{ May 23rd }

girlwhowasonfire:

Maybe if I were more racist and made jokes out of people’s cultures and laughed at misogynistic jokes and said nothing when people were generally just fucking horrible
Maybe then people would like me more

43 notes
{ May 19th }
“
excuse me but what does race have to do with any of this?
”
- white people

(Source: thelifetimenetwork)

30 notes
{ May 18th }
Here’s a friendly reminder:

caffeinatedfeminist:

-You cannot be sexist toward men. Sexism is based on a system of oppression. You CAN be discriminatory, rude, inconsiderate, and/or prejudiced against men but you CANNOT be sexist toward them.

-You cannot be racist towards white people. Racism is based on a system of oppression. You CAN be discriminatory, rude, inconsiderate, and/or prejudiced against white people but you CANNOT be racist toward them.

This is not difficult.

11,742 notes
{ May 13th }
THIS JUST IN

isitscary:

  • No matter how racially specific an author is about the color of a character’s skin, ethnic/racial background, there will always be an excuse to make them white. 
  • No matter how offensive and erasing it is to intentionally change the race of a character of color, it is always “okay” as long as you’re “just roleplaying” - and if anyone has a problem with it is just being “childish” and “prejudice”.
  • IN OTHER WORDS: it’s perfectly okay to be a racist little assfuck because changing a CoC white in no way, shape, or form implies my obvious state of subconscious racism. 
297 notes
{ May 11th }
Links & Resources.

thatfeministdyke:

Feminism

Racism, Race, & Culture

Sizeism & Body Positivity

GSM (Gender & Sexuality Minorities)

Ableism

Privilege

Reproductive Health

Classism

Misc/Other

5,364 notes
{ April 27th }

glossylalia:

A Complete Guide to Hipster Racism

sugarbooty:

There’s been a lot of talk these last couple of weeks about “hipster racism” or “ironic racism”—or, as I like to call it, racism. It’s, you know, introducing your black friend as “my black friend”—as a joke!!!—to show everybody how totally not preoccupied you are with your black friend’s blackness. It’s the gentler, more clueless, and more insidious cousin of a hick in a hood; the domain of educated, middle-class white people (like me—to be clear, I am one of those) who believe that not wantingto be racist makes it okay for them to be totally racist. “But I went to college — I can’t be racist!” Turns out, you can.

People benefit from racism—hell, I benefit from it every day—and things that benefit powerful people don’t just suddenly get “fixed” and disappear because Halle Berry won an Oscar or whatever. Modern racism lives in entrenched de facto inequalities, in coded language about “work ethic” and “states’ rights,” in silent negative spaces like absence and invisibility, and in Newt Gingrich’s hair. And in irony.

When people are trying to be sensitive about race but they don’t know what to say, they usually go with, “Well, race is a complicated issue.” Except, no, it’s not. Race is one of the least complicated issues that there is, because it’s made up. It’s arbitrary. It’s as complicated as goddamn Santa Claus. Oh, that guy’s mom was half-black, which makes his skin slightly more pigmented than mine, which therefore means that he’s inherently 12.5% lazier than me? Science! Um, no. What’s actually complicated is our country’s relationship with race, and our utter ineptitude at talking about it. We suck. I mean, I work on it every day, and I’m still a total fuck-up. But this new scheme someone came up with—where we prove we’re not racist by acting as casually racist as possible? Not our best, white people. Not our best.

Racism is like a wily little bacterium. It doesn’t just roll over and die once we swallow our antibiotics—it mutates and evolves and hides itself in plain sight, and then all of a sudden, fuck, my arm fell off. Dickhead bacteria. (Sidenote: arm for sale!)

A long time ago (not really!), it was socially acceptable to own people. Then it wasn’t, but it wassocially acceptable to murder people if they looked at your wife. Then it wasn’t! Yay! But it was still okay to say that people whose skin color you didn’t like weren’t allowed to be around you. And so on. Eventually we arrived at the point (now) where it’s socially unacceptable in mainstream culture for white people to say denigrating things about people of other races. But just because the behavior has been suppressed, that doesn’t mean people’s prejudices have simply disappeared. And white people haaaaaate being told what to do in our own country (fun fact: not actually “ours”)!

So racism went underground. Sure, you can’t say racist things anymore, but you can pretend to say them! Which, it turns out, is pretty much the exact same thing. There are a couple of strains of “ironic racism” making the rounds right now, and a couple of typical defenses.

1. “Tee-Hee, Aren’t I Adorable?”
This category includes things like wide-eyed acoustic covers of hip-hop songs, suburban white girls flashing gang signs, and this Tweet from Zooey Deschanel: “Haha. :) RT @Sarabareilles: Home from tour and first things first: New Girl episodes I missed. #thuglife.” See, it’s hilarious, because we aren’t thugs—we are darling girls, and real thugs are black people who do crime! Oh, hey, can I call you back? I need to sew more ric-rac on my apron. I hope a black person didn’t get into my ric-rac Kaboodle and steal all of it! JK, LOL. RIP, Whitney.

(Now, I’m obv not saying that Zooey Deschanel is some terrible racist. I don’t know her, although I did sit next to her at a restaurant once, and she ordered “olives.” She seemed lovely, and she didn’t call anyone the n-word for the entire meal. But I’m saying that we are all kind of bizarrely cavalier and careless these days, throwing our most deeply-considered morals under the bus for the sake of a few cheap jokes. It’s weird, and we owe the world a little more critical thinking.)

2. “Recreational Slumming.”
Wherein privileged people descend for a visit inside the strange, foreign spaces of othered groups. Like, I don’t know, IHOP. Or that “scary” bar in the south end. Then they go home again. Catchphrase: “It’s soooooo ghetto, but I actually totally like it!”

3. “Ummm, I’m a Writer and I’m Trying to Write in Here!”
This is Lesley Arfin crowing about the majestic power of the n-word, and white kids whining that it’s “unfair” that black people “get” to use “it”. You know, because words are powerful and words are Arfin’s craft and would you take the color red away from the best painter on Twitter??? And besides, don’t you just find Arfin to be so RAW and DELICIOUSLY NAUGHTY? It’s all tied up with the deliberately obtuse people who conflate “freedom of speech” with “immunity from criticism.” You “can” say the n-word. Go ahead and say it if you want, Skrillex. And I will go ahead and give you the world’s most sidewaysiest eyeball forever. Because it hurts people. Why do you want to hurt people?

4. “God, Don’t White People Suck?”
Okay, I get what you’re trying to do here—having some fun at the expense of the oppressors while setting yourself up as one of the “cool” white people—but mainly what you end up doing is implying that black people don’t like informative radio or TED talks. Stuff White People Like: having the best brains! Isn’t it great that we can make fun of ourselves while still reminding you that we’re better than you?

And the thing is, when these things get called out, there really is no defense. But they try:

“No, don’t you see? I’m just showing how I’m so down with [minority group] that it’s totally cool for me to make jokes at their expense. Because we are just that kind of tight bros now.”
No. You cannot unlock some secret double-not-racist achievement by just being regular racist. Otherwise Bill O’Reilly would be president of the NAACP.

“But it’s a JOOOOOKE.”
Here’s the thing about jokes. They only work when they’re aiming up. I wrote this in another piece recently, but I’m just going to plagiarize myself: People in positions of power simply cannotmake jokes at the expense of the powerless. That’s why, at a company party, you never have a roast where the CEO is roasting the janitor (“Isn’t it funny how Steve can barely feed his family? This guy knows what I’m talking about!” [points to other janitor]). Because that would be GROSS, and both janitors would have to work late to clean up everyone’s barf. Open-mic comedians, I know you think you’re part of some fresh vanguard in alternative comedy who just discovered that a lot of black ladies don’t like it when you touch their hair, but pleeeeeeease just stick to stuff about how your stupid girlfriend is a bitch. (Just kidding. Please never speak again.)

“So I’m not allowed to have a genuine interest in another culture?!!?!??!”
First of all, privileged dickweeds wearing Urban Outfitters “Navajo” panties, I didn’t realize that you excavated those in your anthropological field work. My bad. Carry on. And second of all, again, you “can” do whatever the fuck you want. You “can” wear whatever you want, say whatever you want, and think whatever you want about whatever you want. All the time! Yaaay! But if a group of people comes to you and says, “This thing that you are doing is hurting us,” and you keep doing it for fun, then you are a dickweed! Like, you know we had an actual genocide here, right? A deliberate extermination of human beings? Right where your house is? So maybe just err on the side of sensitivity.

“Yeah, but we have a black president! Isn’t racism over?”
Okay. That’s probably the most racist thing you’ve said all day, imaginary amalgam of all the careless hipsters in the world. You know how you can tell that black people are still oppressed? Because black people are still oppressed. If you claim that you are not a racist person (or, at least, that you’re committed to working your ass off not to be one—which is really the best that any of us can promise), then you must believe that people are fundamentally born equal. So if that’s true, then in a vacuum, factors like skin color should have no effect on anyone’s success. Right? And therefore, if you really believe that all people are created equal, then when you see that drastic racial inequalities exist in the real world, the only thing that you could possiblyconclude is that some external force is holding certain people back. Like…racism. Right? So congratulations! You believe in racism! Unless you don’t actually think that people are born equal. And if you don’t believe that people are born equal, then you’re a fucking racist.

But you know what? At least that’s sincere. And at least sincere racism isn’t running around Brooklyn wearing artisanal suspenders and masquerading as enlightenment. Give me sincere racism or give me no racism at all, but enough with this weaselly shit.

757 notes
{ 2:31 am }

aimmyarrowshigh:

Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether racism is “intentional” or not. It’s all wrong. The fact that “unintentional racism” happens so frequently and flippantly is deeply troubling and sad (AND STILL RACISM) because it convinces the “intentional” racists that they are correct and that everyone thinks the way they do.  Perpetuating racist stereotypes, words, and ideas “to be funny” or “to be cute” or “because I don’t mean them OBVI LOL” is still racism… and it does show that on some level, you do mean what you’re saying. You don’t mock cultures that you respect. On any level. 

If you don’t consider yourself racist or prejudiced, but use racist language, it is wrong.  (If you do consider yourself racist or prejudiced and use racist language, it’s still fucking wrong but at least you’re consistent in your wrongness.)

It’s the same with “casual misogyny” like the words “bitch,” “ho,” and/or or “cunt” being used *by the same people, within sentences of each other* as insults and as “terms of affection.”  Or people saying “rape my Ask box.”  Or “look at how she’s dressed; she’s asking for it. What a slut.”

Using language that degrades women doesn’t have less power just because the person speaking is a woman… it just shows male misogynists (and rapists, and abusive partners, and other forms of violent sleazebags) that their assumptions of women are so correct that even women share them.  It’s wrong.

It’s the same as using homophobic hatespeech to define people (or, as is common on tumblr, to show that you like a slash/femmeslash ship‽ INTERROBANG OF BEFUDDLEMENT) — if you’re using words like “faggot” and “dykey” and “omg rofl lol don’t look at this edit I made it’s SO GAYYY” then you are STILL EQUATING HOMOSEXUALITY WITH THINGS THAT YOU CONSIDER EITHER A) ABNORMAL AND NECESSARY OF FOCUSED ATTENTION, or B) BAD, WRONG, UNPLEASANT, or STUPID. 

It’s still wrong.

It’s really not hard to just… NOT USE racist terms, or misogynistic language, or say disgusting hatespeech terms about the LGBTQAIP community.  I promise, it’s really not hard. I used to say “bitch,” too.  It’s normalized in our language.  But that doesn’t make it right.  So I stopped saying it.  It isn’t hard.

You just stop.

73 notes
{ April 19th }
pussy-envy: had to ask around a bit on how to phrase this.  give me words of advice on this? I know I come from a place of white privilege and thus may not have worded this correctly.

pussy-envy:

had to ask around a bit on how to phrase this. 

give me words of advice on this? I know I come from a place of white privilege and thus may not have worded this correctly.

5,139 notes
{ April 17th }
I'm posting this as anonymous because I don't wanna be singled out here: I feel like I could be a little bit racist. Not like "I want people of other races to die" or anything, but I certainly harbor a couple of stereotypes. I don't like this and want to change that mindset I've fallen into. I've seen a lot of posts you have about identifying racism. Once you identify it, what is the best way to kick this? That may sound like a silly or rude question. But I really want to change.
◥
Anonymous ASKED

[NOTE TO FOLLOWERS: Longass post ahead, so get ready to scroll… unless you’re interested in reading the whole thing, which damn, good on you, then.]

Oh my goodness… first off, I’m really honored you’d come to me with this, and I’ll do my best to treat this response with as much respect as you deserve — so if I sound condescending or patronizing anywhere in this, I apologize, and please understand I don’t mean it to sound that way at all.

While I’m definitely not the most qualified person to lecture other people on racism (other people have been studying it for decades, and I’m only eighteen, after all) I do try to hold a sensitive and appropriate point of view when it comes to discussions concerning other cultures and ethnic groups — “try” being the key word, because I know I’m not perfect and I do hold stereotypical mindsets myself. I think everyone does; it’s a product of growing up in the culture that we have. Internalized racism is already so ingrained in our society that it’s hard to grow up without digesting some of it (when I say “our” I largely mean the States because it’s mostly the American media/society that I try to stay on top of, but I imagine this problem is probably spread throughout various Western societies with ranging degrees of problems). But the first step is recognizing that it exists and be willing to step back and say “Hey, that’s not right” instead of closing your ears and mind to what underrepresented groups have to say. The fact that you’ve recognized that the problem exists and that you’re willing to change really proves a lot already (and I totally understand your anonymity — it’s not silly or rude at all).

I feel like I should also say, just as a disclaimer: I’m half Swedish and half Chinese, so half white and half non-white, split right down the middle. For a while I couldn’t decide whether or not I grew up with white privilege concerning my heritage, but then I realized that if I haven’t yet recognized that white privilege exists just by living in the world so far, then it probably means that I’ve benefited from some form of it. So… that said, if anyone reads any of this and thinks “Hey, that’s wrong, that sounds like a kind of privileged thing to say,” then please let me know.

Which, uh, actually leads me to a big point — if someone calls you out on your privilege, just be polite and back down. Your pride may be wounded but it’s much more important to think about how the marginalized group of people feels instead of yourself. If a person of color calls you out on racism, it’s highly likely that they’re right; no white person (I’ll go broader: no privileged person in general — in race, sexuality, gender, class, etc) has the right to tell a non-white (or otherwise underprivileged person) how to feel about their race (/sexuality/gender/class/etc) or its representation in today’s world.

But! I don’t know what culture you belong to, what country you live in, or who your ancestors may have been, so I can’t say whether or not you’re white or a person of color or whatever, etc — I can’t say whether or not you have white privilege, in other words. Unfortunately, though, internalized racism is so prevalent, so everywhere, that it also affects the minds of those people being marginalized: M. Night Shyamalan’s (who is Indian) decision to whitewash The Last Airbender cast (and then defend his decisions with accusations of “You’re the ones being racist!!”) are proof of that. So even if you may be a person of color, the idea wouldn’t be to check your privilege — it’d just be to check whether or not the beliefs concerning race that you have at the moment have been formed to fit the structure that the largely white elite have maintained for centuries.

I’m making white people out to be the bad guys here. I’m sorry — white people aren’t evil. Many of them mean well (I’d say all but I have my doubts about a few certain politicians and some suspicious folk on Facebook… but eh). Growing up, we’re told that racism is a bad thing, that if you’re called racist then THAT’S BAD and you SHOULDN’T BE RACIST so our automatic response is to say “I’m NOT racist, you don’t know me, how dare you!” We’re used to thinking that racism is a thing of the past, that MLK did his work and that slavery is over and we don’t think of all Germans as Nazis anymore. Except there’s still so much racism still inherent in the system that when people are called out on it we automatically jump to thinking that they’re just stirring up shit. If you stick a knife in a man twelve inches and then pull it out three, many are content to call that progress — worse, they’re satisfied with calling that equality. If you’d like to get involved with or change your mindset (and believing in stereotypes we all may occasionally fall too is definitely not your fault — it’s your job to change it, but it’s not your fault they’re there) then the idea is to figure out how to work on pulling the knife back out the other nine inches and set to work fix the wound.

I’m sorry, I’m rambling. This is all just me trying to say that it’s normal to be in your position so you shouldn’t feel bad and start apologizing to every poc you meet from now on. That’s not what racially underrepresented groups want or need. If you’re white (again, I don’t know, so you may not be at all), then the first thing you can start doing is recognizing your white privilege when it shows up. Don’t get defensive if someone calls you out on something you’ve said; if more than one people have a problem with it, then it’s likely they have a good point, and there’s nothing shameful about backing down and readjusting your beliefs. We’re all still learning, too, and I trust other people to call me out when I say something out of line myself.

Errgh, I haven’t really answered your question, have I… This may be one of the times where I go off on a tangent and convince myself I’ve answered the question when I’m just listening to myself talk. But yeah, just a few ~general~ rules that I recommend keeping in mind when discussing race in the future:

  • Don’t think that people who “bring race into everything” need to stop complaining/overreacting or any variation thereof (because really, they probably don’t want to be complaining in the first place — but they have the courage to speak their mind, so the least others can do is not dismiss them with “lol calm down”)
  • If you don’t understand something, it’s totally okay to ask! And I mean that. Stupid questions are okay; we can’t all be expected to know everything (I like the way Will Rogers put it: “Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects”)
  • Be ~open minded~ and I know that sounds really cheesy and whatever, but really, if your problem is just that you believe in stereotypical racial conventions, then keep in mind that they may be true sometimes, but there’s no way to say the same thing about everybody else on the planet that falls under that group. Changing this mindset isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight and that’s okay (I try my best and I still screw up occasionally — completely by accident, like a stray thought or assumption I make automatically, but still, just recognizing those kinds of things are problematic is a step forward).

If you’d like to read more, I recommend checking out Racebending (an international grassroots organization of media consumers that advocates for underrepresented groups) and reading a few of the posts tagged under my racism, whitewashing, and privilege tags (I’d point you to a few in particular but I’m so lazy right now and I should really get back to my French homework that I’m procrastinating on by responding to this, orz).

One more thing to keep in mind: We aren’t aiming for a “race-free” society. We don’t want to “not see” race, because “not seeing” race doesn’t erase racism — it just denies that it’s there at all. “Not seeing” race erases culture and ignores the fact that people are inherently different and that those differences are okay (normal, even!) to have. We’re not at a point where we can afford to be “colorblind” and, for example, cast white people in roles made for Asian actors. White people have enough representation in modern media. The job is to first understand why that is, and then aim to give other underprivileged groups a leg up.

I don’t believe that privilege is, in itself, a bad thing. What causes problems is when people deny it exists. If we can first learn to accept it’s there (an issue many people stumble over) then the next idea is to find a way to help the underprivileged step up to level ground. It’s not a problem we can ignore or brush off ‘till tomorrow, because marginalized people don’t get to say “I’m tired of talking about race, let’s deal with this later.” They’re reminded every day that current society, whether we like or not, does indeed value white over colored or non-white skin. It’s a problem that involves everyone and ignoring it won’t go away.

Urgh, I’ve talked for too long… I hope that somewhere in the mess above I’ve managed to answer your question (if you even read it all ‘cause jeez that’s a lot why do I talk so much). If you have any other inquiries then I hope you feel comfortable talking to me about them, and I’ll do my best to answer them if you choose to ask me (but yeah, I’m still not the best or wisest person on the planet to talk about this, so I always recommend going to other people for other opinions or thoughts). And if you come off anon then I’d be happy with discussing it more in detail privately (anything’ll be kept between us, ofc). But if this is the last I hear from you, then I’d just like to thank you again for trusting me with answering this. I hope I’ve managed to respond appropriately and treat you and the question with as much respect as you deserve for having the strength to ask it. Aaaand I’m sure I’m just boring people at this point so I’ll wrap this up.

Best of luck, and take care!

30 notes
{ 8:25 pm }
Whitewashing, Racebending, and Why “We’re All Human” is Bullshit

beeftony:

There are a few things you should know about me before I start ranting. I am a white heterosexual Christian cis male middle-class American. I am a member of the majority in pretty much every area of life. I am privileged in ways that it took me a long time to fully understand.

And racism still pisses me off so much I can’t even see straight.

I admit to being fairly ignorant of the concept of privilege for most of my life. And I know that what I’m about to say won’t mean as much as if it had come from the fingertips of somebody who truly understands oppression. But I still have opinions on this, and if you don’t want to read them, get out now. This is mostly related to drama on Katrina’s blog, but a lot of this has been stewing for a while so I’m letting it all out.

Also, if my white privilege causes me to say anything ignorant, feel free to correct me (politely, if you can).

Read More

385 notes