In recent years the “Ralphie Marathon” has become a Christmas staple.
You know Ralphie – the pudgy bespectacled hero of A Christmas Story? The film routinely ranked as “favorite Christmas special?”
What is your favorite Ralphie scene? I have many – but near the top certainly has to be this one – the scene in which Ralphie has finally had enough and wails on the bully Scut Farkas.
Everyone just loves that scene – perhaps because most of us have been bullied and most of us can identify with Ralphie. It is fun to finally see the bully get what he has coming, isn’t it?
But – hey – look – what are we doing cheering Ralphie on? Isn’t Ralphie being a BULLY beating up on Scut?
Huh?
Of course Ralphie isn’t a bully. He is fighting back - and fighting back against a bully is OK.
Of course, A Christmas Story is all warm and fuzzy and sentimental – probably a bit too syrupy for some people. Maybe Quentin Tarantino is more your style?
Have you seen Inglorious Basterds yet? It is frankly quite a bit better than the trailer would suggest – and Christoph Waltz very much deserves an Oscar nod…. but I digress…
One of the film’s subplots is about an elite group of Jewish soldiers, dropped behind enemy lines in occupied France – with the sole purpose of terrorizing Germans. It is indeed a gruesome and bloody business – including scalpings, swastikas carved in the forehead, and t-ball played with Nazi heads. Yet – despite the violence everyone in the theater was cheering those Jewish boys on – wishing that the war really had gone that way.
Wait – but those Jewish soldiers were killing Germans because they were Germans – isn’t that racist?
Ahhh…..
No…. Of course not….. the Germans started the whole thing, and in fact were systematically attempting to exterminate the Jewish race. The Jewish soldiers were simply fighting back – brutally, yes – but fighting back. Fighting back is just fine. In fact – its is downright heroic.
A Christmas Story and Inglorious Basterds are, of course, works of the imagination. Both films certainly draw on some historical events – but in the end they are indeed fictional.
Lets look at someone real. How about Stephen Biko?
You remember Stephen Biko, don’t you? He has been dead for over 30 years, but certainly he should remain in our memories. He was a prominent black activist at the height of South African apartheid. The South African government called him an agitator and a terrorist. They eventually arrested him, and he died in captivity. Nobody outside South Africa seriously believed he was a terrorist. His goal was to simply empower black South Africans to fight for their rights. His people were oppressed by a brutal racist regime, and he sought to see black people break free from those bonds. He is credited with coining the term “black is beautiful”…..
Wait – what am I saying? His goal was to empower black people? He thought black was beautiful – as opposed to white? Damn! Biko must have been a RACIST!!!!
Yeah – right….
Biko was a black freedom fighter – fighting back against an oppressive racist regime. Fighting back against an oppressive racist regime is NOT racism. It is fighting back…. and fighting back is just fine. It is in fact honorable. Biko is rightfully called a martyr.
So now we turn to Barak Obama.
In case you have not noticed, Obama is often accused of being a racist these days. Glen Beck does it. Rush Limbaugh does it. Lou Dobbs does it. It is all over conservative talk radio and is rampant in the conservative blogsphere.
Obama is a racist? On what grounds is that accusation made?
As far as I can tell, it is because he says things and has done things to empower African Americans and other minorities. It is because his advisers and “czars” and cabinet appointees and supreme court nominees have done likewise – they have done things to empower oppressed minorities.
But wait! Isn’t that racism? Isn’t that showing preference to blacks over whites? Racism! Racism!
Give me a F’ing break.
Obama is not a racist. His advisers are not racist. His Supreme Court nominee is not racist. Even his former pastor is not racist.
They are merely fighting back against an historically racist and oppressive regime.
I can hear the shouts rising….
“America isn’t racist anymore!”
“Just get over it”
“It is not my fault my ancestors were racist!”
“The liberals are just playing the race card!”
Give me a F’ing break again.
Racism in America is alive and well. Sometimes it is overt – as seen in hateful signs at teabag parties…. (http://hippieprofessor.com/2009/09/13/calling-it-what-it-is/). Often it is covert – hidden – and even unconscious… (http://hippieprofessor.com/2009/09/16/the-subtlety-of-modern-racism/)
Certainly we have made great strides in the last 50 years. I remember the pre-civil rights era. In the deep south it was not unlike South African apartheid. But racism will not be over until we live in a truly color-neutral society – where in Dr. King’s words we truly judge a man by the content of his character. We simply are not there yet.
White America (a demographic to which I belong, I will remind you) does not get to practice state-sanctioned racism for almost 200 years and then suddenly turn around and say “all done!” We certainly don’t get to claim it is all over until it is really is over – until all vestiges of racism are gone forever.
White America most certainly does not get to turn around and apply the racist label to those African Americans who seek equality and black empowerment – even when that means preferential treatment in the short term.
Ralphie wasn’t a bully – he was fighting back against a bully….
The Inglorious Basterds weren’t racists – they were fighting back against racists…..
Stephen Biko wasn’t a racist – he was fighting back against an oppressive racist regime…..
Neither Barak Obama nor his advisers are racists – they are fighting back against a long history of societal racism. Impressive strides against racism have indeed been made – but it ain’t over until its over. Until racism against African Americans is gone, then you really can’t call it racism to fight back.
Tags: A Christmas Story, apartheid, conservative, democrat, Inglorious Basterds, left-wing, liberal, Obama, political, racism, republican, right-wing, wordpress-political-blogs
September 25, 2009 at 7:04 pm |
Cobert with a very funny take on all of this…..
http://the44diaries.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/test-daily-kos-blackwashing-stephen-colbert-goes-there-update-wtranscript/
September 25, 2009 at 11:19 pm |
Colbert’s video was indeed funny and your analysis will indeed bring you the slings and arrows of conservatives in denial.
I’ll keep my eye on this thread and give you some support if I can. You’re in for a “whupping”.
September 26, 2009 at 12:04 am |
“Until racism against African Americans is gone, then you really can’t call it racism to fight back.”
While you didn’t actually state it, I am going to put you on the spot and ask if you think black people are incapable of racism.
Because that is what I am getting from the line quoted above. It is very general, going well beyond just Obama and his advisors.
For example—what about communities where blacks are the majority? Does your idea apply in reverse in cases of racial conflict?
September 26, 2009 at 9:20 am |
Red – you raise a very interesting point….. with a complex and somewhat paradoxical answer.
An underlying corollary of what I am saying is that to be truly racist you have to have power over the other group – and in fact have to be using that power. If you are the group without power – and power is being used against you – you can’t really be charged with racism for resisting.
So – if whites in this country were to try to establish a “white only” community I woula call that racism. This is because whites do have power disproportionate to their numbers.
If blacks were to try to establish a “black only” community I would not call it racism. I would call it an attempt to consolidate power in the larger context of being powerless. I know that sounds like a double standard – and it will probably strike many people as wrong-headed – but indeed it is a prediction of the view I am advocating.
Now – suppose that “all black” community were in fact established, with a local consolidation of power. Can that community act in a racist way toward a locally powerless out-group member attempting to live in the community? Yes – I think so – but on that local level with the power differential reversed it isn’t really fighting back anymore, is it?
– hippieprof
September 26, 2009 at 7:39 pm |
I probably can’t bring this up without coming of a racist.
Huh ?
I also have to chime in that I didn’t really get into your choices for comparison in the post. South Africa actually has/had an level of complexity to it that outsiders have no clue of as their own moral indignation prevents them from even looking into it. That doesn’t mean I support apartheid but II really have to stress that the story was bigger than most Americans will ever know.
It is along those lines that the use of Biko is actually really good. It is actually what turned me off from the post. Putting the Biko points anywhere near the Obama stuff is a disservice to the Bikos of the world.
There are points in your comments I find very interesting. i wish you luck on a healthy thread.
September 26, 2009 at 10:39 pm |
Alfie – first – I don’t think you are sounding like a racist and I have never thought so here or elsewhere.
You asked me to clarify: This is because whites do have power disproportionate to their numbers.
I simply mean that the percentage of “power” whites hold (wealth, property ownership, job prestige, education, etc) is greater than the percentage of whites in the population. That is certainly less so now than 40 years ago – but the differential is still there.
I am sorry if it offended you that I compared Biko to Obama. Certainly I am not trying to claim that Obama is dealing with anything as difficult as what Biko was dealing with. I am trying to say that when Obama (and his advisers) talk about black empowerment it is the same type of thing Biko was talking about – and hence it really can’t be called racism. Certainly Obama is dealing with far less extreme circumstances – but it is still the same type of circumstance.
So I am curious – you said that it was good that I used Biko because it turned you off from the post. Why did you see that as good?
– hp
September 29, 2009 at 3:16 pm |
turned off not necessarily offended.
I think remembering the Bikos is very important.I’m kind of simple like that HP
September 29, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Alfie…..
I see what you mean… but call me crazy – I think Obama is important too. Hopefully not the same way – as a martyr for the cause – but Obama is indeed a symbol for African Americans that indeed we have moved past the days of knee-jerk racism.
I think this is why it bugs me so much that some people want Obama to fail so badly. To me his presidency is important for a reason that transcends politics. I guess everyone just doesn’t see it that way….
– hippieprof
October 22, 2009 at 12:08 am
“I think this is why it bugs me so much that some people want Obama to fail so badly. To me his presidency is important for a reason that transcends politics.”
So he should get special consideration and treatment because he is black?
Is that what blacks fought for? Special treatment?
And here i thought it was just for equality.
Barack Obama has earned his place in history as the first black president in the history of the United States. The history books will rightfully record that from now until the end of mankind.
But that doesn’t mean he should be treated any different than any other president.
September 26, 2009 at 8:30 pm |
hp, please, if you feel the need to expatiate your guilt, have at it. But don’t presume to know my reasons for opposing the Democratic party and the President.
I know damn good and well why I oppose him, and it has nothing to do with the color of his skin.
If you wish to argue cultural nuances influencing my positions, that’s reasonable.
But you just called me a racist. I’m getting pretty fucking tired of that.
September 26, 2009 at 10:21 pm |
xbradtc….
Actually, I didn’t call you a racist – and if it came across that way please believe I didn’t intend that.
What I said was that white Americans can’t very well call him a racist given the history of racism in American – a history which still extends into the present day.
There are many good reasons someone would oppose Obama that have nothing to do with his skin color – and I am always happy to discuss and debate those things.
– hippieprof
September 26, 2009 at 10:46 pm |
I am so tired of reading comments by people who clearly didn’t read the original article they’re commenting on and react in a knee-jerk defensive manner. HP never said anything about any particular white folks being racist. He talked about the absurdity of “black racism”.
HP, I wrote this in another of your threads but I will repeat it here since it captures the point you were relaying to Red Pill.
Racism = Prejudice + Power.
Blacks can be prejudiced, absolutely. Until the power structure in this country changes at a grass roots level (black President be damned) blacks will not have the power to enforce their prejudice and hence cannnot be racist. Real simple.
September 26, 2009 at 11:33 pm |
“Racism = Prejudice + Power.”
That’s not what it says in my handy American Century desktop dictionary.
If you think your race makes you better than people not of that race (wise Latina woman), you are a racist.
If you go around being an asshat toward people not of your race, because they are not of your race, you are a racist.
You don’t have to have power—just ignorance.
And don’t even think about giving me any of Obama’s “stretching things with dictionary definitions” business.
September 27, 2009 at 10:36 am
Red said…. If you think your race makes you better than people not of that race…. you are a racist.
One other comment – I don’t think there is much worry about the black community thinking they are better than other races. There is a fair amount of evidence to suggest that the black community suffers from feelings of inferiority – which is not surprising considering the history of racism in this country….
– hp
September 27, 2009 at 11:07 am
“One other comment – I don’t think there is much worry about the black community thinking they are better than other races. ”
This reply is moving the goalposts a bit.
You are talking “community.” I said “you,” as in an individual.
The overall white community isn’t racist, either. That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of racists within it.
September 26, 2009 at 11:48 pm |
Red says: If you think your race makes you better than people not of that race (wise Latina woman), you are a racist.
More mileage has been gained off this one remark than practically any other I can think of in recent memory – and mileage all in the wrong direction too.
What Sotomayor meant (quite obviously) is that if you have experienced racism you are in a better position to make judgments about it. It isn’t saying you are racially superior – it is saying that sometimes life experiences give you an important point of view on an issue.
This all became clear to me a few years ago when one of my African American students – a senior about to graduate and go to medical school – was stopped and hassled (seriously hassled) by police one block from campus for the sole reason that he was a black kid in a white neighborhood. I was amazed that such things still occur in modern America – but they do. I also realized that I have NEVER experienced anything similar in my life. I suspect my former student has a better understanding of racism than I than I do because he has experienced it.
It bugged me to no end that Sotomayor had to back off the statement and had to keep apologizing for it when essentially it was true.
– hp
September 27, 2009 at 12:22 am |
OK, so you don’t like my example.
What about the actual points?
September 27, 2009 at 9:18 am
Red said: OK, so you don’t like my example.
What about the actual points?
Oh – you actually want intelligent discussion of what you said? Fair enough…. I think I have been hanging out in some places too long and forgot that is possible….
I think we are partly playing a semantic game here because we are just defining racism differently. Lets leave the term racism out for now, and talk about the issues in neutral terms. I think I will call the two types of racism “Thing-1″ and ” Thing-2″ (sadly, I can’t do this in verse……)
Thing-1: Negative attitudes toward a racial group other than one’s own.
Thing-2: Negative attitudes toward another racial group combined with a power differential over that group – such that active discrimination with real-world consequences can occur.
I think that these are two very different things, whatever we call them. Certainly neither is a good thing – but Thing-2 I think is quite a lot worse.
Historically, whites in America (as a group – not blaming particular individuals) have been guilty of Thing-2.
Blacks in America have never had an equal amount of power to whites, and therefore can only be guilty of Thing-1.
So, when someone accuses Obama as being “just as racist” as some white person it is really not an apt comparison – it is comparing Thing-1 to Thing-2.
– hp
September 27, 2009 at 11:03 am
“I think we are partly playing a semantic game here because we are just defining racism differently.”
But the difference means everything.
How can we hope to address an issue that we can’t even decide how it is defined?
September 28, 2009 at 10:37 pm
Red – sorry for taking so long responding here. As you may have seen I have been busy arguing the fine points of thermodynamics over on Rutherford’s blog – lol.
I agree that semantics are critical here – and it would probably be a big step if we found a way to clear that up. People are using the same words in different ways – and the words themselves are so emotion-laden that people don’t pause to talk about it – the yelling starts too quickly.
– hp
September 27, 2009 at 11:10 am |
“Historically, whites in America (as a group – not blaming particular individuals) have been guilty of Thing-2.”
I think you are overlooking a bit of history.
There sure were an awful lot of racist whites who fought and died to end slavery in this country.
September 28, 2009 at 10:39 pm |
There sure were an awful lot of racist whites who fought and died to end slavery in this country.
I am not sure if you were being sarcastic or not here. I do suspect (actually, I know) that quite a few northerners who opposed slavery were still not quite ready to accept blacks as true equals. I think that is still the case for many even today….
– hp
October 1, 2009 at 9:10 am |
Not to get off topic, but to go back to how you started the post — my favorite Ralphie moment is after the leg lamp breaks, when the Old Man asks for the glue, and Mother says “We’re out of Glue.”
“YOU USED UP ALL THE GLUE ON PURPOSE!”
“NOT A FINGER!”
Best lines ever.
October 18, 2009 at 5:40 pm |
HP,
Just a heads up, I’ve responded in the Sunlight room on our BiW Constitution/Religion discussion.
I might actually comment on this too…
October 22, 2009 at 12:11 pm |
On the face of it, Red Pill is of course correct. Obama will either turn out to be a great, mediocre or terrible President and his race has nothing to do with it.
But I’ll let Red in on a little secret. In this society Obama’s race cannot be separated from him. If he fails, a good number of bigots will say “see, we told you a black man had no business being President”. I think more than a few blacks like myself secretly fear that if Obama fails, we will not see another black President for another 220 years.
October 23, 2009 at 11:20 am |
Except that he hasn’t transcended politics, and frankly his politics are far to dangerous to ignore simply for example’s sake. If he actually honored any of his campaign committments- like transparency, bipartisanship, fiscal responsibility, etc- then his politics would be exposed to daylight and the American people to honestly comment as appropriate, but what he is doing is anything but. This is why his poll numbers have dropped faster than any other president- evah…
February 13, 2010 at 10:24 am |
You see them as the ‘oppressed minority, HP, I see them as the ones now in power. AND RACIST.
February 13, 2010 at 11:56 am |
Theda said….. You see them as the ‘oppressed minority, HP, I see them as the ones now in power. AND RACIST.
Wow – I think you would find it hard to argue that African Americans are “in power” now. Certainly they have gradually accumulated more power since the civil war, and since the civil rights movement in the 1960s – but just as certainly they are not IN power.
How do you justify that?
– hp
February 13, 2010 at 1:29 pm |
Hippy, What color is the President? Hello? Blacks are in power now.
February 13, 2010 at 3:09 pm |
This couldn’t be more ridiculous. Are blacks in more positions of power than ever before in history, exemplified in particular by the presidency? Absolutely. “Blacks are in power now” takes that phenomenon and blows it way out of proportion.
Blacks will be in power when they don’t have to wait longer to flag down a taxi than a white person does.
When that day comes, we can hold hands and sing kumbaya!
February 14, 2010 at 1:01 am |
TMJ said: Hippy, What color is the President? Hello? Blacks are in power now.
You know – sometimes I think you are trolling here because – really – you couldn’t possibly believe this could you?
What race dominates the Senate? The House? Governerships? Who has the wealth? Who owns the property? Name a signle industry where blacks hold most of the management positions? Even in professional athletics, where the players are predominately black, the owners and coaches and managers are predominately white.
– hp
February 13, 2010 at 3:17 pm |
Blacks will be in power when they don’t have to wait longer to flag down a taxi than a white person does.
—————–WHERE the HELL do you live? Are you high on pot? The leader of the free world is BLACK, Hello? Hello?? Is there anybody IN there…it is not if you can HEAR me…is there anyone home?
I AM THE minority in this nation-Portuguese Jew. I dont cry THATS RACIST, THATS HATRED everytime some dummy calls me a k*ke. I dont expect ‘reparations’ for the way white supremists have treated MY people. Maybe I should, maybe I should start charging you all a lot of money for being Anti-Sion, which is ANTI JEW.
We Jews GOT this mess started, and we can see it in now OUT OF CONTROL with the ‘racists, hater’ CRAP. FORTUNATELY, some of us are working to bring BALANCE to this sick, demented WOE IS ME junk.
February 15, 2010 at 12:29 am |
LOL TMJ (see thanks to HP I found a non-offensive way to shorten your name) … please don’t tell me that one black president has single handedly overnight erased all prejudice from the USA. Surely you don’t believe that?
I happen to agree with you (I think) that playing the victim is a waste of time. Sorry to use a worn out cliche but success is the best revenge and it’s hard to be successful when you spend all your time in woe-is-me mode. But I think you are confusing the proper reaction with the cause or stimulus. In other words, we can agree to ignore the dummy who says the K word or tne N word, but that does not erase the fact that the dummy exists.
And what do we do so long as dummies like that hold many positions of power who can interfere with the fair progress of minorities? I’d be a fool to say we haven’t made LOTS of progress. But it’s still tough out there. And TMJ, I can’t tell you when it happened, but Obama himself (I think after delivering the 2004 Dem convention address) had trouble flagging a taxi. Don’t know where …. I think a big city.
LOL … I got a MAJOR kick out of your comment about Jews getting this mess started. Let me say this at the risk of getting myself in trouble. I have felt a bit annoyed at what I’ve interpreted as a Jewish attempt to corner the market on being terrorized. With that said, I also think there is some truth to those who forget history being condemned to repeat it. It took our country a century before the devastating phenomenon of slavery disappeared. We know enough now for it to never happen again. I don’t think it’s wrong for Jews to keep the Holocaust front and center also, to ensure that it can never happen again.
P.S. I plan to visit your blog, based on some comments I saw over at my place, it sounds like you have a thought provoking site.
February 21, 2010 at 10:42 pm |
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