A Round on the White Man

Published in El Mundo
(Spain) on 31 May 2018
by Pablo Pardo (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Tristan Franz. Edited by Joel Horowitz.
In the city of Portland, Oregon, a conscientious African-American named Cameron Whitten has created a happy hour during which any citizen of color that shows up at a predetermined bar receives $10 to spend, paid for by white people.

The goal is to begin the process of healing and reparation to those communities which white people have made to suffer throughout history. Whitten has already been asked to apologize for the idea as it may be interpreted as a frivolous attempt to amend that suffering. That is to say, he is being asked to apologize for asking others to apologize. Following the event, Whitten got into an online battle with the New York Times over the way it covered his initiative.

Whitten's happy hour reveals how well blacks are doing in the U.S. They aren't even the largest minority — that would be Latinos — nor are they treated the worst, either historically or in current times — that distinction belongs to Native Americans — but they have monopolized the debate on race relations. That has left the country in a situation where any questioning of what a black person does is racist. This is true regarding hip-hop as well as clear displays of racism by blacks like Chris Rock, who at the 2016 Oscars made jokes about child labor in Asia.

The United States of 2018 is a country fractured on many levels and for many reasons. This is one of them. Today, many white people with low levels of education feel that they are paying the tab for everyone else. They could be wrong. But nobody will bother debating them.


En la ciudad de Portland, en Oregón, un concienciado afroamericano llamado Cameron Whitten ha creado una hora feliz (happy hour) para que a cada ciudadano de color que vaya a un determinado bar le correspondan 10 dólares en consumiciones pagadas por blancos.

El objetivo es iniciar así el proceso de desagravio e indemnización de esas comunidades por todo lo que los blancos les han hecho sufrir a lo largo de la Historia. Whitten ya se ha apresurado a pedir perdón con carácter retroactivo por, precisamente, la idea, ya que ésta podría interpretarse como un intento de frivolidad ese sufrimiento. Se trata de pedir perdón por hacer que otros pidan perdón. A continuación, Whitten se ha metido en una pelea online por el tratamiento informativo que el periódico progresista por antonomasia, el New York Times, ha dado a su iniciativa.

La happy hour de Whitten revela lo bien que se lo han montado los negros en Estados Unidos. Ni son la minoría más numerosa (ésa es la latina), ni la peor tratados, ni históricamente ni en la actualidad (ese lugar corresponde a los indígenas), pero han monopolizado el debate sobre las relaciones raciales. Así es como se ha llegado a una situación en la que cualquier cuestionamiento de lo que haga un negro es racista. Eso incluye desde el hip-hop hasta exhibiciones de racismo por los negros como la realizada por Chris Rock, en la entrega de los Oscar, en 2016, encontró muy gracioso el trabajo infantil en Asia.

Los Estados Unidos de 2018 son un país fracturado a muchos niveles y por muchas razones. Una de ellas es ésta. Hoy, muchos blancos de nivel educativo bajo sienten que ellos pagan la ronda de los demás. Puede que no tengan razón. Pero nadie se va a molestar en debatir con ellos.
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