This is Your Nation on Delitism (pronounced as: DUHlitism)
(as adopted from an email going around about 'White Priviledge')
For those who still can't grasp the concept of Delitism, or
who
are looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it,
perhaps this
list will help.
Delitism is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like
Bristol
Plain and everyone is quick to insist that your life and
that of your
family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to
judge you
or your parents, because "every family has
challenges," even as black
and Latino families with similar "challenges" are
regularly typified
as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.
Delitism is when you can call yourself a "f**kin'
redneck,"
like Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if
anyone
messes with you, you'll "kick their f**kin' *ss,"
and talk about how
you like to "shoot sh*t" for fun, and still be
viewed as a
responsible, all-American boy (and a great son-in-law to be)
rather
than a thug.
Delitism is when you can attend four different colleges in
six
years like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically
failed out of,
then returned to after making up some coursework at a
community
college), and no one questions your intelligence or
commitment to
achievement, whereas a person of color who did this would be
viewed as
unfit for college, and probably someone who only got in the
first
place because of affirmative action.
Delitism is when you can claim that being mayor of a town
smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor
of a state
with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of
the island
of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president,
and people
don't all piss on themselves with laughter, while being a
black U.S.
Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law
scholar, means
you're "untested."
Delitism is being able to say that ! you support the words
"under
God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it
was good enough for
the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not
be immediately
disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the
pledge was
written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part
wasn't added until
the 1950s--while if you're black and believe in reading
accused
criminals and terrorists their rights (because the
Constitution, which
you used to teach at a prestigious law school, requires it),
you are a
dangerous and mushy liberal who isn't fit to safeguard
American
institutions.
Delitism is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make
people immediately scared of you.
Delitism is being able to have a husband who was a member of
an
extremist political party that wants your state to secede
from the
Union, and whose motto is "Alaska first," and no
one questions your
patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and
your
spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be
home with
her kids on the first day of school, people immediately
think she's
being disrespectful.
Delitism is being able to make fun of community organizers
and
the work they do--like, among other things, fight for the
right of
women to vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday,
or an end
to child labor--and people think you're being pithy and
tough, but if
you merely question the experience of a small town mayor and
18-month
governor with no foreign policy expertise beyond a class she
took in
college and the fact that she lives close to Russia--you're
somehow
being mean, or even sexist.
Delitism is being able to convince women who don't even
agree with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and
your
running mate anyway, because suddenly your presence on the
ticket has
inspired confidence in these same women, and made them give your
party a "second look."
Delitism is being able to fire people who didn't support
your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power
or being
a typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being
black and
merely knowing some folks from the old-line political
machines in
Chicago means you must be corrupt.
Delitism is when you can take nearly twenty-four hours to
get
to a hospital after beginning to leak amniotic fluid, and
still be
viewed as a great mom whose commitment to her children is
unquestionable, and whose "next door neighbor"
qualities make her
ready to be VP, while if you're a black candidate for
president and
you let your children be interviewed for a few seconds on
TV, you're
irresponsibly exploiting them.
Delitism is being able to give a 36 minute speech in which
you
talk about lipstick and make fun of your opponent, while
laying out no
substantive policy positions on any issue at all, and still
manage to
be considered a legitimate candidate, while a black person
who gives
an hour speech the week before, in which he lays out
specific policy
proposals on several issues, is still criticized for being
too vague
about what he would do if elected.
Delitism is being able to attend churches over the years
whose
pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely
criticize
George W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly
Christian nation and the job of Christians is to bring
Christian
theological principles into government, and who bring in
speakers who
say the conflict in the Middle East is God's punishment on
Jews for
rejecting Jesus, and everyone can still think you're just a
good
church-going Christian, but if you're black and friends with
a black
pastor who has noted (as have Colin Powell and the U.S.
Department of
Defense) that terrorist attacks are often the result of U.S.
foreign
policy and who talks about the history of racism and its
effect on
black people , you're an extremist who probably hates
America.
Delitism is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked
by
a reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for
asking you
such a "trick question," while being black and
merely refusing to give
one-word answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means
you're dodging
the question, or trying to seem overly intellectual and
nuanced.
Delitism is being able to go to a prestigious prep school,
then
to Yale and then Harvard Business school, and yet, still be
seen as
just an average guy (George W. Bush) while being black,
going to a
prestigious prep school, then Occidental College, then
Columbia, and
then to Harvard Law, makes you "uppity," and a
snob who probably looks
down on regular folks.
Delitism is being able to graduate near the bottom of your
college class (McCain), or graduate with a C average from
Yale (W.)
and that's OK, and you're cut out to be president, but if
you're black
and you graduate near the top of your class from Harvard
Law, you
can't be trusted to make good decisions in office.
Delitism is being able to dump your first wife after she's
disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a
multi-millionaire
beauty queen (who you go on to call the c-word in public)
and still be
thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you're
black and
married for nearly twenty years to the same woman, your
family is
viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for
each other
are called "terrorist fist bumps."
Delitism is when you can develop a pain-killer addiction,
having obtained your drug of choice illegally like Cindy
McCain, go on
to beat that addiction, and everyone praises you for being
so strong,
while being a black guy who smoked pot a few times in
college and
never became an addict means people will wonder if perhaps
you still
get high, and even ask whether or not you ever sold drugs! .
Delitism is being able to sing a song about bombing Iran and
still be viewed as a sober and rational statesman, with the
maturity
to be president, while being black and suggesting that the
U.S. should
speak with other nations, even when we have disagreements
with them,
makes you "dangerously naive and immature."
Delitism is being able to say that you hate
"gooks" and "will
always hate them," and yet, you aren't a racist
because, ya know, you
were a POW so you're entitled to your hatred, while being
black and
insisting that black anger about racism is understandable,
given the
history of your country, makes you a dangerous bigot.
Delitism is being able to claim your experience as a POW has
anything at all to do with your fitness for president, while
being
black and experiencing racism and an absent father is
apparently among
the "lesser adversities" faced by other
politicians, as Sarah Palin
explained in her convention speech.
And finally,Delitism is the only thing that could possibly
allow someone to become president when he has voted with
George W.
Bush 90 percent of the time, even as unemployment is
skyrocketing,
people are losing their homes, inflation is rising, and the
U.S. is
increasingly isolated from world opinion, just because a lot
of
voters aren't sure about that whole "change"
thing. Ya know, it's just
too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more years of
the same,
which is very concrete and certain.
Delitism is, in short, the problem.
