When identities fall like dominoes

[William769]

In school, my liberal friends used to joke that I represented pretty much every manifestation of "the man" who proverbially keeps everyone else "down": Not only am I a white male from the South, but I was a Bible-believing Christian, a Republican, and, of course, heterosexual.

I laughed along with the characterization, even though I knew the intent was to discount my views as the product of a life lived in supposed privilege. I knew my background was more modest — my parents were the first college graduates from their Arkansas families — but it was fair enough to say I was someone for whom "the system" worked.

I was proud of who I was and from where I came. What a difference a decade or so can make.

It didn't take long for my pride in being a white man from the South to fall by the wayside. Once I was exposed to a version of American history that didn't teach the Civil War as a battle over states' rights, and that continued past World War II through the Civil Rights Movement, I started connecting the dots and didn't much like the picture they created.

http://www.washblade.com/blog/index.cfm?type=blog&start=9/13/06&end=9/16/06#9102

A great read.

[intaglio]

1. This is a very brave statement of self

K & R n/t