Steak and potatoes; “bland is best”
Jonathan Chait wrote a thing in New York magazine last month, about anti-racism training and some eccentric ideas some such trainers (or entrepreneurs) have embraced. In Googling for more I saw that National Review and Don Junior were also interested, so keep that in mind – but even National Review and Don Junior aren’t wrong about everything. (Nearly everything, in Junior’s case, but not quite everything.)
The star of anti-racism training is Robin DiAngelo of White Fragility fame. What Chait focuses on is the whiteness studies part.
The African-American History Museum has a page on whiteness, which summarizes the ideas that the racism trainers have brought into relatively wide circulation. The museum’s page summarizes what it calls “white culture” in this astonishing graphic:
What’s the problem? The problem is ascribing things like “emphasis on scientific method” to whiteness ffs! Bam, with one blow of their fist they declare black people uninterested in science. That will work out well! I guess Katherine Johnson was just mistakenly trying to be “white” with all that math skill she had? Neil Tyson should have played basketball instead?
And by the way this dreck was created by white people, for…anti-racism training. What would pro-racism training look like?
Also the graphic is full of baby talk. In the second item on the list, Family Structure, it says “father, mother, 2.3 children is the ideal social unit.” It is? White people think 2.3 children is the ideal? What do they do with the .3 of a child?
It’s confused, it’s dopy, it’s talking about different things at different times, it’s a grab bag, it’s silly. The section labeled “history” – what is that even supposed to mean? History as taught in school, history as scholarship, history as museum gift shops, what? And it’s not true.
But the worst part is including various instrumental virtues and treating them as part of whiteness when what they are part of is what it takes to get shit done. Oh no, planning for the future! Paying attention to time! How hideously pale, everyone must do the opposite!
Chait comments:
“White” values include things like “objective, rational thinking”; “cause and effect relationships”; “hard work is the key to success”; “plan for the future”; and “delayed gratification.” The source for this chart is another, less-artistic chart written by Judith Katz in 1990. Katz has a doctorate in education and moved into the corporate consulting world in 1985, where, according to her résumé, she has “led many transformational change initiatives.” It is not clear what in Katz’s field of study allowed her to establish such sweeping conclusions about the innate culture of white people versus other groups.
Also: she is white. It’s almost as if it’s a cunning plan by actual racists.
The African-American History Museum took the page down after all this hostile attention. Good move.
That says all I need to know.
The National Lampoon in their prime did a hilarious bigotry themed issue. One nugget I remember on White people was, “White people have an extra lobe in their brains which makes them better aesthetes”.
The woke among us realize we all exist in an infinity where everything is now and also never. At least, we did until the (white) Big Bang colonized us with entropy and the arrow of time.
The King’s English”? Not since our last king died in 1952, and won’t be again until either Charles or William are crowned.* Why can’t people get even the basics right?
*and not ‘coronated’. It makes my teeth itch when I hear that, and unfortunately every time I have heard or read it the culprit has been American.
I’ve got a whole collection of stuff like this bookmarked.
People complaining that things like “loyalty” and “reliability” are white supremacy. Or opining that objectivity is an example of the reification of white male thought. Or that science is an inherently racist colonial construct.
The 0.3 of a child is what’s left over after Ellen has eaten the other 0.7 for dinner. Delicious.
It’s interesting how some of that contradicts itself. Aggressive, but always be polite. Extroversion, but don’t talk about personal life.
And there is no one I have ever met, white or otherwise, that actually fits that list. It’s a ridiculous idea that white people are monolithic. If I lived like that list, I would kill myself.
Sorry, wanted to add – but not everything on that list is bad. Some of those are good values, as OB noted, and it is an insult to people of color to assume they do not have those values. And perhaps people need to quit getting their impression of white people from Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. 1950s television wasn’t even a great descriptor of the 1950s; it certainly isn’t a great descriptor of now.
re: white
are micks and spics and bohunks and wops and various DPs included?
I sure hope not. One could do much worse.
Sure! The more, the merrier!
(I haven’t heard “DP” since my, um, “bohunk” grandmother died; she used it to denigrate people that were exactly the same as her as far as mainstream America was concerned.)
I am well amused that a white person made this thinking she was helping with the problem of racism.
It’s so wrong it’s almost a thing of beauty. I especially like the little drawings, like Richard Simmons with the sledgehammer.
All in all, it reminds me of the phenomenon of Black kids doing well in school and then being teased by their peers for “being so white.” I don’t think that’s a good thing.
What is the connection between the title and the post itself?
I can’t find any ocurrences of the words
I get the evocation of “white people food = unseasoned food”, but like, is it a (pop) cultural reference the way it kind of looks like a quote?
Or just an idiosyncratic way of formulating titles?
(I think I asked a similar question about such a “non-sequitur” (to me) title of a post once)
Skeletor – I guess I was thinking of the steak and potatoes, better bland thing (I wonder how all the white English who adore curry fit into this?) and the limited view of history, religion, and culture. A lot of the other things, I heartily embrace. And I agree, giving science, logic, hard work, and on time to white people is extremely racist.
AoS,
Re “The King’s English,” I think that’s a reference to Elvis.
Longing for the halcyon days of 1950.
What bothers me in particular about this chart is the way it is set up to imply that all or much of the content is bad. If it were describing, I don’t know, French culture and traditions, or the way Russian people view the world, it might be set up as simply descriptive. Many of the aspects brought up, such as a largely Christian population primarily interested in Christian holidays, are completely unsurprising and expected if viewed as description. It could be descriptive, but no, the way so much of it is worded, it’s holding up for ridicule or criticism. And some of those attributes are simply American, or, as noted in the OP, “part of is what it takes to get shit done”, rather than “white”.
soogioh @ 12 – it’s in the “Aesthetics” block, fifth from the bottom.
Skeletor @ 10 – are you not aware of the use/attribution distinction? chigau was not using those words. There was no need for you to alert us to their offensiveness.
Ophelia Benson @ 16: omg, sorry
I really don’t like images for conveying information on the internet,
and someone apparently has typed that as text in some graphics program to begin with …
(I once transcribed a relatively short youtube video, and it was tiring, so in a cynical mood I understand that one could decide to leave things inaccessible)
Quite a lot of desirable attributes there.
Is the food American? In Britain the most popular foods are pizzas and curries.
soogioh – no need to be sorry! I didn’t mean to come across as clipped or impatient (if that’s how you read me).
I know, about the images problem, but I’m afraid I gave up on trying to transcribe them all a long time ago, and I also gave up on trying not to use them.
KBP – the food is most definitely American. The whole thing is American, and parochial as fuck.
KBP, the food is how people think Americans eat, though a lot of us are very eclectic in our diet (I had stir fry for lunch, and rarely eat steak and potatoes). It’s meant to insult, like, we don’t have any flavor or savor in our lives. I was in a Thai restaurant in Lincoln (NE, not England) once, and heard someone behind me saying that white people don’t have any culture, that they have no hobbies, that they have nothing in their lives. They did not say this with pity at our truncated existence, but with contempt, and made it clear that white people, in their opinion, are uninteresting, worthless, and should just all die.
The thing is, white people are a diverse group, though many people don’t want to recognize that, and even white people in America are a diverse group. There is no one culture shared by white people. That does not mean there are no cultural traditions, it just means they may not be the same from community to community.
I’m reminded of a scene from Goodness Gracious Me, a British comedy sketch show with a mostly-Asian cast and created and written by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Meera Syal, and Anil Gupter. The particular sketch was Going for an English, a reversal of English people ‘going for an Indian’ after the pub (in this case, they went for an English after having a few lassis). Bhaskar’s character drew gasps of admiration from his friends at the table when, with voice full of bravado, he ordered the waiter to ‘bring me the blandest thing on the menu’. Steak and kidney pie was considered a stronger option, suited to those lightweights who couldn’t handle real blandness.
It was a wonderful parody, voted as one of the top ten greatest comedy sketches in a Channel Four poll.
AoS, I found it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huSP7PtctC4