In short, and let us be clear on it: race is not a card. It determines whom the dealer is, and who gets dealt.
Interpretation
Race influences social dynamics and power structures, shaping opportunities and outcomes.
In this quote, Tim Wise highlights the pervasive impact of race on individuals' life experiences and societal interactions. By comparing race to a card in a game, he emphasizes that it is not a mere feature or characteristic, but rather a determining factor that influences who gets opportunities and advantages in society, analogous to a dealer deciding the fate of players in a card game.
In practice
In a discussion on systemic racism, this quote can emphasize the importance of understanding how race affects individuals' prospects.
There are lots of research, of course, saying that a vast majority of us have been exposed to racial biases and stereotypes and, to some extent, we've internalized them, because that's so ubiquitous. That's why I'm so bored with the conversation about who's a racist and who's not.
You can't organize people if you don't love them. And however hard it can be to love the racist you come in contact with; doing so is the first obligation of a white antiracist.
The power of resistance is to set an example: not necessarily to change the person with whom you disagree, but to empower the one who is watching and whose growth is not yet completed, whose path is not at all clear, whose direction is still very much up in the proverbial air.
People of color have to do this work as a mater of everyday survival. And so long as they have to, who am I to act as if I have a choice in the matter? Especially when my future and that of my children in large part depends on the eradication of racism? There is no choice.
For people of color - especially African Americans - the idea that racist cops might frame members of their community is no abstract notion, let alone an exercise in irrational conspiracy theorizing. Rather, it speaks to a social reality about which blacks are acutely aware.
Our failure as a society to properly acknowledge and confront the psychological, social, and political effects of white privilege has perpetuated racial inequality and race-based political resentments.
We don't need the Nazis to destroy us. We're destroying ourselves.
Calmness is the living breath of God's immortality in you.
There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself.
We do not have a money problem in America. We have a values and priorities problem.
It seems to me, then, that vulnerability and and self-disclosure are at the heart of what we understand about the nature of God. And the reason I believe gay and lesbian people are spiritual people is that we too have participated in vulnerability and self-disclosure, especially in the process of coming-out. When someone shares with you who they really, really are, it is a special offering. To do so when it risks rejection is a profound, holy gift.
Good or bad people can be democratically elected, but it is always easy to fight for human rights under this system.
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