WHITEY!

From today's Chicago Tribune blog

It's hard to come up with an ethnic slur that has less of a sting than "whitey."

A prevalent yet unsubstantiated Internet rumor passed along by Rush Limbaugh and others has it that Barack Obama's wife, Michelle, used this term at some point in a speech, and the Obama campaign is concerned enough to have posted an online rebuttal.

I've got to ask, though. Are there really white people out there so ignorant of history, so unaware of the nuances of language and so threatened by minority grievances that they take genuine umbrage at the term, "whitey"?

It has no ugly history and hints at no particular stereotypes. Like the term "honky," of which it is an even milder cousin, "whitey" resonates with frustration, not oppression -- a taunt, perhaps, but not a threat.

The only way white people can work up a snit over "whitey" is if they fail to see that context is everything in measuring the wallop of informal ethnic terms. This requires them to set up a false equivalence between prejudice -- making negative assumptions about people based solely on external characteristics, which all races and ethnicities are guilty of -- and racism -- prejudice in action.

It requires them to imagine that "whitey" marginalizes, diminishes and therefore harms them.

And if they're really that dumb, then I guess they deserve to be insulted.

Comments

[John Harper]

I'm a White separatist, and I LOVE the term 'Whitey'. I don't want to be called that in a derogatory way by non-Whites, but I call my people 'Whitey' all the time. It think that's great.

[John Harper]

Now that I think about it, I don't give a damn what blacks call us. I associate with them as little as possible, nothing personal. I always thought 'cracker' was stupid, though, knock yourselves out.

[John Harper]

And about Eminem, et al, please take them off our hands. You are quite welcome to them, God, they are fucking idiots.

[Jeff Hitchcock]

The term "whitey" was used in the 1960s by black people. Since the 1970s I've never heard a black person use the term. It fell out of use.

But I often hear white conservatives use it nowadays when they imagine what black people are saying about white people. And that's the only place I hear it used. I think someone (a white conservative) somewhere imagined Michele Obama said something about white folks. Michele Obama, or any black person, might have a lot to say about white people, but I really doubt they would use the term "whitey." Let's get real.