Re: generational stuff, the point I made (and I believe the point of the book's experiment) was not about those things. It was about how people would respond differently to just the change in skin tone, nothing else.
That's what people who say "black, white, purple, green with blue polka dots" miss, I believe. They think if they were to suddenly suffer a freak accident that turned their skin dark (and maybe changed their hair), well, they wouldn't suffer all that much.
If it happened, if they lived it, such a person might understand that although skin color shouldn't matter, it *does*, and you can't understand *how* it does until you pay attention.
Fortunately, there is a way you can find out how widespread racism is, and it doesn't involve taking a pill. You can listen to Black people and believe their accounts.
You can hear facts from that. You can't get a gut level understanding of it.
I'm a man; I have no idea what it's like to face the challenges a woman faces. I can imagine it sucks, I can listen to stories, I can believe those stories, but I can't have a deep down understanding of it. I won't know what it's like to want to put on my favorite clothing and flash back to some hideous comment someone made at random while I was wearing it, and wondering if there's a connection or not; I can't imagine what it's like to be followed by a random creepy guy and not be able to ignore him, because I can't think "I can probably take him, and if I can't, he'll by-god know he's been in a fight," unless I've had some pretty significant training in how to fight; I can't imagine having someone listen to me explain some technical detail of how SQL Server works, and then explain patiently to me that, no, I'm wrong, it actually works (exactly the way I just said, but this time, a man helped me wrap my pretty little head around it).
I can only imagine those things. Listening helps, but it's not the same as living it.
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Date: 2013-08-29 03:12 pm (UTC)That's what people who say "black, white, purple, green with blue polka dots" miss, I believe. They think if they were to suddenly suffer a freak accident that turned their skin dark (and maybe changed their hair), well, they wouldn't suffer all that much.
If it happened, if they lived it, such a person might understand that although skin color shouldn't matter, it *does*, and you can't understand *how* it does until you pay attention.
Fortunately, there is a way you can find out how widespread racism is, and it doesn't involve taking a pill. You can listen to Black people and believe their accounts.
You can hear facts from that. You can't get a gut level understanding of it.
I'm a man; I have no idea what it's like to face the challenges a woman faces. I can imagine it sucks, I can listen to stories, I can believe those stories, but I can't have a deep down understanding of it. I won't know what it's like to want to put on my favorite clothing and flash back to some hideous comment someone made at random while I was wearing it, and wondering if there's a connection or not; I can't imagine what it's like to be followed by a random creepy guy and not be able to ignore him, because I can't think "I can probably take him, and if I can't, he'll by-god know he's been in a fight," unless I've had some pretty significant training in how to fight; I can't imagine having someone listen to me explain some technical detail of how SQL Server works, and then explain patiently to me that, no, I'm wrong, it actually works (exactly the way I just said, but this time, a man helped me wrap my pretty little head around it).
I can only imagine those things. Listening helps, but it's not the same as living it.