It seems that there is a great problem with the idea of individually "renouncing whiteness," even aside from the problem of individualism that Carrol mentioned.
Today, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech has come to be sadly misappropriated by neo-conservatives whose racism is "color-blind" racism -- a backlash racism against having to be conscious about racial oppression, one of whose effects is so-called whiteness... (Yoshie F)
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Well after a few good laughs about how old this thread was, considering Larry's wife was in the Alcatraz take over (while he was in Vietnam) and I was kicked out of CORE for being white--we settled down to the serious business of figuring out what kind of medicine was needed.
Larry's theory was this is a problem in race-hate, which is a form of self hate, which is a problem of confusion---confusing yourself with somebody else. He thinks it's something like men who want to be women or people who want somebody else's stuff.
So what is the medicine for confusions of this kind? We reasoned it had to be taken from plants and animals who try to trick their opponents into believing they are something else. Mushrooms that look good to eat but kill you. Animals who are sly so you never know what they are up to. Birds that sound like other birds or flick their wings and look like different birds--spirits that are confusing or try to confuse you and hide their natures.
I could see where Larry was going with this right away, because I know he is partial to coyotes--truth is we both are. I wrote a story once about a coyote and read it to him. In the story the coyote was the god of time, the keeper of times passed. To look into his golden brown eyes is to fall into the well of time. He liked it, because he identifies with the coyote. So I knew he would pick coyote--the trickster.
There has to be a medicine bag to carry to help this head confusion stay cleared up. What goes into it? Well, coyote. But the question is what part of the coyote? The paw, the tail, the balls, the ears, the tongue, the eye, the heart? I suggested maybe a rock that looks like the eye of a coyote. No. Larry says, just some hairs would do--that way you don't have to kill him. So, I asked don't coyotes have tips--white on their paws, maybe a chest splash--some do. Maybe some white coyote hair, tied in a little bundle. There is also a bird that runs around on the ground acting like it has a broken wing to trick predators to chase them, and keep them from finding the nest (I think it is a western bird, but I don't know for sure). So I would hold out for some of those feathers. And we agreed on a long stay in the sweat lodge.
I know some of you empirical types are out there laughing. But this is a disease of the spirit and it can only be cured by cures of the spirit.
I will bet if you went on a quest to find a coyote with white tips, caught him and took some of his white hairs, found one of these birds and took some of their feathers, and made your medicine bag, and then went to a traditional sweat lodge--I will bet if you did all this you would be cured. Your worries and confusion about whiteness would be gone.
Well it makes perfect sense to me. Let me put it this way. Real white people don't do shit like that. Now, if you think on that awhile you will see, that is some how, exactly the sickness that confuses their spirit, isn't it?
Chuck Grimes