Take that in for a second:
The guts to stand up for white people
The guts to stand up for white people
The guts to stand up for white people
WHO COMES UP WITH THIS SHIT?
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"In social justice, there’s this absurd meme (that I’ve been guilty of myself) is that we are the “voice for the voiceless,” but that’s not right. The oppressed are not voiceless – they’re just not being listened to."
Dianna Anderson, of Be the Change, at Rachel Held Evans’ “Ask a Feminist” (via emm-in-sem)
Wooo, I like this.
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Today I got into a twitter argument with an acquentince of mine about the role of black voters in passing Amendment One and Proposition Eight. My argument was that the role of black voters is over inflated by racist liberals, and his argument was that the role of black voters needs to be criticized like any other voting block would (of course my argument was that the point is that other voters aren’t being criticized in the same way black people are, but that’s not why I’m posting this).
It eventually spiraled into a discussion about privilege and oppression. I brought up how black voters are seen as “extra bad” (by white liberals) for voting against gay rights because they themselves did not have civil rights not too long ago. I explained how this is an unfair comparison to make, especially when it’s made by oppressors.
He responded that those committed to fighting social justice aren’t oppressors, but that’s not accurate. An oppressor is anyone who benefits from a system that gives some privileges. If you are white and you benefit from a system of institutionalized whiteness, if you are male and benefit from patriarchy, if you are straight and benefit from a heterosexist society, you are an oppressor. This does not make you a bad person. You cannot help being white or male or straight. I fight for social justice everyday of my life, that does not negate the fact that my whiteness has given me benefits over others that I have used to my advantage. Everyone participates in these things, whether we want to or mean to. The best we can hope to do is recognize our privilege and fight against the system as much as we can. It’s dangerous to claim that just because we are opposed to the system, means we can’t be a part of it.
Now the second tweet is what really set me off. Here’s the deal, I don’t really care about attracting people to social justice who do not want to hear the truth. If you are white and you don’t want to hear that you are a part of institutionalized whiteness, if you are male and you don’t want to hear you are a part of patriarchy, then you don’t belong in social justice. The fact that people are oppressed should offend you more, than those people telling you you’re a part of their oppression. Back people don’t need to convert white people, women don’t need to convert men, we don’t need permission. This tweet implies that we want to convert as many people as possible to social justice, but if those people are not willing to confront their racist sexist roots, then no, we don’t want them.
*I don’t think you read my blog, but if you do…um, yeah. You can’t really fit my response in 140 characters and I thought it would be a nice post on here. Thanks for the material. :p
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THIS THIS THIS
This ask demonstrates perfectly what I was trying to get at with this post.
White people, like myself, are taught from an early age that racism is horrible and evil (which it is), but with that we’re taught that only evil people practice racism (which isn’t true).
Anyone can be a racist.
Killing people for the color of their skin is racist, but so is dressing up like a Native American or Halloween. Racism is personified in many different ways. There isn’t one distinct way to be racist.
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"I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."Stephen Jay Gould (via pisumsativa)
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TRIGGER WARNING: PICTURES CONTAIN GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF VIOLENCE
Some racist shit head posted this on facebook yesterday so I decided to break down why exactly it was racist and horrible.
Something I forgot to add: how come when a white person murders a black person it’s an “isolated incident”, but when a black person murders a white person it’s suddenly indicative of a “hate crime” or “racism against white people”?
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So someone posted something incredibly racist on facebook and it ended with this little gem.
The entire thing/more on this tomorrow.
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Ironic Bigotry is Still Bigotry
I went to a party tonight hosted by a very good friend of mine named Libby. Libby is awesome. She’s president of Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood, a family studies major who is graduating in May, and just an all around awesome person.
The reason I am not at her party now is because there was a man there who was making me super uncomfortable.
He was making sexist jokes and racist jokes. He thought he was being funny because he obviously didn’t mean those things.
Except I didn’t know that. I had never met him. Even if I did know him, those jokes wouldn’t have been appropriate. He was a white male making racist sexist jokes about Michelle Obama, Obama, women in general, and people of color in general.
The women in the room were visibly uncomfortable but that obviously didn’t bug him.
I’m over it. I’m over your “jokes”, your enlightened white male liberal “humor”. I’m over your ironic bigotry, your happiness at making people feel uncomfortable. I’m over it all.
Ironic bigotry is bigotry and you’re a bigot.
The end.
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The difference between Trayvon Martin and Allen Coon.
This story has been spreading around on conservative blogs and message boards for the past week or so, as the Trayvon Martin story’s gathered momentum. The short version of it is that a 13 year old boy in Kansas City was attacked by two black teenagers, set on fire, and told, “That’s what you get, white boy.”
It’s a horrible story and I’ve zero interest in arguing that one is “worse” than the other. Conservative blogs, meanwhile, have been pointing to the fact that Trayvon Martin’s story has been the subject of a lot of interest and attention, while Allen Coon’s has not, as proof that “it doesn’t matter” because the victim was white.
Here is exactly why that’s absurd: Because it does matter that Allen Coon was attacked. It matters so much that the police immediately responded. They branded it ahate crime. They conducted an investigation, and put out an APB on the attackers. They treated it exactly the way that police treat crimes that matter.
So there’s no need to hold vigils for justice in the case of Allen Coon, because justice has swiftly and readily been sought by the people tasked to seek justice.
The reason people are outraged over Trayvon Martin’s shooting is not, ultimately, because a black teenager was shot. That happens all the time, frankly. What people are outraged about is that the police didn’t seem to treat it as though a crime had occurred. They don’t feel as though justice was sought on behalf of Martin or his family, and that is why they’re outraged. This isn’t about “no child should ever be attacked and society should not rest when it happens,” because we don’t live in a world where that would be practical. It’s about the police, and the prosecutors, in Florida who failed to seek justice in any way that the people observing the case recognize as seeking justice.
Or, in short: Allen Coon’s attack was tragic and wrong, and if the police had responded to Trayvon Martin’s in the same manner that they had responded to Coon’s, this would never have become anything close to a national news story.
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White People's Attitudes Towards POCs: A history
- 1300s White People: THOU ART BRINGERS OF THE PLAGUE!
- 1400s White People: THY MOORISH SKIN DOTH MARKETH THOU AS EVIL!
- 1500s White People: LOL WE SHALL NOW STEAL YOUR ALGEBRA AND SHIT
- 1600s White People: WHY HULLO THURRR, STEADY SOURCE OF INCOME AND OPPRESSIVE SLAVERY!
- 1700s White People: WHAT DO YOU MEAN THESE NATIVES WANT TO BE TREATED LIKE HUMANS, NOT SMALLPOX GARDENS?
- 1800s White People: WE SHALL FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS TO OWN YOU ALL! PROPERTY! LIBERTY! JUSTICE FOR US! NOT YOU!
- 1900s White People: LOL @ trying to sit at our COUNTER! DIS MINE!
- 1990s White People: what is this thing called rap and how may I obtain street cred, ahem, yo?
- ....and 2000: WE ARE ALL THE SAME ACTUALLY WE ALL BLEED RED REALLY SO LIKE, STOP CALLING US RACISTS! WE ARE ALL HUMAN!
