tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post3026790917845503091..comments2024-03-28T14:52:13.218-05:00Comments on Stonekettle Station: Fortunate SonJim Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11259550121437562338noreply@blogger.comBlogger136125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-51323389436175164912018-02-22T10:53:06.693-06:002018-02-22T10:53:06.693-06:00Looking back now at age 75, I see the turns in the...Looking back now at age 75, I see the turns in the road that brought me to this place and time. My father was born in 1890 in Mississippi to sharecroppers and 9 siblings. He left home at age 14 and ended up apprenticing himself to a carpenter in Chicago. My mother was born to a stern English mother who ran boarding houses for "businessmen" in Cajun country in south Louisiana and a father who was Irish, a timber estimator, and a bit of a drunk. She was the youngest of six girls. <br /> My father came back to the south, worked on the railroad, fought in WWI and married my mother and took her to West Texas where he built ranch houses, formed the first carpenters' union , took my mother to a farm in Arkansas through the depression, and then opened a large grocery, service station/cafe during the oil boom in east Texas. I was their only child. A white child of privilege with parents who were<br />leaders in their community. <br /> Thanks to them, I am a community activist, leading two large and very active organizations . I was brought up to respect, to welcome, and to live on an equal footing with all people of every race, every nationality, every religion, gender, and ability. I also remember the 50's vividly and the racial inequality and prejudice that were so apparent. But that was balanced by my parents' attitudes and my home in which everyone was welcome and was "family". Until I read this post from you, I had not thought for a long time about how great the wealth I was given by my parents . . . . the generosity of spirit, the open-minded, open-armed love for everyone , the pragmatic views of what great gifts come from true diversity in communities, in schools, in business, etc. My father was not a man who admired or participated in organized religion. My mother and I went to Sunday School together. But from them I also learned respect for the religious views of others and forged a belief set of my own.I also learned what it meant to have the "courage of my convictions" , to stand up for what I believed in, and how to bring a diverse population, like my current neighborhood, together to create changes for the benefit of all.<br />Thanks for writing this column. I read it with pleasure. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-62506828382488623132018-01-30T11:47:17.777-06:002018-01-30T11:47:17.777-06:00so what if the memo is accurate. Also what is you...so what if the memo is accurate. Also what is your opinion on "the Program." That was started as intelligence gathering tool to prevent acts of terrorism and was enhanced under the Obama administration. Life's Too Shorthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09872811919584379193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-3073021435248151902018-01-10T08:33:38.147-06:002018-01-10T08:33:38.147-06:00Thank you Mr Wright.
I have spent a few days now t...Thank you Mr Wright.<br />I have spent a few days now thinking about my own white privilege.<br />My knowledge and understanding of it comes from a very different place than yours but in the end we stand on very similar ground.<br />I'm mixed race- half my family is brown. I'm not. While I carry the bone structure and build of my mother's Sugpiaq forebears , my skin is white. With one notable exception my experience in life is greatly different than that of my brown relatives. I have seen that, lived that my whole life. I'm very aware of the doors which are open to me , without question, the opportunities I've enjoyed, even as a woman, which my relatives do not have to this day unless they explicitly ask, demand, and /or fight for them.(Even then the opportunities may not come for them)<br /><br /> I chafe at the insistence by so many that there is no institutional framework which favors all white appearing folks when I live it daily next to my brown relatives.<br /><br />I accept the responsibility the knowledge of my privilege requires.I have since I was a small child, beaten and broken nosed, by a much larger child who demanded that I acknowledge my mother could not be my mother because she was brown.<br />Part of that responsibility is to keep plugging away, to maintain hope, to cultivate allies, to stand in solidarity - to fucking vote and be counted , always- that the social and political rights white people take for granted are extended to our whole human family and the the privileges are extended to all.<br /><br />alaskapihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11900235733791874046noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-11230733450324655112018-01-09T12:28:18.153-06:002018-01-09T12:28:18.153-06:00Amen! Amen! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-11887127110858094802018-01-09T01:19:28.526-06:002018-01-09T01:19:28.526-06:00The first time I learned about Buffalo Soldiers wa...The first time I learned about Buffalo Soldiers was when Yaphet Kotto did a guest stint on The Big Valley. An exception to be sure, thanks very much for your essay.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-80813532326813350472018-01-08T22:18:26.271-06:002018-01-08T22:18:26.271-06:00Mr. Wright, your writing’s always been good, but o...Mr. Wright, your writing’s always been good, but of late your writing surpasses previous peaks with a regularity that is both astonishing and inspiring. This piece gets to the heart of white privilege, and you deserve kudos for doing so with grace and awareness and understanding and compassion. Take a bow, sir - you have earned all the accolades this piece will get. Matt haydenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01738887948835340373noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-79624722454190023622018-01-08T17:05:02.950-06:002018-01-08T17:05:02.950-06:00Depressives, like pragmatists, tend to be reality-...Depressives, like pragmatists, tend to be reality-based.<br /><br />I also grew up in a small town, next door in Wisconsin, but it's an old town, with a great many old families and a stark divide between old money, new money, and no money. And coldly racist in a way you don't really find in the South.<br /><br />Watching the mythical 1850s on TV in the 1950s did a lot to shape American culture to this day, I think. It's too bad so few of the portrayals were actually true-to-life.<br /><br />Thank you for yet another good, provocative read.<br /><br />Dicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00143959038759146834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-57868683769328878922018-01-08T17:03:29.153-06:002018-01-08T17:03:29.153-06:00Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for wri...Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for writing this.Goddesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00608547660346852995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-5532449810434510732018-01-08T06:49:37.072-06:002018-01-08T06:49:37.072-06:00Shared on FB without comment, because there really...Shared on FB without comment, because there really isn't much I can add here.J. Traemhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14660379049051263447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-83516478064687205082018-01-07T20:34:39.710-06:002018-01-07T20:34:39.710-06:00The American people want action. Trump represents ...The American people want action. Trump represents action, for better or worse. Who the hell believes in hope nowadays? Comfortable, middle class progressives? The insane? America is too far gone to keep relying on hope for the future.<br /><br />It must be difficult feeling optimistic with Trump in office and emboldened racists cheering him on. But that's what you get when you spend eight years of power promising hope and change, and fail to deliver. That's what complacency can get you.<br /><br />The old hope of voting the Dems back in charge won't work this time around. More shocks to the system are on their way.Peter Panhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09473311771939167712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-34395677725871613632018-01-07T16:58:29.331-06:002018-01-07T16:58:29.331-06:00What a remarkable piece of writing. Good work, Jim...What a remarkable piece of writing. Good work, Jim. If I could share something as well... Growing up somewhat differently in Canada, here our un-privileged have primarily been our first nations people (not that other racism doesn't exist as well, but it seems they get the worst of it). Being born where I was, on an east coast island that had had its original inhabitants completely wiped out (God, just imagine that) hundreds of years earlier by both direct and indirect actions of my ancestors... I didn't see the full extent of racism against native peoples until I moved out west to the prairie provinces. I've been horrified ever since. Canada had a Truth and Reconciliation Commission complete its work and release their findings, specifically about an abomination called the Residential School system (taking native children away from their homes and raising (abusing, starving, killing) them in a "white" culture - all for their benefit, of course). But there are still so many people who don't think it could possibly have been that bad for them. Or that "good things" happened there too so it washes out. Or worse, that the native peoples brought the repercussions on themselves. Or that their own tribal leaders are to blame. What bunk. A few years back I saw a news story about a native man who waited in a hospital emergency waiting room until he died of a completely treatable condition. The staff had all assumed he was drunk and not one of them checked on him. This to me is what white privilege represents - no white person in that waiting room would have had this happen to them. So when I see acquaintances of mine forwarding little pieces of snark on Facebook mocking "white privilege", frankly it disgusts me. But I've never felt that I had enough of a handle on what the term means to explain it properly. Now, thanks to you, I do. Keep up the good work, fellow pragmatic optimist.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03659847927940876292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-18024606930184762212018-01-07T16:52:40.492-06:002018-01-07T16:52:40.492-06:00As a Canadian white gal pushing sixty, thank you f...As a Canadian white gal pushing sixty, thank you for your essay. And thank you to all who commented with their own observations and experiences. I'm starting to feel like the sooner North America gets the white bred out of us the better we'll all be for it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-59390860640560863642018-01-07T15:03:13.942-06:002018-01-07T15:03:13.942-06:00I've been thinking a lot about your final quot...I've been thinking a lot about your final quote, Jim. I always thought rebellions were build on rage--the I'm-mad-as-hell-and-I-won't-take-it-anymore kind of anger or the I've-got-nothing-more-to-lose rage. It'll require some thought before I can come around to hope as a motivator.ebrkenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-49125593929174282462018-01-07T10:42:07.873-06:002018-01-07T10:42:07.873-06:00Over the last year or so I have been wondering a l...Over the last year or so I have been wondering a lot about our progression of racism in this country, often specifically the Jim Crow south...I try to imagine what it must have been like when colored fountains, schools, and such became a thing of the past....How outraged people were and they were not afraid to show it, how they seemed to feel no shame at their own actions towards other human beings. I wonder how I would have been if I had grown up during that time, because there simply just was no shame.<br />Even today...there seems to be so little shame...we (collectively), still seem to see ourselves as better than...still...even though we won't admit it....There is always those commenters who will dismiss this idea of white privilege, because their own lives are hard. They can't see that if comparing apples to apples, they still have whiteness...and even still this gives them keys to doors not available to some shades of *other*.<br /><br />My mind drifts to the end of WWII when we made Germany keep their concentration camps as a shameful reminder (while we took down our own camps and left but small placards behind)...We knew what was going on over there well before we invaded, but we didn't care...the only thing we hated more than Jews back then, were blacks, so they were not on our radar. We had signs on our store fronts that read *No dogs or Japs allowed*. We had hate, and we had shame..but we don't seem to own it. I am lately of the mind that the only reason we made Germany keep their camps up in the first place was because their actions came from a religious standpoint...*our religion*...We revisit the autorcities, but never do we do the same to Stalin's Russia (he was responsible for many more deaths than Hitler, but it wasn't a religious things, so it's often overlooked).<br /><br />Anyway...I am rambling...but I would love to know a little more about your experience in the Jim Crow south, especially the transition away from it (for lack of a better term)<br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01234605227337149612noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-86725416962087838342018-01-06T21:46:18.810-06:002018-01-06T21:46:18.810-06:00Many fear how deep the insanity in the human speci...Many fear how deep the insanity in the human species runs.<br />Is the self destruct gene strong? Is there hope for anyone?<br />These people in power only listen to the language of greed;<br />While refusing to hear cries of the many in need.<br /> <br />Where conservatives have organized for an overall, unified onslaught on liberal culture, liberals are fragmented into isolated interest groups based on superficial localized issues: labor, the rights of ethnic groups, feminism, gay rights, environmentalism, abortion rights, homelessness, health care, education, the arts, and so on. This failure to see a unified picture of liberal politics has led to a divided consciousness and has allowed conservatives to employ a divide-and-conquer strategy. <br /> <br /><br />As the GOP attack the intelligence agencies. Watch as our international alliances are destroyed and see this nation torn apart internally by disinformation and the deliberate efforts to feed hatreds, fears and divisions in the name of power and personal wealth, it is difficult to comprehend the depths of such betrayal.<br /><br /><br />https://johnpavlovitz.com/2018/01/04/tribe-give-damn/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=John+Pavlovitz <br />The Us, is made of human beings whose compassion even extends to hurting people that they appear on the surface to have little in common with—and the Them defined by people who only care for those they deem “their own kind.”<br />The Us, is made of human beings who believe every person has the right to live where they wish, to marry who they choose, to profess the faith they subscribe to—and the Them is made of those who believe themselves to be the arbiters of such things.<br /><br /><br />Cliff Merrymannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-63720686029673808442018-01-06T19:13:03.912-06:002018-01-06T19:13:03.912-06:00I love your reply Deborah. The last two sentences...I love your reply Deborah. The last two sentences had me wanting to stand up right here in my living room and applaud, I felt your conviction in my heart.Lori Clarknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-76931200889651831732018-01-06T18:01:43.921-06:002018-01-06T18:01:43.921-06:00You are not the only one! I do the same thing!You are not the only one! I do the same thing!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05929490902142165246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-20956177433975459592018-01-06T17:42:58.637-06:002018-01-06T17:42:58.637-06:00Cheyenne,
Jim requests that people alert him to t...Cheyenne,<br /><br />Jim requests that people alert him to typos, etc. They are NOT being snarky.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05929490902142165246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-81785576943852035362018-01-06T17:37:47.807-06:002018-01-06T17:37:47.807-06:00Simply outstanding. Pancakes for dinner triggered...Simply outstanding. Pancakes for dinner triggered memories. Funny thing was, I didn't know it wasn't a treat. I thought it was. And fry bread, made by my 1/4 Cherokee grandmother whose father was the son of a white man and a Native woman, born on The Cherokee Nation in 1897. But when my grandmother was born in 1918, in Southeast Kansas, 20 miles north of "the res," there was no pride in having Native ancestry. My great-grandfather was race isn't listed on my grandmother's birth certificate. <br /><br />On another note, we were a long way from poor. I was raised by my grandmother and her second husband who was a journeyman electrician and proud member of the IBEW. Of course, in Kansas, construction work can be seasonal, and there were strikes and layoffs. It wasn't unusual for him to be home a lot during January and February in a hard, cold winter, when building was shut down. We were better off than a lot of people, not as well off as some. We got by. <br /><br />With the occasional treat of pancakes or fry bread for dinner. TheNightowlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07470774525659956675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-44538700120820087162018-01-06T17:33:13.805-06:002018-01-06T17:33:13.805-06:00"And those women, a more helpless lot of pear..."And those women, a more helpless lot of pearl clutchers there never were. Thank the White Christian God there were all those manly men to keep them safe."<br />Ha! As a female child of the 1950s, to whom television was a new and wondrous thing to be consumed with wide eyes, I still clearly remember that up until the age of about eight I stubbornly clung to the wish to be a cowBOY, not a cowgirl. Cowgirls never had any fun, they were left behind before the action started and never included in the marvelous shootouts that resulted in the good guys winning every time. I wonder if those TV shows planted the seeds of feminism in some of us?<br /><br />At the other end of the timeline, I'm keenly aware of my privilege when I interact with the police in my town, who are uniformly professional and polite to me, a white, middle-class homeowner. I honestly think most of them would treat anyone in the same manner, but I myself never had to wonder how they would treat me.ebrkenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-89920495875781528732018-01-06T16:19:05.566-06:002018-01-06T16:19:05.566-06:00An absolutely fascinating and must read about whit...An absolutely fascinating and must read about white privilege. Chief Wright knocked this out of the park!👌👍👏👏👏👏👏 Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10645820902679013145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-27107356846097521042018-01-06T14:27:59.639-06:002018-01-06T14:27:59.639-06:00Sometimes people ask me why I'm so cynical. Wh...Sometimes people ask me why I'm so cynical. Why I'm so sure that people, in spite of my hopes, will happily do the thing that benefits them and fucks over everyone else. Why I so rarely trust anyone as far as I can throw them.<br /><br />Because it's the only way I can get through the day.<br /><br />Because here's the secret: it's a dodge. If Everything goes wrong in my cynical world, if something doesn't go as expected, you know what that means?<br /><br />Someone was kind. Someone thought of others at the same level as themselves. Someone did the right thing. Something went right, something worked out, someone didn't get fucked over so someone else could make a buck.<br /><br />When my cynicism is wrong, it's not because something bad happened. It's because something *good* happened. <br /><br />Which makes things going right and me being wrong really special, precious occasions. Cynics don't take good things for granted. We know better.John C. Welchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10293533581874023414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-88193345350881554822018-01-06T14:09:25.572-06:002018-01-06T14:09:25.572-06:00Your words on the struggles of family in the Depre...Your words on the struggles of family in the Depression made me think of my own Grandfather who I never knew. His name was Frank and he was a subsistence farmer and.....Moonshiner, killed by a Revenue Agent years before my own Father was drafted into WW2. This essay is truly some of your best work, prize worthy and touching as well as inspiring and motivational !!<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00576154112260891400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-14984693597198848942018-01-06T12:35:40.766-06:002018-01-06T12:35:40.766-06:00....Go back to your Nazi esque editing school and .......Go back to your Nazi esque editing school and let the flawed humans be human. Just sayin'Cheyannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01744837681373675637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-68487072712113601862018-01-06T10:58:06.445-06:002018-01-06T10:58:06.445-06:00Jim, we REALLY need you to run for office. Any off...Jim, we REALLY need you to run for office. Any office!Kurt Wimbergerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04187238154422433343noreply@blogger.com