As to what you said, yeah, that's an understanding that I came to relatively recently. Originally I was in the camp of people like Noel Ignatiev, who is all about abolishing the white race – a point with which I still agree. However, there is a problem in that abolition, if in doing so you deny privilege. I actually need to either re-write or append my "White" essay to include this. I'll probably just make a whole new one to show how my perspective has evolved.

That reminds me. There is this incredible article called "What Should White People Do?" by Linda Alcoff, that really nails the point. Let me just find the URL…
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/alcoffwhi...

There is no easy answer, but – and I think the quote I roughly cited implies the following – I think a crucial step for white people is: Own your own shit FIRST. Think about your whiteness as opposed to "other people's" race, think about the privilege is gets you. It means CONFRONT your own fears and discomforts. And I think there is a way to simultaneously not apologize for the privilege or try to deny it (I'm thinking here of the example of class privilege where white rich kids pretend they have no money in supposed solidarity or out of embarrassment or guilt) but to do the work they can to dismantle that hierarchy. But I think, oddly enough, one kind of attitude that's actually fruitful for white people is an "it is what it is" attitude.

I'm not sure if I'm making sense here. In any case I love a lot about your blog but I *love* love it's format – it's one of the only blogs I read that doesn't do that irritating thing where "read more" means going to a whole different page.