http://dearfamousasshole.blogspot.com/2008/07/blognigger-guest-post-whoopi-goldberg.html

Wow, I never thought I’d see the View on TGW. Dave, you’re full of surprises.

So interesting, A White Bear, what you said about how much people hate having their privilege pointed out to them. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with otherwise kind, sensitive people that never led to mutual understanding because those people were very uncomfortable with that idea.

I’m Mexican-American, which always casts these conversations a little grayer (or brownish?) — it turns into “who has suffered more?” as we start pulling out our oppression cred cards. What a stupid game, but I haven’t yet figured out a better way to have a conversation about my ethnic background and why it’s made me such an untrusting, introverted, snarky individual. (AND WHY I’M TOTALLY JUSTIFIED IN BEING THAT WAY! Just kidding. Sort of.)

Anyway, my only impressions of the View have come from out-of-context statements by Hassleback and Baba Wawa about nursing. They came off as insufferably backwards, prude, misinformed, idiotic I’ve never wanted to see the show. But now I feel like I’m missing out on Whoopie golden moments.

So here’s something somewhat related — this blog is written by a guy who lives in Park Slope. He posted a bit about the show:

http://www.blognigger.com/

I like Obama. I like that he reminds me of the tiny bit of racism in me because I need to be reminded of it to work on getting rid of it. I’m not going to pretend to have a coherent opinion about the N word or how it’s used in our society or what the status of blacks as a race is today. I do know that Whoopi is the strongest voice in this conversation, and I like that.

This summer, one of my students was talking about another professor during the break, and being really casual about talking about his Jewishness, like, “I forget his name; it was something really Jewish. I hate him.” I happened to know this student was Jewish, but doesn’t signify as Jewish publicly, so no one else knew. And there were other students in the room who were Orthodox, and probably a lot more used to hearing stuff like that in anti-Semitic contexts than the guy who said it. One of those students kind of looked at me like, “Huh?”

Do I step in and stop a conversation among students and say something self-righteous about how “We don’t identify ‘names’ as Jewish in this room”? Or do I let it go and pretend I didn’t hear it? Do I pull the “Huh?” student aside and tell her, “Oh, it’s alright; he’s Jewish too!” (which argument I don’t even buy, myself)? Do I pull aside the guy who made the comment and privately discuss it with him?

As a teacher, it is sort of my job to be a bit neurotically sensitive about these things. Luckily, as an individual citizen, it’s usually not my right to step in unless there’s an obvious intent to cause harm. In this particular case, I let it go–we talked a lot about anti-Semitism in the book we were reading at the time, and I felt my views were known–but I don’t know that I did the right thing, if there even is a right thing.