Duncan Dwyer: Reading Todds response to the "guilt" question, I was moved to do some self-examination about my own feeling toward the issue. I appreciate Todd's outlook that anger at an unjust world can be a positive motivating tool that can unite rather than devide us and that the whole "white guilt" thing can be used as an excuse to remain in our useless state of social inertia. But i also think it is beneficial to be able to understand how the world sees us, Todd, as we are the embodyment of light skinned, married (thusly assumed straight) American men. I think back to the days of the Gulf War and how guilty I felt to be an American citizen. This guilt did not serve as a blockade against my need to act against something that I felt was disgraceful and was inhumain. Quite the contrary. I was moved by my emotions and knew that what I was feeling came from a deep understanding of what it meant to be an American. I understood that the rest of the world watched the T.V. that 1st night that we were bombing Iraq, too. I knew that seen in airports and on T.V. and living it up in the vacation spots across the world, ALL Americans look the same to the world. There is an association that is unavaoidable and to some extent very reasonable. We have a responsibility to feel guilty for the mess that others "like us" have created. Just like being an American, you cannot leave the baggage of race or ethnicity or gender at home. We wear it like we wear our clothes. We take it with us everywhere we go. Our mission should be to every day remind ourselves and the world that something better exists... That there are straight white male americans that care about the rest of the travelers in this life.
C.C.: Well sorry ya'll, but as a white, American, woman, mother, etc...I'd like to say that these things I just mentioned are what I feel least guilty about. I am a worrier and tend to feel guilty 'bout lots of stuff, but not for being what and who I am. I feel guilty about things like, what my kids think of my job as a mother now that they are grown, did the neighbor or friend take what I said the way it was intended, am I showing my husband the attention I should, and things like that. I know in my heart how I feel about racisim so there is no reason for guilt. And as for things our ancestors did, well since I had no input and there is no going back to make it right, why feel guilty. As a woman, I don't feel like a minority no matter how the world views women. I feel like a human being! That is how I view the world population, as human beings, with heart beats, bad hair days, good and bad habits, feelings, car payments, and such. No different than me. As a child I heard the saying "Walk a mile in my shoes" and I used to see someone and try to imagine how they felt walking right that minute. I never quite got the feel but I always wondered. I will say though that I sometimes believe that the fight against something makes the matter worse. Meaning that the advertisement and limelighting of a problem sometimes makes it worse and that trying to right the problem sometimes makes a bigger problem. Like: A company needs an accountant, the rules say they need to hire a minority to keep equality alive, but the most qualified person is not in the "minority" limelight. See, the fix makes the problem flow in the other direction. I believe that there will always be bigots just like there will always be crime, taxes, etc... I don't think fighting is the answer, 'cause war is war no matter how big or how small. So I say go the way of your heart and attack the problem person to person in your day to day life.
Todd: Well C.C., there is no doubt that the world would be a better place if we all treated each other like human beings with equal rights but the fact of the matter is that there is a war being raged against poor people and people of color in The United States. Not acknowledging this truth will not make the problem go away. It will only get worse. States will continue to put more money into prisons than schools and minorities will continue to be over-represented in prison populations unless we fight back. I am all for following your heart but it was fighting against an oppressive society that ended slavery, gave women the right to vote, and won all of us the two-day weekend and forty-hour week as a standard. At some point, we become morally obligated to fight back lest our apathy contribute to the problem.
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