In a brief exchange about a prominent liberal blogger’s use of blackface, Maha — a blogger I have a lot of respect for — writes:
And I still say the intention of Billmon’s post had nothing to do with racism, and if you can’t see that then it went over your head. I’m sorry if you take that as condescension, but it’s a fact.
I see this happen a lot in discussions between black and white progressives — not universally, but very, very frequently. The black progressive wants to talk about what happened and why it was wrong, while the white progressive wants to talk about what good intentions white progressives had.
Here, the pattern repeats again. But there’s no reason to make Billmon’s intentions the subject at all. Billmon isn’t on trial, and it’s not about his guilt or innocence. Talking about racism as if the issue to be determined is the purity of white people’s intentions is, frankly, a characteristically white way to frame discussions of racism. And it’s a mistake.
Racism is bad because it hurts people who are discriminated against. Let’s keep an eye on that, and not worry so much about the state of White people’s souls. Okay?
(There’s much more to be said, but Ebogjonson already said it very well.).
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It seems to me the statement about someone’s intentions being good is an avoidance technique meant to close the topic. It’s a more elegant version of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying, “I’m not listening.”
We would never use the good intentions response to drivers who fall asleep at the wheel and then slam into other cars. Sleepy drivers aren’t malicious, but they have the potential to do great harm.
Spoken like a man. The racism and sexism on many “progressive” blogs is why I pretty much avoid them. It’s like progressives think they have permission or some special hall pass to behave this way, because they are purportedly putting all this energy into anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-classism and all that. In the meantime, they are swimming in their own privilege, either as White men enjoying racial and gender privilege or White women enjoying racial privilege. The last post on the thread closing it to further comments because the author didn’t want to be called a racist just summed it up nicely.
And “progressive” and “Democrats” in the same sentence, like peanut butter and jelly. More like peanut butter and sardines. Yuck. But then again, after reading this thread, and remembering that lovely blogger get together with Bill Clinton, maybe they belong together.
It’s not a mistake, Amp. It’s a deliberate strategy to shut down discussion: if my intentions are pure, you must STFU about what I actually said or what I do.