First of all I am not white I am a man of color. I am bad with colors but looking at my arm I would say I am pinkish on the inside and light brown on the outside (it is mid July in NJ).
I have never known a white man. I have seen very few: they are called albinos. There are about 10,000 real white albino males in the USA. Very rare! But that is not what we are discussing.
I am not Caucasian either. I have no real connection with the Caucuses.
The "White Man" is a remnant of a few tragic centuries of Euro-centered racism and a figment of the wounded, paranoid, resentful imagination. Basically he is: cis-gendered, homophobic, misogynist, often Republican/conservative, narcissistic, pee-pee-standing, he-him-his-pronoun-using, self-righteous, mansplaining, European-descended, powerful, privileged, greedy and often wealthy, condescending, aggressive, and proud...a moral monstrosity!
The good news: he is not real! It is mythical construction! Like dragons, mermaids, unicorns, dragons!
There are basically three or four recognized races; they correspond with Europe, Asia, Africa and the (native) Americas. There are subdivisions within these, and some outliers. Each group shares a handful of physical characteristics: skin color, facial structure, hair quality and such. With all the intermarrying through the centuries...and even more in today's interconnected globe...almost everyone is some combination. We don't have three or more pure, discreet "races" a la Hitler.
But the category of race is entirely superficial, void of meaning and useless. To speak of race is like saying: "There are three human types: large-nosed, small-nosed and medium-nosed." The categorization is ridiculous. Who decides what is a large nose? How about a huge man with a nose larger than average but proportionally small for his body? The typology suggests a small-nosed (or alternately a large-nosed) person who subconsciously despises his/her nose and is channeling his hatred and shame to the scapegoat group!
What interests is not skin color or nose size, but (personal and communal) identity, history, culture, religion, ambition, and destiny.
Who am I? A son-and-creature of our heavenly Father and brother to every single other human being; a Catholic united with others to Jesus Christ in the Church; a male in all my relationships with all men and women; a Laracy and also a Gallagher and married to a Remmele who is also a Hemberger; an Irish-American (and both are important). I am a thousand other things as well: husband, father, grandfather, cousin, uncle, friend, walker, reader, New Jersian...and on and on!
But I am NOT a white man!
No comments:
Post a Comment