The Good, Racist People
Options
Amotekun
Members Posts: 7,820 ✭✭✭✭✭
The Good, Racist People
By TA-NEHISI COATES
Published: March 6, 2013 310 Comments
Last month the actor Forest Whitaker was stopped in a Manhattan delicatessen by an employee. Whitaker is one of the pre-eminent actors of his generation, with a diverse and celebrated catalog ranging from “The Great Debaters” to “The Crying Game” to “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.” By now it is likely that he has adjusted to random strangers who can’t get his turn as Idi Amin out of their heads. But the man who approached the Oscar winner at the deli last month was in no mood for autographs. The employee stopped Whitaker, accused him of shoplifting and then promptly frisked him. The act of self-deputization was futile. Whitaker had stolen nothing. On the contrary, he’d been robbed.
Since the Whitaker affair, I’ve read and listened to interviews with the owner of the establishment. He is apologetic to a fault and is sincerely mortified. He says that it was a “sincere mistake” made by a “decent man” who was “just doing his job.” I believe him. And yet for weeks now I have walked up Broadway, glancing through its windows with a mood somewhere between Marvin Gaye’s “Distant Lover” and Al Green’s “For the Good Times.”
By TA-NEHISI COATES
Published: March 6, 2013 310 Comments
Last month the actor Forest Whitaker was stopped in a Manhattan delicatessen by an employee. Whitaker is one of the pre-eminent actors of his generation, with a diverse and celebrated catalog ranging from “The Great Debaters” to “The Crying Game” to “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.” By now it is likely that he has adjusted to random strangers who can’t get his turn as Idi Amin out of their heads. But the man who approached the Oscar winner at the deli last month was in no mood for autographs. The employee stopped Whitaker, accused him of shoplifting and then promptly frisked him. The act of self-deputization was futile. Whitaker had stolen nothing. On the contrary, he’d been robbed.
Since the Whitaker affair, I’ve read and listened to interviews with the owner of the establishment. He is apologetic to a fault and is sincerely mortified. He says that it was a “sincere mistake” made by a “decent man” who was “just doing his job.” I believe him. And yet for weeks now I have walked up Broadway, glancing through its windows with a mood somewhere between Marvin Gaye’s “Distant Lover” and Al Green’s “For the Good Times.”
Comments
-
In modern America we believe racism to be the property of the uniquely villainous and morally deformed, the ideology of trolls, gorgons and orcs. We believe this even when we are actually being racist. In 1957, neighbors in Levittown, Pa., uniting under the flag of segregation, wrote: “As moral, religious and law-abiding citizens, we feel that we are unprejudiced and undiscriminating in our wish to keep our community a closed community.”
A half-century later little had changed. The comedian Michael Richards (Kramer on “Seinfeld”) once yelled at a black heckler from the stage: “He’s a ? ! He’s a ? ! He’s a ? !” Confronted about this, Richards apologized and then said, “I’m not a racist,” and called the claim “insane.”
The idea that racism lives in the heart of particularly evil individuals, as opposed to the heart of a democratic society, is reinforcing to anyone who might, from time to time, find their tongue sprinting ahead of their discretion. We can forgive Whitaker’s assailant. Much harder to forgive is all that makes Whitaker stand out in the first place. New York is a city, like most in America, that bears the scars of redlining, blockbusting and urban renewal. The ghost of those policies haunts us in a wealth gap between blacks and whites that has actually gotten worse over the past 20 years. -
But much worse, it haunts black people with a kind of invisible violence that is given tell only when the victim happens to be an Oscar winner. The promise of America is that those who play by the rules, who observe the norms of the “middle class,” will be treated as such. But this injunction is only half-enforced when it comes to black people, in large part because we were never meant to be part of the American story. Forest Whitaker fits that bill, and he was addressed as such.
I am trying to imagine a white president forced to show his papers at a national news conference, and coming up blank. I am trying to a imagine a prominent white Harvard professor arrested for breaking into his own home, and coming up with nothing. I am trying to see Sean Penn or Nicolas Cage being frisked at an upscale deli, and I find myself laughing in the dark. It is worth considering the messaging here. It says to black kids: “Don’t leave home. They don’t want you around.” It is messaging propagated by moral people. -
The other day I walked past this particular deli. I believe its owners to be good people. I felt ashamed at withholding business for something far beyond the merchant’s reach. I mentioned this to my wife. My wife is not like me. When she was 6, a little white boy called her cousin a ? , and it has been war ever since. “What if they did that to your son?” she asked.
And right then I knew that I was tired of good people, that I had had all the good people I could take. -
Forest tried to steal a Hoagie? ? up bruh .
-
Nah Forrest is Black in a White world. He is a dignified Black Man in A white man's system...nothing burns his soul more.
Yea Forrest is ? up...but we're all ? up too. -
Amotekun's mom is a baldheaded scallywag with a rainbow weave
-
Ppl have all types of ways to call a ? a ? ..? with jounalism/writing degrees always try to glamourize ? ..hate is hate, period..? a person off and they will say whatever will ? you off...
And I knooooooow fam knew it was forrest whitaker...he's been in everything from fast times at ridgmont high to doing voice overs on american dad...fam was prolly tryin to be funny low key..
-
good+racist=how
-
Glamorizing is not the same as indepth analysis.
Whenever the subject of racism comes up white folks always come with the usual playbook of excuses
"not all of us are racist"
"its just a joke"
"I have black friends"
"my black friend didnt say it wa sracist"
I litany of excuses because white folks think that because they dont wear bed sheets and burn crosses or vote republican that they cannot be racist. They see racism as just callin someone a ? as opposed to participating in a deeply entrenched global system. White folks think racism is about hurting someone's feelings or putting dogs on someone. In short white folks don't know what the ? racism is because they don't experience it, therefore they normalize it and everyone else has to deal with it.
? . All. That. ? . -
good+racist=how
Its sarcasm but its telling as well.
A lot of white people consider themselves good moral people
while simultaneously believing and acting on racist ideas with no
internal conflict.
A lot of slave masters were good white ? fearing christians
so are a lot of kkk memebers
so are a lot of city council members and prison wardens and police
captains of industry see themselves as good people they are just doing what they
feel must be done and often what they do comes at the cost of people's lives homes lands and human dignity.
Often these people are non-white meaning not normal don't count, not as tragic. -
Race and religion thread
-
This isn't a race and religion thread. hasn't to do with any particular race. it's to do with everyday life.
-
-
This isn't a race and religion thread. hasn't to do with any particular race. it's to do with everyday life.
seriously?
c'mon son, let's not do this again....it's a good thread...leave it in race and religion... -
No. I put it where I want it. It's a good thread because it's exposed to traffic.
It's amazing the amount of nonsense ? threads that are allowed to populate "Grown and Sexy"
but serious topics get shuffled off into the corners because of its a certain topic.
"Pastor Preaching with ? Out" Grown and Sexy
"Racist Good People" Op Ed it the NY Times Race and Religion
Word?
Yalls ? stinks to high heaven. -
Word.......
But you will get better replies here........
? is stupid in the G&S.....
-
either pick another forum to post, or adhere to the ? you speak of bruh....
your choice -
@Du_Du post the rule I'm breaking besides your feelings.
If you can't post it then deal with your ? . -
I'll give you @Du_Du the rest of the day to find out what rule I'm violating by placing a topic where I want it to be placed. Any other mod feel free to step in and list what rule I am breaking that would cause me to be banned jailed restricted or what have you. Either its a rule or mods arbitrarily make up ? and enforce it. No two ways about it.
-
outside the net do you talk about this kind of topic everyday?
-
Outside the net I get deep as ? . I got something new to talk about everyday.
-
Outside the net I get deep as ? . I got something new to talk about everyday.
do you encounter du types that be like "this aint the right time or place bruh"? -
There's always "du" types. if there weren't his type around we'd have a lot more progress. ? like Du always want to pigeonhole serious conversation; to be relegated among those who think the same.
I am in no way shape or form interested in preaching to the choir or any other aspect of intellectual ? . I'm interested in disseminating information to those who would otherwise not be exposed to it. What I share is not common thought in fact many common thoughts are outright fallacies ad lies.
For a moderator to arbitrarily pigeonhole my topics into some dark dank corner is not only an offence to me but it is a robbery to the potential someones who may come in and gain some perspective if not just plant a seed.
Revolutions fail because of ? like "du" ? always wants to tote the company line even when there is no line keep ? from gettin out of that invisible but definitely real line. -
why, it is almost like the forum has subforums devoted to specific topics!but serious topics get shuffled off into the corners because of its a certain topic.
-
Show me the rule that says I can't put a thread where I want it to be. Thats all I want. Show that to me and I'll shut the ? up about it. However, I know there isn't a rule ? are just arbitrarily penalizing people for saying no and bruising their egos. @janklow Anything outside of that is invalid because "I told you so" is suitable only for toddlers.
