cazz926 Posted March 28 Report Share Posted March 28 I received this in an email, and it is quite thought-provoking....thought I'd post it before I found more pictures of lemon batteries and ambulances.>>Subject: School Shootings and White Denial>>>Check out this interesting commentary (written by a white man) on the >latest>school shooting...... "things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm">>School Shootings and White Denial>Tim Wise, AlterNet>March 6, 2001>>I can think of no other way to say this, so here goes: white people need to>pull our heads out of our collective ass.>>Two more white children are dead and thirteen are injured, and another >"nice">community is scratching its blonde head, utterly perplexed at how a school>shooting the likes of the one yesterday in Santee, California could happen.>After all, as the Mayor of the town said in an interview with CNN: "We're a>solid town, a good town, with good kids, a good church-going>town an All-American town." Yeah, well maybe that's the problem.>>I said this after Columbine and no one listened so I'll say it again: white>people live in an utter state of self-delusion. We think danger is black,>brown and poor, and if we can just move far enough away from "those people">in the cities we'll be safe. If we can just find an "all-American" town, >life>will be better, because "things like this just don't happen here.">>Well bullshit on that. In case you hadn't noticed, "here" is about the only>place these kinds of things do happen. Oh sure, there is plenty of violence>in urban communities and schools. But mass murder; wholesale slaughter;>take-a-gun-and-see-how-many-you can-kill kinda craziness seems made for >those>safe places: the white suburbs or rural communities.>>And yet once again, we hear the FBI insist there is no "profile" of a >school>shooter. Come again? White boy after white boy after white boy, with>very few exceptions to that rule (and none in the mass shooting category),>decides to use their classmates for target practice, and yet there is no>profile? Imagine if all these killers had been black: would we still >hesitate>to put a racial face on the perpetrators? Doubtful.>>Indeed, if any black child in America-especially in the mostly white >suburbs>of Littleton, or Santee-were to openly discuss their plans to murder fellow>students, as happened both at Columbine and now Santana High, you can bet>your ass that somebody would have turned them in, and the cops would have>beat a path to their doorstep. But when whites discuss their murderous>intentions, our stereotypes of what danger looks like cause us to ignore>it-they're just "talking" and won't really do anything. How many kids have >to>die before we rethink that nonsense? How many dazed and confused parents,>Mayors and Sheriffs do we have to listen to,>describing how "normal" and safe their community is, and how they just >can't>understand what went wrong?>>I'll tell you what went wrong and it's not TV, rap music, video games or a>lack of prayer in school. What went wrong is that white Americans>decided to ignore dysfunction and violence when it only affected other>communities, and thereby blinded themselves to the inevitable creeping of>chaos which never remains isolated too long. What affects the urban >"ghetto">today will be coming to a Wal-Mart near you tomorrow, and unless you >address>the emptiness, pain, isolation and lack of hope felt by children of color >and>the poor, then don't be shocked when the support systems aren't there for>your kids either.>>What went wrong is that we allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false >sense>of security by media representations of crime and violence that portray >both>as the province of those who are anything but white like us. We ignore>the warning signs, because in our minds the warning signs don't live in our>neighborhood, but across town, in that place where we lock our car doors on>the rare occasion we have to drive there. That false sense of security- the>result of racist and class stereotypes- then gets people killed. And still >we>act amazed.>>But listen up my fellow white Americans: your children are no better, no>nicer, no more moral, no more decent than anyone else. Dysfunction is>all around you, whether you choose to recognize it or not.>>According to the Centers for Disease Control, and Department of Health and>Human Services, it is your children, and not those of the urban ghetto,>who are most likely to use drugs. That's right: white high school students>are seven times more likely than blacks to have used cocaine; eight times>more likely to have smoked crack; ten times more likely to have used LSD >and>seven times more likely to have used heroin. In fact, there are more white>high school students who have used crystal methamphetamine (the most>addictive drug on the streets) than there are black students who smoke>cigarettes.>>What's more, white youth ages 12-17 are more likely to sell drugs: 34% more>likely, in fact than their black counterparts. And it is white youth who >are>twice as likely to binge drink, and nearly twice as likely as blacks to >drive>drunk. And white males are twice as likely to bring a weapon to school as >are>black males.>>And yet I would bet a valued body part that there aren't 100 white people >in>Santee, California, or most any other "nice" community who have ever>heard a single one of the statistics above. Even though they were collected>by government agencies using these folks' tax money for the purpose.>Because the media doesn't report on white dysfunction>>A few years ago, U.S. News ran a story entitled: "A Shocking look at blacks>and crime." Yet never have they or any other news outlet discussed the>"shocking" whiteness of these shoot-em-ups. Indeed, every time media>commentators discuss the similarities in these crimes they mention that the>shooters were boys, they were loners, they got picked on, but never do>they seem to notice a certain highly visible melanin deficiency. >Color-blind,>I guess.>>White-blind is more like it, as I figure these folks would spot color >mighty>damn quick were some of it to stroll into their community. Santee's >whiteness>is so taken for granted by its residents that the Mayor, in that CNN>interview, thought nothing of saying on the one hand that the town was 82>percent white, but on the other hand that "this is America." Well that >isn't>America, and it especially isn't California, where whites are only half of>the population. This is a town that is removed from America, and>yet its Mayor thinks they are the normal ones-so much so that when asked>about racial diversity, he replied that there weren't many of different>"ethni-tis-tities." Not a word. Not even close.>>I'd like to think that after this one, people would wake up. Take note.>Rethink their stereotypes of who the dangerous ones are. But deep down, I>know better. The folks hitting the snooze button on this none-too-subtle>alarm are my own people, after all, and I know their blindness like the >back>of my hand.>>Tim Wise is a Nashville-based writer and activist and can be reached at>tjwise@mindspring.com>>Just to break up the seriousness, this is p00h (for those of you that haven't met him): ------------------I can't dream for us all I hope I'm in a better state whenHere & Now crumbles & falls...[This message has been edited by cazz926 (edited 03-28-2001).] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trippintrance64 Posted March 28 Report Share Posted March 28 Originally posted by cazz926:I received this in an email, and it is quite thought-provoking....thought I'd post it before I found more pictures of lemon batteries and ambulances.>>Subject: School Shootings and White Denial>>>Check out this interesting commentary (written by a white man) on the >latest>school shooting...... "things that make you go hmmmmmmmmm">>School Shootings and White Denial>Tim Wise, AlterNet>March 6, 2001>>I can think of no other way to say this, so here goes: white people need to>pull our heads out of our collective ass.>>Two more white children are dead and thirteen are injured, and another >"nice">community is scratching its blonde head, utterly perplexed at how a school>shooting the likes of the one yesterday in Santee, California could happen.>After all, as the Mayor of the town said in an interview with CNN: "We're a>solid town, a good town, with good kids, a good church-going>town an All-American town." Yeah, well maybe that's the problem.>>I said this after Columbine and no one listened so I'll say it again: white>people live in an utter state of self-delusion. We think danger is black,>brown and poor, and if we can just move far enough away from "those people">in the cities we'll be safe. If we can just find an "all-American" town, >life>will be better, because "things like this just don't happen here.">>Well bullshit on that. In case you hadn't noticed, "here" is about the only>place these kinds of things do happen. Oh sure, there is plenty of violence>in urban communities and schools. But mass murder; wholesale slaughter;>take-a-gun-and-see-how-many-you can-kill kinda craziness seems made for >those>safe places: the white suburbs or rural communities.>>And yet once again, we hear the FBI insist there is no "profile" of a >school>shooter. Come again? White boy after white boy after white boy, with>very few exceptions to that rule (and none in the mass shooting category),>decides to use their classmates for target practice, and yet there is no>profile? Imagine if all these killers had been black: would we still >hesitate>to put a racial face on the perpetrators? Doubtful.>>Indeed, if any black child in America-especially in the mostly white >suburbs>of Littleton, or Santee-were to openly discuss their plans to murder fellow>students, as happened both at Columbine and now Santana High, you can bet>your ass that somebody would have turned them in, and the cops would have>beat a path to their doorstep. But when whites discuss their murderous>intentions, our stereotypes of what danger looks like cause us to ignore>it-they're just "talking" and won't really do anything. How many kids have >to>die before we rethink that nonsense? How many dazed and confused parents,>Mayors and Sheriffs do we have to listen to,>describing how "normal" and safe their community is, and how they just >can't>understand what went wrong?>>I'll tell you what went wrong and it's not TV, rap music, video games or a>lack of prayer in school. What went wrong is that white Americans>decided to ignore dysfunction and violence when it only affected other>communities, and thereby blinded themselves to the inevitable creeping of>chaos which never remains isolated too long. What affects the urban >"ghetto">today will be coming to a Wal-Mart near you tomorrow, and unless you >address>the emptiness, pain, isolation and lack of hope felt by children of color >and>the poor, then don't be shocked when the support systems aren't there for>your kids either.>>What went wrong is that we allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false >sense>of security by media representations of crime and violence that portray >both>as the province of those who are anything but white like us. We ignore>the warning signs, because in our minds the warning signs don't live in our>neighborhood, but across town, in that place where we lock our car doors on>the rare occasion we have to drive there. That false sense of security- the>result of racist and class stereotypes- then gets people killed. And still >we>act amazed.>>But listen up my fellow white Americans: your children are no better, no>nicer, no more moral, no more decent than anyone else. Dysfunction is>all around you, whether you choose to recognize it or not.>>According to the Centers for Disease Control, and Department of Health and>Human Services, it is your children, and not those of the urban ghetto,>who are most likely to use drugs. That's right: white high school students>are seven times more likely than blacks to have used cocaine; eight times>more likely to have smoked crack; ten times more likely to have used LSD >and>seven times more likely to have used heroin. In fact, there are more white>high school students who have used crystal methamphetamine (the most>addictive drug on the streets) than there are black students who smoke>cigarettes.>>What's more, white youth ages 12-17 are more likely to sell drugs: 34% more>likely, in fact than their black counterparts. And it is white youth who >are>twice as likely to binge drink, and nearly twice as likely as blacks to >drive>drunk. And white males are twice as likely to bring a weapon to school as >are>black males.>>And yet I would bet a valued body part that there aren't 100 white people >in>Santee, California, or most any other "nice" community who have ever>heard a single one of the statistics above. Even though they were collected>by government agencies using these folks' tax money for the purpose.>Because the media doesn't report on white dysfunction>>A few years ago, U.S. News ran a story entitled: "A Shocking look at blacks>and crime." Yet never have they or any other news outlet discussed the>"shocking" whiteness of these shoot-em-ups. Indeed, every time media>commentators discuss the similarities in these crimes they mention that the>shooters were boys, they were loners, they got picked on, but never do>they seem to notice a certain highly visible melanin deficiency. >Color-blind,>I guess.>>White-blind is more like it, as I figure these folks would spot color >mighty>damn quick were some of it to stroll into their community. Santee's >whiteness>is so taken for granted by its residents that the Mayor, in that CNN>interview, thought nothing of saying on the one hand that the town was 82>percent white, but on the other hand that "this is America." Well that >isn't>America, and it especially isn't California, where whites are only half of>the population. This is a town that is removed from America, and>yet its Mayor thinks they are the normal ones-so much so that when asked>about racial diversity, he replied that there weren't many of different>"ethni-tis-tities." Not a word. Not even close.>>I'd like to think that after this one, people would wake up. Take note.>Rethink their stereotypes of who the dangerous ones are. But deep down, I>know better. The folks hitting the snooze button on this none-too-subtle>alarm are my own people, after all, and I know their blindness like the >back>of my hand.>>Tim Wise is a Nashville-based writer and activist and can be reached at>tjwise@mindspring.com>>Just to break up the seriousness, this is p00h (for those of you that haven't met him): Wow. Great article. it really is a shame thatt this is how people of different ethnic orgin are looked upon by towns all over the US. Lucky us. meaning, we are so lucky to live somewhere where there is every ethnicity you can imagine. i feel that this effects your thinking alot.ok. too early for me. Later.-Al-PS--Hi Cazz -----------------------"Embracing the goddess energy within yourselves will bring all of you to a new understanding, and value of life. A vision, that inspires you to live, and love, on planet earth. Like a priceless jewel, buried in dark layers of soil and stone.... earth radiates her brilliant beauty into the caverns of space and time. Perhaps you are aware of those who watch over your home. And experience in this place to visit, and play with reality. You are becoming aware of yourself...as a Game master.......... AIM: fantom0680A.RRiezgo@verizon.net <----- NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shannah Posted March 28 Report Share Posted March 28 Wow. Very interesting. Definitely gives a spin hardly ever (if ever) heard in reference to these shootings. Good stuff indeed...where'd you find the article? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apdiddy Posted March 28 Report Share Posted March 28 why u gotta use that pic? doesn't even show all my hair or face. beeyatch...------------------got drugs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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