The whole Ben Affleck/Skip Gates Story is both troubling and instructive. Some good articles that describe what happened can be found here and here, and some idiotic commentary from CNN here — the short version is Affleck asked that a scene that revealed that he had a slave owning ancestor be cut from Henry Louis Gates' popular PBS series “Finding your Roots” and Gates complied. (After conferring not with PBS, but with Michael Lynton the head of Sony Entertainment) Why would a man who’s mother was a Freedom Rider, and who has serious liberal bonafides, be ashamed of a relative who lived lived over  hundred years ago?  I think that it speaks volumes about the complex nature of white Americans’ relationship to the past.  It is almost as if acknowledging the realities of the past somehow calls into question the legitimacy of the present, and our place in in it.  You are not responsible for your ancestors actions, only your own.

The really disappointing thing, is that the cut scene told a compelling story of how one family evolved over time - slave owners to freedom riders in just a couple of generations - that could have stood as a evidence that real and substantive change is possible.  Gawker got its hands on the show's transcript, and the full article is really worth reading, but here is the scene that was cut from the show:

NARRATOR:
AT THE SAME TIME THAT ALMON WAS TRYING TO OFFER THE BEREAVED SOLACE... ANOTHER OF BEN’S ANCESTORS WAS LIVING 800 MILES DUE SOUTH. WE LEARNED THAT HIS LIFE HAD ALSO BEEN FUNDAMENTALLY AFFECTED BY THE CIVIL WAR—BUT FOR VERY DIFFERENT REASONS. THIS MAN WAS BEN’S THIRD GREAT GRANDFATHER, BENJAMIN COLE, AND HE WAS LIVING IN SAVANNAH, GEORGIA AT THE TIME.  COLE WAS ONE OF SAVANNAH’S MOST PROMINENT CITIZENS—A WEALTHY LAND OWNER AND THE SHERIFF OF THE ENTIRE COUNTY.

AFFLECK: That’s amazing. I got a…we have a house in Savannah.

GATES: Really?

Two stories of childhood from Milwaukee:
 

Recovering Racist

Seeing Black People for the First Time

A fascinating article by @SeanMcElwee who crunched the data on millennial racial attitudes. Key Graph:

"The fact that millennials perceive themselves as uniquely tolerant may make them more likely to practice or accept discriminatory behavior. “A representative panel of Americans interviewed immediately before and after the election [of Barack Obama] reveals a roughly 10 percent decline in perceptions of racial discrimination,” Nicholas A. Valentino and Ted Brader, wrote in a 2011 study in the journal Public Opinion Quarterly.

But the dramatic change in perceptions was clearly symbolic. Valentino and Brader found that “declines in perceived discrimination were associated with increases in negative opinions of blacks and heightened opposition to both affirmative action and immigration.” A large body of research supports this finding. For instance, a 2009 study by Vincent Hutchings found (PDF) “scant evidence of a decline in the racial divide” from 1988 to 2008 on policies that would alleviate racial inequality. Even more startling, Hutchings noted, “younger cohorts of whites are no more racially liberal in 2008 than they were in 1988.”

Read whole thing Here 

Like a lot of people, few days ago I started seeing a video titled “I am a redneck and I love America” popping up on my Facebook feed.  In it, a self-identified former racist calling himself Dixon White sits in a pickup truck and talks about the evils of racism and white supremacy.  When I watched the video I fell hard for the dude.  The cognitive dissonance of an overweight (sorry Dixon) good ol’ boy in a F-150 decrying the evils a society built on white supremacy in a thick southern drawl makes for compelling viewing, and, as of this writing, almost 1,000,000 youtube viewer agree with me.  Not everyone was so enamored.  People quickly discovered his real name and background and went after him hammer and tongs.  I was curious so I tracked him down and gave him a call.  I will be posting an interview with Dixon soon, but I for now, here he is:

"People would see me as a gay man before they see me as a white man".