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Feb. 12th, 2010 07:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatSome lovely person on my flist, took pity on me, and anonymously sent me a virtual bear hug. Thank you lovely person. Really needed it. That and the hilarious goose attacking experienced angler that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
liz_marcs posted. Laughter and tears and hugs....are like the sun and the rain and the soft breath of air for the human soul, we need all three desperately.
Anywho...made it to the x-ray specialist and back without incident. And no, I don't know the results. Will have to wait until doc looks at x-rays on tuesday, which means I have to lug the damn things to work with me.
Had a rather interesting conversation with Momster about this book she is almost finished reading entitled The Help. I asked her if she liked it. She said it was better than expected...but, and there was a lengthy pause...it is written by a white woman about black maids. She said that she's read numerous books by black female and male authors. And this book rang a false note in comparison, it felt, she said, a little like when a man writes a book about a woman's experiences. I asked what was off about the book, having never read it myself, but knowing that it is quite popular, on the NY Best Seller List, etc...and she described it to me - stating it is about a white female journalist, who wants to be a writer and joint a prestigious publishing company, she's told to go get experience first - and write what she knows or is interested in. So she decides to interview black maids in the south. It's an interesting premise, Momster states, but...and she pauses again. So, I chime in... but it feels like someone with privilege is writing about those without? Not quite, she says, it's more...all the white women are made to look horrible, which is fine, it's just... And I try again: "white liberal guilt?" Momster states, "yes, White Southern Lady Liberal Guilt".
Ah. Yes. White Liberal Guilt. Hard to describe what this means...I think it means that someone who has had no experience being poor, or being without opportunities or is "under-privileged" - is overcompensating for the guilt about it, romanticizing those who are - to an extent in which the people they are talking about are no longer people but symbols for a cause - that they feel will somehow assuage their guilt. It's the problem with being motivated by guilt. You can fall into the trap, if you aren't careful of using others to assauge it, projecting your guilt onto them. Aiding them to atone, not to aid. Hard to articulate my feelings on this, since they are rather confused and go back to the 1980s, possibly further. Almost done reading The Unquiet Earth which discusses a similar topic, it is about Appalachian coal country and written by a woman who lived and struggled there. And it talks about a Vista volunteer who seeks the most dangerous place, the place that needs him the most - desperate to help the world, feeling he is the one to save and change things. He keeps saying they need me more over there or over here. And one character in the novel, a hard, union organizer and coal man who has lived in the area all his life - looks at the Vista organizer and states - "what makes you think they need YOU?"
The comment struck me as interesting. It's the ego - the white liberal guilt - is the ego, I'm important, I'm the one who can help you, make your story heard, change the world. It's, I want narcissistic, but that's not it...it is human, I think. We all want to feel important and good about ourselves. We all want to make a difference. And we all want recognition for it. Like some badge of honor. We want to be the hero or champion as the case may be. And there's nothing wrong with that...except if it is at the cost of the person or persons we've chosen to save or champion without their request or a by your leave. It's presumptuous I think. That's the word. Presumptuous.
liz_marcs posted. Laughter and tears and hugs....are like the sun and the rain and the soft breath of air for the human soul, we need all three desperately.Anywho...made it to the x-ray specialist and back without incident. And no, I don't know the results. Will have to wait until doc looks at x-rays on tuesday, which means I have to lug the damn things to work with me.
Had a rather interesting conversation with Momster about this book she is almost finished reading entitled The Help. I asked her if she liked it. She said it was better than expected...but, and there was a lengthy pause...it is written by a white woman about black maids. She said that she's read numerous books by black female and male authors. And this book rang a false note in comparison, it felt, she said, a little like when a man writes a book about a woman's experiences. I asked what was off about the book, having never read it myself, but knowing that it is quite popular, on the NY Best Seller List, etc...and she described it to me - stating it is about a white female journalist, who wants to be a writer and joint a prestigious publishing company, she's told to go get experience first - and write what she knows or is interested in. So she decides to interview black maids in the south. It's an interesting premise, Momster states, but...and she pauses again. So, I chime in... but it feels like someone with privilege is writing about those without? Not quite, she says, it's more...all the white women are made to look horrible, which is fine, it's just... And I try again: "white liberal guilt?" Momster states, "yes, White Southern Lady Liberal Guilt".
Ah. Yes. White Liberal Guilt. Hard to describe what this means...I think it means that someone who has had no experience being poor, or being without opportunities or is "under-privileged" - is overcompensating for the guilt about it, romanticizing those who are - to an extent in which the people they are talking about are no longer people but symbols for a cause - that they feel will somehow assuage their guilt. It's the problem with being motivated by guilt. You can fall into the trap, if you aren't careful of using others to assauge it, projecting your guilt onto them. Aiding them to atone, not to aid. Hard to articulate my feelings on this, since they are rather confused and go back to the 1980s, possibly further. Almost done reading The Unquiet Earth which discusses a similar topic, it is about Appalachian coal country and written by a woman who lived and struggled there. And it talks about a Vista volunteer who seeks the most dangerous place, the place that needs him the most - desperate to help the world, feeling he is the one to save and change things. He keeps saying they need me more over there or over here. And one character in the novel, a hard, union organizer and coal man who has lived in the area all his life - looks at the Vista organizer and states - "what makes you think they need YOU?"
The comment struck me as interesting. It's the ego - the white liberal guilt - is the ego, I'm important, I'm the one who can help you, make your story heard, change the world. It's, I want narcissistic, but that's not it...it is human, I think. We all want to feel important and good about ourselves. We all want to make a difference. And we all want recognition for it. Like some badge of honor. We want to be the hero or champion as the case may be. And there's nothing wrong with that...except if it is at the cost of the person or persons we've chosen to save or champion without their request or a by your leave. It's presumptuous I think. That's the word. Presumptuous.
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no subject
Date: 2010-02-13 09:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-13 05:20 pm (UTC)