tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post839676121214887043..comments2024-03-06T08:29:13.333-08:00Comments on stuff white people do: claim that analyzing the ways of white folks is a waste of time (because there are more important things to analyze)macon dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comBlogger156125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-2636134870347060612010-07-10T06:50:56.079-07:002010-07-10T06:50:56.079-07:00I don't agree with Oso. I come back to swpd b...I don't agree with Oso. I come back to swpd because as a white girl from rural England (an almost exclusively white place) I like to be reassured that I am not crazy for believing that I live in a Racist society. <br />Without spwd and the Racism 101 primers linked to from here, I'd be in an even bigger desert of ignorance about my own privilege. Sure, all the things Oso lists are forms of discrimination, but class, accent and taste are more mutable things than Race and Gender?Baconnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-21751645317305537282010-05-03T00:55:37.953-07:002010-05-03T00:55:37.953-07:00I also think it's important to remember that j...I also think it's important to remember that just because things look the same doesn't mean they are the same. I think your initial response to Oso was valid: there is a specific Western, U.S. framework from which you are writing which changes the dynamics of white people's actions. It is important to note the patterns and methods of discrimination which become ingrained and unquestioned and are often exhibited by white people who benefit from white privilege and represent the cultural norm. While racism within non-white groups is important to understand and study, that does not take away from institutional and pervasive racism that exists in everyday American life and is often exemplified by the actions of the white norm.jasminehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04510765795651804688noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-8838871400149216732010-04-30T16:27:19.767-07:002010-04-30T16:27:19.767-07:00I'm more than a month behind, and there's ...I'm more than a month behind, and there's already been plenty of discussion, but I did want to answer one of your questions:<br /><br />"If you're a regular reader of "stuff white people do," what brings you back?"<br /><br />I come back because this is a place where other people are talking about things I'm working through myself, AND where it's appropriate for me to comment.<br /><br />I read Racialicious too, but I don't feel like it's appropriate for me to comment there. (Not that I feel excluded; I just get that it's a POC space and not the place for me to work through my own understanding of my privilege as a white person.) I often write a response to help me work out my thoughts, but I don't post them.Jesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10615494502122264128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-64399170306018101842010-03-23T13:37:32.788-07:002010-03-23T13:37:32.788-07:00When I go to the People's Institute's Undo...When I go to the People's Institute's Undoing Racism trainings, one of the things they focus on is staying within an American context. This isn't because other experiences don't matter or aren't valid, it's because they're focusing on racism in the US. They say that from the beginning. They know there's racism and prejudice in other countries, but that's not their scope. <br /><br />So you gotta think about what your scope is, and what you're qualified to talk about. You and I aren't qualified to talk about de facto Han supremacy, real as it is. <br /><br />So don't be ashamed to define the scope of your blog as just American stuff, or just western stuff. That doesn't mean you're ignoring other cultures' issues -- it just means you know what you are and aren't qualified to talk about. <br /><br />Also, I don't quite think Oso was using the Arab trader argument. Usually the purpose of that argument is to excuse a white tendency by showing a similar tendency in another culture -- I don't think he was trying to excuse white folks.The Witty Mulattohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14714368344885684793noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-89401887977152745892010-03-22T20:08:12.978-07:002010-03-22T20:08:12.978-07:00@Headroomination: Agreed wholeheartedly with your ...@Headroomination: Agreed wholeheartedly with your point about racism being employed as a tool to circumvent solidarity among the lower classes, but I'd also point out the trickiness of class unity when one of the myriad ways that racism manifests is <i>through</i> class. <br /><br />The epic intersectionality of racism with classism can't be ignored, despite white people who are lower income often trying to disavow their racial privilege. <br /><br />A white person may not always have class privilege, but they sure as hell have white privilege.<br /><br />Unless we accept bootstraperism and essentialist pseudoscience about nonwhite folks, then the fact that disproportionate percentages living in poverty in an America just happen to be minorities - to say nothing of a global scale where this disproportion becomes the <i>vast, non-white</i> majority - needs to scrutinized in an antiracist context.Commie Bastardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-65398220812118100252010-03-22T19:23:19.155-07:002010-03-22T19:23:19.155-07:00I don't disagree with Oso's views regardin...I don't disagree with Oso's views regarding classism being a bigger problem than racism, if I understand him/her correctly. In fact, I would argue that the great divide between peoples has always been classism. The haves seek to deprive the have nots in order to retain the controls they already have and consolidate the controls which still elude them.<br /><br />Racism is one of many tools used by the haves to prevent the diverse have nots from uniting against them. As long as the haves can continue to convince so-called "poor white trash" that they have more in common with "Beverly Hills socialites" than some "N-words from the projects," the injustices that stem from classism will never be addressed. But perception is reality. The "N-word from the projects" needs to be able to see the value of an alliance with "poor white trash" in the battle for economic fairness - and vice versa - or both will continue to be exploited by the haves. <br /><br />I believe blogs like yours that encourage white people to recognize white entitlement as REAL and to question its legitimacy and usefulness are invalueable for removing the blinders from the have not's eyes.HymnAgenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08801615549604086828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-31015353031476362512010-03-20T07:53:25.822-07:002010-03-20T07:53:25.822-07:00"Actually the kindest interpretation is that ..."Actually the kindest interpretation is that I'm honest enough to admit I'm unwilling to live without the safety and comfort provided by technological process that likely wouldn't have occurred if the Americas, India, etc. hadn't been colonized."<br /><br />Actually, the kindest interpretation is that you're honest enough to admit that you're unwilling to live without the _familiar_ technology you currently have ... and you imagine that no equally satisfying life might have existed or developed if the Europeans hadn't invaded other people's lands, destroyed their culture and religious practice, and stolen their resources and labor.<br /><br />Which is blatant nonsense.<br /><br />One of the things I hate about being a WP myself is the way some WP think that the technological urbanized life is the only one worth living -- and then want to "share it" (I mean "inflict it on").<br /><br />First Peoples on the American continent had stable culture, methods of maintaining stable food supply around the year, deeply related family, clan, and tribal relationships (somewhat similar to the Highland clans of the Scots, in case you're making judgments) ... and a deeply spiritual relationship to our sacred planet.<br /><br />Successive waves of Europeans deliberately smashed all that because they wanted to reshape the land in the image of already-overcrowded Europe and use it for themselves. The same argument, incidentally, used by Hitler for his conquest of neighboring European countries and wholesale deportation and slaughter of their citizens (he called it "lebensraum," the need of the German people for more space to live).<br /><br />You might consider reading "1491" to add to your education about what the colonizers of what they named America destroyed, partly intentionally and partly through indifference to their own diseases.<br /><br />Me? I'm spending a lot of time in recent years trying to re-learn things my grandmother knew about community, the natural world, growing food in season ... and learning some Eastern and African ways of spiritual exploration conveniently left out of my white-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant upbringing.<br /><br />And no, I don't think WP=bad and PoC=good. But I do think ignorance of history=bad and arrogance=bad, whereas reading other people's viewpoints and learning from them=good.Maggienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-72991281123244948452010-03-20T07:30:46.852-07:002010-03-20T07:30:46.852-07:00Is Oso making an effective critique below of swpd?...<i>Is Oso making an effective critique below of swpd?</i><br /><br />Kind of and kind of not. He's right that things like commoditizing foreign cultures for consumption isn't unique to white people and kind of a human trait, particularly of a "dominant" culture. He's missing the point, though. The point is not that what "White People Do" is unique to white people. It's that this is sort parodic thought experiment. It's best explained by <a href="http://xkcd.com/385/" rel="nofollow">this xkcd comic</a>. When someone brings up their native american heritage or commoditizes exotic cultures, we are likely to say, "You commoditize foreign cultures." We are much likely to say, "<i>White people</i> commoditize foreign cultures." SWPD is a thought experiment where the authors actually make that leap, and the readers are confronted with what it is like to think that way.<br /><br /><i>If you're a regular reader of "stuff white people do," what brings you back?</i><br /><br />Because sometimes there's an interesting kernel of something to think about, and sometimes the posts are an absolute train wreck.Tyrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03737112704315381259noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-8576750371579396162010-03-19T13:59:20.238-07:002010-03-19T13:59:20.238-07:00By the way, swpd originally focused on stuff that ...By the way, swpd originally focused on stuff that white people do. Now, it focuses almost exclusively on stuff that white people do <i>that happens to be racist</i>. Maybe I missed an interim post explaining the change?<br /><br />After all, I don't think "smile tightly" ever had much to do with colonialism or modern white supremacy.Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02446020225736422284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-3869716860659174872010-03-19T13:57:11.602-07:002010-03-19T13:57:11.602-07:00I'm thinking that you understood Guns, Germs, ...I'm thinking that you understood Guns, Germs, and Steel -- you just ignored it (except when you had to use your having read it to "prove" what you were saying wasn't an example racism).Benhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02446020225736422284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-84354334120563060522010-03-19T08:50:28.102-07:002010-03-19T08:50:28.102-07:00@Bella,
Admittedly, I'm not very well read in...@Bella,<br /><br />Admittedly, I'm not very well read in matters of history, but I know enough to not repaint history as what would've happened had such and such an event not occurred. The truth of the matter is, you have no clue what would've happened had the aboriginal Australians not been colonized. You have no idea if they would've developed their own sanitation system or if they would've remained hunters and gathers. fromthetropics is right that just because how they choose to live isn't your lifestyle of preference doesn't mean that your lifestyle is what they would prefer.clnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-64949290437881966012010-03-19T08:18:59.134-07:002010-03-19T08:18:59.134-07:00"THIS is exactly what I was getting at with m..."THIS is exactly what I was getting at with my post. This mindset of "let's all be ashamed of our history." Yes, whites used biological warfare. Does that override the progress that has been made regarding sanitation, medicine, vaccinations, medical technology, etc?"<br /><br />No, Bella, you have again missed the point. The Point Is (i'll spell it out for you) that the kind of thinking that you are using here is exactly the kind of thinking used by those who distributed the cholera-laced blankets. Think about it.the other Juliahttp://nobody-asked-you.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-8335586764017049682010-03-19T07:28:26.044-07:002010-03-19T07:28:26.044-07:00@Bella
Your views/statements about Aboriginal Aus...@Bella<br /><br />Your views/statements about Aboriginal Australians are horrendously offensive. You seem to think of their lifestyle as inferior to yours. Well it's not. Let me illustrate. <br /><br />My white Australian friend married a white Australian man who is a farmer. They now live in a small town with acres and acres of land. They have cattle, etc. Would I, an urban dweller, want to live like that? Hell, no. I don't like that kind of lifestyle. And it would be easy for me to think of their lifestyle as somehow 'backwards', and the fast paced urban life as 'progressive'. In fact, I used to think farmers were farmers because they couldn't move into other professions. <br /><br />Well, I was dead wrong. This guy likes what he does. When he comes to the city and sees how we live on 300-800m2 plots, he thinks, "Yuck. How could you live on such a tiny little land? It's claustrophobic. What is wrong with these people?" <br /><br />Basically, I'm saying that just because I don't like his farming lifestyle, it doesn't make it inferior. Just because he doesn't like the urban lifestyle, it doesn't make it inferior. Just because I don't like the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, it doesn't make it inferior. If you don't like it, fine. But don't try to suggest that it's inferior to the way you're living. That is an arrogant attitude.fromthetropicshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03920987423034922878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-69062122967733390332010-03-18T20:07:54.481-07:002010-03-18T20:07:54.481-07:00[Bella/Elisabeth -- who just wrote that those are ...[Bella/Elisabeth -- who just wrote that those are both you, along with much more -- you're being obnoxiously obstinate. I'm not going to give you more space to keep repeating yourself. ~macon]macon dhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07795547197817128339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-60058690388488478922010-03-18T18:53:44.979-07:002010-03-18T18:53:44.979-07:00Bella Belladona's historical over generalizati...Bella Belladona's historical over generalizations aside, her rationale that present day white supremacy doesn't have to be confronted and overthrown because after all, everybody else has done something similar at some point in time is the backward logic we used as kids when we got caught doin' something we weren't supposed to be doin'...ie. "boy, why were you throwing rocks at the bus?...uh, well Joey and them was doin' it too!"...i got a whuppin' anyway...cause mamma don't care about Joey misbehavin', she cares about what i'm doin'!!!...it didn't work for me and it won't work for white folks who attempt to mimimize white supremacy...ronnie brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07986056708679132837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-30512082789990193002010-03-18T17:08:03.890-07:002010-03-18T17:08:03.890-07:00@Bella Belladonna re: 'The ATA basically boils...@Bella Belladonna re: 'The ATA basically boils down to "this behavior has been practiced by ruling majorities and people in power, of every race, and to single out white people is unfair."'<br /><br />Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, murder has been practiced by all kinds of people from time immemorial, and to single out the defendant is unfair!blogloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01465639610604161309noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-27043890352376654402010-03-18T17:01:51.583-07:002010-03-18T17:01:51.583-07:00"SWPD: secretly think we'd all still be h..."SWPD: secretly think we'd all still be hunter gatherers without them"<br /><br />Everyone? No. The indigenous people of Australia (where I live?) Yes.<br /><br />Please feel free to do your own research if you don't believe me.Bella Belladonnahttp://bellabelladonna.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-59521164935994929602010-03-18T16:57:42.931-07:002010-03-18T16:57:42.931-07:00I want you to go look up the Scramble for Africa o...I want you to go look up the Scramble for Africa on Google...and write an essay on your little blog about how fuckin' awesome your entire race would be if a mass of gun-toting white dudes came and invaded your country, carted most of your people off to a foreign country, shot, killed, stole, raped and destroyed. And whoever was left behind was enslaved to build railroads all over the continent (costing you and your people life and limb). Ya REALLY think your mind would be on propelling someone's ass into outer-space after all of that? I'm thinkin' "no". But I'll bet you're thinking... "OMG they weren't enslaved during the Space Race." <br /><br />And if you want to bring it around to American blacks... I want you to go look up when black men were allowed to vote legally, when they were allowed to attend a university. How easy it was for them to even get a job where someone gave them credit for their minds.<br /><br /><br />I will Google that and get back to you but I will say this - I think you missed my point.<br /><br />My point was - what universities would these men have attended in a non-colonized sub-Saharan Africa?Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05939100173998555327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-63863870818181435672010-03-18T16:56:14.506-07:002010-03-18T16:56:14.506-07:00" E.g., perhaps the "white" univers..." E.g., perhaps the "white" university model is so widespread because white racists colonized and/or erased and/or appropriated and/or destroyed other models of higher learning?"<br /><br />Arab and Chinese higher education models still influence the current state of their universities, about to the same extent that NYU or wherever is similar to the original Oxbridge type unis.<br /><br />"why did the white innovators share these advancements with other WP and not with POC? That would be racism, no?"<br /><br />As I said in my post, yes, that is racism.<br /><br />"You wrote: I am saying that very few people examine why it [white privilege] exists. Doing it your way certainly makes white people look good."<br /><br />And doing it the other way makes them look bad. I was actually trying to find a middle ground by saying that while it is wrong for Euro culture not to "share their toys" and it certainly doesn't make them good people, the fact is the people they're not sharing with wouldn't have had it anyway.<br /><br />"I read this as you're about to explain that POC are collectively inferior to WP even though POC are fine individually. The omission of Asians from your disclaimer is "interesting.""<br /><br />No, I'm actually saying that there's no difference between people, but there is a difference between culture. If you read the book "Guns Germs and Steel" it talks about how much of Europe's advantages are due to climate and geography, not innate white superiority. This means that people, on an individual level, are equal, but cultures, which develop in different areas with different advantages, are not equal.<br /><br />I did not mention Asia because Asia has a long history of technological and medical progress. Asian advancements shaped the world at least as much as European advancements, especially if you count the ME as part of Asia.<br /><br />"The first was founded by Fatima al-Fihri, who was from present-day Tunisia. The robes worn by graduates today are adaptations of the robes worn by the Alim (alumni). The fact that we still talk of professors holding the "Chair" of their subject is based on traditional Islamic pattern of teaching where the professor sits on a chair and the students sit around him, and the term "academic circles" is derived from the way in which Islamic students sat in a circle around their professor. The word professor is itself believed to be translation of the Arabic term mufti, which means "professor of legal opinions"."<br /><br />Very cool, thanks for the info :)Bella Belladonnahttp://bellabelladonna.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-90161676504930738222010-03-18T16:56:14.507-07:002010-03-18T16:56:14.507-07:00I'm just going to address a few points here:
...I'm just going to address a few points here:<br /><br />"Do white people actually believe that without them society would have never left the hunter/gatherer stage???"<br /><br />Certain cultures - yes. Indigenous Australians are the first that come to mind, they were hunter-gatherers when the Brits first landed.<br /><br />"You think Europeans are responsible for all of what you call "progress"?"<br /><br />No, I think Europe, the Middle East, and Asia are responsible for the majority of progress in the world, but this is SWPD so I'm focusing on European culture.<br /><br />"Oh, but wait, that way of thinking goes back to our European ancestors who so blithely obliterated "primitive" people left and right (you want to talk European invention? Let's add cholera-infected blankets to the list, shall we?) and then carted in a whole bunch more "primitive" people to do the work of "progress". You're right, we really should be more proud of their "accomplishments" [/sarcasm]"<br /><br />THIS is exactly what I was getting at with my post. This mindset of "let's all be ashamed of our history." Yes, whites used biological warfare. Does that override the progress that has been made regarding sanitation, medicine, vaccinations, medical technology, etc? <br /><br />"Bella, you're a troll, right? The kindest interpretation is that you are breathtakingly ignorant due to an inadequate education"<br /><br />Actually the kindest interpretation is that I'm honest enough to admit I'm unwilling to live without the safety and comfort provided by technological process that likely wouldn't have occurred if the Americas, India, etc. hadn't been colonized.<br /><br />"(1) African history, including the history of agriculture in African before the Europeans and the consequences of European colonialism"<br /><br />I'd like you to answer honestly - would you rather live in an African agricultural society (that lacks both temperatures for growing most cereal crops as well as a ready supply of easily domesticated animals) where every day is a struggle to survive?<br /><br />"(2) the rise of European technology happened after the conquest of America, not before."<br /><br />Yes and no - the technology was already superior enough that it easily overpowered superior numbers at the time of colonization, but you're right that without colonization of the Americas we'd be a lot worse off.<br /><br />"(3) Slavery in the US was an inter-generational and racialized system that was actually quite different from what is happening in Africa today and also different from what happened in the Middle East in the Arab slave trade."<br /><br />This is true. But it doesn't change the point I was making that slavery, violence, war, conquest, rape, dirty warfare, etc. are NOT something limited to white culture.Bella Belladonnahttp://bellabelladonna.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-8008701650188107812010-03-18T13:41:20.328-07:002010-03-18T13:41:20.328-07:00@ BellaDonna
PLEASE tell me you're still in m...@ BellaDonna<br /><br />PLEASE tell me you're still in middle school and just don't know any better. <br /><br />Let me address just one of your woefully misguided question/answers, because it's about all I can stomach. <br /><br /><i>"Why have there been no black men on the moon? Because the technology to do so was developed by people of European descent."</i><br /><br />I want you to go look up the Scramble for Africa on Google...and write an essay on your little blog about how fuckin' awesome your entire race would be if a mass of gun-toting white dudes came and invaded your country, carted most of your people off to a foreign country, shot, killed, stole, raped and destroyed. And whoever was left behind was enslaved to build railroads all over the continent (costing you and your people life and limb). Ya REALLY think your mind would be on propelling someone's ass into outer-space after all of that? I'm thinkin' "no". But I'll bet you're thinking... "OMG they weren't enslaved during the Space Race." <br /><br />And if you want to bring it around to American blacks... I want you to go look up when black men were allowed to vote legally, when they were allowed to attend a university. How easy it was for them to even get a job where someone gave them credit for their minds.<br /><br />Some other topics for you to educate yourself on: colonialism, imperialism and Jim Crow Laws. Your blatant ignorance is appalling.Victoriahttp://vintagelux.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-69667960188059482322010-03-18T13:20:53.303-07:002010-03-18T13:20:53.303-07:00@ Bella Belladonna
Europeans didn't invent un...@ Bella Belladonna<br /><br />Europeans didn't invent universities:<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_inventions#Institutions<br /><br />The first was founded by Fatima al-Fihri, who was from present-day Tunisia. The robes worn by graduates today are adaptations of the robes worn by the Alim (alumni). The fact that we still talk of professors holding the "Chair" of their subject is based on traditional Islamic pattern of teaching where the professor sits on a chair and the students sit around him, and the term "academic circles" is derived from the way in which Islamic students sat in a circle around their professor. The word professor is itself believed to be translation of the Arabic term mufti, which means "professor of legal opinions".<br /><br />Just thought I'd mention it since the history of science (and history in general) is so whitewashed - especially when it comes to Muslim contributions to science - and continues to be.<br /><br />@ Sean: I agree, except for the secretly bit.Just thought I'd mentionnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-51911852490240716052010-03-18T10:23:09.909-07:002010-03-18T10:23:09.909-07:00SWPD: secretly think we'd all still be hunter ...SWPD: secretly think we'd all still be hunter gatherers without themSeannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-88820630856715426782010-03-18T08:37:07.777-07:002010-03-18T08:37:07.777-07:00Sorry, Bella, you are too ridiculous for words. Wh...Sorry, Bella, you are too ridiculous for words. White people created and invented all great technologies? If it wasn't for white people we would be stuck as hunter and gatherers? Seriously? White people are the harbingers of "civilization?" Someone REALLY needs to read some more history books (hell, even just read more of this blog) BEFORE they comment more. These are conversations and trains of thought that have been addressed ad nauseum and were as ridiculous then as yours is now. -_-PMS Rhinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15039593134948002093noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-528074983146803930.post-81446476957069911062010-03-18T08:19:37.969-07:002010-03-18T08:19:37.969-07:00Bella Belladonna,
The problem with your argument ...Bella Belladonna,<br /><br />The problem with your argument is that you are setting up the situation so that "White behavior" = "minority non-behavior", which is reaching. I don't see how "singling out White people" for doing something bad is inappropriate (especially in a blog about White people), just as singling out one person for doing something bad doesn't mean no one else has ever done it/is doing it concurrently.<br /><br />When I hear "ATA" I always think about how growing up my sister was always the one who got caught misbehaving. (I was the slick one. :-P) When she would turn around and say, "But Jasmin snuck a cookie too! My parents would say, "Well, we aren't talking about Jasmin right now." That didn't mean they weren't going to call me on it, or that they hadn't already, but it wasn't her business to worry about it because she was the one currently in the wrong. And what were her motivations for tattling? To <b>deflect</b> from what she had done to get out of trouble. I doubt that talking about "Stuff Everybody Does" would make (White) people more open to self-reflection, because the whole point of deflecting is to never have to look at yourself. So you (obviously the general "you") aren't calling attention to yourself to make taking the punishment easier (solidarity and all that), you are doing it in hopes that what you did will be forgotten amidst all the other "cases".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com