Boy, it's all the rage lately, isn't it? Schools have got to figure out a way to root out
white privilege, like using "white talk": "‘white talk’ is ‘verbal,’ ‘intellectual’ and ‘task-oriented,’ while ‘color commentary’ is ‘emotional’ and ‘personal.’" Hey, that reminds me of man-talk. Let's root that out, too. I've noticed that people who are ‘verbal,’ ‘intellectual’ and ‘task-oriented’ tend to be more successful, which also seems unfair. What about people who are inarticulate, muddle-headed, and prone to distraction from whatever they're being paid for? Don't they deserve a living wage, too? Who are we to judge?
I had a similar set of thoughts when referred to this review of a current movie. I won't be going to see that movie, and never in fact go to see movies of the type; but how strange a set of complaints! It turns out having 'privilege' means you don't have the privilege.
ReplyDeleteYou can't use the word "Aloha" if you're white even though it passed into ordinary American English about sixty years ago. They themselves acknowledge the different meanings, which means that it's really two different words. Thus it's the colloquial English word and not the specific Hawaiian word they're using. But this is cultural appropriation! Theft!
You can't play a character from a book that was of mixed race if you're white -- although, of course, white is very much a mixed race these days. A hundred years ago we would assertively break what we now call 'white' out into "Irish" and "Italians" and "Germans." Now they all run together, and that's just why they can't be allowed to represent a character whose background is of mixed race.
ReplyDeleteSHAME ON YOU, GRIM!
Totes SMDH.
Your link is most amusing. I followed it back to its main page, and it links to this story which is also amusing.
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteStuff like that makes me miss blogging.
I get the complaints about the casting of Stone as a 1/4 Chinese/Hawaiian with her blonde hair and green eyes, but I've seen green eyed asians, and I have a son who's a blue eyed 1/4 Chinese. If my father had been blonde and my wife carried the recessive, just like the blue eyes, it would have been possible.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of a funny story though- About two years after my son was born, he of the big blue eyes, we were shopping at Baby Gap, and while my wife was looking through the clothes, I stood around with the stroller, and the sales girl approached with the usual greeting. She looked at the boy, and commented on how cute he was, then commented- 'Oh, he has such beautiful blue eyes'. Looking at me as she said it, she then said, with a touch of puzzlement on her face, 'how did that happen?'.
I replied by explaining the genetic background and how I carried the recessive from my father who also carried the recessive for blue eyes, and mom is blue eyed, so voila!
What I should have done was hesitate, look at the boy then back at her and muttered 'yeah, how did that happen?'
That would have been priceless. Ahh, missed opportunities.