LET TERS
NO EXCUSE
Is blackface just like dressing up as
Darth Vader [Letters, 11/17]? Is blackface,
like drag, simply a valuable tool of the the-
ater? Is dressing up in blackface similar to
being transgender?
White performers in minstrel shows
(as recently as the 1960s) painted their
faces black and exaggerated their lips in
order to portray a caricature of a black per-
son that reinforced all of the worst racial
stereotypes: lazy, buffoonish, cowardly,
criminal, uneducated. This was considered
humorous and entertaining by white audi-
ences.
Frederick Douglass called blackface
minstrel performers “the filthy scum of
white society, who have stolen from us a
complexion denied to them by nature, in
which to make money, and pander to the
corrupt taste of their white fellow citizens.”
Why isn’t blackface the same as dress-
ing up like Darth Vader? Darth Vader is a
fictional character. Black people are not
fictional.
Is blackface just a theatrical concept
like drag? Drag is a historical form of re-
sistance to the oppression of queer iden-
tities, particularly queer people of color.
Drag culture gives a middle finger to the
hetero-patriarchy and celebrates the joy of
queerness and femininity. It was created by
queer people for queer people. In contrast,
blackface is a white invention, created to
mock and belittle black people.
Does putting on blackface have any
similarity to being transgender? Transgen-
der people are not dressing up as some-
thing they are not. Transgender people are
dressing as themselves.
People who wear blackface are not try-
ing to live a more authentic life. People
who wear blackface are not discriminated
against on a daily basis. They do not go
through the exhausting process of coming
out, do not have to deal with time-consum-
ing and expensive legal bureaucracy in
order to be recognized, do not feel afraid
when they enter public restrooms.
People who wear blackface are mak-
ing a stupid, thoughtless, racist decision to
ignore historical context in order to make
their white friends laugh. Blackface can
never be isolated from a racist and shame-
ful history.
We can’t excuse blackface in order to
focus on “real” issues, because blackface
is one of many toxic reminders that racism
is real and prevalent and insidious. People
who wear blackface should know better.
We should all know better.
Ana Sayavedra
Eugene
LIGHT UP THE DARK
“Let’s go,” said my 7-year-old recently
when he heard about the Nov. 10 Vigil for
Hope and Respect at Kesey Square, adver-
tised as family-friendly. Kids love lighting up
the dark, so we held up our LED candles along
with a few hundred people, singing together.
As a newer reader, he was thrilled that soon
the crowd sang a song from the lyrics sheet:
“Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
Nothing to kill or die for,
A brotherhood of man ...”
Scores of candles spelled out “L O V
E” beside the Ken Kesey statue.
4
With no sound system, vigil initiator
Sam Rutledge’s speech was amplified by
the crowd, sentence by echoed sentence.
He said we were privileged in Eugene to
be accompanied by peaceful security of-
ficers, unlike Flint, Michigan, and Stand-
ing Rock, North Dakota, where protesters
were met with tear gas or arrests.
Later, the large anti-Trump march
came welling down Broadway and joined
us. We sang “We Shall Overcome,” a Civil
Rights movement anthem, as T. read along
on his lyrics sheet:
“We shall all join hands,
We shall all join hands,
Someday.”
Since then, he has been singing the
song again and again, alternating silly lyr-
ics and inspiring verses. I fear the near
future will be very tough for people who
are being demeaned, feared and otherwise
“other-ed.”
But in our children’s hands, I trust all
of America will be OK, and to reclaim the
word, hopefully even great. Let us work
together to hasten the day.
Sara Miura Zolbrod
Eugene
HONORED VALUES
One way we progressives can ease our
depression is to use our resources in a way
that honors our values. Our extended fam-
ily has decided to buy no gifts at all this
holiday season. Instead we are making do-
nations to those groups that will be needed
more than ever.
We expect sexual assaults and gay
bashing to increase. White supremacists
are already crawling out and strutting
around. A woman’s right to make her own
health decisions will be under attack. The
poor and hungry will be humiliated and
scapegoated. Many poor families will lose
their health insurance.
I can’t imagine the level of fear and
anxiety of anybody who is not white and
heterosexual and not “Christian.”
Groups like Womenspace, Planned
Parenthood, Food for Lane County,
Whitebird, Southern Poverty Law Cen-
November 23, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
ter, PFLAG, for examples, will be needed
more than ever. We don’t need more things
but our community needs our support.
Doug Hintz
Eugene
OREGON HIPSTER
Jennifer Clark’s annoyance with the
Best of Eugene’s attempted humor, espe-
cially the “Best Eugene Stereotype,” in-
cludes the commentary being anonymous
[Letters, 11/17].
Actually, it’s pretty easy to figure out
who wrote the snide swipe at “The Skip-
per.” It was another Eugene type, “Oregon
Hipster” (Millennium snarkus) who can
be recognized for his attempt to seem cool
while hiding his anxiety that he spent way
too much for his carbon fiber bicycle and
then had the custom-crafted seat jacked so
he can’t really ride it.
Hipster also just learned that The Skip-
per’s Greek fisherman’s cap was some-
thing the old guy bought to keep from
getting sunburned on his bald dome, while
on a month long vacation in Greece last
year. Hipster discovered this when Uber-
ing Skipper back to the latter’s Prius,
which is also when Skipper remarked he
had the same model and color Subaru back
in the 1990s.
But it’s all cool, except for Hipster’s
worries about his own Male Pattern Bald-
ness that showed up a couple of months
ago when he cut off his blond dreads.
Chuck Kleinhans
Eugene
LEFT BEHIND
Reply to Annie Kayner’s letter in the
11/10 issue: When someone tells you they
are in pain, do you tell them, “No, you’re
not”? I am an intelligent, educated, able
bodied, theoretically employable single
white man in Eugene. In practice, I am not
able to support myself by working, nor am
I able to pay the costs of a formal educa-
tion.
Deep dysfunctions in a society become
significant barriers to those they most di-
rectly affect long before they are visible to
such quick-to-judge bystanders as Kayner.
Just because you can’t see it yet, does not
mean it’s not there.
Obtainable income from working
jobs I can get is insufficient to cover liv-
ing expenses incurred while holding those
jobs. Support available to college students
does not begin to cover costs of living
(mainly rent). I can cover almost all the
costs of attending college if I have free
room and board.
Kayner said, “There are people who
will help you obtain any of these things.”
This is true if you are not a white male, and
may likely be true if you have children.
But any white male who is alone is expect-
ed to ride his privilege to success. Privilege
is real: Police perceive a non-threat when
they see me, and if I were rooted into the
corporate ladder, I’d climb more easily.
But for one whose concerns are basic
needs, survival and education, it works
against those of us who are assumed to
have advantages we don’t have.
This is one of those social develop-
ments that is hard to see until it impacts
you personally. People like myself will
have an uphill battle and be punished ev-
ery step of the way for superficially resem-
bling someone who offended society as a
whole. We can’t realistically expect help,
but when someone who can’t see our situa-
tion promotes some arbitrary story about it
as truth, we will reply.
No, being male and white does not give
one an advantage in whether or not one is
employed. No, adequate resources to sup-
port education are not there for everyone,
nor even for most.
Yes, many Americans have been left be-
hind, including some white men. I voted for
Sanders and then for Stein.
Andrew Cottrell
Eugene
PRESERVE WATER
Freedom fighters of all stripes place
high importance on Natives’ Rights and
treaties with the Indian Nations. It is true
that many indigenous people and tribes
still remain in North America and around
the globe. The worth of our environment
is that it sustains life. The value we place
on it should compare to the love for all life
that we each carry inside. This force has
propelled countless generations since the
beginning-less past till today.
Building a fuel pipeline under a source
of some of the purest drinking water on
this planet (of which our country has an
unusual high proportion) endangers us. Its
rupture would mean disastrous chaos to
many Americans.
Let's stop dividing original settlers
from colonizers and see this as a common
problem. The division of today’s people
should be “those who will fight for life and
those who will remain on their seats glued
to the idiot box.”
On Nov. 15 a rally in support of
NoDAPL (No Dakota Access Pipe Line)
took place in downtown Eugene. It toured
the banks and disrupted some exploitive
businesses. One quality which distinguish-
es this local protest with possible future
ones can be summarized in two words: non
violence. This beautiful ideal demonstrat-
ed at Eugene’s march will evaporate with
the remaining potable water as the years
ahead approach us and thirst will have to