Let's talk about Racism!

Spencer

and I have gotten farther into producing electronic music for racial reasons as well
3:25pmJeremy

OK, but that's different than being called a nigger
3:25pmSpencer

one of my professors told me, "If you wanted to be an Abstract Painter 30 years ago, you wouldn't have a career/"

I'd rather be called a nigger

because then it makes the other person look stupid
3:26pmJeremy

That's true
3:26pmSpencer

now being called a nigger then hit in the back of the head and dragged behind a truck

or shot in the men's room is different
3:26pmJeremy

but the change, there is a change

it is different

it is not gone

at ALL

but beats lynching
3:26pmSpencer

well yeah, it beats lynching

things are certainly better

but I think they ware worse than they were 10 years ago
3:27pmJeremy

well, if it is better, than it can get better yet

really?

You think it's worse?

what makes you say that?

I"m no disagreeing necessarily

I'm not black, and therefore can't gauge
3:27pmSpencer

people began equating talking abourt racism with being PC
3:28pmJeremy

in the same way
3:28pmSpencer

which went out otf fashion

I was not raised in the 'black' way

I also ignored a lot of things that didn't fit with my world view
3:29pmJeremy

what sort of things?

(ps fb chat sucks)
3:29pmSpencer

to the rest of the white world, I'm a friendly approachable black guy, or not so approachable these days
3:30pmJeremy

and...
3:30pmSpencer

to a lot of black people, I'm an uncle tom and a sell out

well, here's an example

one of my TA's at SAIC said to me to my face

on my first second day of class as he was passing me in the hallway

"Oh no, not another one of THESE GUYS"
3:31pmJeremy

..what?
3:32pmSpencer

or, how white kids that want to be ghetto will immediately start talking to me about Rap and bullshit
3:32pmJeremy

it must be annoying as hell

to be talkinga bout racke constantly without talking about race directly

because you can't talk about race, becaus that would be "PC"
3:33pmSpencer

that's what I said

yes
3:33pmJeremy

I imagine lately you have been talkiung about race directly

whicyh makes you less approachable
3:34pmSpencer

and it discourages ppl from inviting u to the party
3:34pmJeremy

haha

you don't want to go to those vapid parties anyways

you shoudl come to dc and come to our parties
3:34pmSpencer

well, I'm not trying to grandstand
3:34pmJeremy

not tha it would necessarily be better on the racism front

not implying that

just that your set must be a little weak
3:35pmSpencer

meh

meh

see

I talk about racism as a meme

that everyone has been affected by

and I try to stress that me, and Jesse Jackson, and who ever else

has a strong component of racism against black people in them

the popular left over from the old days,
3:37pmJeremy

haha, bet that goes over like lead baloons
3:37pmSpencer

is that Black People are somehow cognitively deviant naturally from whites

and that instead of reviling and fearing it
3:37pmJeremy

i bet you get " you may be raciest, but not me" alot
3:37pmSpencer

we should laugh at it, and try to embrace it

well

yeah

i do

and it's bullshit

because they're doing what white people do when they talk to a person of color
3:37pmJeremy

spencer the racist nigger
3:37pmSpencer

and divert the topic

to what they want to hear themselves say

because the just assume that I'm going to heard something they've heard someone say on Law and Order

or some bull shit

white people don't understand that black people are really just like white people

who carry a different set of inherited cultural bagage

white folks have guilt

black folks of anger

I'm mixed, so I'm supposed to be joyfully oblivious to it

confused or misguided

or something

but not someone who is socially more similar to white people than black people
3:40pmJeremy

guilty about your anger, or angry about your guilt
3:40pmSpencer

who can enlighten you, and help you understand what's going on

well, it's both

Blacks don't feel guilty about being angry

and never have

white people are now feeling angry about feeling guilty

so it just comes back to the beginning

good ole racism like we started
3:41pmJeremy

care for another cycle?
3:41pmSpencer

NO

I thought it was over up until about 6 years ago

my dad even says stuff that implies that I should fall into some lock step way of making people comfortable

I'm not making people uncomfortable
3:42pmJeremy

dads will do that
3:42pmSpencer

they do, but...

well, I don't want to go there yet

all I'm saying, is that the race conversation has been so stagnant for so long

because that's all it was to center/center left white folks

a CONVERSATION TOPIC

not a serious social issue
3:44pmJeremy

but you are making people feel uncofmrtagble, but people's comfort is not sacrasanct, in fact it's the thing standing in real change
3:44pmSpencer

and psychological modus operendi

with a pathology
3:44pmJeremy

THey haven't read the statistics about prison and race
3:44pmSpencer

I just want people to acknowledge how it exists, so we don't go further backward

because it's a dirty little secret
3:44pmJeremy

the only thing to conclude is that the system is racist or black peoploe ar simply deviant
3:45pmSpencer

well in reality, it's a little bit of both
3:45pmJeremy

and when I push people, they nevber say that black people are deviant

they just say that the system isn't racists
3:45pmSpencer

if you have black people raised in in poverty witha tradition of disenfranchismeemtn and deviance

"m sorry, that's what you end up with

I don't go to gthose places or talk to those people
3:46pmJeremy

watching BET

I live in an all black neighborhood now

and they don't always like me there

it's a two way street
3:46pmSpencer

no, but you're safer than I am
3:46pmJeremy

the glorification of drug-dealer capitalisim and violence

ends in violence and capitalism
3:47pmSpencer

Black people in poor violent areas who are poor and violent look at white people the way abused angry dogs look at their masters
3:47pmJeremy

though the capitalism usually comes out of rthe DEA
3:47pmSpencer

with fear and disgust, but they will never bithe

they look at someone like me, and they see a dog that wants to be like the master

so might not think twice about instigating something

whichhas and does happen

which is why I stay away from gang bangers
Jeremy

I have been watching the whole 3 seasons of Boondocks lately

And I've thought of you

because of Huey

that show is amazing

and hilarious

have you seen it?
3:51pmSpencer

yeah it's pretty good
3:51pmJeremy

at least it talks about race in an interesting way

instead of all the bullshit

or silence

Do you have a critique?
3:53pmSpencer

yes
3:53pmJeremy

shoot
3:54pmSpencer

it pushes the envelope just far enough

it talks ab out race from a black perspective that black folks can't get mad about

and that appeals to white people's sense of perspective

in a playful humorous way

comedy is really the best way to talk about race

because laughter lowers people's defences
3:55pmJeremy

or science fiction
3:56pmSpencer

it depends, I wouldn't want Robert Heinlein for J.R.R. Tolkein Talking about race

but Ray Bradbury

Isaac Asimov

or Douglas Addams
3:57pmJeremy

there you go, full circle

I'm embezzling this time
3:57pmSpencer

he would be great
3:57pmJeremy

right now

from work

and I want to leave early today
4:00pmSpencer

k
4:01pmSpencer

I guess as a final note then
4:01pmJeremy

but you shoudl come and visit soon
4:01pmSpencer

If Barack Obama had run
4:02pmJeremy

in DC

what's your number?

mine is 317-966-2281
4:02pmSpencer

as a bi-racial candidate

812-606-0455
4:03pmJeremy

what would have happenede
4:03pmSpencer

black folks would have voted for him anyway

but they wouldn't feel a kinship with him

they would have voted for him because he's a democrat

not because he's black

if he was a bi-racial candidate running as a republican

the wouldn't vote for him at all

they would vote for hilary clinton

tell me I'm wrong

lol

l8r
4:05pmJeremy

how could I say you're wrong?

l8r g8tr
4:07pmSpencer

i dunno, I was just playing around