RACE FAIL -

I've grown annoyed with the circling behavior where people present the position that 'writing vile crap about each other' will IMPROVE anything. Violence doesn't cure or improve violence and words can be just as violent and hurtful as other types of actions - they are registered in the body and mind as equivalent injuries.

Morgan Freeman in conversation with Mike Wallace said:

“You’re going to relegate my history to a month?” Freeman asks Wallace. After noting there is no “white history month,” he says, “I don’t want a black history month. Black history is American history,” he tells Wallace.

The notion of a special month for black history may be hurting rather than helping efforts for racial equality, Freeman believes. When Wallace wonders whether racist attitudes may be harder to eradicate without the education that Black History Month provides, Freeman retorts: “How are we going to get rid of racism? Stop talking about it!”

Freeman believes the labels “black” and “white” are an obstacle to beating racism. “I am going to stop calling you a white man and I’m going to ask you to stop calling me a black man,” he says. “I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You wouldn’t say, ‘Well, I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.’ You know what I’m saying?”

What he said was controversial but important. Narrative has a place in processing wounding and that place should be validated and supported. But, who is that narrative for? Do we have good black writers engaged in writing about the WHITE experience of black slavery from a perspective of cultural damage of white descendents? Why would they? That wound isn't 'visceral' for a black person. White writers are, inevitably, going to approach the material from a different wounded position than a black writer will.

When RACIAL FAIL '09 gets around to being about HEALING PROCESS rather than privilege of written assault under the guise of defense - then maybe we will see a reduction in all the inflated egos pretending to injury. Healing isn't nearly so glamorous as screaming the words RACIST and WHITE PRIVILEGE while a chorus of people congratulate you for being violent and racist - the very thing you are SCREAMING about.