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                      ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP CONGRESS


                     SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2008


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Let's get real. Political partisanship aside, isn't Tim Wise right though? Anyone following the political posturing of either side can actually add to Tim Wise. 

Tim Wise's piece is calling our attention to the deceitful behaviors and actions that we need to be watchful of. Isn't it an aberration that a group that would cite membership in the PTA (when someone's first born was in elementary school) as evidence of executive experience while belittling community organizing and state, national and international stellar experience.

"Hypocrisy is only bad when it is improperly used." -George Bernard Shaw

--Emilie



----- Original Message -----
From: VERA R CROWELL <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 12:13 pm
Subject: Re: Fw: Tim Wise on Presidential politics and White Privilege
To: [log in to unmask]


> ***************************************************
> 
>                       ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP CONGRESS
> 
> 
>                      SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2008
> 
> 
> ***************************************************
> 
> You know, when we all realize that white privilege and institutional 
> racism have no political boundaries, we may actually begin to make 
> some progress in calling attention to and in removing these serious 
> impediments to the prosperity and success of people of color in this 
> nation. People are being blinded by their partisan glasses...and while 
> we're looking one way and pointing fingers, the people we 'trust' are 
> sneaking in the back door robbing us blind. 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Zainabu Kooistra <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 11:41 am
> Subject: Fw: Tim Wise on Presidential politics and White Privilege
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> 
> > ***************************************************
> > 
> >                       ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP CONGRESS
> > 
> > 
> >                      SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2008
> > 
> > 
> > ***************************************************
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > This is Your Nation on White Privilege
> >      By Tim Wise
> >      9/13/08
> > 
> >      For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, 
> 
> > or who are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, 
> perhaps 
> > this list will help.
> > 
> >      White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like 
> 
> > Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and 
> that 
> > of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to 
> 
> > judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," 
> even 
> > as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly 
> 
> > typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
> > 
> >      White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' 
> > redneck," like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if 
> 
> > anyone messes with you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk 
> > about how you like to "shoot shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a 
> 
> > responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be) rather 
> 
> > than a thug.
> > 
> >      White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges 
> in 
> > six years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed 
> out 
> > of, then returned to after making up some coursework at a community 
> 
> > college), and no one questions your intelligence or commitment to 
> > achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be viewed 
> as 
> > unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in in the first 
> 
> > place because of affirmative action.
> > 
> >      White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a 
> town 
> > smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a 
> state 
> > with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the 
> island 
> > of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and 
> people 
> > don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. 
> 
> > Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, 
> means 
> > you're "untested."
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to say that you support the words 
> 
> > "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good 
> enough 
> > for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be 
> > immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the 
> 
> > pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't 
> 
> > added until the 1950s--while if you're black and believe in reading 
> 
> > accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because the 
> > Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school, 
> > requires it), you are a dangerous and mushy liberal who isn't fit to 
> 
> > safeguard American institutions.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not 
> make 
> > people immediately scared of you.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to have a husband who was a 
> member 
> > of an extremist political party that wants your state to secede from 
> 
> > the Union, and whose motto is "Alaska first," and no one questions 
> > your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and 
> your 
> > spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home 
> with 
> > her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's 
> 
> > being disrespectful.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to make fun of community 
> organizers 
> > and the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right 
> of 
> > women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end 
> 
> > to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but 
> if 
> > you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and 
> 18-month 
> > governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in 
> 
> > college and the fact that she lives close to Russia--you're somehow 
> 
> > being mean, or even sexist.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't 
> 
> > even agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and 
> your 
> > running mate anyway, because suddenly your presence on the ticket 
> has 
> > inspired confidence in these same white women, and made them give 
> your 
> > party a "second look."
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to fire people who didn't support 
> 
> > your political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or 
> 
> > being a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being 
> > black and merely knowing some folks from the old-line political 
> > machines in Chicago means you must be corrupt.
> > 
> >      White privilege is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours 
> to 
> > get to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and still 
> be 
> > viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is 
> > unquestionable, and whose "next door neighbor" qualities make her 
> > ready to be VP, while if you're a black candidate for president and 
> 
> > you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on TV, you're 
> 
> > irresponsibly exploiting them.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to give a 36 minute speech in 
> which 
> > you talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while laying 
> 
> > out no substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still 
> > manage to be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person 
> 
> > who gives an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out 
> > specific policy proposals on several issues, is still criticized for 
> 
> > being too vague about what he would do if elected.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years 
> 
> > whose pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely 
> > criticize George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an 
> 
> > explicitly Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring 
> > Christian theological principles into government, and who bring in 
> > speakers who say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment 
> 
> > on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're 
> just 
> > a good church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with 
> a 
> > black pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S. 
> > Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result 
> of 
> > U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism and 
> its 
> > effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates America.
> > 
> >      White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when 
> > asked by a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for 
> > asking you such a "trick question," while being black and merely 
> > refusing to give one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly 
> > means you're dodging the question, or trying to seem overly 
> > intellectual and nuanced.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to go to a prestigious prep 
> school, 
> > then to Yale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be 
> seen 
> > as just an average guy (George W. Bush) while being black, going to 
> a 
> > prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then Columbia, and 
> 
> > then to Harvard Law, makes you "uppity," and a snob who probably 
> looks 
> > down on regular folks.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to graduate near the bottom of 
> your 
> > college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from Yale (W.) 
> 
> > and that's OK, and you're cut out to be president, but if you're 
> black 
> > and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard Law, you 
> > can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after 
> she's 
> > disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a 
> multi-millionaire 
> > beauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public) and still 
> be 
> > thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're black 
> and 
> > married for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your family is 
> > viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other 
> 
> > are called "terrorist fist bumps."
> > 
> >      White privilege is when you can develop a pain-killer 
> addiction, 
> > having obtained your drug of choice illegally like Cindy McCain, go 
> on 
> > to beat that addiction, and everyone praises you for being so 
> strong, 
> > while being a black guy who smoked pot a few times in college and 
> > never became an addict means people will wonder if perhaps you still 
> 
> > get high, and even ask whether or not you ever sold drugs.
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran 
> 
> > and still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the 
> > maturity to be president, while being black and suggesting that the 
> 
> > U.S. should speak with other nations, even when we have 
> disagreements 
> > with them, makes you "dangerously naive and immature."
> > 
> >      White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW 
> 
> > has anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while 
> being 
> > black and experiencing racism and an absent father is apparently 
> among 
> > the "lesser adversities" faced by other politicians, as Sarah Palin 
> 
> > explained in her convention speech.
> > 
> >      And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could 
> > possibly allow someone to become president when he has voted with 
> > George W. Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is 
> > skyrocketing, people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, 
> and 
> > the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because a 
> 
> > lot of white voters aren't sure about that whole "change" thing. Ya 
> 
> > know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more 
> > years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
> > 
> >      White privilege is, in short, the problem. 
> > 
> > 
> > **********************************************************************
> > 
> > 
> >      Reflections on White Anti-Intellectualism
> >      (Or, What'cha Want With all That Book Learnin'?)
> >      By Tim Wise
> >      September 14, 2008
> > 
> >      To hear an awful lot of white folks tell it, the problem with 
> > black people is that they just don't want to work hard enough in 
> > school. They act up and refuse to study or get good grades, because 
> 
> > they don't want to be put down for "acting white." In other words, 
> the 
> > African American community is beset by a culture of 
> > anti-intellectualism, contrasted, one supposes with our own white 
> > culture of studiousness and academic achievement.
> > 
> >      When making this argument, and knowing that it might sound a 
> bit 
> > disparaging, even racist, we white folks love to refer to the 
> > high-profile black folks who agree with us. So we point to Bill 
> Cosby, 
> > for instance, who said this same thing a few years ago and hasn't 
> > stopped saying it yet. The fact that a dozen or so studies have 
> found 
> > that there actually is no unique peer pressure or ostracism that 
> black 
> > kids experience for doing well in school (over and above that which 
> 
> > all kids who are viewed as brainy often face) fails to move them. 
> The 
> > fact that longitudinal data actually shows that black students are 
> the 
> > most likely to believe in the importance of getting a good 
> education, 
> > the least likely to cheat and the least likely to skip class appears 
> 
> > to matter not.
> > 
> >      But what I have always found interesting about the 
> > anti-intellectualism charge coming from whites and pointed at 
> persons 
> > in the black community, is how readily it emanates from a group of 
> > people (white adults) who seem to actually revel in 
> > anti-intellectualism, as evidenced by our voting behavior and 
> > political sensibilities, made especially clear during the current 
> > political campaign.
> > 
> >      What else but a deep contempt for education (or book learnin' 
> as 
> > we sometimes jokingly refer to it in the South) could explain why 
> > Barack Obama's Harvard Law School education can be mocked as elitist 
> 
> > and out of touch, while John McCain's bottom-feeder academic record 
> 
> > and Sarah Palin's four colleges in six years and degree from the 
> > University of Idaho, makes them ready to lead, and more like "normal 
> 
> > people?" (And please, don't tell me how it isn't his education that 
> 
> > poses the problem, but rather his comments about rural folks 
> clinging 
> > to God and guns when times are tight, since a week after he made 
> that 
> > comment, Dick Cheney implied that West Virginians were all a bunch 
> of 
> > inbreds, and rural whites didn't seem to care, since at least he 
> isn't 
> > an uppity black guy).
> > 
> >      What else but a deep contempt for education could render 
> Obama's 
> > time as a law professor, teaching constitutional law at one of the 
> > nation's finest law schools, all but irrelevant in the eyes of 
> > millions? To hear a lot of people tell it, his time in the classroom 
> 
> > doesn't count, and doesn't indicate anything about his fitness to be 
> 
> > president (even though, ya know, being an expert on the Constitution 
> 
> > is intuitively a good thing for the president to be, or one would 
> > think), but having been a prisoner of war, or a hunter and hockey 
> mom, 
> > and "just like the neighbor next door," makes you fit for the 
> nation's 
> > highest offices.
> > 
> >      What else but a deep contempt for education could explain the 
> > free pass given to George W. Bush for bragging at a Yale 
> commencement 
> > a few years ago that he had been a C student, but that was OK, 
> because 
> > even with a mediocre academic record you could go on to be 
> president? 
> > If a black person told students that, they'd be viewed as 
> downgrading 
> > achievement, but not Bush. Is it the accent? Is that all it takes to 
> 
> > make people think you're one of them? A bubba drawl and the spinning 
> 
> > of downhome homilies? Or the fact that you like to shoot guns? If 
> this 
> > is the love for learning, and the intelligence that white folks seem 
> 
> > to think blacks inadequately value, can I suggest that perhaps such 
> 
> > intelligence isn't all it's cracked up to be?
> > 
> >      What else but a deep-seated anti-intellectual streak could 
> > explain why so many white voters in 2000 and 2004 regularly 
> mentioned 
> > how they preferred Bush because he was the "kind of guy you feel you 
> 
> > could have a beer with" (as if that had anything to do with being 
> the 
> > leader of the so-called free world), and how they disdained the 
> > intellectual certitude of Gore and Kerry, whose command of policy 
> > details made them feel like they were being talked down to?
> > 
> >      What else but a commitment to the long-term abdication of 
> > critical thinking could explain why millions of whites take so 
> quickly 
> > to Rush Limbaugh: a guy whose motto for years was that he would 
> "tell 
> > you what to think" and whose fans call themselves "ditto" heads (as 
> 
> > in, "same as above," which is nearly the perfect metaphor for people 
> 
> > who follow someone else like sheep).
> > 
> >      In fact, the white love of anti-intellectualism in politics 
> goes 
> > back quite a ways further than that. So when Ronald Reagan decided 
> to 
> > skip out on a policy briefing during an important overseas trip, all 
> 
> > so he could watch The Sound of Music on television, or when he 
> > regularly failed to know the names of foreign leaders, most white 
> > folks still loved him and considered him a great leader. Perhaps it 
> 
> > was because he had a ranch, liked to wear cowboy hats, and had that 
> 
> > folksy aw-shucks grin?
> > 
> >      As a white person, and as one with plenty of antiracist and 
> > critical-thinking white friends, I realize that not all whites fall 
> 
> > into this anti-intellectual trap. Perhaps most don't. But it appears 
> 
> > that enough do to make a difference in elections. And surely, the 
> > embrace of anti-intellectualism is at least as severe in the white 
> > community as it is in the black community, where we constantly hear 
> 
> > talk of it, coming from the very white folks who then turn around 
> and 
> > tell us that the Earth was created only 5000 years ago, and that 
> > despite having no scientific training, they are sure that global 
> > warming is a myth, but that Obama really is a Muslim, or maybe the 
> > anti-Christ (as once-upon-a-time celebrity, Victoria Jackson claims 
> on 
> > her website).
> > 
> >      In short, when it comes to "acting white," if the term means 
> > paying no attention to policy details, but rather voting for the 
> > person who you'd most like to hang out with at a sports bar, then 
> > perhaps we need not only black and brown folks to forswear such 
> > lunacy, but for those of us who are white to turn on whiteness too. 
> To 
> > not do so would be to confirm that whiteness is inversely related to 
> 
> > mental acumen. I for one, would like to think we were capable of 
> > better. But as for evidence to support my hope? Well, I'm still 
> > waiting for that. 
> > 
> > 
> > ******************************************************* 
> > BUSH LIED,
> > AND YOU KNOW IT.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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> > 
> > 
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