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OneGrassRoot

(22,917 posts)
Mon Mar 7, 2016, 11:26 AM Mar 2016

I just don't even know any more...

I can't tell if I'm being hypersensitive or if everyone else is tone deaf and clueless and embodying white privilege.

I have yet to find my tribe of sorts, so I'm always questioning where it's most helpful to pose my seemingly never-ending questions and requests for feedback. I'm way too agitating for most of the white people I know (i.e., I talk/write about racism -- and use the word "racist" a lot) and they feel I'm hypersensitive and a shit-stirrer; but I'm, understandably, viewed with more than a little skepticism by groups like this, with people thinking I'm just another white person on a mission to "save" people of color, being clueless in the process.

I don't have a desire to "save" anyone. My desire is to INCLUDE everyone, which is precisely what brings me to post this question here.

I would greatly appreciate your gut reaction to a web page -- not my website. As I said, I can't tell if I'm being too picky and critical or not any more.

To offer some background to this, I ended up spending an entire day last weekend exploring WHO belongs to the various groups I align with as far as mission and intent -- like the Charter for Compassion and various civil dialogue groups and such.

I looked at the LinkedIn groups and FB groups where I can SEE the members, and there were very, very few people of color. Percentage wise, VERY few people of color, and I perused probably a total of 5000 people across various groups.

Even if their mission is about diversity, their membership ends up not being diverse, which is why it's so important to me to have diversity built into the foundation. Without diversity, I do not believe any venture or project can be successful or sustained.

So many things still seem segregated and fragmented.

I just got an email from the Bridge Alliance transpartisan group in which they announced some award they bestowed. The award winner is this project called The Village Square.

If you have time, would you please read this page and see how it lands for you? It strikes me as super, super tone deaf, not remotely considering multiculturalism. The "sugardaddy" and "wells fargo" comment were also huge icks for me.

I'm all about civil, respectful discourse, but this "vibe" is what I find in most of these nonpartisan, civil discourse groups. It's all about bringing democrats/liberals and republicans/conservatives together in civil dialogue, but it ends up being by far WHITE people. The only real diversity involved is political party. I think they're really missing the boat and being extraordinarily tone deaf and privileged in their approach.

But perhaps I'm losing my mind at this point, which is why I would love your reaction to the verbiage on this one page at this one site, when you have time.

http://tothevillagesquare.org/expansion/

Thanks very much.


7 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
I just don't even know any more... (Original Post) OneGrassRoot Mar 2016 OP
"So many things still seem segregated and fragmented." Number23 Mar 2016 #1
Isn't that the truth... OneGrassRoot Mar 2016 #3
"Manifest destiny" is what stood out for me Blasphemer Mar 2016 #2
Wow! OneGrassRoot Mar 2016 #4
Oh dear! betsuni Mar 2016 #5
Whew... OneGrassRoot Mar 2016 #6
You're welcome, any time! betsuni Mar 2016 #7

Number23

(24,544 posts)
1. "So many things still seem segregated and fragmented."
Mon Mar 7, 2016, 05:38 PM
Mar 2016

Exactly. And there are people who are in absolute denial over that, and act as though everyone that brings it up is "race baiting." These folks would be so much happier, not if racism and segregation went away, only that people would stop talking about them.

And there are those who are actually profiting from the fragmentation. They are the ones that flock to Trump and people like him.

Blasphemer

(3,261 posts)
2. "Manifest destiny" is what stood out for me
Mon Mar 7, 2016, 06:32 PM
Mar 2016

I don't think you are being oversensitive at all. The page is troubling in many ways. I'm uncomfortable with the ubiquity of neoliberalism in general so verbiage that points to lifting oneself without acknowledging the constraints that make it such that people need assistance is always a problem (i.e. who is going to have an easier time finding a "sugar daddy&quot . And it's a problem with many (and probably most) organizations whose goal is to make positive change. But beyond that, using terms like pioneering and manifest destiny is highly problematic. Those terms speak to a period of exploitation and not just consequence-free expansion. I'm not sure that community building and and promoting civil dialogue is compatible with the kind of expansion they are associating with terms like "alpha dog." Essentially, they are saying hierarchies are a good thing and you just need a little help with finding your little piece of the power pie.

OneGrassRoot

(22,917 posts)
4. Wow!
Mon Mar 7, 2016, 09:34 PM
Mar 2016

That is a most excellent, insightful critique! Thank you for teasing out aspects of why it felt really "off" even though I couldn't put my finger on all of it.

Thank you, thank you, Blasphemer.



betsuni

(25,135 posts)
5. Oh dear!
Tue Mar 8, 2016, 04:33 AM
Mar 2016

The photo of covered wagons, Wells Fargo (bringing to mind its stagecoach logo), "danger in those red hills," manifest destiny, do you have the "spirit of a real frontiersman or do you want to come along after with the women, children, and fine china." Okay, so the real frontiersman bravely settles a claim in Indian Territory now that the buffalo have been killed off, but needs assistance from the U.S. Calvary now and again when the leftover natives get hostile ("sugar daddy" is completely out of place in this scene -- that's a Jazz Age Broadway showgirl, and "alpha dog" belongs in a Jack London story). You womenfolk who can't shoot straight can come later with the fine china, children, cookstoves, and Bibles 'n' stuff after the Calvary finally marches off the leftover Indians into the sunset at the request of the Great White Father in Washington.

Yikes.

OneGrassRoot

(22,917 posts)
6. Whew...
Tue Mar 8, 2016, 05:42 AM
Mar 2016

Okay, so it is definitely not me being hypersensitive/critical. You also teased out a whole bunch of wording and imagery that is just off, off, off.

Thanks so much, betsuni!



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