June 15, 2009
-
White Power
Yesterday as I drove around at random I saw a blue car with the words WHITE POWER brazenly spray painted in white paint across the back. The driver was white. So presumably they put it there intentionally. How nice.
Never in my life have I seen BLACK POWER spray painted anywhere. Nor any other kind of power. No doubt it existed back in the old days. Maybe it still exists some places today. But mostly I see the opposite. Pro-Caucasian propaganda.
It reminds me of all the KKK and Nazi stuff I used to see painted on the ground at the park on the walking trail near the University I lived near when I lived in Maryland. They painted WHITE POWER too and swastikas and other more blatant nastier stuff. Only in those days there was no one there to confront. I could only walk down the trail back and forth in brazen opposition wondering if anyone would ever appear. But the paint was old, months old probably and the University and the State were both too lazy to clean it up. I suppose I could have complained right? But I’ve seen far worse in the cities and seen that rarely is anything done. Plus simply covering it up doesn’t teach anyone anything. It doesn’t change anyone’s perspective. It just makes them paint it again.
In this case though there was a person there in the car. I could have followed him. I did for a while. But I wasn’t exactly in the kind of mood for a confrontation. Not that day. Besides is it a crime? Let the person make a fool of himself with his absurd paint job.
Instead of confronting the person, and likely getting my ass kicked, I waxed philosophically about what the logic of a conception of “white power” must be. Power is work done per unit time. Work is energy transferred by force acting over a distance. So white power must then be some capacity to get work done by the color white over a unit of time.
So if I took my white napkin and put it to work would there be a way by virtue of its being white that it can transfer energy over a period of time? What length of time before I get a meaningful amount of energy? A year? A millennium?
Or is there a way to harness this power faster. Maybe since it reflects light? May the car was referring to a new kind of solar energy production. Maybe the spray painter is trying to save the world from global warming! Heck maybe his car literally runs on “white power”. That’s why he spray painted the back. The paint is actually reducing his energy usage by reflecting heat back into the atmosphere. That’s actually got some serious physical truth to it.
Why didn’t he just paint the whole back of the car white though? Or buy a white car in the first place. That would make a heck of a lot more sense. But then you see, he wouldn’t be able to spread the word! Obviously the fact that his car was blue was to spread attention. And the spray paint was telling everyone to use WHITE POWER to save the environment.
See? You should never judge a book by its cover.
Either that or the world continues to be as sad a messed up depressing place as ever. Oh well.
Comments (23)
This… is awesome.
I have got my ribs broke by nazis..
they’re fools
not much used in giving them much thought
Good points
I don’t really see this kind of racism…
but apparently there are two opposing racist gangs in my neighborhood.
<3
Hahahaha, I like your ideas of what it could mean… But unfortunately this is just a messed up world. Racism fucking Fails.
That’s crazy. I don’t understand racism. Literally, I cannot find any logic in it, and it only confuses me.
Well, I like the fact that you tried to turn it into a positive situation, but let’s face it, there’s no way that could have been a positive message.
Racism fails, of course!
White power… that makes me feel very uneasy. When my brother was stationed in fort bragg several years ago he said they’re very racist in SC. It makes me sad how the world is today. Great post! I loved it.
How are you today?
I see a lot of black power statements. I think you just live in the wrong neighborhood.
Funny, I’m white and I get along with most african americans better than most whites.
I have to agree with @JadedJanissary - in the fact that you live in a strange neighborhood – or just not in an inner city area. Downtown Milwaukee in the South and North districts is practically a war zone, laden with graffiti, much of which is anti-Caucasian statements.
People don’t take it seriously when you say things like this but there are places that you don’t go in this town if you are white. They’ll just kill you if they see you in those parts of town. It happens now and then.
I do like your interpretation of “white power though.” Much better than it’s obvious intention.
great post!!! loved it!!!
I can’t figure out which is more depressing… a car with WHITE POWER sprayed on the side, or the thousands of news stories every year that keep track of the ratio of Caucasians to everyone else in the population. “WHITE PEOPLE WILL BE THE AMERICAN MINORITY BY 2025 ZOMG!”
You have to wonder, with all the really good, legitimate reasons to hate a person, why choose something as pointless as race?
I’ve seen references to “yellow power”. Probably has nothing to do with fuel-efficient taxi cabs, though…
For me, racism is based on stereotypes. It’s hard to persuade your friend to stop making comments on Gypsies, who are center of racism here, in Central Europe. The problem is, they deserve in, in a way. Usually trouble makers, not working, lousy, stealing… NOT ALL OF THEM, but it’s their heritage. They have this history and that’s why people are
prejudiced.
Kinda double-edged sword.
.
What I hate the most about racism is how police react. There is a Nazi concert inside, but all they do is standing outside. Yes, they act, frome time to time, but it’s not enough.
In society, it’s hard to proove you’ve been discriminated and also people tend to think “ow, I can’t do that, it MIGHT be interpred as an act of discrimination”.
Messed up, I agree, but sometimes, for the sake of your health, it is advisable to stop worring about few of modern society’s problems. I know it sounds ignorant, but I tend to think too much and live my own life too little
What if instead of power the word was pride? There are some double standards you avoid by giving an extreme example. It is not unusal for me to see declarations of brown or black pride, but for someone to profess white pride is taboo. Racism is wrong no matter what race is involved.
@JadedJanissary - @ElliottStrange - Well I grew up in Delaware in a neighborhood that was pretty mixed. Maybe 30% black. But whenever I visited my extended relatives which was frequently as I was growing up, it was to visit an almost entirely black pretty poor suburb of Baltimore city. Admittedly I wasn’t a very observant kid, but I never saw any black pride or black power statements spray painted on anything. I DID see some gang signs and other stuff of that nature that was offensive but not based, generally, on race or at least not in an obvious way I could understand as a kid. But honestly I didn’t see a whole lot of the gang stuff either.
I’ve spent lots of time visiting Wilmington and Philadelphia. I’ve been to
New York City many times, mostly Manhatten though but a few times to Queens where an Uncle of mine lives. I’ve been
to D.C. a half a dozen times but only to the more well to do parts. I’ve also visited Atlanta, Orlando, Boston and Cambridge MA, Toledo and Dayton OH where I have relatives and where I was born. I’ve also spent a few days almost every year growing up in a very poor mostly black area of South Carolina where my great grandparents lived most of their lives.
I’ve also lived in Rockville, Maryland, right near D.C. for a year, and near the border with Delaware for a year and a half (that’s where I saw the university graffiti), Swarthmore, PA, about ten minutes away from Philadelphia for 4 years, the very rich part of Northern Virginia for a very brief time, and more recently in Indianapolis for a little over a year now. The part of Indianapolis I live in is average to low income but I work in a fairly high income area. I saw the car though farther to the South of Indiana, a moderately well to do area, but it was on the main highway that goes around Indiana so who knows where it came from. I might not have been surprised if I saw it in a small neighborhood somewhere or spray painted on the walls in a poor broken down area, or if I’d been in the deep South, but driving down the street on the major highway of a major Midwest City was part of the oddity of the experience. Then again I haven’t lived here that long so I don’t really know the culture.
But my point is when I say I haven’t seen it, it’s not that I’ve lived a super sheltered life living only in one all white neighborhood most of my life. I’ve been a lot of places in the US and I search my memory and I haven’t seen it. And I’m honestly surprised by that. I’ve been to dangerous places where at least I was told it wasn’t too safe to be a white person, or even a particularly nerdy looking black guy, but in terms of pro-black graffitti I just haven’t seen it except in pictures and movies.
Then again I’m not the kind to go out exploring and looking for things like that. I’ve got better things to do with my time. It’s quite possible that I was just very unlucky or lucky depending on how you look at it. But that’s I suppose my point. I didn’t have to go out *looking* for these instances in obvious racist enclaves of white or black culture. They were blatantly shoved in my face in places where I would not have, in my naivete, expected it.
Anyways, of course I know anecdotal experiences mean very little as far as evidence of anything goes. Nor am I making an argument for anything in particular. I’m just describing my own experiences.
@iccgomani - well I’ve just never in my life seen someone use White Pride. So I have no idea whether it’s taboo or not. Personally, *I* would have no problem with having pride in being white. In the case of black people it is an expression relating to a particular shared heritage of the experience of being black in America complete with a rich cultural heritage and identity as well as a history of oppression. This movement was essential during its time not because it got black people to recognize their shared heritage, believe me, they were well aware of it, but because it was used to combat an insidious message being subtly indoctrinated into black folks that they were inferior and should be ASHAMED of the color of their skin. Saying “Black Pride” was a way of saying “There’s NOTHING wrong with being black”.
I’m not sure what white pride would stand for but it’s perfectly fine for people to use it. I doubt doubt there are aspects of the shared experience of being white that could be celebrated and invoked by using a phrase like white pride. Just so long as it’s USED in that way, and not used as a rallying cry for the support of descrimination and intolerance. I wouldn’t be surprised if I were you if people find it very unsettling though. After all the historical track record of pro-white movements is not so good. I don’t think it’s unreasonable or a case of a double standard being levied if the white pride movement if it ever comes to exist has to work to overcome the stench wrought by that deplorable history. That’s only entirely expected. It’s quite rational for people to be wary about anything pro-white when white focused groups were responsible for the holocaust and the KKK and lynchings and the likes. And that’s just a challenge that can and should be overcome. In time. If having a white pride movement in really that important to people. They’ll fight for it. Otherwise I think it might make more sense to organize under something more substantial.
I’ve heard lots of people say and write about “black pride” especially online and in some posters and flyers. But I haven’t seen in spray painted anywhere. Probably as others have suggested I just haven’t lived in the right areas or just wasn’t observant enough.
However, you CAN’T just substitute the words POWER and PRIDE. Not reasonably for either case. Because the words have meaning in a historical context. The BLACK POWER movement became a separatist movement that promoted separation of black culture from the rest of the US and even flirted with the use of violence to promote those ends. It’s in no way synonymous with black pride. Black Pride was associated with primarily peaceful civil rights movements that brought about real lasting change in American Society through non-violent means. I’d be much more disturbed by someone scrawling BLACK POWER on the side of someone’s house or car in black spray paint than if they put up a banner or asign that stated BLACK PRIDE. The two are note the same.
WHITE POWER is likewise not akin to White Pride. Like I said I haven’t seen much evidence of a real White Pride movement though according to wikipedia it exists. But White POWER was a term coined by the head of the American Nazi Party. Its usage primarily has been very closely associated with White Nationalist groups such as the KKK who do advocate a strict separation between white and black people and the inferiority of non-white races. So yeah, when I see that, it bothers me a LOT more.
i hate how people seem to over look the mass number of black people that are extremely racist. for one..black girls…ive heard quiet a few smartass comments such as *what is that white bitch looking at* with dirty stares as if just because i looked their direction..im looking at them in disgust because im racist or something. im like..what the hell…a lot of this in high school. then there’s…*its because im black* everything’s always about how so and so must be racist. black people hold up the racist walls more than white people. just because my great great great whatever whatever so on may have been a slave owner does not mean in any way i share the same views..*i dont*. it shouldnt mean i have some kind of debt to pay. something to apoligize for…i didnt even know the person. i had nothing to do with what they did..
The moon never shines black these days.