White Mormon in bright shirt="Woman of color"

[Patsy]

http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/07/ ... group.html

 

Basic story: Staff of Utah Valley Magazine appear in a glossy shot captioned "Women of color: Our bright staff add hues and happiness to office life". Because they're in bright clothing, you see. Those photographed are also all, er, white. People are unhappy, the issue is explained, a retraction (the photo is recaptioned 'Colorful Women') and apology are issued, but for many, it's a mistake that isn't quite so simple as all that implies, and perhaps indicative of... something. Furthermore, as Colorlines details, Jeanette Bennet's response to all of this is utterly clueless.

 

It's an interesting read, and I would love to hear people's thoughts on this and the surrounding social contexts that leads to the bubbly, self-assured ignorance in her response.

[galaxygirl]

Oy.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

(Bennet) knows what it’s like to be black:

Although I’m not a minority in my valley, I’m a religious minority in the United States. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are headline news in 2012. The media have published a mix of accurate and inflammatory articles about what we believe. Having Mitt as a member has elevated the interest level and the attacks toward our church. So in a small way, I can understand minority groups feeling misunderstood and misrepresented by the media.

OK, I'll give her that some really nasty stuff happened to the Mormon founders, and that Mitt is facing some scrutitny about his religion (Well deserved of course, the media simply drops to the ball when it comes to investigating Christian candidates) but this is stupid and offensive.

Nothing modern-day mormons are experiencing compares to forcefully enslaving an entire race. Being apart of a religion is ultimately a choice, and she can leave or be less public about her religion if she honestly feels that persecuted, but a black person doesn't get to choose their race.

[mirele]

She lives in Provo, Utah County, Utah--also known as "Happy Valley." It's a bubble down there. It's also so very, very, very white. Very.

[xDreamerx]

Saw this a while back on Facebook. Not exactly surprised considering. Though, the whole thing could be avoided by replacing 'of' with 'in'.

[deelaem]

OK, I'll give her that some really nasty stuff happened to the Mormon founders, and that Mitt is facing some scrutitny about his religion (Well deserved of course, the media simply drops to the ball when it comes to investigating Christian candidates) but this is stupid and offensive.

Nothing modern-day mormons are experiencing compares to forcefully enslaving an entire race. Being apart of a religion is ultimately a choice, and she can leave or be less public about her religion if she honestly feels that persecuted, but a black person doesn't get to choose their race.

Not nearly as nasty as what they did during the "Reformation" and "Blood Atonement" periods, the Mountain Meadow Massacre being just one example.

I'm sorry, but Mormons of Utah are utterly clueless. The live in their own little speshul snowflake (emphasis on the snow white) world of Mormon dominance, and really don't care what happens in the non-Mormon world unless they're forced to.

And as for Romney, let me get out the world's tiniest violin and play a song of sorrow for his rich, privileged, white male ass. :roll:

[DarkAnts]

OK, I'll give her that some really nasty stuff happened to the Mormon founders, and that Mitt is facing some scrutitny about his religion (Well deserved of course, the media simply drops to the ball when it comes to investigating Christian candidates) but this is stupid and offensive.

Nothing modern-day mormons are experiencing compares to forcefully enslaving an entire race. Being apart of a religion is ultimately a choice, and she can leave or be less public about her religion if she honestly feels that persecuted, but a black person doesn't get to choose their race.

She lives in a bubble and has a persecution complex. I find that most mormons in Utah have that complex. They also have a tendency to persecute people who are not of the faith. I call it persecution because they shun their non mormon neighbors. Tell their children not to play with non mormon children and teach them to put social pressure on their non mormon peers to convert.

[DistantStar]

While I actually think the phrase "women of color" is a bit silly -- we're all some color, after all -- no. Just no.

[treemom]

I thought at first it was just a lack of understanding in that term until she did the whole can we sit at your lunch table?

No one is saying you can't sit at their lunch table, they are just saying there is a difference between being an advocate for a minority and actually being a part of that minority.

Plus, I doubt very much that the women really wants to be an advocate for minorities. You know since until the relatively recent past men of color couldn't achieve the preisthood and women are still second class citizens in the LDS church.

[emmiedahl]

OK, I'll give her that some really nasty stuff happened to the Mormon founders, and that Mitt is facing some scrutitny about his religion (Well deserved of course, the media simply drops to the ball when it comes to investigating Christian candidates) but this is stupid and offensive.

Nothing modern-day mormons are experiencing compares to forcefully enslaving an entire race. Being apart of a religion is ultimately a choice, and she can leave or be less public about her religion if she honestly feels that persecuted, but a black person doesn't get to choose their race.

The nasty stuff happened mainly because they were criminals. And that was before polygamy was illegal. There are criminal records on Joseph Smith. Theft, fraud, murder, child rape; these men were plain old bad people. If they were alive now they would never have gotten away.

[kolga]

I can understand minority groups feeling misunderstood and misrepresented by the media.

No. No, you cannot. Your "misrepresentation" is in NO WAY comparable to the history of ethnic minority persecution and oppression in this country. STFU.

[Glass Cowcatcher]

I'm not giving her a pass. Just saying that the bad things that happened to her ancestors--deserved or not--doesn't compare to being a part of a race that was until quite recently legally enslaved.

I said "I give her that" because I can imagine someone like her whining, "look what happened to the early Mormon church!"

[emmiedahl]

No. No, you cannot. Your "misrepresentation" is in NO WAY comparable to the history of ethnic minority persecution and oppression in this country. STFU.

By misrepresentation, she means "Some people know a lot about Mormon history and it makes our heroes look like assholes" and "Why do people keep making jokes about my underwear?"

[SisiL78]

Are Mormons really this stupid? They should have titled it "Colorful Women" but then again they do, as previously mentioned, live in a bubble where they all tell each other that they are special flowers and the whole world is filled with heathen scum that needs converting and fleecing.

Mormon persecution is ridiculous. Yes, they were persecuted for a few months here and there but only after they swooped into towns scaring the sh*t out of people. Joseph Smith made no secret of his bedding little girls and then visited brothels on top of that. They'd lash out instead of try to make peace. Any cases of real persecution of Mormons for those relatively short periods of time before they reached Utah are really overshadowed by the money they stole from supposed "believers", The Mountain Meadows Massacre and the rape of children all in the name of G-d.

The first Mormon missionaries went to the East coast and Europe to convert people and completely lied about polygamy. They scammed desperate women and men into coming to Utah and didn't provide adequate food or transportation. The people were basically put on a death march towards Utah and those who survived the trek were stuck in a polygamist compound. Women were placed in polygamous marriages before they had even recouperated. Imagine a time with no easy communication and you're broke and alone in this new place thousands of miles from your home and your only choice to survive is to be some guy's tenth wife.

But, then again, its forbidden for Mormons to teach any negative aspects of their history to the kiddos and like Scientologists they are taught that negative sh*t online about their religion is all lies.

They are discriminatory to this day regarding black people. They will take their money but have little leadership that is even slightly non-white. Mormonism is one of the most successful scams of all time and it irks me when they cry persecution.

[Hane]

Ah, Mormon white privilege: So very white--and so very privileged.

[Jessica]

But, then again, its forbidden for Mormons to teach any negative aspects of their history to the kiddos and like Scientologists they are taught that negative sh*t online about their religion is all lies.

“I have a hard time with historians... because they idolize the truth. The truth is not uplifting; it destroys. Historians should tell only that part of the truth that is inspiring and uplifting.†-- Boyd K Packer

[itsnikki05]

Ok... that was just silly and ignorant on their part. Woman OF color? As a previous poster said, you could just replace of with in and be fine!

Also agree with another poster who said we're all a color. LOL! Even my pale white daughter is a color dangit. So this whole "person of color" thing is silly imo.

[emmiedahl]

“I have a hard time with historians... because they idolize the truth. The truth is not uplifting; it destroys. Historians should tell only that part of the truth that is inspiring and uplifting.†-- Boyd K Packer

The real goldmine of interesting quotes is Brigham Young, who said he is infallible, that everything he writes should be considered scripture, that Adam was God and if white have sex with blacks God will strike them dead on the spot. Doesn't their religion believe that God is speaking and revealing directly to their prophet? If so, why do most of them say crazy and mentally ill shit?

[Jessica]

Because they're mentally ill to believe that the lost tribes live in an air pocket in the Gulf of Mexico!

[Guest Anonymous]

I actually don't mind the term 'women of colour'. It's a bit PC but it's a bit more human and dignified, and less depressing, than 'ethnic minority' or, as we say in British corpo-speak, 'Black and Asian Minority Ethnicities' ('BAME'). I think 'Women of Colour' would have been a fine name for the article if there had just been a handful of non-white women in that original group. If it was a genuinely mixed group, it would be a pretty good and imaginative title (if a bit tongue in cheek). No-one would have said a word about it.

I could honestly believe that this woman is just clueless and ridiculous until that whole 'lunch table' thing. Is anyone actually that stupid?

[emesbe]

Yep, these women are an embarrasment.

And yes, some Mormons really ARE this stupid. There are stupid people in every demographic.

[mirele]

Because they're mentally ill to believe that the lost tribes live in an air pocket in the Gulf of Mexico!

Wait, what? I'm a former Mormon and I currently live in the Jell-O Belt, and I've never, ever heard this one. Never. I'm thinking wherever you got that from, someone was either yanking your chain or mentally ill, no matter that they're Mormon.

[Jessica]

Sunday School a few years ago in Sandy UT, so not from the pulpit or Official Church Teaching but still IN church and no one questioned it. I've heard a few really whacko theories about the lost tribes: They were sent to another planet, they are still on the earth but are in a location that is "protected" and won't be found or revealed until such and such a date, they live under the earth's crust, or they live under the ocean in an air pocket.

...yeah.

edit - here's a gem, thanks to The Almighty Google:

"I remember being taught in Sunday School (14-15 year olds, I think) the theory that the Earth was actually hollow and that it had a hole at the North Pole. The interior surface (of the hollow globe) was also inhabited and at the Earth's core was a light/heat source that allowed the people on the inside to see. This interior world was the location of the Lost 10 Tribes, who would be coming "out of the north" sometime soon, in advance of the 2nd coming. Back then, the theory was that this would happen 25-30 years in the future, which means it should be happening right around now."

[freejoytoo]

Mormonism sounds more and more crazy each time I hear about it.

[SisiL78]

Sunday School a few years ago in Sandy UT, so not from the pulpit or Official Church Teaching but still IN church and no one questioned it. I've heard a few really whacko theories about the lost tribes: They were sent to another planet, they are still on the earth but are in a location that is "protected" and won't be found or revealed until such and such a date, they live under the earth's crust, or they live under the ocean in an air pocket.

...yeah.

I thought I'd heard it all. Jessica, you've blown my mind (here I thought I had exhausted the crazy theories). Meanwhile, the evidence points to the "lost tribes" melding with the two remaining tribes. Some say that the Ethiopian Jews (who practiced pre-Messianic Judaism that many say is the original Judaism) and a few other isolated Jew-like tribs in Africa are also lost tribes. They have the genetic markers unique to Jews and practice rituals that are very much like Judaism from 2000 years ago.

Mormonism has sent archaeologists out for decades to find evidence of Jews having come here 2k years ago and fighting some massive war. So far nada. The genetic markers that characterize Jews have not been found in a single bone in the many native American sites these guys have dug up. I'll give them credit for not faking any evidence at least. I think archaeologists have a high ethical standard (Even if the guy writing the check for their digs is a religious fanatic). Its perfectly possible that a few Jews or Middle Easterners or Europeans did end up in the ancient Americas. There are ancient writings regarding the wind patterns over the Atlantic. But, the idea that enough people came over here to populate wide swaths of this country, and fight a massive war is laughable. Not to mention the fact that they left NO evidence of this.