Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

I have a super-nice uncle who also has some very different views from those I have.  There’s certainly nothing wrong with having different views; in fact, I think that’s a good thing (or to quote a bumper sticker from my younger brother’s car, “You are perfectly entitled to your wrong opinion.”).  However, my uncle also periodically sends out mass emails that are really disturbing.  When they are really, really bad, I respond (not just to him, but to everyone on the email list).  As a result, he doesn’t usually send the emails to me anymore (though he occasionally still sends them to Debi, which means they still get forwarded to me).

The email below is one of my uncle’s mass emailings.  As a sociologist and a human who tries not to be prejudiced against any groups, I couldn’t help but respond.  Here’s the email with my response below:

Proud to be White or Are You????????

“WHITE” Pride”

This is great. I have been wondering about why Whites are racists, and no other race is…..

Proud to be White

Michael Richards makes his point…………… Michael Richards better known as Kramer from TVs Seinfeld does make a good point. This was his defense speech in court after making racial comments in his comedy act. He makes some very interesting points…

Someone finally said it. How many are actually paying attention to this? There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Arab Americans, etc. And then there are just Americans.

You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me ‘White boy,’ ‘Cracker,’ ‘Honkey,’ ‘Whitey,’ ‘Caveman’… and that’s OK..

But when I call you, Nigger, Kike, Towel head, Sand-nigger, Camel Jockey, Beaner, Gook, or Chink .. You call me a racist.

You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you…. so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month.. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi.You have the NAACP. You have BET….

If we had WET (White Entertainment Television), we’d be racists. If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists. If we had White History Month, we’d be racists. If we had any organization for only whites to ‘advance’ OUR lives, we’d be racists.

We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce, and then we just have the plain
Chamber of Commerce. Wonder who pays for that??

A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America
pageant.

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships… You know we’d be racists.

There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US . Yet if there were ‘White colleges’, that would be a racist college.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for
our race and rights, you would call us racists.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it. But when we
announce our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.

I am proud… But you call me a racist.

Why is it that only whites can be racists??

There is nothing improper about this e-mail.. Let’s see which of you are proud enough to send it on. I sadly don’t think many will. That’s why we have LOST most of OUR RIGHTS in this country. We won’t stand up for ourselves!

BE PROUD TO BE WHITE!

It’s not a crime YET…. but getting very close!

My response:

Wow! That is a racist email.

Will anyone mind if I give point by point rebuttals?

“You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you…. so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?”

This statement over-simplifies what is actually a very complex issue. Crime rates vary based on a lot of factors and from year to year. Yes, some predominantly black inner-city ghettos have high violent crime rates (e.g., Detroit). But so do some very rural, all-white areas. For instance, the violent crime rate in Branson, Missouri in 2005 was 2,124 violent crimes per 100,000 people, almost the same as Detroit’s, 2,419 per 100,000 people. Yet Branson is 94.5% white while Detroit is 81.6% black. If blacks are more likely to be violent criminals, which is what this racist email suggests, then aren’t Branson Missouri whites almost as violent? Or is the issue far more complicated?

“You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month.. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashoah. You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi. You have the NAACP. You have BET…. If we had WET (White Entertainment Television), we’d be racists. If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.”

This is a telling quote. Based on this, Martin Luther King is only a hero to blacks, not to all minorities (he worked toward civil rights for all minorities, not just blacks). Cesar Chavez was a union organizer. He isn’t celebrated for being Latino but for helping the poor. Apparently the author of this email hates the poor, too, regardless of race. Oh, and eight states celebrate his birthday. The author of this email also hates Jews (who are racially white, but ethnically Jewish). There is some irony here, considering so many Christians (Mormons in particular) like to consider themselves descendants of Abraham, yet they hate Jews. Oh, and Yom Hashoah is “holocaust rememberance day.” The bigot who wrote this email doesn’t feel like the genocide committed against Jews warrants being remembered? It’s an official holiday in Israel, not the US. The author also hates Muslims. He/She misspelled “Mawlid,” which is the day of birth of the Prophet Mohammed. Any Christians out there celebrate the birth of Jesus? The birth of Jesus is enshrined as a national holiday in the US; Mawlid is not. Yet the author of this email has a problem with that? Talk about bigotry!!!

As for BET, go ahead and name as many sitcoms or dramas as you can where the lead character or the primary characters are black. How many can you name? Now think of all the TV shows you watch. How many of the main characters are white? FYI, 12% of the US population is black – that’s over 36 million blacks. Maybe 12% of television shows should feature black actors, but 12% don’t. The author of this email is so bigotted he would prefer to see blacks disappear and have no public presence.

If we had White History Month, we’d be racists.

The author of this email should read a history book. How much of a standard history book in a high school today is black history? It’s not 12%. Most of it is white history. And which part of white history does he want to celebrate: The enslavement of blacks by whites? The genocide of Native Americans (over 95% were killed within a century of the arrival of Europeans) by whites? If that is the white history he wants to celebrate, I think his perspective is a little off. Don’t you?

If we had any organization for only whites to ‘advance’ OUR lives, we’d be racists.

Hmmm… Maybe most of the organizations that exist already favor whites. Like most banks, local, state, and federal government, and most corporations. If blacks had equal representation among CEOs in the US, there would be 72 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies who are black. Guess how many there are… 4! Wow! Those blacks have so much power. What about in government? Of the thousands of state governors in US history, how many have been black? 4! Hmmm… Those blacks have so much power! Things are so stacked against whites! How many black presidents? 1! Come on. The current system favors whites, which is why blacks could use a little help. And yet you complain about it.

A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.

Sure, but how many blacks have won Miss America? 6. How many should there be if the contest doesn’t favor whites? 11. When was the first black winner? 1983, 62 years after it started. That’s 62 years of all white women winning. If black women had a probability of winning equal to their proportions in society, there would be no need for a Miss Black America pageant.

If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships… You know we’d be racists. There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US . Yet if there were ‘White colleges’, that would be a racist college.

If whites had a couple hundred year disadvantage because they had been slaves to blacks, white college scholarships would make sense. Oh, and there are all-white universities in the US – Bob Jones University. It is a racist university. And there are no “all-black” universities anymore, just “traditionally black” universities. I was accepted to Howard University in DC, which is a traditionally black university.

In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.

At what point in US history have white men not had some rights that others have had? Why would whites need to march for rights? Are there any they lack? If whites march for rights for whites, it can only be to take away the rights of others, not to give whites more, as they have all there are.

You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of your ancestry. But being proud of the immoral things your ancestors did is wrong. No one is saying you can’t be proud to be white. But being “proud to be white” shouldn’t also mean “blacks shouldn’t be treated as well as whites.” That’s racist!

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.

Name a black terrorist. Just one. Go ahead. I’m waiting. Now name a white one. Timothy McVeigh (white Christian); blew up the Oklahoma City Building, killing hundreds, including kids; he was a white supremacist. Scott Roeder (white Christian); killed a doctor last month in Kansas over abortion. Eric Robert Rudolph (white Christian); detonated a bomb at the Atlanta Olympic Games for religious reasons and because he’s a white supremacist. Osama bin Laden (he’s white, but he’s also a Muslim, so I’m sure the author of this email would discount him). White supremacists are far more likely to be terrorists than are blacks. I wonder why that is. Oh, and white people rob others, carjack people, and shoot people all the time, why aren’t they mentioned?

This is racism. Why not be proud of all ancestry? Why not be proud to be human? It’s bigotry like this that leads to lynchings, hate crimes, and discrimination. Make the moral choice and don’t pass this on.

(Note: I wouldn’t normally pass this drivel on, but I figure if someone out there reads this racist rant then google’s the text and comes across my response, I will have done the world a favor.  Also, Michael Richards had no part in the above racist screed, per Snopes.)