[Grovenet] A few excellent thoughts on what it means to be an"American" . . .

[Holly T.]

Yes, Steven, as a woman, I have, no doubt, "garnered" many benefits that you likely haven't enjoyed as a white male. But, I have also endured sexual harassment more times than I care to count. Not to mention the fact that I once was given a totally sexist performance review by a chauvinist pig of a boss who praised at length the fact that I did some technical magazine photography modeling for the company on my own time, while he mentioned nothing about the fact that, over the course of just three months, I single handedly authored a 200-page technical user's guide that received numerous accolades from all over the company not to mention from customers. And, let's not forget the stalkers, the crank callers, and the email creeps whose nonsense I endured during my 30-year career. And, just because most men today have been educated about the evils of sexual harassment doesn't mean that it isn't still happening. Sexual harassment is still alive and thriving
 in today's workplace. Just ask any pretty woman.

Just like you might've noticed more than a few inequities on your side, it's not all rosy from this vantage point either.

One more thing:  Let's make it perfectly clear that I don't consider it a "punishment" when an Afro-American woman or an Asian man lands a job that I've applied for or gets a promotion instead of me. You may be a rare exception, but most of us Caucasians can't be so crystal-clear certain as you seem to be about their how lily-white pure their ancestors were when it came to discrimination against minorities. If you've ever read Derrick Jensen's The Culture of Make Believe, you'd know that lynchings were still prevalent in the Deep South as recently as the late 60s, and they still do occur occasionally even today. You'd know that our wonderful country (the home of the free and the brave???) imprisons a higher percentage of our population than any nation on Earth, and the vast majority of those jailed are people of color. I don't believe that any of us are totally innocent when it comes to racial discrimination. I believe that most of us owe compensation to
 those cultures that our ancestors have raped, enslaved, and annihilated.  Even if we did not participate directly in those despicable acts. Even if our fathers and grandfather's "fought for freedom". 

Honoring minorities and stepping aside to help them better their lives is not a punishment for me. It's compensation for what my ancestors did to the cultures that they squelched in the past. It's the very least I can do under the circumstances.

Holly




________________________________
From: Steven <NoSpam03 at comcast.net>
To: Forest Grove local interests list <grovenet at rdrop.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 12:47:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Grovenet] A few excellent thoughts on what it means to be an"American" . . .

Fine, you should be punished. I can see that. My family always fought for
freedoms. Yet just because my dad married a white woman, I am less a
citizen. 
You are a woman and garner much of the benefits removed from me.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com]On
> Behalf Of Holly T.
> Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 11:55 AM
> To: Forest Grove local interests list
> Subject: Re: [Grovenet] A few excellent thoughts on what it means to be
> an"American" . . .
> 
> 
> Sure, Steven, like you, equal opportunity has made it harder for 
> me to compete for jobs against those who are members of racial 
> minorities during my career that spans over 30 years. Equal 
> opportunity also prevented my daughter, who had a 3.7 
> accumulative GPA in her first four years of college, from getting 
> accepted into the free-ride Doctorate program that she wanted 
> because students who were inept at the nuances of the English 
> language were chosen over her because they were from foreign 
> countries that were on the quota list. 
> 
> But, when my grandmother was born in Tennessee, she was actually 
> suckled by a Negro mammy wet nurse because my great-grandmother 
> didn't have enough milk to feed her. Had that very special 
> Afro-American woman not been willing to feed my grandmother, I 
> very likely wouldn't be here today. My grandmother grew up on her 
> father's plantation that was far away from the closest neighbor. 
> The share croppers who worked my great-grandfather's plantation 
> were the children and grandchildren of slaves who remained 
> because they couldn't get jobs to feed their children following 
> emancipation. 
> 
> So, I've always done my best to be extremely nice to 
> Afro-Americans for that reason, and I tend to look the other way 
> and figure that minorities deserve whatever they get when I see 
> them being given preferential treatment. Especially when you 
> consider what our imperialistic ancestors did to destroy many of 
> their cultures. 
> 
> The only thing that bugs me is that you'd think I might've gotten 
> a little more rhythm out of the deal than I did, but no such 
> luck. Anyway, it's not how well you dance in life--just that you 
> dance, right?!
> 
> Holly
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Steven <NoSpam03 at comcast.net>
> To: Forest Grove local interests list <grovenet at rdrop.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 11:29:39 AM
> Subject: Re: [Grovenet] A few excellent thoughts on what it means 
> to be an "American" . . .
> 
> Sure rings true about white guys.
> I don't think that white guys wrote the book on American Culture. It was
> just that there were more of us and we were the ones required to 
> go out and
> get the jobs in that culture.
> White guys were mostly in charge in European Culture, or British Culture.
> 
> The equal opportunity stuff sure ruined my advancement in the 70s 
> and 80s. I
> suffered yet my ancestors fought for the north in the Civil War. Why was I
> punished?
>   -----Original Message-----
>   From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com]On
> Behalf Of Bob Browning
>   Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 10:26 AM
>   To: Grovenet
>   Subject: [Grovenet] A few excellent thoughts on what it means to be an
> "American" . .
> 
>   A: Yes -- although the problem is that white people, men in particular,
> are not allowed that same opportunity. Until we can figure out if 
> “American
> culture” means “white culture” or something new, this problem will remain.
> 
>   -Michael Giarrusso, AP regional news director
> 
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