Piwin -> RE: Racism in the USA (Jul. 13 2020 15:50:35)
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quote:
I suppose some Europeans might be interested I am. Besides, it's only natural that conversations would reflect the concerns of foro members, and the fact of the matter is that there are a lot of Americans on here. I would probably bring up some French domestic issues every now and then if there were anyone here to discuss them with. That said, it's not easy to tell where the boundaries of this discussion are being drawn. In the previous thread, I had pitched in a bit only for Shroomy to ask why we were bringing up racism in other countries. He wanted to talk specifically about the US. Estebanana on the other hand is speaking of "white and non Spanish", which implicates many more of us. So it's not clear to me at all whether I should contribute to these discussions or not. I do think that if we're going to discuss ethnicity as it relates to flamenco, it would be a shame to view all of it through a US-specific cultural prism. As for what is going on in the US, there's not much I can say really. All I have is my impressions as a foreigner. I can say that, while I used to follow US news (not just US, but it's one of the countries I have some ties with so I made a point of keeping abreast of the news), I've now almost completely stopped, other than getting the big headlines. Trying to follow it was just a source of confusion and anxiety. It felt like watching that last Star Wars movie: if there is a plot anywhere in there, it takes considerable effort to dig it up, as it is buried under rapid-fire and seemingly disconnected action scenes with too many large explosions to count. I've also come to understand that my opinions simply aren't welcome for American friends who used to be of similar political leanings as I am and with whom I used to be able to talk politics. Part of that is that I am less concerned by Trump per se than I am by this looming new "cold" war, and I personally don't see Trump as any more hawkish in this regard than the other contestant for what is essentially becoming a throne. That disconnect makes sense I suppose: I am concerned about what effects trends in US politics have on the rest of the world, and my American friends are obviously more concerned about the effects it is having domestically. It seems to be bad enough over there that, for all intents and purposes, they have restricted their circle of empathy to their borders, and the farthest I can get them to go is "kids in cages". Beyond that, black lives don't matter to them. Not right now. One thing that did strike me when I was following it all is just how profoundly Christian the framing of the issue was, for many of my white (white-ish? ^^) friends on the "antiracist" side. There's some irony there. Because of my upbringing and the psychological scars it left on me, I almost instinctively recoil from that kind of framing. In fact, I saw a lot of my own psychology in Wilkins's face and tone when he was talking about, not the material facts of racism, but that overall sentiment of being told that, because of who you were born as, you hold no value. Your only value is whatever is granted to you by the powers at be. To me this matter a lot. I don't think you can truly and healthily value those who seem different if you don't even value yourself to begin with. And so I think that if white Americans only use antiracism as yet another Puritanical stick to flog themselves with to exorcise some imagined innate evil, it won't lead to the outcome most of you are striving towards.
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