Thursday, June 17, 2004
The Right to Be White
A good letter from the New Yorker.
[Just realized it's not online, so I can't link it; but it's about how the Republicans in the 1950s nurtured a coded, white-directed language of "rights" (namely the right to lower taxes and higher property values) which helped teach government-subsidized red staters to vote their race, rather than class, consciousness. Today, the term "urban" is coded the same way (i.e., non-white) even though, as we know, states with large urban populations receive far less federal lucre per capita than the yokels.]
Of course, as we know, Republicans have no problem with coloreds as long as they speak in tongues in addition to ebonics. And plus, as Randi Rhodes frequently notes, gay is the new black. No doubt we'll soon hear cries from the plains about married gay couples lowering property values in addition to lowering values, despite all evidence (see San Francisco real estate market) to the contrary.
posted by Blicero : 6/17/2004 03:58:00 PM
[Just realized it's not online, so I can't link it; but it's about how the Republicans in the 1950s nurtured a coded, white-directed language of "rights" (namely the right to lower taxes and higher property values) which helped teach government-subsidized red staters to vote their race, rather than class, consciousness. Today, the term "urban" is coded the same way (i.e., non-white) even though, as we know, states with large urban populations receive far less federal lucre per capita than the yokels.]
Of course, as we know, Republicans have no problem with coloreds as long as they speak in tongues in addition to ebonics. And plus, as Randi Rhodes frequently notes, gay is the new black. No doubt we'll soon hear cries from the plains about married gay couples lowering property values in addition to lowering values, despite all evidence (see San Francisco real estate market) to the contrary.
posted by Blicero : 6/17/2004 03:58:00 PM
