Agree to Be Offended: Curious Connections in Conversations of Race

If racism didn't exist, would we have known of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Perhaps racism has been a resource for being courageous.

Explore your own racism rather the worrying about others. We all learned it. When was your earliest memory of learning about racial differences and how were you taught to deal with it. Probably you learned to be offended and be silent. This presentation, my first YouTube video ever, offers a killer idea (pardon the pun) about race/racism. I see my work as accountable for transforming how we approach being offended by race and racism. Instead of avoiding taking things personally, why not AGREE TO BE OFFENDED & STAY IN THE CONVERSATION. I've been developing this since 2005 as a professor of hip-hop in NYC. I teach both black music studies and anthropology at Baruch College-CUNY.

Soundtrack is by my favorite bassist/song-writer/singer Me'shell Ndegeocello from her CD Dance of the Infidel.

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[lumbia33]

i will add that in conversations about MLK people usually leave out his meeting with elijah muhammad in 1966; king began to espouse a stronger black nationalist philosophy- he was all about black financial/wealth independence in the end.

and interracial relationships do not mean that less racism happens. i can tell you a few stories... this does not solve all our problems, as some folks would like us to think. the key is knowledge of self, then you can go anywhere in life without fear!

[kyraocity]

Thanks for sharing your experience. I just started teaching at Baruch 3 years ago. I don't think ppl mean to be insensitive but we really haven't learned to listen past the cliche reactions regarding blackness, race, or racism. It's so automatic how we respond and react usually. And the exceptions are underreported.

[kyraocity]

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind Henry David Thoreau

[kyraocity]

@psyjunta Hey I really appreciate you watching the video. I think you took the point of of context. I made a quick association but the point is that this kinds of symbolic knee jerk reactions are what make ppl so crazy daily and we could learn to agree to be offended and go the next step and discover what's beyond, what's deeper. So I believe we are on the same page my dear.

[chesterbogus]

You are very accurately describing the process I went through myself, going from a white guy in the Midwest to a racial minority in Asia.

And, you know, I've been the idiot, bumbling white guy saying dumb, vaguely racist things - and I've fielded dumb, vaguely racist questions from my friends.

I think "agree to be offended" is how we dealt with each other, and I learned a lot from it. Unfortunately, now I don't know how to talk to normal, easily-offended white people...

[lumbia33]

despite having experienced racism in the NYC, it was not until i moved to the northwest where i started hearing the term 'white guilt', and people saying they were ashamed to be white. and people petting me and grabbing my hair asking how i washed it. and telling me i was too sensitive and that i was reading too much into things. and 'why is it always because you're black?' and why do you wear black all the time? i got confused (because that never happened to me before), then i became upset.

[lumbia33]

when i was in the NYC i hung out with all sorts of people of all sorts of cultures, and we all were proud to be who we were, in terms of culture. that's what i love about new york. i did have some self-hating parents, and i could not understand it (now i do). but my best friend in high school was yugoslavian, i hung out with panamanians, chinese people, jamaican people... and we were all proud of what our people contributed, in terms of food, language, etc.

[lumbia33]

yeah... dance of the infidel is a good album. seeing her do it live is even better...

and i went to baruch for about a year and transferred to hunter in the mid 1990s. were you at baruch then? i don't remember any classes like this there. the great irony is that when i was in new york people would say racist things to me in my face, and i was even told i couldn't move into an apartment because i was black...

[lookingtool]

kyraocity, I am just watching your video Agree to Be Offended: Curious Connections in Conversations of Race

now, :-)

[xdadepsak]

I suppose I simply have the luxury of actually being able to see past semantics and other benign social constructs.