"Boo hoo, the little white middle class kids aren't happy!" Jane Dark's compassion just chokes me up. I have no idea what her experience is, I can only speak for myself and and those I know well.
She mocked the comparison of being urinated upon and being "home alone on a Friday night" to gas chambers in Aushwitz. On the surface, I can agree with her, but by that logic, compared to what's going on in Yugoslavia, she has NOTHING to complain about herself (have HER children been murdered in an ethnic cleansing effort?). And compared to what happened in Nazi Germany, no one who was born after 1948 has any room to complain (after all, none of US have ever been herded into train cars and carted off to death camps). But we do don't we. We each have our own experience and our own crises which shape who we are.
Perspective is certainly necesary, we can't give much weight to someone who's idea of tragedy is breaking a nail. But to dismiss the psychological torture endured by being an outcast and being the object of ridicule, just because most of the people affected are white is ludicrous.
I am a hispaic male, and I endured the same treatment as these white people. I know many people who grew up in the inner-city who endured far worse treatment. People who were embarassed and even afraid to tell other people that they were going to go to college. Nerdiness and brains not only seem to NOT be valued in our nations' high schools (Black, white, red and green), but they are penalized in a very real way.
Ms. Dark shoud take off her black/white glasses and see that we are talking about scarring, about torture, about punishment. Very different from others she's encountered, but very real nonetheless. The difference is, that those who make it through the torture (even those from the inner-city) often find themselves in positions of power and success. (We sold corporate America on the computer and now we have them by the balls) But we carry the scars forever. We carry the hurt just as deeply and just as severley.
Slashdot Mirror
Sent to the Village Voice:
"Boo hoo, the little white middle class kids aren't happy!" Jane Dark's compassion just chokes me up. I have no idea what her experience is, I can only speak for myself and and those I know well.
She mocked the comparison of being urinated upon and being "home alone on a Friday night" to gas chambers in Aushwitz. On the surface, I can agree with her, but by that logic, compared to what's going on in Yugoslavia, she has NOTHING to complain about herself (have HER children been murdered in an ethnic cleansing effort?). And compared to what happened in Nazi Germany, no one who was born after 1948 has any room to complain (after all, none of US have ever been herded into train cars and carted off to death camps). But we do don't we. We each have our own experience and our own crises which shape who we are.
Perspective is certainly necesary, we can't give much weight to someone who's idea of tragedy is breaking a nail. But to dismiss the psychological torture endured by being an outcast and being the object of ridicule, just because most of the people affected are white is ludicrous.
I am a hispaic male, and I endured the same treatment as these white people. I know many people who grew up in the inner-city who endured far worse treatment. People who were embarassed and even afraid to tell other people that they were going to go to college. Nerdiness and brains not only seem to NOT be valued in our nations' high schools (Black, white, red and green), but they are penalized in a very real way.
Ms. Dark shoud take off her black/white glasses and see that we are talking about scarring, about torture, about punishment. Very different from others she's encountered, but very real nonetheless. The difference is, that those who make it through the torture (even those from the inner-city) often find themselves in positions of power and success. (We sold corporate America on the computer and now we have them by the balls) But we carry the scars forever. We carry the hurt just as deeply and just as severley.