What White People Don't Understand About Rachel Jeantel

[antigone382]

68. H2O Man, I honestly don't understand the responses I have seen from you today.

Over the years I have seen you post on DU, you have earned my respect. I have generally known you to be a person both knowledgeable and wise about issues of disparity and racism in the U.S. Yet, in this and another thread you have dismissed issues of race, gender, privilege, and perspective surrounding this young woman, as described in articles that I found very well-written and insightful.

That may sound like a judgment, but I am not stating that you are right or wrong to be responding this way. I simply want to understand more about where you are coming from. I have not closely followed the Trayvon Martin case in the last few weeks, nor did I watch the testimony of Rachel, although I have read several accounts of it. I don't presume to know what your observations of her testimony might have been (assuming you watched it, as I infer from your replies today), and if you have expressed them in more detail on DU I have not seen them. My expectation is that you would have compassion for a nineteen-year-old who has experienced a tremendous trauma and been forced into the national spotlight, and there subject to the sorts of judgments typically assigned to her race and gender. If you have reason to suspend such compassion, I would like to better understand why.