I wasn't going to link to any 9/11 stories, but I thought this one in Salon would be OK. It's a collection of “secret thoughts” that people had on September 11th. They're all really interesting; some funny, and some disturbing. Anyway, I thought the following one was worth quoting:
I watched from my window, not on television, as the twin towers fell. As shocked as I was, I felt that this was not my problem as a black person. The people who worked at the World Trade Center were mostly white men, and so they had nothing to do with me as a black woman.When there was an outpouring of grief and donations from every corner of the United States, I said to myself, If those planes had flown into a housing project and the victims were poor blacks and Latinos, people in Missouri wouldn't give a damn. When I heard that there had been over $1 billion in private donations, I asked myself where was this money before? Why hadn't it been donated to help the homeless, children who do not have access to an education, people who do not have access to healthcare? Here we have people rushing to write checks to people whose families will be taken care of by insurance or their employers.
To me, 9/11 was just another example of the American paradigm of deservedness and white entitlement. We are not all Americans; the white investment banker, the white fireman, the white police officer, the white EMT, they are Americans.
It is true… Greg had a good joke about it on his page. I hope he doesn't mind if I quote it here:
President Bush and Colin Powell are sitting in a bar. A guy walks in and asks the barman, "Isn't that Bush and Powell sitting over there?" The barman says, "Yep, that's them."So the guy walks over and says, "Wow, this is a real honour. What are you guys doing in here?" Bush says, "Well, we're planning World War Three." And the guy says, "Really? Cool! What's going to happen?"
Bush says, "Well, this time around we're going to kill 140 million Iraqis -- and one blonde with big boobs."
The guy exclaims, "A blonde with big boobs? Why kill a blonde with big boobs?"
Bush turns to Powell, punches him on the shoulder and says, "See, smart ass?! I told you no one would worry about 140 million Iraqis!"
And that really does sum it up. No one — no one in mainstream America that is — gives a damn unless you're killing whitey. People can hear endless stories of insane horrors, but can totally blank them out unless it's (attractive and thin) white folks getting hurt.
Or if it's a puppy.
What does it say about a culture when a puppy is perceived as having more value than millions of non-white lives? Well, I'm off now to drag about fifteen bags of horrible garbage out from the back yard (BBQ garbage, I missed garbage day last week).
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