Observations...

[silverthorne]

There was a long rambling post here that served no purpose other than me being upset, and by proxy, upsetting whoever read it.

It's erased. So at least I've learned something. Not so sure I still won't upset someone with this, but I'm trying not to here, all right? Just trying to get a wider perspective than I apparently have.

So...okay then.

Will someone please be kind enough to tell me what would be considered appropriate ways to help fix this situation? I'm understanding the reasoning about white america needing to be held accountable for the 'crimes of the past' as well as the present, but what I'm not getting a clear idea on, is what, exactly, I can do as a person to help rectify it. Since I can't change my skin color, my racial inheritance, or what the guys who have a lot more money and power than me are doing, what can I do as a person? What are you expecting? My own ideas of treating (and thinking of, despite the examples I used first post) people as people and not skins is apparently not enough.

No, this is not sarcasm, this is a person who's been up all night reading on this and getting a lot of the 'it's our/white people's fault and we/white people need to fix it' part, but not finding a whole lot of practical application for the average person living an everyday life. Except for talking it to death. Which still does nothing to help the situation. So I'm asking for a succinct run down.

What can be done?
What do you do?
What would you want done?

Comments

Re: This is just what I've been reading...

[cluegirl.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I do. And I have run into the attitude you're talking about headlong, and I understand you frustration with it.

What I'm saying, is that my solution to it is to look steadfastly forward. When someone with an axe to grind comes at me in a rage over my skin colour, I try to talk to them about what they are, and could be doing to improve the balance, for themselves, and their children. And then I tell them what I am doing to improve the balance. And I try not to let them get into games of Top My Trauma, whether personally, or racially, telling them straight out that the sins of any race are too great for any man or woman to answer to, and if things are going to get better, they'll get that way because of people thinking about the future, not the past.

Some don't like it, but I've found that they tend not to stick around once they learn that I won't accept the guilt they want to hit me with. Because people like that are usually not willing to give up their treasured feeling of oppression, and actually work it out. (Yes, generalization there, and so inherently flawed, however also containing much validity.)