Racism????

Several hours of volunteer work made a participant eager to take on a writing contract, for an educational project which paid around 40cents per word. The project coordinator already had writers in mind. Those writers turned out to be slow, demanding and finally one of them walked.



With the position open again, and the participating volunteer having fully expressed an interest in taking on the writing contract - for the participant could have benefited greatly from the compensation and exposure - it was disheartening to hear that - though the participant had dedicated hours of work to the cause - the gainfully employed writer who was awarded the contract, was selected based on skin color.



According to Dr. Beverly Tatum, this is not racism because I am white, and the writer who got the contract... is not.



Even though I've read Tatum and preached similar material, I feel hella bitter about this.



Not bitter like "go back to your country," bitter.

But more like "I don't think you should use 'advancement' and 'social justice' interchangeably," bitter.



There's more to the story, so lets review the facts.



























I can fully accept this concept of "only whites can be racist," because the SYSTEM is created to view whites as individuals and non whites as Hyphenated Americans.

However, I don't think that this concept exonerates any American from Actin' Right.

And on the topic of writing, I think Hayden trumps Tatum:

"To put it succinctly, I feel that Afro-American poets ought to be looked at as poets first, if that’s what they truly are. And as one of them I dare to hope that if my work means anything, if it’s any good at all, it’s going to have a human impact, not a narrowly racial or ethnic or political and overspecialized impact."