The LA Times is running two fascinating stories today:
When you’re white, you have the luxury of invisibility. Anything that peels back the veil that keeps you invisible and makes you opaque is jarring and frightening to white folks. You don’t ever have to think about being a dominant group member. Your world is natural and normal. It’s not white. It just is.In one the Times talks to Tim Wise (quoted) about his recent school shooting essay (rW post).
When people can't establish a racial category for this guy they can't see him; in a sociological sense he's invisible. But what makes him interesting is not just that he could be passing -- moving between races -- but that he's playing with itThe other is a look at a serial bank robber in California who, with the help of a little foundation here and a little concealer there, has become nearly impossible to catch. I don't even know what to say about the reliance of our law enforcement system on racial profiling and classification. What would they ever do if we all fucked enough so that a criminal had the same color skin as an innocent?
