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This news....about the EU barring travelers from the US is going to hit white, upper-middle-class ppl hard. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/world/europe/eu-reopening-blocks-us-travelers.html
I keep thinking about the bars + restaurants + pool parties filled with white people not wearing masks. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/05/24/lake-ozarks-memorial-day-weekend-pool-party-video-missouri-coronavirus/5253242002/
These are different versions of whiteness:
Summering in Europe white vs. Pool Party in the Ozarks white.
Summering in Europe white vs. Pool Party in the Ozarks white.
vs.
White People Brunching as #BLM protesters walk by in the background:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCD4nXejBM2/?igshid=3rv4jr15i7fb
White People Brunching as #BLM protesters walk by in the background:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCD4nXejBM2/?igshid=3rv4jr15i7fb
vs. White Women Angry about Being Asked to Wear a Mask while Shopping https://www.newsbreak.com/texas/dallas/news/0PSvcxNY/watch-karen-has-mask-meltdown-throws-food-at-texas-grocery-store
What connects all these is that white people are, very tangibly, being asked (even required) to temporarily *GIVE UP* something for the collective, public health good: travel, restaurants, bars, pool parties, ....
...or, in the case of grocery shopping, to *SLIGHTLY* modify behavior (and, for the public health good).
And, as we're learning, this is all very, very hard for white people b/c it hits 3 of our favorite things:
1) going wherever the hell we want, whenever we want and, when there,
2) being served;
3) thinking of our unique, individual SELF (never as part of a collective).
1) going wherever the hell we want, whenever we want and, when there,
2) being served;
3) thinking of our unique, individual SELF (never as part of a collective).
That last bit (the SELF vs. the collective) is especially hard for many white people because the collective includes Black people, and other POC.
And that is INTOLERABLE for white people. For more on this, see Dr. Jill Quadango's
THE COLOR OF WELFARE: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jill-quadagno/the-color-of-welfare/
THE COLOR OF WELFARE: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jill-quadagno/the-color-of-welfare/
The thought, the very IDEA of acting for the good of the collective (over the individual self), is so intolerable for white people, that they (/we) would rather DIE than act for the collective good.
For recent (and extensive) receipts on this, see Jonathan Metzl's DYING OF WHITENESS. http://bostonreview.net/race/jonathan-m-metzl-dying-whiteness
