Graham's whine reminds me of those who ask "how come black people can say n*gg*r but WE can't?

Empowerer

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Tue Jul-14-09 05:51 PM
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Graham's whine reminds me of those who ask "how come black people can say n*gg*r but WE can't?

Lindsey Graham's incessant whining that he would be out of a job if he had said what Sotomayer said smacks of white entitlement and fear of loss of superior status that have become more and more prevalent among the right wing in recent years.

How often have you heard a white person - usually someone who is considerably less than open-minded on issues of race - insist on knowing why "black people can use the n-word but white people can't?" I usually have two responses to such an inane question. 1) Why would you WANT to say it? and 2) You can't. Just trust me on this one.

Graham's question totally ignores the plain fact that, in this America, white men have always been in a position in which concerns about their qualifications and right to be where they are have never been questioned. They have also created an environment in which they benefit from race without race ever having to be explicitly mentioned or invoked - the advantage is so ingrained in our institutions that it operates automatically without need for any specific words or action.

On the other hand, minorities and women must assert themselves differently in order to just be included in the mix. Yet, when we do, certain white men scream bloody murder, pretending that the playing field is even and that any mention of race somehow disadvantages THEM because THEY CAN'T SAY IT! Of course, given the circumstances, white men need never mention race in order to benefit from it. Therefore, any white man who DOES mention it is usually doing so in order to achieve an even greater advantage than society naturally provides them, i.e., they often are racists seeking to subjugate others. THAT's why a white man who says something along the lines of Sotomayer's comment might find himself out of a job.

But Graham's "concern" about whether Sotomayer is "getting away" with something he can't do reveals a remarkable sense of entitlement and a deep-seated fear that we're seeing more and more these days - that the advantage that white men have been accorded in this country are being counterbalanced by minorities and women who are actively working to even the playing field - and succeeding at it. It must be very frightening to those who feel so woefully inadequate that they must promulgate and perpetuate false advantages, giving themselves a "head start" in order to compete with people they have always assumed to be less deserving of equal opportunity. And it must be enormously frustrating for the same people who consistently tell us to stop playing the "victim card" and to just get over it to see that there is at leastto feel that there is at least one thing that a minority can do that they can't do must be very frust

Wouldn't it be lovely if Judge Sotomayer could just answer Graham with, "Because I can and you can't, Senator. Get over it." . . .