A sad commentary on human civilization is that in the entirety of our history, there has been no dominant culture/society that did not abuse its minority. We have always conflated power with impunity. We do it as individuals in our personal lives (every time we act on personal dislikes at the expense of others); we do it as a community in our communal lives (every time we enact and enforce rules that target those who we designate as 'not belonging'); and we do it as a species (every time we disregard the lives and livelihoods of animals and the nature that harbors them) - the litany of our enormities are forever enshrined in our collective history as a species. Every time we highlight another atrocity, we have but to look a little deeper in order to recognize that it is not the greatest or the latest, but merely another index-point in our ignoble journey to a collective consciousness - a consciousness that will transcend the veils of race, nationality, class, culture and even species - until we have recognized that ATROCITIES is how we describe what others did and what happened to others. When it happens to us or is done by us, we call it TRAUMA. Until we as a species begin to internalize all atrocities as TRAUMA, we will continue to write new entries into this sordid chapter in human civilization. To put it plainly - until we understand that 'THERE ARE NO OTHERS', we will continue to excuse the perpetration of atrocities under the banner of - "...they are other, and we are stronger...".
QUESTION:
Do you think the term ‘Embedded Whiteness’ necessarily frames ‘being White as being Other’?
1 Comment + 1 Question:
COMMENT
A sad commentary on human civilization is that in the entirety of our history, there has been no dominant culture/society that did not abuse its minority. We have always conflated power with impunity. We do it as individuals in our personal lives (every time we act on personal dislikes at the expense of others); we do it as a community in our communal lives (every time we enact and enforce rules that target those who we designate as 'not belonging'); and we do it as a species (every time we disregard the lives and livelihoods of animals and the nature that harbors them) - the litany of our enormities are forever enshrined in our collective history as a species. Every time we highlight another atrocity, we have but to look a little deeper in order to recognize that it is not the greatest or the latest, but merely another index-point in our ignoble journey to a collective consciousness - a consciousness that will transcend the veils of race, nationality, class, culture and even species - until we have recognized that ATROCITIES is how we describe what others did and what happened to others. When it happens to us or is done by us, we call it TRAUMA. Until we as a species begin to internalize all atrocities as TRAUMA, we will continue to write new entries into this sordid chapter in human civilization. To put it plainly - until we understand that 'THERE ARE NO OTHERS', we will continue to excuse the perpetration of atrocities under the banner of - "...they are other, and we are stronger...".
QUESTION:
Do you think the term ‘Embedded Whiteness’ necessarily frames ‘being White as being Other’?