{"id":4149,"date":"2016-02-29T11:37:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T18:37:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/?p=4149"},"modified":"2016-02-29T12:41:03","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T19:41:03","slug":"the-willful-ignorance-of-privilege-from-oscar-to-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/irreverin\/2016\/02\/the-willful-ignorance-of-privilege-from-oscar-to-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"The Willful Ignorance of Privilege: from Oscar to Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
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His performance was\u00a0met with broadly divergent sorts of reviews\u2026 But Chris Rock did some truth-telling at the Oscars last night re:\u00a0the racism of Hollywood. Was it funny? You bet. Was it always in great taste? Not especially. But good humor rarely is\u2013and neither is prophetic wisdom. Sit with that one for a minute.<\/p>\n

I will admit, my attention was in and out. I watched the opening monologue<\/a>, then put kids to bed. Then watched a few minutes and loaded the dishwasher\u2026 Then half-watched the sound\/light\/costumes bit\u00a0(nobody cares!) while I scrolled social media, then got bored and went to bed right after Lady Gaga. (Dude, but that was awesome). All things considered,\u00a0I am not prepared to share extensive\u00a0commentary this morning, but I do know this:\u00a0in the opening alone, Chris Rock managed to get to the heart of it\u2026 not just the racism of Hollywood, but the racism of most white Americans in general; and the current political climate in particular.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs Hollywood\u00a0racist?\u2026 Is it burning-cross racist? Nah\u2026 Hollywood is\u00a0sorority racist<\/em>. It\u2019s like, \u2018We like you, Rhonda\u2026 You\u2019re just not a Kappa.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Insert \u201cAmerica\u201d for \u201cHollywood\u201d here, and that\u2019s\u00a0our malfunction, in a nutshell. The vast majority of Americans are, you know, glad that slavery is over and that we can all sit at the counter together and drink from the same water fountain. But there\u2019s a point at which skin color still makes for an otherness; a boundary that most folks\u00a0are just as comfortable leaving intact. It comes to the surface in subtle ways\u2013like the way we organize ourselves in the lunch room\u00a0(or in Greek houses); the way we staff the highest ranking positions at the firm; how we draw the district boundaries for public schools; and the ways we cast our mainstream\/high grossing forms of entertainment.<\/p>\n

We like you Rhonda. You\u2019re just not a Kappa.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For many years, America pretended\u00a0this kind of tension was a thing of the past\u2013that any remaining divides were part of the natural order, just \u201ccultural differences,\u201d and no big deal. Not really hurting anybody. People who were \u201ctrue\u201d racists knew not to say stupid shit in polite company, and everybody got along fine.<\/p>\n

\"*via<\/a>
*via flickr, creative commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The quiet racism that had mostly simmered beneath the surface of American education, commerce and entertainment for decades, came boiling up to the surface\u2013a volcano of long-suppressed rage. And now, 8 years later, we see\u00a0escalating instances of police brutality against people of color; a House AND a Senate whose sole aim in life is to block\u00a0anything that comes from the Oval Office; and a general public that is\u00a0comfortable using the coded lexicon of\u00a0\u201cThugs\u201d and \u201cthe cultural problems of the inner city\u201d in passing conversation.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Donald Trump. Have mercy. He\u00a0is not even\u00a0\u201cwe like you, Rhonda\u201d racist; he is straight up, unapologetically, just got endorsed by the effing\u00a0Klan<\/em>\u00a0racist. \u00a0While we\u2019d like to separate \u201cthat\u201d kind of racism from \u201cthis\u201d kind of racism,\u00a0his success as a Presidential frontrunner demonstrates clearly how the bland, beneath the surface kinds of racial tension\u2013politely ignored for decades\u2013has paved the way for this terrifying moment in history.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve ignored it. And it didn\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n

Much as we\u2019d like to think otherwise, the \u201cpolite\u201d racism of Hollywood\u2013so well articulated by Chris Rock last night\u2013is the same\u00a0as the\u00a0hateful, toxic, overtly incendiary displays we\u2019ve been witnessing from Trump and his supporters. It all comes from a place of willful ignorance that can only be enjoyed by those in privilege. And it\u2019s on all of us.<\/p>\n

If we want to change this story in our lifetime, it is going to take a concerted effort, and a lot of uncomfortable conversations. We\u2019re going to have to stop pretending that we are unaffected by friendly, Hollywood types of color blindness, and recognize the ways in which our worldview has been shaped by what we see (or rather, don\u2019t see) on the screen.<\/p>\n

To that end, read\u2013and share far and wide<\/a>\u2013the story about Trump\u2019s\u00a0State of\u00a0the Union<\/a><\/em>\u00a0interview. In which he found 8 ways from Sunday to avoid talking about\u00a0race and privilege.<\/p>\n

Trump says he can\u2019t denounce the endorsement of a former Klan\u00a0leader because he \u201cdoesn\u2019t know anything about it.\u201d This\u00a0goes on for a bit\u2026\u00a0he pretends to have\u00a0literally never heard of the Klan. Cannot possibly know anything about their beliefs or practices. He\u2019ll have to do some research, he says, before he can reject the support of this particular organization. Because, hey, they might be alright. Maybe they\u2019ve just gotten a bad rap?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more disturbing? The fact that he will not reject the support of this group\u2013or the fact that he pretends complete ignorance of this chapter of\u00a0American story, and the horrific role that the Klan\u00a0played in it? I\u2019m leaning towards the latter. The ignorance\u2013pretended or otherwise\u2013is more dangerous\u00a0than overt displays of discrimination. Because ignorance allows it all to just keep happening, again and again. And his ignorance in this regard\u2013contrived and disingenuous as we know it to be\u2013speaks for that of the American multitudes.<\/p>\n

Racism? There are no racists here.<\/p>\n

We like you, Rhonda. You\u2019re just not a Kappa.<\/p>\n

Want to have some fun on this Monday? Take Trump at his word\u2013assume that, like he implies, he has never heard\u00a0of the KKK, no awareness of their beliefs and practices\u2026 And let\u2019s take it upon ourselves to educated him.\u00a0Fill up his mailboxes.\u00a0<\/em>Send him newspaper clippings from the 60s. Send him links to the websites and blogs of hate groups. Send him stories and pictures. Educate this poor man\u2013who clearly went to an underfunded public school in Kansas\u2013 about the historical and ongoing practices of race-based suppression.\u00a0Let there be\u00a0an avalanche of envelopes\u2013like when Hogwarts had to send 8,000 owls to the Dursleys? Because they don\u2019t like to think about the whole magical community that exists behind closed doors in their own damn city? Because they like to exercise the willful ignorance of their own privilege\u2026 Yeah. Like that.<\/p>\n

Send those owls, people. Whatever way you know how.<\/p>\n

Because if we ignore ignorance, it will absolutely never go away.<\/p>\n

*photo cred<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His performance was\u00a0met with broadly divergent sorts of reviews\u2026 But Chris Rock did some truth-telling at the Oscars last night re:\u00a0the racism of Hollywood. Was it funny? You bet. Was it always in great taste? Not especially. But good humor rarely is\u2013and neither is prophetic wisdom. Sit with that one for a minute. I will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":4151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1198],"class_list":["post-4149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-academy-awards-chris-rock-oscars-donald-trump-racism-kkk-progressive-christianity-white-privilege"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Willful Ignorance of Privilege: from Oscar to Trump<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"His performance was\u00a0met with broadly divergent sorts of reviews... 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