Tim Wise: White Panic

[sheshe2]

Link to tweet

Tim Wise
@timjacobwise
·
Jun 13
This was the year the miniseries was on, and the teachers wanted to either bury conversation about it (and its subject matter) or have us "trace our family tree" without thinking of how Black kids might experience that, and w/o confronting the enslavement elephant in the room (2)

Tim Wise
@timjacobwise
·
I gather that this is what white conservatives prefer: avoiding truth and pain and conflict and contradiction and evil (if committed in our country and in our name or for our benefit). They have never wanted to face it. Not 200 years ago, and not today (3)...

Tim Wise
@timjacobwise
·
And we just keep papering it over, we keep lying. And we say we do it to protect the kids from painful lessons. But who are we protecting? Not Black kids. Ignoring the experience of racism doesn't protect them from it. It merely makes it impossible for us to address it (4)..

Tim Wise
@timjacobwise
·
...and that's what white folks are really worried about. If we tell the truth, and not only to kids of color (who often already learn it at home), but also to whites (who don't) it might cause some of those white kids to rethink their attachment to whiteness (5)...

More at the twitter link.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. This is part of what many white parents are worried about

"it might cause some of those white kids to rethink their attachment to whiteness"

But I think it's equally true that they're worried about black kids learning en masse, in an academic setting, about how their ancestors were mistreated, and adopt an attitude hostile to white people as a result.

Going all the way back to the beginnings of slavery in the US there's been a real paranoia among whites that the black folks could eventually rise up and kill all the white people who enslaved and abused them.

And the racists to this day remain terrified that this could happen. It's why they're so easily triggered by changing demographics, and why (many of them) are obsessively arming themselves. They SAY it's about 'the government', but that's really only part of what they fear, and probably not the main thing.

Summer 2020 scared the piss out of the people predisposed to fantasies of racial uprisings (and of course these are the same people who'd have chosen outlets who presented the facts and images of the summer in a way that confirmed their fears and biases).

Basically for racist white folk, teaching ANY kids about what really happened ... is a no-win proposition. So they're going to try to stop it if they can.

[abqtommy]

2. Some "white folks" are afraid of the truth and some of us "white folks" say let the truth ring

loud and let the chips fall where they may. Don't ever get the idea that all "white folks" think or act
the same.

[sheshe2]

6. And that was stated where exactly in my post?

[div class="excerpt"abqtommy

2. Some "white folks" are afraid of the truth and some of us "white folks" say let the truth ring

loud and let the chips fall where they may. Don't ever get the idea that all "white folks" think or act
the same.

And that was stated where exactly in my post?

No one said ALL WHITE FOLKS...no where was that said or implied.

[ananda]

3. The same about To Kill a Mockingbird I expect.

And Toni Morrison's Beloved.

[FakeNoose]

4. Roots - the entire series - has been televised nationally

It would be interesting to know what state Tim Wise grew up in. I'm pretty sure Roots was on TV there, wherever it was. OK yeah, the book was out first.

[StarfishSaver]

5. Are you serious?

And if you are, did you actually read the OP?

This was the year the miniseries was on, and the teachers wanted to either bury conversation about it (and its subject matter) or have us "trace our family tree" without thinking of how Black kids might experience that, and w/o confronting the enslavement elephant in the room

[sheshe2]

8. "trace our family tree"

Their families past enslavement, yes.

Also tracing their family tree? That brings lynchings to mind. Strange Fruit.

[StarfishSaver]

9. Surely, you knew that was coming

It always does ...

[sheshe2]

10. Yep.

[Solly Mack]

7. K&R