This isn't remotely semantics for me. Something you said yesterday stuck, "It's as if you see racism as some sort of club that you're being denied entry to." Perhaps I've been upside down in explaining who I am. That is a very interesting observation about a Krajina Serb. Let's see why we might feel that way. What we have been throu…
This isn't remotely semantics for me. Something you said yesterday stuck, "It's as if you see racism as some sort of club that you're being denied entry to." Perhaps I've been upside down in explaining who I am. That is a very interesting observation about a Krajina Serb. Let's see why we might feel that way. What we have been through is as bad as it gets, anywhere, ever. Do you know anything about us?
For several generations we endured psychological destruction of identity and self-worth. I surmise the AH empire decided it would be expedient for their subjects in Croatia to be western-identified, as opposed to eastern-identified.
Behind that, cultural genocide became colonial policy. Then there was all that physical butchery, many think the most sadistic exterminations of WWII, one in four of us murdered. Then came the terrorism of the Nineties that was essentially the last 150 years of the black American experience, (uncanny similarity in plot points) in reverse, in a few years' time, that resulted in our expulsion. We're now far too small and scattered for the culture and identity to survive. The culture that produced Tesla no longer exists. There are just old people left in the land we are largely aboriginal to, dying off.
There's nothing semantical about the analogies I have felt, not thought, felt about the fine details of our experience mirrored in the black American experience, precious clues on a quest I didn't even know I was on, since childhood. Those feelings are at the bottom of why I even know who I am. My own family's identity was destroyed in that first phase. My grandmother was too ashamed of who she was to even tell us. We had no explanation whatsoever for the overwhelming contempt we held ourselves in, that we were punishing each other with daily. My father, a Krajina Serb who thought he was an American bigot, confoundedly raised me to be the opposite. What's the opposite of an American bigot? A Krajina Serb.
I had no idea why, but the conversation about racism and identity that the airwaves were full of since my childhood in the Sixties was the most interesting conversation in the world to me. Especially the one about the recovery of a devastated identity.
Once of age, I spent a lifetime supporting a number of people in their re-emergence. Those are really the only people I could relate to or understand. I have lived on what America considers the 'wrong' side of the color line for a lifetime. That is NOT an easy position to occupy. You meet with constant shunning and shaming from the 'good' white folks, and far too often, scapegoating from the black folks around you, often at very close range from people you are depending on.
It was when I went to write a rant, almost ten years ago, about how difficult that life is and began researching my grandmother's line that I discovered who I really was. I recovered my birthright and completed the conversation about 'recovering a devastated identity.' That was never a semantic discussion, obviously, it ran to my core and was worth any difficulty I wound up paying for it. A fortune, actually. For my own goddamn birthright.
As I said, I spent a lifetime supporting any number of people on this issue. It has not been reciprocated. There is a truncated response nearly always. I've been struggling to understand and explain it. I'm sure that truncated response is at the core of the existing dysfunctions between black and white.
Meanwhile, I'm quite aware that the profoundly racist experience heaped upon my people is in no way perceived as such. We were characterized in the West as the invading genocidal maniacs. (A simple examination of the census proves otherwise. We're the only Balkan population in that conflict with a significant loss in numbers) In fact, we were largely aboriginal people subjected to an extreme genocidal pogrom for over a century. To say we would feel like people who've been denied entry to the racism club hits the nail on the head. It's not at all semantical. It's the core of our existential dilemma. And the lack of admission to that club has everything to do with why our story became as bad as it gets, ever, anywhere. Nobody supports us. Nobody.
“ Let's see why we might feel that way. What we have been through is as bad as it gets, anywhere, ever. Do you know anything about us?”
No, I don’t really, so I won’t comment on the experiences you describe here. But this is the same point we keep butting up against. Bigotry is not a competition. I’m not saying that the experience isn’t “as bad as it gets”. Nothing I’m saying is intended in any way to diminish your people’s suffering. Why can’t you understand this?!
It’s as if you think that if we call what your people experienced “racism” if we use that word instead of another, people will care more about what happened. But that’s not how language works.
Murder and sexual assault are both abhorrent. I wouldn’t try to say that one is worse than the other. But I can’t call murder rape. They describe two different things.
So yes, this is semantic. I’m not questioning the horror of what your people went through. As you say, I don’t know nearly enough, I just don’t think the word racism is the best descriptor for that horror.
This isn't remotely semantics for me. Something you said yesterday stuck, "It's as if you see racism as some sort of club that you're being denied entry to." Perhaps I've been upside down in explaining who I am. That is a very interesting observation about a Krajina Serb. Let's see why we might feel that way. What we have been through is as bad as it gets, anywhere, ever. Do you know anything about us?
For several generations we endured psychological destruction of identity and self-worth. I surmise the AH empire decided it would be expedient for their subjects in Croatia to be western-identified, as opposed to eastern-identified.
Behind that, cultural genocide became colonial policy. Then there was all that physical butchery, many think the most sadistic exterminations of WWII, one in four of us murdered. Then came the terrorism of the Nineties that was essentially the last 150 years of the black American experience, (uncanny similarity in plot points) in reverse, in a few years' time, that resulted in our expulsion. We're now far too small and scattered for the culture and identity to survive. The culture that produced Tesla no longer exists. There are just old people left in the land we are largely aboriginal to, dying off.
There's nothing semantical about the analogies I have felt, not thought, felt about the fine details of our experience mirrored in the black American experience, precious clues on a quest I didn't even know I was on, since childhood. Those feelings are at the bottom of why I even know who I am. My own family's identity was destroyed in that first phase. My grandmother was too ashamed of who she was to even tell us. We had no explanation whatsoever for the overwhelming contempt we held ourselves in, that we were punishing each other with daily. My father, a Krajina Serb who thought he was an American bigot, confoundedly raised me to be the opposite. What's the opposite of an American bigot? A Krajina Serb.
I had no idea why, but the conversation about racism and identity that the airwaves were full of since my childhood in the Sixties was the most interesting conversation in the world to me. Especially the one about the recovery of a devastated identity.
Once of age, I spent a lifetime supporting a number of people in their re-emergence. Those are really the only people I could relate to or understand. I have lived on what America considers the 'wrong' side of the color line for a lifetime. That is NOT an easy position to occupy. You meet with constant shunning and shaming from the 'good' white folks, and far too often, scapegoating from the black folks around you, often at very close range from people you are depending on.
It was when I went to write a rant, almost ten years ago, about how difficult that life is and began researching my grandmother's line that I discovered who I really was. I recovered my birthright and completed the conversation about 'recovering a devastated identity.' That was never a semantic discussion, obviously, it ran to my core and was worth any difficulty I wound up paying for it. A fortune, actually. For my own goddamn birthright.
As I said, I spent a lifetime supporting any number of people on this issue. It has not been reciprocated. There is a truncated response nearly always. I've been struggling to understand and explain it. I'm sure that truncated response is at the core of the existing dysfunctions between black and white.
Meanwhile, I'm quite aware that the profoundly racist experience heaped upon my people is in no way perceived as such. We were characterized in the West as the invading genocidal maniacs. (A simple examination of the census proves otherwise. We're the only Balkan population in that conflict with a significant loss in numbers) In fact, we were largely aboriginal people subjected to an extreme genocidal pogrom for over a century. To say we would feel like people who've been denied entry to the racism club hits the nail on the head. It's not at all semantical. It's the core of our existential dilemma. And the lack of admission to that club has everything to do with why our story became as bad as it gets, ever, anywhere. Nobody supports us. Nobody.
“ Let's see why we might feel that way. What we have been through is as bad as it gets, anywhere, ever. Do you know anything about us?”
No, I don’t really, so I won’t comment on the experiences you describe here. But this is the same point we keep butting up against. Bigotry is not a competition. I’m not saying that the experience isn’t “as bad as it gets”. Nothing I’m saying is intended in any way to diminish your people’s suffering. Why can’t you understand this?!
It’s as if you think that if we call what your people experienced “racism” if we use that word instead of another, people will care more about what happened. But that’s not how language works.
Murder and sexual assault are both abhorrent. I wouldn’t try to say that one is worse than the other. But I can’t call murder rape. They describe two different things.
So yes, this is semantic. I’m not questioning the horror of what your people went through. As you say, I don’t know nearly enough, I just don’t think the word racism is the best descriptor for that horror.