Facebook Publication Date: 5/19/2018 14:05

I invite us all to read the embedded Atlantic article as it is written, and then then look it again, through the lens of race (which he does mention) as the main focus. There are some sentences and paragraphs that speak directly to what we have been talking about re housing trends and choices as well as the dynamics and politics of education.

I then want you to think of where you are. I disagree with taking the premise of the 9.9 percent too literally; some of the net worth figures are skewed by region, which he skates over. That is to say, 9.9 looks different in, say Indiana than it would in Boston. But the overarching point is well made–and the piece about those who have privilege–and know it, even if they would never articulate it–spend a lot of time, effort, and money constructing what could only be called moats, and stocking the water with alligators.

Tough question: where are you in this? How do you collude? What is your moat? What alligators do you deploy to defend? What tacks in the road to you lay down to insure a smoother road for you and yours?

We talked about this about a week ago, and a small number of you actually saw fit to leave responses. One response that was breathtaking in its honesty was JH’s confession that despite her commitment to the work, that she was not going to leave her community where she grew up and now raises her children.

That is honest, and taken individually, rational; even noble. But every white person in America, every white person here in this space has good reasons for holding on to what they have. What they are not so good at (no small part because they refuse to acknowledge it) is in stating what their individual, rational actions cost those with whom they stand, both on a singular and on a collective level.

There are things we do, ways we live, that sabotage the work. Which is why it is so important to do the internal work I have been imploring you all to do.

And it matters. Why I harp a lot about contributing to a space you say you believe in, no matter how modestly. And this is the foundation, perhaps, of a new conversation of reparations–not talking about the reparations based on the ancestors, but reparations for the lives white people live right now, in the here and now that come on the backs of people of color.

So read for class, then for race, then for internal reflection and conviction. I really want serious thoughtful responses.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/?utm_source=atlfb_test47_2

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