Dave Winer on “Race”

Barack Obama caused Dave Winer, the inventor of RSS (and, arguably, the Blog), to expose his feelings about race that I always knew without ever meeting him. By the way before I quote him, we actually talked about Dave Winer here in the kinté space. There are references to him in “Paul Prescod, the RESTafarian Most High.” Anyway, here is his revelation that is supposed to be shocking to me, since I have described myself as Black:

In all my years, I’ve only heard two images of whites from blacks. 1. The man. We control everything. We’re privileged. The oppressor. We coordinate to keep blacks out, to keep blacks down. 2. The silly do-good liberal. We look for approval. We want to be hip. But we’re naive and shallow. There is no third view of whites in black folklore. And you wonder why we never connect.

Right now I’m not trying to be your friend. I never was your oppressor. I do believe in the fierce urgency of now, so what I want is to work together to get us some good government. I certainly don’t mind, if along the way, the lot of black people improves. In fact I like that. And it doesn’t make me silly or naive. I argue, and I think Obama agrees, that makes me an American, which I most certainly am.

Keep in mind that Dave Winer has associated with technical people with strong African features. This should be said on his behalf since Dave Winer is too smart to say that “some of his best friends are black” cliché. I swear I saw him in a video interview a few years ago with another older chubby dude of color that looked like his partner talking about technology.

You see my father, who is actually a man, told me the worst enemy of the Black man is not the white man—it is the Negro “friend” of the white man pumping him full of distorted information about what it means to be Black. There are more Dinesh D’Souza lackeys in the world who are in intimate, daily contact with under-informed and systematically under-educated whites trapped in the missionary position and hooked on antidepressants. No white empire can run without colored collaborators. Such is the awesome power of the concept of “the mind” (and subsequently “mind control”) over raw dominant genes. Indo-Europeans are known for their domestication of animals—and life in the big city is the domestication of human beings. Talk to Sitting Bull and get back to me, Jim.

It is very difficult for a ‘genuine’ Black male to have an equal relationship with any person regardless of skin color who takes the concept of “race” for granted. Like fame, “race” is a concept with a history. It is not a universal absolute. However, once “we” begin to function within these absolutes then other absolutes follow: “we” can define absolutely one way to “connect” and absolutely one way to be friends. Imperial consciousness is all about the single-point failure. So when I hear “white tech geeks” complain about not being able to get their data out of iTunes or Facebook, I am hearing a bunch of ignorant asses who actually dare to wonder why in the greatest empire television has ever seen.

So when Dave Winer talks about the “third view” he needs to understand that there exist Black people who do not “hate” Dave Winer. Now Dave Winer never accused me that I hate him but I assure you, like Carl Franklin, he can. We may erroneously think you are foundationally aesthetically displeasing—but this is different from the high-energy passion of hate. To immediately assume someone hates you is self-flattery—and even more ironic racism. White people should ask themselves, “Why does he not want to be around me?” For most I have encountered (especially in the IT workplace) this question is last thing on their “mind.” The “better” question for white people of all skin colors who dare to read all of this writing is, “Did this black guy make any grammar or spelling errors?” Ah… there is nothing like being swaddled in the security of sophomoric mediocrity—what a Java Posse!

And then, of course, there is this issue of “care”—oh how quick “we” are to say how little we give a shit about this or that… “I don’t care what you think!” …the funny thing about this position is the assumption that the person denying care is one of the best caregivers in the world—and isn’t it so terribly sad for me to be left bereft of such gentle nourishment. Hah! I have learned to properly respect people who chant the mantra, “I don’t care.” To me, most people cannot care and they flatter themselves (again) suggesting that they actually choose not to care…

So this “third view” …there are Black people who simply find many, many people (regardless of genotype) repulsive and brutish—this is similar to how the European despises the classic, 1950s Ugly American. Trapped within the one-two binary world of racism any dislike or distaste expressed by Black people crossing cultural and historical “boundaries” (in the general direction of Europe) must be white-self-flatteringly racist and therefore hateful—and should therefore be ostracized with extreme prejudice.

The problem with a white racist (of any skin color) is that by definition they have already limited their imagination. The problem with the self-described white apologist who admits ignorance of Black history is that one has just admitted that they are extremely undereducated about American history. Who on Earth would prefer to “connect” and “make friends” with a person that has a limited imagination and is flagrantly ignorant? The answer is, of course, Jay-Z but I digress (and that’s his multi-million dollar business)…

What way, way too many self-described white people do not understand with refinement (but often experience inarticulately and emotionally) is that they are offended by being treated objectively and relatively. White people—especially white males—are often offended by the concept of being helped by Black man—especially when this assistance is intellectual. White people are often offended to be regarded as a group—and this group behavior is tracked over thousands of years with scholarly accuracy.

Dave Winer should quickly move to reduce to absurd that he is anything else than an individual. He would probably be annoyed and amused to have his concept of individuality be regarded as a Greek concept by me. He might even suggest some simple shit like I am an elitist, pseudo intellectual—which would be a disappointment coming from a guy over 50. This accusation always has oppressive crowd appeal. Dave Winer surely would keep it “real” and demand the “straight forward” view that he is an exoteric presence that committed not a single atrocity against those of African descent. Just because this exoteric information is correct does not mean I should be a friend—or Oprah Winfrey’s Pollyanna concept of ‘friendly’—towards Dave Winer.

There is more to Dave Winer than a guy who has not set a colored man on fire while he was tied to a chair. Every person is a vast universe—many mystics portend that a human being is ultimately unknowable. It’s just that some universes are covered in cheap, floral, vomit-colored wallpaper hung to the tune of Oklahoma. You don’t have to actively be oppressive when you are rocking (and reeking) white music like this…

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