Leave it to one of the nuts at Salon, in this case Brittney Cooper, to equate someone simply being a jerk to someone who is also being an inattentive jerk
“Listen when I talk to you!â€: How white entitlement marred my trip to a Ferguson teach-in
A nightmarish train ride reminds me why too many white people don’t get how short black America’s fuse is right now
“Nightmarish”! It probably won’t surprise you that Ms. Cooper “teaches Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Rutgers”.
On Friday, I was on the train to New York to do a teach-in on Ferguson at NYU. Beats headphones on, lost in thought, peering out the window, I suddenly saw a white hand shoving my work carry-on toward me. Startled, I looked up to see the hand belonged to a white guy, who was haphazardly handling my open bag, with my laptop perched just inside to make space for himself on the seat next to me.
That he wanted the seat on the now full train was not the problem. That he assumed the prerogative to place his hands on my bag, grab it, shove it at me, all while my computer was unsecured and peaking out, infuriated me. I said to him, “Never put your hands on my property.â€
His reply: “Well, you should listen when I talk to you.†That line there, the command that when he, whoever he was, spoke, I should automatically listen encapsulates the breadth of the battle against racism we have to fight in this country.
Buoyed by his own entitlement, his own sense of white male somebodiness, this passenger never even considered that he might simply try harder to get my attention before putting his hands on my stuff. His own need to control space, his own sense of entitlement to move anything in his way even if it held something of value to another person, his belief that he had the right to do whatever he needed to do to make the environment conform to his will are all hallmarks of white privilege.
There’s actually a couple things that could have happened here. First, he could have briefly tried to get her attention, she did not respond, so he moved her stuff. Second, he could have tried hard to get her attention, she didn’t respond, he moved her stuff. Third, he may not have even bothered, and moved her stuff. It was rather a jerk move, however, it was also a jerk move on her part to be taking up the extra space. This had nothing to do with “white male somebodiness” nor entitlement nor racism. It was just an encounter where people are being jerks. Ever had someone cut you off in traffic? Ever have somebody race you to a seat on a train? People jumping up on the airplane? People can be rude, inconsiderate, think only of themselves. Welcome to Life, honey. You were inconsiderate for taking up the seat.
If he was a racist, would he want to sit next to a Black woman?
Anyhow, the lesson here is not to assign wrong motives when being a jerk is the most simple explanation.
BTW, remember that little story Michelle Obama told the other day about her raaaaacist treatment at Target? Her tune was different while on Letterman. The sister of the lady Michelle called a racist is outraged.
Read: Being A Jerk On A Train Is White Entitlement And Racist Or Something »
