Reply to "Racists are recruiting. Watch your white sons."

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Reply to ""Racists are recruiting. Watch your white sons.""

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=OP again][quote=OP]Anyone read this essay from the NYTimes Magazine?  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/opinion/sunday/white-supremacist-recruitment.html

I thought it was very thought-provoking.  My son is only 7, but for me one of the key lines is this:  "Parents of white kids need to talk about race and racism and how they’ve played out in this country — a lot. That history includes horrors and tragedies, but as Dr. Tochluk says, it also “includes the fact that there have always been groups of white people in the United States who have fought for freedom and liberty for all.”"

I've gotten really heated responses from my very liberal friends online when I say this, but now that whiteness has been reified, [b]white kids (esp boys) have to be given positive models of whiteness.[/b]  There's no way whiteness can be just "bad" in popular culture, and not expect that adolescent boys won't object to that.  [b]12-13-14 is too young to fully understand ideas like white privilege[/b], in my opinion. Sometimes I also think that the discourse on "white supremacy" as an abstract almost supernatural, ahistorical force is also ultimately very counter-productive.

[/quote]

and furthermore -- feel free to ask Jeff about me. I often flag racist posts and have posted numerous times about white supremacists on dcum. He may be able to confirm this from my IP address.[b] this is a very sincere question about how to talk about whiteness and racism with white boys in a way that makes them less susceptible to recruitment.[/b] feel free to say what you think about the actual subject.[/quote]

DP than the one that you are arguing about (the one that accuses you of being a recruiter).

I personally think that they way you are going about it makes them *MORE* inclined to be recruitable.  White citizens of the US have a systemic advantage over other citizens by virtue of their race, e.g. white privilege.  By ignoring that concept and looking for "positive models of whiteness" you are only going to reinforce the positive messages that give white supremacists their feeling of superiority.  Our society is laden with messages that denegrate other races.  Blacks are criminal hoods, Hispanics are illegal immigrants who are here to steal jobs from hard-working Americans (read white Americans), Asians are still associated with duplicity like those d**n J*ps from WWII, and so on.  Many stereotypes, and very few of them positive.  So, by default, they start with a message that white Americans are better and don't have any of the inherent racial weaknesses of the other races.  The only negative message they get is that whites are racist, but everything they see in societal stereotypes only reinforces the subconscious message that whites are better.

So, you way to avoid reinforcing those messages is to start with the message that everyone is good and everyone is equal.  Fight the negative stereotypes of all races.  Don't push white heroes or admirable white public figures specifically.  Look for good models of all races with whites mixed in about equally with the other races.  Basically look for good role models of every race, but make sure to be conscious that you select a balanced crew of heroes.  Then you'll create the egalitarian and fair view without the racial overtones or biases that make young white Americans, specifically male, good fodder for the White Nationalists.[/quote]

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