White Guilt, Drinking Without Losing Gains, Having Too Many Interests, & Van Gogh
The Source 7/21
REFLECTION OF SELF:
Here’s something I wrote this morning about White guilt and reparations. It’s fiery, controversial, raw, and comes from a place of love. I want to live in a world that provides the maximum opportunities for people to flourish, and these topics go hand in hand with human flourishment. With love, enjoy:
Let me start this off by saying that I am open to the concept of reparations.
If a group of people, like black people, was largely cut off from acquiring wealth over generations, it seems reasonable to attempt to repair that imbalance of wealth through financial means. How to carry out those reparations in a way that would most benefit black people and that would be fair to other groups of people is an entirely separate conversation.
What I want to talk about is a new, confusing concept I was introduced to recently: White people alive in 2021 taking responsibility for slavery, a practice introduced to America over 400 years prior.
Here’s an excerpt from an article published in Forbes:
Many argue that the time for reparations is past due, and that present-day citizens should not be responsible for paying America’s past debts. That couldn’t be farther from the truth, especially for white Americans who don’t fully grasp the full benefit and privileges they have received. By having a national conversation about reparations, and by ultimately paying them, the United States can right a historic wrong while building a stronger and more equitable future. That shouldn’t be something only advocated by Black Americans —it is time for white Americans to join the call as well.
I agree with the author of this article as far as reparations being something we should strongly consider. Where we differ is why. I, in no way, hold myself “responsible for paying America’s past debts.”
Let’s break that down for a second.
As an individual, I am being asked to take ownership over the actions of other people who lived hundreds of years before me. Actually, it’s thousands. Evidence shows that most non-hunter gatherer civilizations had some form of slavery dating back to 3500 BC.
So, some guy settled down, grew some crops, did work around the house, and said to himself: “I don’t really feel like doing all of this work myself, and I don’t have money to pay someone to do it. Let me force someone to do it.”
Then that caught on, people realized the potential of human value extraction in the form of slavery, built pyramids and entire cities on the backs of slaves, and Voilà! Slavery became a mainstay in humanity.
I’m simplifying of course.
But imagine that.
Some guy thousands of years ago decided to force someone to work, that evolved into various slave trades around the world, eventually lead to Africa which leads to slaves in America, and I’m a white baby that pops out of the womb in 1993 anointed with the debt of Western Slave Trade with ties all the way back to Hector in 3000 BC Mesopotamia! (If your name is Hector, I’m sorry, you’re now the genesis of all of slavery).
I do enough fucked up shit in my own life that I need to take ownership of before I even think about taking ownership over the most profitable and fucked up trade ever to exist!
Actually, fuck it.
I’ll take credit for slavery.
And while we’re taking responsibility for trades that people invented thousands of years before we were born, why stop at negative trades like slavery?
You can’t ask me to take responsibility for only the negative things White people did.
That’s not how responsibility works.
When you take responsibility for actions, in this case, the actions of every white person ever to exist, you accept the repercussions of those actions whether they have negative or positive outcomes.
That’s extreme ownership babayy!!
Give me all of it.
You don’t get to pick and choose.
So, put the entire slave trade on my tab for $1,000,000 per month for the rest of my life.
That’s right, a milli.
I’m responsible for slavery and the trading of slaves of every white person who came before me.
BUT, I’m also taking credit for:
The soft beverages trade (invented by a white guy) - $1,000,000 per month paid to me
Software trade (you guessed it, another white guy) - $10,000,000 per month paid to me
Apple (Thanks Steve!) - $100,000,000 per month paid to me
And the semi-conductor trade (another whitey, put it on the books!!) - $1 billion per month paid to me!!
Wow!
I actually need to thank the people who believe it’s my responsibility as a white person to take responsibility for the actions of all white people who ever existed.
I never knew that reparations could make White people so much money!
While I owe a million dollars per month slavery, I’m owed over $1.1 billion per month for the other trades that White people started.
That’s insane! Show me the money!
If you’ve read this far, of course, you know I’m joking.
I wanted to make the point that if you’re going to ask every white person in America to take responsibility for their white ancestors, it’s ALL or NOTHING.
Built into the definition of “taking responsibility” is that you don’t get to pick and choose which actions you become responsible for.
I accept the outcome of all of my actions and actively take responsibility for them, positive and negative.
Every podcast, argument, interaction, that’s on me. So if you’re going to ask white people to “take responsibility for slavery,” think about the hypocrisy of that statement before you mindlessly espouse it on Twitter.
To be clear: I am open to reparations, not because I’m taking responsibility for my white ancestors, but because it seems like the right thing to do and would make the world a better place.
If my time, money, and energy go towards a historically disenfranchised group to help them flourish and to have access to similar opportunities that have allowed me to flourish, I’m all for it.
And it doesn’t need to be tied to slavery for me to want to do it.
Stop trying to guilt-trip me into lashing myself and bowing before you.
I’m a king and I serve others like a fucking king.
That means being proud of who the fuck I am, helping other people gain access to opportunities I’ve been afforded, and apologizing for the things that I do wrong.
Not others.
Not my ancestors.
Me, motherfucker.
And any person with self-respect knows that the roots of slavery run much deeper than a white hipster tweeting “I’m sorry for slavery” from a coffee shop while he’s wearing a beanie made from child labor.
Who the fuck do you think you are believing that you could possibly bear the burden of what the people went through who came before you? Especially slaves.
I’d bet every person who tweets out that “white people need to take responsibility for slavery” are the same people who don’t take responsibility for treating people like shit in 2021.
But, I digress.
For reparations, of course, I’d need to thoroughly examine the specific plan and how it’s being implemented, but in theory, reparations sound like something that could be a net positive for all people, not just black people.
That’s is what I’m saying.
So, if you want to have an honest, open conversation about reparations and racism, please reach out.
If you want to attack me for not taking responsibility for all white people, kindly, go fuck yourself;)
Cheers.
With love,
Zach
LATEST AUXORO PODCAST:
MAKING HARD CHOICES AND ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY | JERZY GREGOREK (Clip)
Full episode with Jerzy (audio only)
EXCITING WORK FROM SOMEONE ELSE:
When I walk into Barnes & Noble – which is quite often – I have a hard time figuring out whether to head first: science, biographies, world history, travel, fantasy and sci-fi, graphic novels – they all sound ridiculously interesting. And once I’ve picked a section, picking an individual book is even harder.
My professional life isn’t shielded by this excess of interests, either. I have to stop myself from chasing after new podcast and YouTube channels all the time. And I really have to get tough on myself with the itch to start coding again comes around…
So if you feel like a man sentenced to die in that ancient method of having each of your limbs tied to a horse going in a different direction – except they’re baby horses and you’re just stuck in the middle, being pulled in too many directions at once to go anywhere – don’t worry. You’re certainly not alone.
Source: College Info Geek
Shout out to my brother Dave for showing me this article
QUOTE TO LEAVE YOU INSPIRED
“If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” - Van Gogh
Here are some pics from my trip to Amsterdam this past weekend which starts out with ‘The Bedroom’ (a painting by Van Gogh housed in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam)
Until next week.
Cheers,
Zach