Another Weekend in East TN

My neighbor was taken to the hospital in Knoxville last week by ambulence because she had a heart attack but was aware enough to call 911 herself.  Her heart issues were on the right side and even though she had 19 stents, she still suffered a powerful enough attack, to cause her to undergo a quardruple bypass operation.  She was released this morning and I talked with her son after helping her inside her home.

One of the issues that we talked about was the fact that east tn, at least where we were living was, for the most part, isolated away from all the garbage that was happening in the big cities.

While we were experiencing higher prices, our increase in prices were not as high as those increases up north.  We were not seeing an increase in illegal immigrants being flown to our location, nor did we have the crime and violence that we had been reading about or watching on the news.  No one in our area was ambushing police in an effort to try and wound or kill them.

• No one in our area wanted to defund the police.
• No one in our area wanted to teach critical race theory.
• No one in our area was concerned about black lives matter.
• No one in our area want to remove monuments or rename buildings.
• No one in our area wanted to wear or mandate facemasks except hospitals and healthcare facilities.
• No one in our area wanted to ban conservative thoughts, comments, or actions.
• No one in our area supported abortion
• No one in our area wanted to do away with the 2nd Amendment.

BTW...  did I mention that my neighbor is BLACK???

AND...  did I mention that on the other side of my neighbor's house lives a mexican immigrant that neither of us knew whether he and his family were legal or not and neither of us really gave a shit either way.

Oh yes...  I am white...  and, interestingly enough, I have been white all my life...  and, the only living beings that were ever opposed by me because of my white supremacy attitude ghaniswere my CATS...  because I refused to let them go outsde...  inside cats actually live longer on average than outside cats.

Neither of us voted for TRUMP but both of us feel that our current President...  What's His Name...  is doing a horrible job and we are both tired of him lying to the public about what he supposedly believes...  we are also tired of the mainstream media covering his ass all the time pretending like he is doing a great job.

Neither my black neighbor nor I care about which political party controls the politics of the county because we have the same problems today that we had back in the 1960's which means both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for maintaining the status quo.

My black neighbor like to fish in one of our two man made Public Works lakes...  but, I do not...  So...  I suppose that we are different in that regard...  but, we don't fight about it nor do we get upset because we like to do different things...

I also have no idea if he sees me as white or just as his neighbor....  it never much mattered to me...

Can White People Stop Being White?

So, what is racism? One helpful definition comes from Matthew Clair and Jeffrey S. Denis’s “Sociology on Racism.” They define racism as “individual- and group-level processes and structures that are implicated in the reproduction of racial inequality.” Systemic racism happens when these structures or processes are carried out by groups with power, such as governments, businesses or schools. Racism differs from bias, which is a conscious or unconscious prejudice against an individual or group based on their identity.

Basically, racial bias is a belief. Racism is what happens when that belief translates into action. For example, a person might unconsciously or consciously believe that people of color are more likely to commit crime or be dangerous. That’s a bias. A person might become anxious if they perceive a black person is angry. That stems from a bias. These biases can become racism through a number of actions ranging in severity, and ranging from individual- to group-level responses...  SOURCE:  Tolerance.org, author Cory Collins

SO...

according to Cory Collins, it is ok for a white person to be biased...  as long as this white person does not put that bias into action like walking to the other side of the street avoid a group of black people because this white person has a bias that black people are dangerous...

BUT...

Cory Collins does not take into consideration the circumstances that caused this white person to exercise his bias...  such as the white person being retired or handicapped and that this same action would have been taken if there was a group of people were white.  It also does not take into consideration, the time of day or if this group of black people are young, old, or middle aged or how they might have been dressed...  it also does not take into consideration if this white person crossing the street is male or female...  nor does it take into consideration their religious beliefs or any previous encounters like this where the outcomes were less than positive...

THEREFORE...

all biased action is not necessarily an indication of racism...  and yet...  the BLACKS think that it is...

HOWEVER,

this still does not explain to me how to get rid of my whiteness or what whiteness is exactly...  I am assuming that whiteness is another word for white privilege.  And, I can assure you that not all white person were born into the ranks of white privilege...  for that guarantee, you need to check out the students who are attending the IVY LEAGUE colleges and universities.

The average white person, male or female, typically works for someone else and is considered labor not management.  And if, this average white person is labor, then the odds are that they were raised no where near the concepts of white privilege.  Even those in management are not always from the ranks of white privilege, even though they have ended up as managers of retail stores, manufacturing plants, restaurants, hotels, motels, and resorts...  I would suspect that they, over the years, worked their way up through the ranks.

ALSO...

and I remember this quite vividly that when my Dad worked for the Federal Government in the Department of Agriculture, he was FORCED to hire a certain PERCENTAGE of BLACKS whether they were qualified or not and the employment security of his position was dependent upon how well these unqualified employees performed...

White privilege or not...  that was not fair to him...  but, the government thought it was fair to the BLACKS...

Is this how the government is going to help us REMOVE OUR WHITENESS....

How do you suppose that our government is going to help the Blacks remove their BLACKNESS and the chip on their shoulders because of slavery that was perpetrated on their ancestors over 200 years ago?

If WHITENESS needs to go so too does BLACKNESS need to go...

I mean we are talking about EQUALITY...  right?