I wrote this response a couple of days after Christmas, 12-28-15. It is today, New Years day. So this letter and response is fresh on my mind. I just happened to watch the new Will Smith movie called “Concussion”.
It’s the story of Dr. Bennett Omalu and his studies into the effects of high impact brain injuries in the NFL. The reason I’m even mentioning this is because in Smith’s final scene in the movie, Dr. Omalu’s gives a lecture, and in the lecture he uses the same idea of taking the harsh facts of the scientific findings of brain injury, and asks that it be considered a gift.
I have no evidence to support what I’m going to say, but I bet my bottom dollar that Mr. Yancey had not only seen that movie, but considered his harsh opinion of whites and racism to be a similar type of tough information. Pretty high minded of himself to think that the profound work of a real doctor, and the bitter ranting of an angry race baiter could have anything in common. But, if Mr.Yancy believes what he wrote, then maybe he actually does think that he’s trying to promote healing. How sad. Nevertheless I’m absolutely convinced that he stole the idea of calling it a “gift” from Dr. Omalu
A response to “The Letter To White America”. This was posted Dec 24, 2015 in the N.Y. Times. Merry Christmas!
A response, sarcastic and condescending, in direct proportion to George Yancy’s letter. My comments are after the *( ).
Dear White America,
I have a weighty request. As you read this letter, I want you to listen with love, a sort of love that demands that you look at parts of yourself that might cause pain and terror, as James Baldwin would say. Did you hear that? You may have missed it. I repeat: I want you to listen with love. Well, at least try.
*(Mr. Yancy, It’s going to be hard to take this seriously, when you season your 1st request, which seemed sincere at 1st, but ends with sarcastic quote from Baldwin and then another sarcastic comment, “Well, at least try”. That’s too bad, because to get printed in the N.Y.Times, you’d have thought the editor would have caught that.)
We don’t talk much about the urgency of love these days, especially within the public sphere. Much of our discourse these days is about revenge, name calling, hate, and divisiveness. I have yet to hear it from our presidential hopefuls, or our political pundits. I don’t mean the Hollywood type of love, but the scary kind, the kind that risks not being reciprocated, the kind that refuses to flee in the face of danger. To make it a bit easier for you,….cont…
*(the condescension is getting thick)
….I’ve decided to model, as best as I can, what I’m asking of you. Let me demonstrate the vulnerability that I wish you to show. As a child of Socrates, James Baldwin and Audre Lorde, let me speak the truth, refuse to err on the side of caution.
*(Am I reading this right? Are you asking us be loving and honest, to take personal inventory, and you’re going to model that? , But you’re going to refuse to err on the side of caution? I’m excited to see how you model that love and personal honesty.)
This letter is a gift for you. Bear in mind, though, that some gifts can be heavy to bear. You don’t have to accept it; there is no obligation. I give it freely, believing that many of you will throw the gift back in my face, saying that I wrongly accuse you, that I am too sensitive, that I’m a race hustler, and that I blame white people (you) for everything.
I have read many of your comments. I have even received some hate mail. In this letter, I ask you to look deep, to look into your souls with silence, to quiet that voice that will speak to you of your white “innocence.”
*(white innocence?,…is that different than black innocence, or colorless innocence? )
So, as you read this letter, take a deep breath. Make a space for my voice in the deepest part of your psyche. Try to listen, to practice being silent. There are times when you must quiet your own voice to hear from or about those who suffer in ways that you do not.
*(Assumptive of you. 1st to think whites don’t suffer like others, and to think we don’t listen. Please don’t make the mistake of thinking that our disagreement with your world view, is because we aren’t listening. We just might have an authentic, sincere and valid disagreement.)
What if I told you that I’m sexist? Well, I am…..cont…
*(Oh, this is the part where you model love and honesty.)
….Yes. I said it and I mean just that. I have watched my male students squirm in their seats when I’ve asked them to identify and talk about their sexism. There are few men, I suspect, who would say that they are sexists, and even fewer would admit that their sexism actually oppresses women. Certainly not publicly, as I’ve just done. No taking it back now.
*(I’m sorry you’re a sexist. I pray you get the help you need. I’m a man. In many civil people’s world, unlike yours, that doesn’t qualify me as sexist. It qualifies me as different from women. Not better, but very different.)
To make things worse, I’m an academic, a philosopher.
*(We’ll try not to hold that againt you, but that’s a tough one.)
I’m supposed to be one of the “enlightened” ones……cont…
*(Says who?)
…….Surely, we are beyond being sexists.
*(The vast majority of us are)
Some, who may genuinely care about my career, will say that I’m being too risky, that I am jeopardizing my academic livelihood. Some might even say that as a black male, who has already been stereotyped as a “crotch-grabbing, sexual fiend,” that I’m at risk of reinforcing that stereotype. Let’s be real, that racist stereotype has been around for centuries; it is already part of white America’s imaginary landscape.
*(Mr, Yancy, Let’s be real, in spite of a continual sincere warning from every healthy social corner of society, black men haven’t done much, to dispel that stereotype. As a matter of fact, they’ve perpetuated it at an extremely accelerated pace, with what is arguably what American black culture considers its largest artistic contribution over the last 40 years…..so, accusing white America of creating that stereotype is disingenuous and intellectually dishonest.)
Yet, I refuse to remain a prisoner of the lies that we men like to tell ourselves — that we are beyond the messiness of sexism and male patriarchy, that we don’t oppress women. Let me clarify. This doesn’t mean that I intentionally hate women or that I desire to oppress them. It means that despite my best intentions, I perpetuate sexism every day of my life. Please don’t take this as a confession for which I’m seeking forgiveness. Confessions can be easy, especially when we know that forgiveness is immediately forthcoming.
*(Is this supposed to be humility? Oh yeah, that’s that love and honesty thing. Just to clarify my thinking, if I have a genuine disagreement with you on this topic, is that allowed, or is that man I’m not being honest?)
As a sexist, I have failed women. I have failed to speak out when I should have. I have failed to engage critically and extensively their pain and suffering in my writing. I have failed to transcend the rigidity of gender roles in my own life. I have failed to challenge those poisonous assumptions that women are “inferior” to men or to speak out loudly in the company of male philosophers who believe that feminist philosophy is just a nonphilosophical fad. I have been complicit with, and have allowed myself to be seduced by, a country that makes billions of dollars from sexually objectifying women, from pornography, commercials, video games, to Hollywood movies. I am not innocent.
*(I’m so sorry you’ve been so evil in regards to your feelings towards women.)
I have been fed a poisonous diet of images that fragment women into mere body parts.
*(Sounds like you’re projecting blame onto someone other than yourself.)
I have also been complicit with a dominant male narrative…cont….
*(dominant male narrative? Is that something you’ve imagined, or do you not understand that American culture is the place on earth that women are most empowered with independence and privilege? So that begs the question, are you really suggesting that every man on earth is sexist? In the words of James Baldwin, “Do you hear that?”)
…that says that women enjoy being treated like sexual toys. In our collective male imagination,….cont….
*(I’m sorry you feel this way, but you can’t say this. You aren’t in the “collective male imagination”)
…..women are “things” to be used for our visual and physical titillation. And even as I know how poisonous and false these sexist assumptions are, I am often ambushed by my own hidden sexism. I continue to see women through the male gaze that belies my best intentions not to sexually objectify them. Our collective male erotic feelings and fantasies…..cont…
(“Collective male erotic feelings”….there you go again, speaking on behalf of a collective, which you have no right to do, nor are you correct)
…..are complicit in the degradation of women. And we must be mindful that not all women endure sexual degradation in the same way.
*(This is nuts. Are there a multitude of ways? I’m thinking respect is universal. And are men, collectively supposed to somehow know which ways each woman is “enduring sexual degradation”. This is getting creepy.)
I recognize how my being a sexist has a differential impact on black women and women of color who are not only victims of racism, but also sexism, my sexism. For example, black women and women of color not only suffer from sexual objectification, but the ways in which they are objectified is linked to how they are racially depicted, some as “exotic” and others as “hyper-sexual.” You see, the complicity,…….cont…
*(complicit with who?)
……the responsibility, the pain that I cause runs deep. And, get this. I refuse to seek shelter; I refuse to live a lie.
*(How masculine of you. Really, no kidding. Tough it out.)
So, every day of my life I fight against the dominant male narrative, choosing to see women as subjects, not objects. But even as I fight, there are moments of failure. Just because I fight against sexism does not give me clean hands, as it were, at the end of the day; I continue to falter, and I continue to oppress. And even though the ways in which I oppress women is unintentional, this does not free me of being responsible.
*(This is such am overwhelming indictment to all mankind that I have no words to describe my feelings other than pity for your world view, Mr. Yancy. How sad.)
If you are white, and you are reading this letter, I ask that you don’t run to seek shelter from your own racism.
*(Ok, I’ll be masculine too, and man up!)
Don’t hide from your responsibility. Rather, begin, right now, to practice being vulnerable. Being neither a “good” white person nor a liberal white person will get you off the proverbial hook.
*(The proverbial hook? At least you admit this is an indictment.)
I consider myself to be a decent human being. Yet, I’m sexist.
*(I consider myself to be a decent human being, and I’m not sexist. I also hope that as an acedemic you can agree that there must be a universal definition of such a severe indictment, and that each and every person that claims victimhood isn’t allowed to define that and make up their own definition.
Also, I hope your strategy here of feigning some type of strength in vulnerability, that you don’t think that absolves you from criticism of your indictment, if the shoe don’t fit? I’m not sexist, and I’m not racist. I’m happy you’re facing your moral demons. But just because you’ve had an epiphany in regards to the condition of your own conscience, shouldn’t license you to be the moral conscience of a whole race. That’s quite the leap my friend.)
Take another deep breath. I ask that you try to be “un-sutured.” If that term brings to mind a state of pain, open flesh, it is meant to do so. After all, it is painful to let go of your “white innocence,” to use this letter as a mirror, one that refuses to show you what you want to see, one that demands that you look at the lies that you tell yourself so that you don’t feel the weight of responsibility for those who live under the yoke of whiteness, your whiteness.
(This is where you, Mr Yancy, get in the real tall grass, because you’re telling a whole culture of people that they lie to themselves. With all due respect. It’s just so haughty. No one is living under the yoke of my whiteness any more than I’m living under the yoke of their blackness. We’re different. That’s life. I’m no more or less innocent or guilty of being white than a black person is for being black, and I’m surly not going to apologize for my color, nor am I going to apologize for my culture…ever.)
I can see your anger. I can see that this letter is being misunderstood..cont
(Mr. Yancy, I’m sure some people angry because they are being accused of something they aren’t guilty of.)
….This letter is not asking you to feel bad about yourself, to wallow in guilt. That is too easy. I’m asking for you to tarry, to linger, with the ways in which you perpetuate a racist society, the ways in which you are racist…..cont…
*(Again, we’re different. No white person in America should ever have to apologize, or to feel guilty perpetuating their own culture. No one is perpetuated a culture at the expense of another culture.)
…..I’m now daring you to face a racist history which, paraphrasing Baldwin, has placed you where you are and that has formed your own racism. Again, in the spirit of Baldwin, I am asking you to enter into battle with your white self. I’m asking that you open yourself up; to speak to, to admit to, the racist poison that is inside of you.
*(There is no battle with my white self. And there is definitely no racist poison inside of me. It’s such an evil assumption that it’s insulting to educated and civil people. Every culture has elements of their history that they’re glad to grow out of. As a collective human race we continue to press towards our highest potential. We do that, not at each other’s expense, but for each other’s benefit. The best way we do that is to assimilate into each others lives. As a minority culture, the phenomena of assimilation, and the burden of assimilation will be harder for the minority that for the majority. That’s not racist, that’s just the facts of life. And minorities in any culture have to deal with that. If I were Chinese, and a white person from America came to my country, I should not be expected to change my whole culture to accommodate this minority white person. On the contrary, this white person, if he is going to succeed and assimilate into, and be successful in all of the social dimensions of Chinese culture, then the effort is on the minority not the majority. Yes there will be some accommodations made by the majority to help that assimilation process. But the burden will be on the minority in every culture. That’s just life. Accept it. Get over it.)
Again, take a deep breath. Don’t tell me about how many black friends you have. Don’t tell me that you are married to someone of color. Don’t tell me that you voted for Obama. Don’t tell me that I’m the racist. Don’t tell me that you don’t see color. Don’t tell me that I’m blaming whites for everything. To do so is to hide yet again. You may have never used the N-word in your life, you may hate the K.K.K., but that does not mean that you don’t harbor racism and benefit from racism. After all, you are part of a system that allows you to walk into stores where you are not followed, where you get to go for a bank loan and your skin does not count against you, where you don’t need to engage in “the talk” that black people and people of color must tell their children when they are confronted by white police officers.
*(Mr Yancy, look at the culture your people have perpetuated! You bring most of your problems on yourselves. Every parent, black or white, has “the talk”, with their children in regards to respect for authority. Good parents, who love their children, teach their children not to look and act like gangsters. Mr. Yancy, there IS a look to gangsters. Hoodies have a time and place. There are also times when wearing a hoodie might not be a good idea. Ignoring that, and not teaching our children that those fears exist is a dereliction in parenting. Good parents teach their children to assimilate. Good parents white or black, teach their children to have infinite respect for the police since they have a nearly impossible job, so they must be taught to be compliant in every way possible. The illusion that white people somehow are less oppressed by law enforcement is ridiculous. White people, by and large do not perpetuate an “anti-police”, “anti Law”, “anti-white system” culture, which this very letter you’ve penned is evidence of.
Can you just imagine for one moment, what America would be like if the black community, with one voice of unity, with one voice of solidarity would consistently over a period of time, rather than lament about how the system oppresses them, but instead would follow the example of Martin Luther King and tell the police and the white majority, that you want to assimilate, that you want a place at the table of the American dream, that you believe in America and what America stands for. Can you imagine if blacks in the United States would unite in radical support for the police? Can you imagine the cultural shift, the paradigm shift that would happen in black communities across this country? There’s your solution. But it violates the victim narrative.)
As you reap comfort from being white, we suffer for being black and people of color. But your comfort is linked to our pain and suffering.
*(Sorry my friend, but you seem to forget that are the 1%’ers, and then there are the other 99%. And the majority of those 99% are white and reject that silliness. The lie that we reap comfort from our whiteness and the lie that this comfort you imagine we enjoy is somehow linked to your pain and suffering, only perpetuates a bitterness in us towards you.)
Just as my comfort in being male is linked to the suffering of women, which makes me sexist, so, too, you are racist.
*(I am not a racist. I’m proud of my culture. I’m proud of my German/Scottish ancestry. I’m not a racist.)
That is the gift that I want you to accept, to embrace. It is a form of knowledge that is taboo. Imagine the impact that the acceptance of this gift might have on you and the world.
*(Imagine the impact of minority cultures around the world, White minorities in Africa, Latino minorities in Asia, Black minorities in America, Asian minorites in Europe, all willing to assimilate into the majority culture. All embracing the majority culture, language, the food, the fashion. Instead of rejecting it, attacking it, resisting it, denigrating it, protesting against it, making demands on it. Imagine if minority cultures all around the world would respect the majority culture and assimilate into its business practices, and learn what accommodates business within those cultures, and learn what’s expected within the business community rather than demand acceptance with standards that are so radically different that now the majority has to somehow accommodate this subculture. Imagine what a wonderful world that would be?)
Take another deep breath. I know that there are those who will write to me in the comment section with boiling anger, sarcasm, disbelief, denial. There are those who will say, “Yancy is just an angry black man.” There are others who will say, “Why isn’t Yancy telling black people to be honest about the violence in their own black neighborhoods?” Or, “How can Yancy say that all white people are racists?” If you are saying these things, then you’ve already failed to listen. I come with a gift. You’re already rejecting the gift that I have to offer. This letter is about you. Don’t change the conversation. I assure you that so many black people suffering from poverty and joblessness, which is linked to high levels of crime, are painfully aware of the existential toll that they have had to face because they are black and, as Baldwin adds, “for no other reason.”
*(The “Existential toll” that you say “so many”… “have had to face” could be solved in one generation, assimilate.)
Some of your white brothers and sisters have made this leap. The legal scholar Stephanie M. Wildman, has written, “I simply believe that no matter how hard I work at not being racist, I still am. Because part of racism is systemic, I benefit from the privilege that I am struggling to see.” And the journalism professor Robert Jensen: “I like to think I have changed, even though I routinely trip over the lingering effects of that internalized racism and the institutional racism around me. Every time I walk into a store at the same time as a black man and the security guard follows him and leaves me alone to shop, I am benefiting from white privilege.”
*(Mr. Yancy, I do not struggle to see privilege. I am completely aware that in any culture, there is a dominant culture. And yes, it’s systemic. But it’s not racist. I reject the accusation. If I go to Italy there is a Mediterranean flavor and lifestyle to the food, fashion and architecture. That isn’t racist, but it is systemic. So because there’s a culture in America it’s automatically systemically racist? It’s just a ridiculous premise. This is externalizing that is beyond comprehension. Tragically it plays to a very bitter narrative within the black community and they will eat this up. Mr Yancy, in the hallowed halls of the culture of complaint, you will be a hero. They’ll be commending you for speaking the silly “truth to power” in those corridors, when really all you’re doing is perpetuating a horrible lie that keeps people down.
You see Mr Yancy, you have a culture. But you reject that culture. Mr. Yancey, you are an American at the turn of the 21st century. You are 100% American. You’re not African, you’ve probably never been to Africa. I’ve never been to Scotland or Germany. And although my ancestry hails from those countries I am 100% American. And so Mr Yancey, you’re also 100% American. But you lament and reject the fact that your race is 12% of the population, and by definition they have to assimilate and embrace the values, traditions, and business culture of the majority in America if they’re going to succeed. That’s not racist, or insensitive, or unrealistic. it is the harsh reality that every human being faces.
Does you think that by somehow projecting this problem on to the majority and asking them to somehow soul search and admit the obvious, that yes you are right, yes we all have a culture that accommodates our culture, the traditions, the history, and the business culture, the ancestry, that the problem of non assimilation is going to go away? It’s extremely important here then we stay on point and make sure that you understand, that the problem here is a refusal to assimilate. There’s no other problem. Although this solution is not easy, it is very simple
You see the problem as you see it is that you’re requesting that the majority of people admit to something that is inherent in the human condition. You’ve chosen to revise the definition, and call it racism. And that’s why so many white people roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, and understand that it’s a resistance on the part of minority to assimilate, not some conscious systemic conspiracy to keep minorities down. That paints a very evil face, on a very normal, healthy, and expected human condition. But it changes the narrative. Its shifts the focus. How convenient. This letter is just the same old culture of complaint, the same old victimhood breeding more victimhood. How sad.
White people are never not going to be white. But Mr. Yancey, you present that as if it is somehow evil? It is not evil to be white. It is not evil to love your culture. No one in white America is loving their culture at the expense of another culture. We’re talking 340 million people here and somewhere around 180 million of those are white.
Mr. Yancey, I know this might be news to you, but racism isn’t the problem, it’s your refusal to acknowledge that the collective soul of black America refuses to assimilate. I know that seems too simple, but that’s the real problem. America has done everything it can possibly do to accommodate every minority that wants to be a part of this great mosaic. Those who refuse to assimilate will be crushed under its wheels. Not because the wheels want to crush them, but because it’s an inevitability, that if you resist assimilation into the majority culture you will be resisted. Is like trying to resist the tide. You will be consumed or swept away.)
What I’m asking is that you first accept the racism within yourself, accept all of the truth about what it means for you to be white in a society that was created for you. I’m asking for you to trace the binds that tie you to forms of domination that you would rather not see. When you walk into the world, you can walk with assurance; you have already signed a contract, so to speak, that guarantees you a certain form of social safety.
*(“The binds that tie you to forms of domination”…? Wow. Of course this society was created for the majority. That’s not evil, does anyone expect black culture to accommodate Asian culture, or African culture to accommodate Latin culture? That’s not racist. That’s just the normal pieces of how cultures grow and evolve. “Social safety” happens to any group that wants to contribute, assimilate and participate. But there can be no way to provide “social safety” to any group, of any color, religion, or political disposition that threatens that same social safety of the majority. And that’s what resistance to the majority culture does.)
Baldwin argues for a form of love that is “a state of being, or state of grace – not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” Most of my days, I’m engaged in a personal and societal battle against sexism. So many times, I fail. And so many times, I’m complicit. But I refuse to hide behind that mirror that lies to me about my “non-sexist nobility.” Baldwin says, “Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” In my heart, I’m done with the mask of sexism, though I’m tempted every day to wear it. And, there are times when it still gets the better of me.
*(“Non sexist nobility”, I’m so sorry for this man. My question is, you are a man aren’t you? You are physiologically different than a woman aren’t you? So, ….when do you get to be man? Or more importantly, when is being a man, in your world not sexist?)
White America, are you prepared to be at war with yourself, your white identity, your white power, your white privilege?
*(Mr. Yancy, that war is over. Your failed world view has succeeded in creating a cognitive dissonance among many well-meaning white people. On one hand whites wanted to reconcile the evils of some people in our past. Then we saw the blacks in urban communities around the country, and for the last 50 years every new generation of white people try to connect the dots. We listen to your accusations of racism, and we ownd them. So the collective voted trillions of dollars, and made every possible concession within the framework of education, and health care, the penal system, the judicial system, housing food stamps, the list is endless. Only to find out those weren’t the problem. The problem is that no matter what we do, there’s going to be a wholesale rejection of the system, and it serves the victim narrative to call it racist. That creates a huge problem because the system isn’t going away.
And now you pile on with the ridiculous notion that white America is just plain unconsciously evil, and needs to search their soul and accept this so called “gift”, of more accusations and guilt from you. The gift of willful acceptance, of the notion that you have diagnosed the whole white racist condition, and exposed the real problem.
No my friend, the war is over. Whites are no longer prepared to be at war with ourselves. This war is over. And the conclusion is that many still fight. You remind me of Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who continued fighting World War II a full 29 years after the Japanese surrendered, because he didn’t know the war was over.
Mr. Yancy, If anybody is at war with themselves, if any community, or culture, cannot face the fact that God is just, and He provides all humanity the free agency to create and to rise above, to every human being that wants to, they can.
The bell curve is wrong, but faith is not. I don’t care if you believe in God, or you just believe in the strength of the human condition. They both require faith. They both require the presumtion, that any human being is intellectual enough, is endowed with the resources, whether it be from the Spirit of God, or star stuff, to build their own life.
So my friend, the war is over. White people are no longer going to listen to the ridiculous notion that we subconsciously embody some evil that has you in their sights.
Mr. Yancy nobody hates black people. Oh, hate exists, But nobody that matters hates black people. White people don’t hate black people. White people hate failure when all the tools are there to succeed. We also hate projecting our problems on others. We hate externalizing, and making excuses. We are solution oriented. By the way that’s not a white thing, it’s a cultural thing. And any person of any color can embrace cultural principles that work. But when you attribute those principles to a color, and then label them as racist, well it’s no wonder they are rejected by minorities.)
Are you prepared to show me a white self that love has unmasked? I’m asking for love in return for a gift; in fact, I’m hoping that this gift might help you to see yourself in ways that you have not seen before. Of course, the history of white supremacy in America belies this gesture of black gift-giving, this gesture of non-sentimental love. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered even as he loved.
*(“A white self love has unmasked”. What does that look like Mr. Yancy? Do you receive the massive amount of love that white America currently shows blacks, Mr Yancey? You see, much of white America puts our money where our mouth is. Mr. Yancy, there are so few black businesses that survive on exclusively black clientele. So it’s a very safe statement to make, that white America by virtue of their acceptance, and their willingness to embrace with their dollars, and invest in black culture, is why blacks in America are so successful.)
Perhaps the language of this letter will encourage a split — not a split between black and white, but a fissure in your understanding, a space for loving a Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Aiyana Jones, Sandra Bland, Laquan McDonald and others. I’m suggesting a form of love that enables you to see the role that you play (even despite your anti-racist actions) in a system that continues to value black lives on the cheap.
*(A fissure in our understanding. We loved Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin lost his life by a man defending his own life from Trayvon. We love Eric Garner, and we mourn his death. But had Eric Garner not resisted arrest, because he was breaking the law, he would be alive. Even if he wasn’t breaking the law, had he been compliant, he’d be alive today. But that spirit, that refuses to comply, that refuses to assimilate, that rejects the mainstream, is that same spirit that refuses to see the real tragedy in his death. There’s no excuse.
You list Tamir Rice, who was waving a gun. Naive, innocent, ignorant, foolish and youthfully arrogant, but never the less, waving a gun, a toy gun. He learned that behavior. You know that. The whole world mourns with his family. We are called to high places when these tragedies happen. His parents are called to forgive. His parents are called to a place few are ever called, to face the reality that their son was a victim of a senseless tragedy because of his own youthful ignorance. Mr Yancy, these are unfair indictments. Aiyana Jones was killed during a legitimate swat raid. He idea that you would uncle this indent little girl in your inducing of white America, when the whole family of that little innocent soul was derelict of an parental moral decency. You can list 100 more, but your bias to the immoral fact that these people are anti-citizens, that refuse to assimilate, and use their consequences as proof of their fabricated victimhood is exposed.)
Take one more deep breath. I have another gift.
If you have young children, before you fall off to sleep tonight, I want you to hold your child. Touch your child’s face. Smell your child’s hair. Count the fingers on your child’s hand. See the miracle that is your child. And then, with as much vision as you can muster, I want you to imagine that your child is black.
*(I do hold my children before I asleep at night. I touch their faces. I smell their hair. I count their fingers on their hands. I see the miracles that are my children. And then, with all of the vision that is in me, I imagine my child as a child of God, neither white nor black, in a world that is neither fair nor unfair, neither just nor unjust, and I imagine them as victors, rather victims, and I speak that into their lives.)
In peace, George Yancy
(Mr.Yancy, I find it hard to imagine that any human being, of any race, can wield the indictment you have, to a whole race, undermining the motivation for their whole culture, and then suggest that you are speaking in peace. Like the executioner. Calm as he swings the ax of death. Mr. Yancy, keep your peace, you don’t mean it, and you don’t think we deserve it.)
Mr. Yancy, nice to meet you. My name is Angus Stone.
P.S. I wrote this response a couple of days after Christmas. It is today, New Years day. 1-1-16 So this letter and response is fresh on my mind. I just happened to watch the new Will Smith movie called “Concussion”.
It’s the story of Dr. Bennett Omalu and his studies into the effects of high impact brain injuries in the NFL. The reason I’m even mentioning this is because in Smith’s final scene in the movie, Dr. Omalu’s gives a lecture, and in the lecture he uses the same idea of taking the harsh facts of the scientific findings of brain injury, and asks that it be considered a gift.
I have no evidence to support what I’m going to say, but I bet my bottom dollar that Mr. Yancey had not only seen that movie, but considered his harsh opinion of whites and racism to be a similar type of tough information. Pretty high minded of himself to think that the profound work of a real doctor, and the bitter ranting of an angry race baiter could have anything in common. But, if Mr.Yancy believes what he wrote, then maybe he actually does think that he’s trying to promote healing. How sad. Nevertheless I’m absolutely convinced that he stole the idea of calling it a “gift” from Dr. Omalu. Nice try.
Neos Renaissance 