October 18, 2005
I have said so poorly what I have seen so clearly
by Lorraine Berry
So, last week, I was driving to work. It was raining, and the sky was puffy and bloated, despite the fact that it had been dripping rain for seven consecutive days. After living most of my life in Seattle, persistent rain doesn't bother me, but October rain in the Finger Lakes heralds something ominous: Winter's coming. The kinds of winters that test one's ability to come up with a synonym for "fucking cold."
I'm beginning to feel that inexorable trudge toward that barren state. The trees will be stark, the nights long, the sun a feeble invalid. But I digress. So, anyway.
It was raining on Friday. I was listening to "Democracy Now" on WEOS, and Amy Goodman played an address by Michael Eric Dyson. I must admit, Professor Dyson's words inspired me. I felt a lift, some respite from my increasingly pessimistic view of this kakistrocracy that we live in. So, in the spirit of spreading the message, here's a link to the fast transcript (typos included) of Professor Dyson's speech at the Unvarnished Truth Awards.
White supremacy is the conscious or unconscious belief or the investment in the inherent superiority of some, while others are believed to be innately inferior. And it doesn't demand the individual participation of the singular bigot. It is a machine operating in perpetuity, because it doesn't demand that somebody be in place driving. That's the vicious ingenuity of white supremacy. It has become institutional.
And so my own truth telling, as far as I'm able to muster up the courage to say what needs to be said, and that thing is on a continuum because all of us are made cowards by the realization that ultimately we have never said everything we're supposed to say. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I have said so poorly what I have seen so clearly." And that's the truth.
Posted by in Civil Rights, Class, Democracy, Epiphany, Hip Hop, Human Rights, Inspiration, Martin Luther King, Politics, Public Intellectuals, Race
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Say it loud, say it proud!
But is it just 'white supremacy'? How about just plain supremacy. Like the one that allows a black preacher to stand by a Robertson and a Dobson and condemn their his lesbian and gay kin because they have a moral supremacy over their deviant kin?
I don't think it is just about black and white. It's the lust for POWER that feeds the machine.
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Comment by: lorraine at October 19, 2005 10:25 AM
I agree with you, Liza. It's not just white supremacy; it is, for example, "hetero-supremacy," the belief in a norm that allows you to participate in a system where you reap benefits simply from being straight. It's why I've decided that I won't marry again--why should I benefit from marriage when my gay and lesbian friends cannot? It would be like attending a "whites only" country club.
Thanks for reminding me. I just happened to find Dyson inspiring.
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Comment by: liza at October 18, 2005 07:01 PM