Serenity Break

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Deadlines are kicking my @$$!!! Time for a serenity break:

Daniel and Me

My nephew is always up for a photo op.


Discussion (10)¬

  1. Chaya Fradle says:

    Jon, I don't think Candorville is meant for young children, who are impressionable. I also think it is wrong to teach young children that white people did this or that to black people. That is a negative teaching. Yet, it is common among many Black families to still teach their young children to not trust whites. The best way to teach history to young children is in a positive way. Until they are old enough to learn facts that are gory and bloody, we can tell them things like people in the old days didn't understand that people are like flowers. The more kinds and colors, the more beautiful the garden. We DO understand that, now. This is a much better way to teach children. As I said, in my opinion, Candorville is for adults and not children. I would also like Darrin to explain what his actual thoughts are of democracy and also if he thought anything about the colonial days were positive in nature. I didn't read into that cartoon what you did, but perhaps others did just as you did. So, an answer would be helpful.

  2. Jon says:

    Thanks for writing back Darrin.

    The history of other places does have something to do with it when it comes to how our young people, which turn into us, think about it all.

    I did childcare for years. After awhile i noticed the vibe of the kids when we'd talk to them about racial issues (sadly only usually when MLK day came around, in Feb, when other issues came up.)

    What kids get from how we had to talk about it is a skewed against here and white people perspective, unaware that most places are worse. Kids don't have wide enough minds to take that in healthily.

    And invariably white kids internalize what they hear as somehow they are more capable of evil, or are a bit more evil (which leads to the awful mind set of white guilt, which often turns into some of the pandering liberal racism that's almost worse than "classic conservative" racism.) You can see the open, expressive body language born of a sense of being good get fostered in black kids and a mopey, looking down in shame, check yourself attitude start in white kids, the beginning of white guilt, white deconstruction.

    (And while it's easy for us all to – we do this now – put these things way down on the importance scale, after all, white privilege overrides all this, right? Deal with it, right?…..why can't we include this wider perspective? Why always the narrow perspective that simply makes human beings alive today get lumped in with this awful past they had nothing to do with while admitting their own naivety and advantage, which believe me, we'd give away if we could just to not live in our "damned if we do, damned if we don't," self conscious, self deconstructing reality.

    (In urban settings there is a social, moral authority advantage, an in our own heads advantage to being anything but white. Being white in urban areas brings with it others assuming you're anything from naive to severely racist until you prove you're not, over and over and over. Meanwhile, if you're not white, you can be a pretty bad person before anyone notices, all because everyone assumes your victimhood in the american context. When these A holes (of any color) then take this moral authoritative stance with me without knowing me, it's sometimes too much to take. And, Darrin, it's lacking in enough perspective points like yours here that foster such misdirected takes.) We can do better.

    Anyway, back to…

    Many of the kids who weren't white developed a sense of distrust for whiteness, or had the one they understandably had enhanced, upon learning more about of our evil past and would then (only halfway joking) "use" this against the white kids on the playground. It all just adds fuel to the fire when you don't teach it with a world wide perspective. If we could find a way to teach the ugly, white faced truth of our past while teaching it with the perspective needed, then more kids and adults would be able to connect for true difference making.

    We don't "cling to democracy because of the ghosts of the founding fathers live in our heads," we cling to democracy because, despite not being acted on and from within in a fair to everyone way, now and in the past, it's basic form allows that more than other forms of government.

    Maybe I read it wrong, but it sure seems like you 1) think democracy isn't all that and maybe on the way out, which you'd welcome, and 2) that you think you'd have been different than those powdered wig wearing white guys.

    Human psychology says otherwise on the historical relativity tip, and well, i'll just admit i was reading a bit too much into it and trust you're not advocating throwing the democracy baby out with the racism bathwater.

    Have a great one,

    Jon

  3. Jon says:

    Darrin

    Don't throw the Baby out with the bathwater, sir.

    Sorry, don't know where to just email you, so i write here….

    I feel your "Ghosts" cartoon from 08/11/10 doesn't look at it all with enough objectivity and historical perspective.

    We all know slavery was worse than bad, and then more, and then some, and then more, and on and on…… We all know that hypocrisy rules this country still.

    Liberal white folks (the kind in most urban areas) know, more than know, integrate into their very beings (deconstructing themselves throughout life) the fact that this country has a dismal past and ingrained, unfair present.

    But what large country doesn't when it comes to its majority? Most have worse. Deep racism exists all over the world. It's just how much a system works (other places racism would have seemed much worse if their systems of government actually, you know, worked.)

    People always do this. They see their own realities so much clearer than the rest of the worlds, so they don't see the balance, the truth of the matter….they don't see with perspective.

    We're all possible nazis under most circumstances, (and i'm jewish saying that ok?) We think we'd have "been different" if we "were there." But everything we know about human psychology shows us to be less noble than we'd like to think. ALL of us.

    The point is that it's not as simple as your cartoon makes it. And, you appear unaware that while full of warts, our system of government works better than most, and every alternative, more cooperative system breaks down, does not work, falls apart due to human nature. At least that what history shows us.

    It's pure idealism to assume there's this far better, more humane system out there. And it would be likely very harmful to assume there is, break this one down, and then see how much worse things got when the idealism doesn't work out.

    Fix this form of government (we're slowly slowly moving there,) don't try for what's behind door #2.

    Don't throw the baby (democracy) out with the bathwater (racism/bias/sexism.)

    (Oh, and sexism, so focused on by us, rightfully, is less severe by far in the "west" than anywhere on earth. Western women have more freedom, both in their own minds and with their bodies as they should, than women from other cultures.)

    (Women simply don't have the kind of freedom and power elsewhere that they have here (and don't have their genitals stricken, abused, taken away.) (And, that's not all swept away by saying "if not for western imperialism.")

    But yeah, the baby, the bathwater.

    With much respect,

    Jon

    • Darrin Bell says:

      Thanks for writing. If you're responding to a particular strip, you can simply navigate to that strip on this site (by hitting "previous" or choosing it from the calendar or the archives page) and post a comment underneath that strip.

      But you're right, I can't believe I forgot to include an "e-mail Darrin" link anywhere on the site.

      As to what you've written, I'm unclear why you think I'm "unaware" of the bigger picture. The history of other countries has nothing to do with it. The cartoon was about a dichotomy that exists in OUR country. I'm an American satirist critiquing America. I don't see the point in appending "but compared to other countries, we're not so bad" to my criticism.

      One of the first lessons I ever learned was "two wrongs don't make a right." I learned not to excuse my own behavior by telling my mom to look at the bigger picture. If I'd said "Yeah I stole money from your purse… but at least I'm not selling drugs on the corner like the other kids," that wouldn't have gotten me of the hook. If it had… if she hadn't looked at MY actions in relation to how she wanted ME to act (not in relation to how the rest of the neighborhood acted) and held me to a higher standard, sooner or later I WOULD have been selling dope on the corner.

      I do believe in American exceptionalism. Because of that, I don't compare America to the world. I compare America to the lofty ideals upon which America was founded. I hold America to the higher standards it set for itself.

      • Chaya Fradle says:

        WOW. What an answer. Concise, to to point, with definite examples to back it up. I hope this suffices for the other person who posted. It is also remarkable to me that you take time to respond to posts. You do have deadlines and you have appearances, and yet you care about your readers? I like it when famous people answer their mail. Recently, Faye Kellerman, the author, sent me a message back to my message to her. I am so AWED when these things happen.

  4. pk1154 says:

    Awww…cute kid, awesome uncle.

  5. chayafradle says:

    BTW, does your nephew have a kiddie kredit union so he can get paid for his appearances? Hahaha.

  6. sara says:

    Major family likeness!

    You definitely need to take advantage of this age. In fact until they are about 4 everything is love, learning and fun.
    After that they are still wonderful.. but the peak of lovable cuteness is before 4.

    • Darrin Bell says:

      He's only two, so he's got two more years before he's over the hill.

      • chayafradle says:

        Over the hill? Hahaha. Yes, he has your eyes. What a DARLING kid. Thanks for posting.