That Greater “Good”

I’m embarrassed to say it.

I’ve lost touch with some of my white roots.

Honestly.

It’s not that I don’t act sufficiently Caucasian; I do.

But I have, apparently, in my increasing exposure to my wife and two children and various other people of color…well, I’ve nearly lost my ability to view the world through the lens of an angry white person who thinks that diversity and inclusion are dirty words and that any program designed to help people is a sign of impending socialism.

How else to explain how it’s taken me so long to figure out how such people can sleep at night?

It came to me today the reason folks can look at racial profiling, inequitable enforcement of the law, denial of homosexual marriage rights and so many other things and not feel bad.

Because those things affect “minorities.”

And, of course, because the definition of minority is “a significantly smaller portion of the population,” anything bad done to them isn’t significant. Because it doesn’t affect the majority. As long as it serves the desires of the majority or the interests of the majority, it can be as unfair as desired, because it serves the “greater good.” If troubles happen to minorities, those troubles aren’t significant.

Problem is that policies that serve only the majority often aren’t for the greater good but for a selective good to hoard power and/or wealth simply for the sake of avarice and to keep others down and as powerless as possible.

The other problem is that, taken together, “minority” groups will in the fairly near future outnumber whites in the United States. The advantage that whites have, though, is that they will continue to be the largest single ethnic bloc, and minority groups have a poor track record of banding together, even in areas of common interest.

But I can tell you one thing. If ever the various minorities do band together as one, and whites become something more truly approaching a minority, those ass-hats who defend oppression and discrimination now will demand as their God-given right all those things that they denied or tried to deny to those “minorities.”

I’m sure that’s what our Founding Fathers intended anyway…

14 thoughts on “That Greater “Good”

  1. macon d

    It’s so true; when bad things happen to white people, white people in general care more.

    But wait, look what’s on the news — another Missing White Girl!

    Reply
  2. Deacon Blue

    Sadly, Kit, I have to thank Thordaddy, since none of this would have occurred to me if not for me allowing myself to be lured by the need to debate his nonsense at the Raving Black Lunatic blog. With all the back and forth and trying to figure out what’s going on in his head, the revelation above suddenly hit me.

    It was perhaps the only useful thing to come out of that argument in Big Man’s comment section.

    But I’m pretty certain someone deeper-minded than me must have figured this angle out before I did. 😉

    Reply
  3. Deacon Blue

    Macon D…

    You mean, there are children of color that have gone missing too?

    It couldn’t be!

    I don’t see any of them on Fox News…(or CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC or CNN either, much, for that matter).

    Reply
  4. thewordofme

    A lot of people just give lip service to liberal views or ideals and go on being the way they were brought up to be. Its sometimes pretty hard to change that upbringing. I was raised in the South at a time when there was LOTS of racial inequality and although I was not bad about it like some rednecks are nowadays, my view was not charitable.

    And then we moved to California and I was exposed to many different cultures and races (I now know there is only one race…back then I didn’t)and you either adapted or were in trouble. Now I look back on my early years and I feel ashamed of how I was at the time. However I do feel luckier than most…at least I was able to realize how bad my thoughts and conduct was and ABLE to know I had to change and DO it.

    Good post Mr. Deacon–keep up the good fight.

    twom

    Reply
  5. Deacon Blue

    As my wife likes to point out, twom (and you’ve noted), liberal ideology is no guarantee that a person treats people of other groups appropriately. Mrs. Blue often prefers a “redneck” (who might hold broad negative views on race but can recognize an individual who differs from their vision, and accept that non-white for who he/she is) over a “enlightened liberal” who talks about racial/social justice and avoids non-whites or treats them with polite disdain.

    But as your experience shows, it’s easy to fall into bad habits when you’re in an environment that doesn’t challenge you as much, even if your heart is in the right place.

    What scares me much of the time are the people who should know better but refuse to grow in their awareness…and people who are in the same boat as minorities in terms of being screwed, but still think the minorities are the problem, instead of blaming the powers that be

    Reply
  6. Mrs Blue

    Insert my evil laugh…corrupting the white race one man at a time. LOL..Sorry I am being goofy but I like what you said and yes as a result of 15 years with me, you are no longer the white guy you used to be.

    Reply
  7. Big Man

    To be honest, the fact that it took you this long to realize why “minority” concerns weren’t deemed important is proof that you haven’t lost touch with your whiteness.

    ‘Cause minorities have known that since they discovered they were minorities.

    Anyway, I can see your internet battle with a certain someone has gotten you all riled up.

    Relax man. Dude is hilarious. As you noted, why spend all your time hanging around folks you despise?

    Just seems weird, but that’s what he does.

    Reply
  8. Deacon Blue

    @ Mrs. Blue,

    Well, you also managed to give me a pretty good style makeover in the process of the corruption over the years, so it’s a fair trade. 😉

    @ SocietyVs,

    That why I married her, man 😀

    @ Big Man,

    You make an interesting point. My blinders on this are probably at least as much a holdover of the white privilege thing as they are a waning identification with certain of my paler peers.

    As for Thor, yeah…I don’t know why that topic set me off so much, except that I felt he was going beyond his usually strange philosophical ramblings to completely misrepresent reality. I can’t figure out if he truly pays no attention to what other people write, or if he does it just to encourage someone like me to keep arguing.

    In any case, I’m starting to think Thor is the male Sarah Palin.

    Reply
  9. Titfortat

    Try being 75lbs in your first year of Highschool. “Minority” doesnt even do it justice. Discrimination isnt just racial in nature(I know you are aware). The point Im making is being white didnt help me at all. :(

    Reply
  10. Deacon Blue

    Yeah, junior high (or middle school, depending on region) and high school (esp. the first one or two years of high school)…those special hells of privilege, exclusion, oppression and inequity. Quite the microcosm for society those years are.

    😉

    Reply
  11. Big Man

    I think white folks are more sadistic in high school. In black high schools we have bullies and cliques, but from what I seen, there is not the consistent torture that you see in white schools. Or at least that I see from what people tell me and what is in movies.

    Anybody else noticed this and care to elaborate on the reasons for it?

    Reply
  12. Deacon Blue

    I couldn’t speak to that issue at all, as I grew up in Silicon Valley and my school experience was pretty much Caucasian and Asian, with a decent smattering of Hispanic.

    Plus, even as bad as I found junior high school (high school was OK, aside from a few select assholes), it wasn’t torture for me. But it was the time when friendships that had been going for years suddenly went “poof” and when I started to get excluded from things for shit like being “too smart” or “liking books” and crap like that.

    But I would love to hear some side discussion on that issue if anyone has insight to share.

    Reply

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