No Whites Allowed

By Eileen F. Toplansky

When it was written in 1986, a children's book entitled Living in Two Worlds attempted to highlight the various attitudes that reflect what biracial children might encounter growing up. Pictures of biracial children abound in the book. In fact, there was an honest attempt to portray the intricacies of being born to parents of different religious, cultural, and racial backgrounds....until we get to page 27, where the reader learns:

 

Toah thought that the teacher in her ballet class, where all the other students were white, went out of her way to be nice to her. 'I guess she meant well, but she made me feel I was different.' Even though Toah's white heritage is important to her, she feels she fits in better with kids whose coloring is more like her own. 'I'm happiest when I don't stand out – like in school,' she says. 'I'm friendly with everyone, but my best friends are brown, like me.'

Herein lies the never-ending emphasis on race rather than the individual characteristics of people. We have no idea what the ballet teacher did or what white heritage even means, but to a child reading this book, the balkanization of the races is implanted. Instead of race being one component of a person, it becomes the overarching theme....so much so that 29 years later, we learn that in Seattle, if you are white, you are simply not welcome at Rainier Beach Yoga. The organizers make it abundantly clear in an email that states, "White friends, allies and partners are respectfully asked not to attend."….. The perniciousness of the charge of white privilege is infecting every level of society. It is creating students whose sole perspective is based on victimization. It erases great literature because it was penned by Europeans. Even music, which "has the charms to soothe a savage breast," is being held hostage under this baseless charge.

The allegation of white privilege needs to be called out for what it truly is: racism.  Anything else is just a smokescreen for enslaving the minds of vulnerable generations to come.....To Read More.....