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…