“I don’t think allowing yourself to be conned by opportunists trained in a nasty system of psychological mind fuckery is going to achieve some kind of ritual cleansing of your innate white evil.”
Thanks! And exactly my point--these folks are unreflective and don't know they come off the way they do... I find Andrew Doyle's brilliant fictional alter ego, Titania McGrath, more credible than Ms. Fodor!
A repost, Jamie, but we must have been thinking along the same lines:
I guess I'm glad I'm not a Leftoidal Dem not only because I think the ideas are bad but because all these successful journalist/media/legal/ Hollywood types seem so unhappy ... America has lavished everything good upon them; it really has no more goodies to give them. Why the need to hate on your fellow Americans just because they hold different views from you? I certainly do not want to accuse my fellow Americans of being nazis, I would never compare an American pol to Hitler. I don't want to hate my countrymen the way the left hates conservatives. (I'm even open to voting for a Democrat if I agree with him or her.) Meantime, I'm sure all these unhappy Dems have more money than me; how 'bout a little gratitude, Demdudes?
Nietzsche warned: watch out for unhappy people ...
I think people need to stop being afraid of bullies. No one gets to tell me what I am, what my biases are, what I should think, believe, opine and sign my name to. Especially if said people have the unmitigated hubris to claim they're "on the right side of history." What fools these mortals be.
Yes, please more of this! “What other kind of ears are there!?!?” I am a teacher, and the next time I hear another teacher say this — this is how I am going to respond, just to make myself laugh. I am around a lot of this insanity you wrote about at my school, and see, I just need to have a little fun with it!
I’m totally with you on the unpleasantness of segregating people by race. I rolled my eyes too. But I would’ve thought the point they were making was obvious.
The Republicans have spent the last few years claiming that Democrats hate white men and it’s not true. It’s still not true now that the Dems are about to nominate a black woman. Having 150,000 White Dudes on a Zoom call out the lie.
PS. I agree with you that the speakers were awful but, I wonder… have you seen the dude who speaks for the Republicans?
Good points, but we know what conservatives are reacting to--there's been a lot of media, TV, and commercial content, see: Gillette, that promote a certain kind of "evolved" male image and condemn traditional models of masculinity, demonizing them by making them synonymous with a stereotype of the toxic, rapey, white, racist, gun-toting redneck. I think it's great to show that white men are very much engaged with the Democratic cause. But I don't see leftists dialing down their hate at white men--at all!! I mean, when they're not preaching that "white women are the problem" it's straight white men that are the root of all evil.
“ Now, some elite self-loathing women who desperately want not to be bad white people will pay $5000 a plate to attend a Race To Dinner event, where they get to sit around a table whilst they are lambasted by two absolutely terrifying harridans: Regina Jackson and Saira Rao.”
I’d pay to see them have dinner with Megyn Kelly or Heather MacDonald
A little additional something that didn't make the essay: this video was the first exposure for me of the Race To Dinner ladies. I'm telling you--they are not right in the head. You can jump to 29:23 and see for yourself. Look at Regina's eyes people--she's like Hannibal Lecter. she doesn't blink. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxeGmvpTsus&t=428s
you don't write often but when you do, it's choice. i am reminded of the 2016 primaries between hilary clinton and bernie sanders. the sanders rallies seemed exciting, crowded and got lots of press coverage. hilary pretty much did nothing beyond wait for her anointment from the DNC.
during the lead up to the election, she was quiet, other than calling half the country "deplorables." suddenly, about 2 days before the election, a friend sent me a link via e-mail instructing me to "go to pantsuit nation to read the inspiring stories of women's struggles with the patriarchy."
as a woman who ran a successful NYC theatrical costume shop and bought real estate, i'm not really inspired by "women's struggles." i am inspired by people of EITHER (there are only two) gender who work hard and make it without taking handouts or falling back on their status as victims, while maintaining their integrity.
i thought "am i supposed to vote for this completely reptilian woman because of her fashion choices? or because we both have no longer functioning reproductive organs in common? or some chromosomal similarities?" i sat that election out. i'm just not a lesser of two evils kind of gal.
the democrats love to blame the russians for trump's 2016 victory but if they had run sanders, i believe he would have won. they made a bad choice and thought that the voters would do as instructed. when they didn't, the party had to concoct an elaborate tale of foreign intrigue. oh, the unreliable populace. how can we ever control them with that pesky constitution always getting in the way?
which leads me to some theatrical performances where the director, with no real well thought out rationale, decides to "update" a classic to "make it more relevant" to a modern audience. as if we're too stupid to get the tragic and universal tale of star crossed lovers (or whatever) unless we have the same pair of jeans as the leading man. those directors have no respect for the audience, much like the DNC had no respect for the voters, and it comes through. people are not that stupid. they know when they're being talked down to.
since the dawn of man, qualities like greed, deceptiveness, murderous instinct, brilliance, integrity, laziness, etc have been distributed throughout populations and cultures. now we have to make whiteness the repository of all evil, POCs the carriers of all goodness, males the locus of all toxicity. in a world with no universal stories, art becomes just a series of selfies, swirling down the toilet.
and when did george clooney become the spokesman for the democratic party?
I assumed the subtext of "White Dudes for Kamala" was "You think all white guys are big J. D. Vance fans, but we're not" - the choice of the word "dudes" being in the nature of a joke. (No idea what went on in the zoom call, though; it may have been as idiotic as you suspect.) "White Women for Kamala," on the other hand - like pretty much every organized "white women doing the work" effort of the past 40 years - is just earnest, clueless, awkward, and tail-chasing.
White liberals need to try harder to expunge their whiteness, it’s super gross how white they are. They should just shut up at all times in case I black Person is talking somewhere in the world. The world would be better if they just stopped talking altogether, and thinking, just shut up and follow the dictates of your gods, the minority community.
“I don’t think allowing yourself to be conned by opportunists trained in a nasty system of psychological mind fuckery is going to achieve some kind of ritual cleansing of your innate white evil.”
It’s not?
Channeling Steve Martin in The Jerk.
“You mean I’m gonna STAY this Color?”
You do have a way with words James.
Hallelujah for you.
Brilliant essay.
Arielle Fodor was indeed ‘retch’ and I was waiting for somebody to take her performance apart bit by bit.
It was another one of those things that one could not believe was not a parody.
What is parody and what is not?
So hard to tell anymore.
Thank you thank for your work here.
Thanks! And exactly my point--these folks are unreflective and don't know they come off the way they do... I find Andrew Doyle's brilliant fictional alter ego, Titania McGrath, more credible than Ms. Fodor!
I love ‘Titania’!
A repost, Jamie, but we must have been thinking along the same lines:
I guess I'm glad I'm not a Leftoidal Dem not only because I think the ideas are bad but because all these successful journalist/media/legal/ Hollywood types seem so unhappy ... America has lavished everything good upon them; it really has no more goodies to give them. Why the need to hate on your fellow Americans just because they hold different views from you? I certainly do not want to accuse my fellow Americans of being nazis, I would never compare an American pol to Hitler. I don't want to hate my countrymen the way the left hates conservatives. (I'm even open to voting for a Democrat if I agree with him or her.) Meantime, I'm sure all these unhappy Dems have more money than me; how 'bout a little gratitude, Demdudes?
Nietzsche warned: watch out for unhappy people ...
What did the race and sex segregated zoom sessions achieve? $$$$$$ 🤮
I also know some of the people who were on the calls. In many ways it did surprise they were on the call and were initially v proud of it.
I personally think they suffer from what Robin DiAngelo called 'Nice Racism'
I think people need to stop being afraid of bullies. No one gets to tell me what I am, what my biases are, what I should think, believe, opine and sign my name to. Especially if said people have the unmitigated hubris to claim they're "on the right side of history." What fools these mortals be.
Ok I got a bit further. Fantastic! Truth w comedy gold 😂😂 ok ok gonna keep redoing
I’m only half way through and I’m blown away. Great explanation. Now I’ll read the rest. lol
Yes, please more of this! “What other kind of ears are there!?!?” I am a teacher, and the next time I hear another teacher say this — this is how I am going to respond, just to make myself laugh. I am around a lot of this insanity you wrote about at my school, and see, I just need to have a little fun with it!
Keep laughing! Thank you.
I’m totally with you on the unpleasantness of segregating people by race. I rolled my eyes too. But I would’ve thought the point they were making was obvious.
The Republicans have spent the last few years claiming that Democrats hate white men and it’s not true. It’s still not true now that the Dems are about to nominate a black woman. Having 150,000 White Dudes on a Zoom call out the lie.
PS. I agree with you that the speakers were awful but, I wonder… have you seen the dude who speaks for the Republicans?
PPS. I’m totally with you on the Last Supper.
Good points, but we know what conservatives are reacting to--there's been a lot of media, TV, and commercial content, see: Gillette, that promote a certain kind of "evolved" male image and condemn traditional models of masculinity, demonizing them by making them synonymous with a stereotype of the toxic, rapey, white, racist, gun-toting redneck. I think it's great to show that white men are very much engaged with the Democratic cause. But I don't see leftists dialing down their hate at white men--at all!! I mean, when they're not preaching that "white women are the problem" it's straight white men that are the root of all evil.
lol cry harder?
HA HA! yes
“ Now, some elite self-loathing women who desperately want not to be bad white people will pay $5000 a plate to attend a Race To Dinner event, where they get to sit around a table whilst they are lambasted by two absolutely terrifying harridans: Regina Jackson and Saira Rao.”
I’d pay to see them have dinner with Megyn Kelly or Heather MacDonald
I vote for Megyn. Actually, I’d love to watch Megyn have a go at Regina and Saira. They are horrid.
That Rao is a raving Israel hater btw. Absolutely bah shit pro Hamas.
A little additional something that didn't make the essay: this video was the first exposure for me of the Race To Dinner ladies. I'm telling you--they are not right in the head. You can jump to 29:23 and see for yourself. Look at Regina's eyes people--she's like Hannibal Lecter. she doesn't blink. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxeGmvpTsus&t=428s
you don't write often but when you do, it's choice. i am reminded of the 2016 primaries between hilary clinton and bernie sanders. the sanders rallies seemed exciting, crowded and got lots of press coverage. hilary pretty much did nothing beyond wait for her anointment from the DNC.
during the lead up to the election, she was quiet, other than calling half the country "deplorables." suddenly, about 2 days before the election, a friend sent me a link via e-mail instructing me to "go to pantsuit nation to read the inspiring stories of women's struggles with the patriarchy."
as a woman who ran a successful NYC theatrical costume shop and bought real estate, i'm not really inspired by "women's struggles." i am inspired by people of EITHER (there are only two) gender who work hard and make it without taking handouts or falling back on their status as victims, while maintaining their integrity.
i thought "am i supposed to vote for this completely reptilian woman because of her fashion choices? or because we both have no longer functioning reproductive organs in common? or some chromosomal similarities?" i sat that election out. i'm just not a lesser of two evils kind of gal.
the democrats love to blame the russians for trump's 2016 victory but if they had run sanders, i believe he would have won. they made a bad choice and thought that the voters would do as instructed. when they didn't, the party had to concoct an elaborate tale of foreign intrigue. oh, the unreliable populace. how can we ever control them with that pesky constitution always getting in the way?
which leads me to some theatrical performances where the director, with no real well thought out rationale, decides to "update" a classic to "make it more relevant" to a modern audience. as if we're too stupid to get the tragic and universal tale of star crossed lovers (or whatever) unless we have the same pair of jeans as the leading man. those directors have no respect for the audience, much like the DNC had no respect for the voters, and it comes through. people are not that stupid. they know when they're being talked down to.
since the dawn of man, qualities like greed, deceptiveness, murderous instinct, brilliance, integrity, laziness, etc have been distributed throughout populations and cultures. now we have to make whiteness the repository of all evil, POCs the carriers of all goodness, males the locus of all toxicity. in a world with no universal stories, art becomes just a series of selfies, swirling down the toilet.
and when did george clooney become the spokesman for the democratic party?
I assumed the subtext of "White Dudes for Kamala" was "You think all white guys are big J. D. Vance fans, but we're not" - the choice of the word "dudes" being in the nature of a joke. (No idea what went on in the zoom call, though; it may have been as idiotic as you suspect.) "White Women for Kamala," on the other hand - like pretty much every organized "white women doing the work" effort of the past 40 years - is just earnest, clueless, awkward, and tail-chasing.
White liberals need to try harder to expunge their whiteness, it’s super gross how white they are. They should just shut up at all times in case I black Person is talking somewhere in the world. The world would be better if they just stopped talking altogether, and thinking, just shut up and follow the dictates of your gods, the minority community.
That Arielle Fodor was the epitome of cringe. Gag me.