SLOW OR FAST, WHITENESS IS POISON!

 A pinched nerve, or a pain that feels like one, can make a person think. It can even be a catalyst for things coming together in some truly enlightening ways.
In my case, such a pain tied in with an interview with Dr. Jonathan Metzl, the author of Dying of Whiteness, which I read yesterday. I read the interview, not the book, although I probably should read that too.
Like the interviewer, Chauncey DeVega, whose work I highly admire, I have NO sympathy for those that cling to their 'whiteness'; even die for it. But Dr. Metzl said more than a few things that highlight certain facts. Rooted in irrationality, but facts nonetheless. We libs and progs seem to have difficulty in dealing with irrationalities; dealing with them and exploiting them for all they're worth has been and continues to be the hallmark of all fascists, here and elsewhere, and their fellow-travelers as well.
Anyhow, this morning I was lying beside my dear wife with something along my shoulder ridge that felt like a pinched nerve might feel, at least in my imagination. And for some reason, it occurred to me, isn't this how blacks and most other people of color feel in this country? Never really 'at ease' but in a degree of tension that can flare up at any time?
And then my mind returned to the interview with Dr. Metzl. One thing that I believe God asked me about that interview was, Don't you think poor whites feel the same way? Never really at ease, always afraid of being 'left behind'? Their trouble may not be as urgent as people of color, but isn't it there? I couldn't deny it. Poor whites may not have to fear for their lives when a boar in blue stops them the same way as people of color, but the unease is there.
That which I know as God is much likelier to ask questions than to command. And by such questions God leads me to the answers and the process engraves the answers on my heart, as the Book might put it.
In any case, both lower-class whites and just about all people of color share varying degrees of unease. For POCs, it includes fear of the thugs in blue murdering them for nothing at all. For lower-class whites such unease doesn't usually come to that. That's why the unease eats at them more slowly than with those of darker skin tones. Death by opioids rather being murdered by boars in blue. Or by suicide. A few downright alarming facts Dr. Metzl mentioned are: out of the 40,000 deaths by firearms yearly in our country, two thirds are suicides!  And eighty percent of those suicides are white men!!
No mistake about it; 'whiteness' is showing its lethality all the way around! People of color know it as a constant threat and an omnipresent boot on their backs; with palefaces it's a slow grind rather than a hard stomp but it looks as if the result is the same in the end!!
To enlarge on what I wrote before about our unease with irrationalities, we libs and progs need to get over that! We need to be able to grasp the irrationalities which are all too powerful in our place and time AND we need to remember that we can NOT get by with ignoring them! If we are to transcend poisonous ideas based on poisonous irrationalities we MUST know our enemies! Here, indeed, is a power and principality with which we must contend and which we, individually and collectively, must transcend if we are to live and grow! If we don't, young adults now living may see civilization crumble before their eyes!!
Also, remember that what Fascisti are really good at is twisting words and phrases the wrong ways. I suggest to my readers, by that they show whose children they have chosen to be--and it ain't God! Remember the 'original' twisting: Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" (Genesis 3:1, NIV)
That second part. The original twisting. Remember that and also remember that the Greek word from which we derive 'diabolical' and all related words means to take a word out of its proper context and stick it where it does not belong! This is what all fascists and all who wish to justify their greed, envy and selfishness do! So be warned! We fight real powers of darkness, so pull no punches and don't be fooled by any crocodile tears from them!
Finally, (yeah, I hear the sighs of relief in the peanut gallery!) as I feel like I'm just capsulizing a very large subject, if anyone feels they've anything to add to this, please feel free to do so. That's why we have spaces for comments!