Email forwards and despair
Just yesterday, my Mom forwarded an offensive email to my wife. It was the old proud to be white screed with Michael Richardson's name added. I went over to talk to my Mom (late 70s widow) and find out why she sent the message. She said she thought it was funny and had some good points and threw out the "punchline" that she should be allowed to feel pride in who she is. We then had a pretty good discussion about the email (turned out she didn't even read the whole thing) and I think I got her to see both the subtle and overt racism in it. She apologized for sending it along. My Mom isn't a racist, but she isn't a great critical thinker either.
On the very surface, it does almost sound reasonable to wonder "why are there black colleges, but if you started a white college you'd be called racist?" Of course it only takes a second or two to recognize myriad problems in that "question". The black colleges exist specifically because of racism--both because it wasn't long ago when whites wouldn't allow blacks to attend "their" colleges, and because when they were allowed in, they had trouble fitting in (both because of race relations and because there was (and is still) a culture issue). On top of that, whites CAN get into those schools.
The problem is that the email, like almost all of this ilk, don't just throw out one question that can be pondered, but they throw dozens of these slanted, disingenuous questions/statements. Obviously, not everyone reads and thinks about these deeply, they simply get a light dose of "hey, us white people are getting screwed" that doesn't really make them truly mad, but it does sway opinion and over time (and enough bullshit emails), they really do begin feeling that they're getting seriously screwed.
Anyway, I was pretty upset about the whole mess and then today I see a post from a "facebook friend" who I know is a pretty nice guy, even if a bit libertarian. He's posting the old Hanoi Jane screed about her betraying POWs who supposedly slipped her secret messages--oh, and it blames Obama for wanting to honor her in a TV show about 100 women of the 20th Century. Well, it took 2 seconds on Snopes to prove that literally everything in the post was a flat out lie and that the TV show in question actually aired in 1998 (a decade before Obama became president!)
I posted my reply (with the Snopes link) and his only response was, "just proves opinions are like assholes..."
Jeez, I hate email chains!!!
= new reply since forum marked as read
decry when we point out that some of their sources are RW wackos. "Don't attack my sources. That's my line!"
It'd be funny if it wasn't so pitifully hypocritical.
