomfort

Clark and Waters come from an era when those who look like them dominated our cultural narrative. That is changing as a broader spectrum of women and people of color are able to take the cultural microphone.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/whites-must-make-room-for-all-voices/article_4df1b4b1-b05b-5d7c-a8a0-5453ab1fa7bb.html

There are a few more to be found there. I never thought I would see anyone direct a harsh criticism of Waters and get published, let alone a series.

If you have something positive to add, feel free to offer comments to the tribune.

[Kind of Blue]

2. Thanks very much for the work your group is committed to.

[loyalsister]

3. Absolutely

It's hard work that white people, especially need to do. It's easy to be discouraged. What we are actually accomplishing is rare.

[MrScorpio]

4. "Race doesn't matter," from a white perspective, of course

One of the most prevalent aspects of white privilege is the entitlement to claim that it doesn't even exist.

In spite of their willingness to claim colorblindness, I bet that their tune would change mighty quick if they had to live lives of black people in our white supremacist society.

[loyalsister]

5. No doubt it would

I have wondered if they are so attached to that narrative because they see themselves as better than fellow white people while also maintaining the racial advantage?

[uponit7771]

6. Amen, its about time the US media stop normalizing racism