My friend just sent me this (to see what we thought, not because she agrees with the sentiment):

Don’t want to stir things up, but it makes one think…….

“WHITE ” Pride”

This is great. I have been wondering about why Whites are racists, and no other race is….. Proud to be White Michael Richards makes his point………….. Michael Richards better known as Kramer from TVs Seinfeld does make a good point. This was his defense speech in court after making racial comments in his comedy act..  He makes some very interesting points… Someone finally said it.  How many are actually paying attention to this? There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc. And then there are just Americans.  You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.  You call me ‘White boy,’ ‘Cracker,’ ‘Honkey,’ ‘Whitey,’ ‘Caveman’… and that’s OK. But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink .. You call me a racist. You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you… so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live? You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month.  You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah.  You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi. You have the NAACP.  You have BET… If we had WET (White Entertainment Television), we’d be racists.  If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists. If we had White History Month, we’d be racists. If we had any organization for only whites to ‘advance’ OUR lives, we’d be racists. We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.  Wonder who pays for that?? A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant. If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships… You know we’d be racists.. There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US.  Yet if there were ‘White colleges’, that would be a racist college. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights.  If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists. You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it.  But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists. You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist. I am proud… But you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists?? There is nothing improper about this e-mail.   Let’s see which of you are proud enough to send it on.  I sadly don’t think many will.  That’s why we have LOST most of OUR RIGHTS in this country.  We won’t stand up for ourselves! BE PROUD TO BE WHITE! It’s not a crime YET…. but getting very close! It is estimated that ONLY 5% of those  reaching this point in this e-mail, will pass it on.

So I thought I’d share my response with y’all

“It is estimated that only 5% of those reaching this point in this e-mail, will pass it on.”

That’s because it’s a racist pile of shit. Sorry, but it is. The only vaguely decent point in it is that we cannot say we are ‘proud’ to be white without being seen as racist, but to be honest I don’t think you should be ‘proud’ of being of any race, cos it’s not an achievement it’s natural.

The stuff about ‘black history month’ and all black colleges and the like is ridiculous. The fact is, we don’t NEED a white history month because every day it is white history that is given precedence. We don’t NEED scholarships specifically for white people because they are more encouraged to continue education. We don’t see it as racist for a white police officer to beat up a white criminal, because race doesn’t come into it. It doesn’t stop it being an issue if someone is abused by the police, it’s just not a matter of race. White people rob, carjack and shoot. It is not just black people, and if it is black people it is not entirely directed at white people. We don’t NEED a march for white people’s rights. We have all the rights. Well, white men do. White women come a close second. There is no need for protest when there is nothing to protest about.

It just reminds me of all the people (mainly men) who respond to feminism with ‘yeh but you’re sexist the other way, men are being oppressed by positive discrimination blah blah’ – like the girl from philosophy society at the beginning of the year who thinks that somehow white men have less rights than women because there are more laws stating the rights of women and people of colour. She didn’t stop to think that this is because white men (and white people generally) automatically have those rights in our society. They don’t need it written down to enforce it.

And no, it’s not ok to call some one a ‘cracker’ or any of those other names. Because that is racist. But that doesn’t make it ok for white people to be racist, not in the least. It just means that this is another issue that needs to be addressed.

Thoughts?

WordPress won’t let me embed the video (it hates me), so jump on over to Womanist Musings (which you all should read anyway) to watch it.

AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka on Racism and Obama. Truly inspirational stuff.