Which is quite a thing to actually ask some one to do. Especially when we're not quite sure "how".
Well, part of it is that it's not asking, it's expecting. And how outrageous to just run up and assign the responsibility to someone based on race, you know?
There's this interesting point that Chuck D made back in the 80s when several media folks were looking to him to be a political leader, and he pointed out, "I'm a 24 year old musician. You need to talk to actual political leaders..." which wasn't a "I'm not a role model" dodge, but a realistic assessment both of his role and the way the media (and white culture in general) likes to assign a few people the role of spokesperson regardless of whether it makes sense to or not.
For my experience (yours might differ), I've only found white people demanding me to be a spokesperson, or to educate them, on a whim. There's a level of assumed privilege to demand that someone, effectively become the magical wise Negro/Indian/Asian/Yoda and answer their race related questions on a dime.
no subject
Well, part of it is that it's not asking, it's expecting. And how outrageous to just run up and assign the responsibility to someone based on race, you know?
There's this interesting point that Chuck D made back in the 80s when several media folks were looking to him to be a political leader, and he pointed out, "I'm a 24 year old musician. You need to talk to actual political leaders..." which wasn't a "I'm not a role model" dodge, but a realistic assessment both of his role and the way the media (and white culture in general) likes to assign a few people the role of spokesperson regardless of whether it makes sense to or not.
For my experience (yours might differ), I've only found white people demanding me to be a spokesperson, or to educate them, on a whim. There's a level of assumed privilege to demand that someone, effectively become the magical wise Negro/Indian/Asian/Yoda and answer their race related questions on a dime.