SHARING TIME!

[glockgal]

It seems like every single post I make about Avatar: The Last Airbender casting ends up in people needing to share their experiences growing up as a social outcast and/or a survivor of abuse and/or victim of visual judgement. I've also seen a lot of demonstrations of subverted self-loathing and (the more amusing) claims from multiple people that

Comments

C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[reallyreally]

I don't know, I feel I have to share parts of my life which relate to this in like, general pissed-off-ness

lol thousand comments from one person, WHAT

[reallyreally]

(and it's not really a part of the racial thing, but I am also a queer transguy)

[glockgal]

(North) Americans can be so messed up, but I think that's because we're such a mixed bag of race and cultures. Every answer is different from different people! In some ways, it's kinda good. In other ways, you get people who feel 'American' is the same as 'white'. And it's just like..."bzuh?"

That whole invandrare thing is seriously a fascinating thing that I didn't know before now. That does bring a skewed version of perception.

I remember trying to explain to an Afghani fellow in London that I was 'Canadian'. He just wouldn't accept that as an answer, even going so far as to say I was ashamed of who I was. I barked "Well, if I was white, would you accept that I was a CANADIAN?!" before my bf dragged me out of the chip shop. The separation between 'white' and 'North American' in people's eyes can be, really, quite hard. Sad, but true, innit. :/

[reallyreally]

Yeah, I think a lot of the time people over here think of Americans as white or black, possibly latino (another interesting thing, before Swedes got a general understanding of "latino" from American tv-shows etc, I think most people would consider latinos white, but invandrare) but not asian, which is also totally weird. Like, there are black and white Americans, and then there are latinos and asians living in America. Does that explanation make sense?

Yeah, the whole invandrare thing means that a black person who moves to Sweden from Nigeria (as an example) would be seen as an invandrare, but a black person who moved here from America would probably be seen as American. Granted, the black American would be more noticed than a white American, but still, it adds like... a different dimension to something that is already studpily complex and frustrating.

[smillaraaq]

I saw a play in Van. in 2005, by a First Nations actor, telling of a FN character's youth, and having the child of Polish immigrants yell at him at school "Yeah, why don't you go back where you came from!" O.o

That crap still goes on, and in the US too; it's happened to Native friends in different parts of the country. (I've been lucky enough not to get that particular sort of fail aimed at me personally since I'm pretty pale, but there are different sorts of idiotic behavior that lighter-skinned NDNs end up having to deal with.)

[smillaraaq]

Oh, if you want some seriously convoluted head-hurtiness -- due to a handful of scientists claiming some paleo-Indian finds like Kennewick Man have "caucasoid" features, you can now find plenty of white supremacists who will argue that the first Americans were white, thus neatly wiping out all indigenous land claims. (Oh, and the various local tribes seeking reburial in accordance with their traditional beliefs, as provided for under NAGPRA? Clearly they're all part of a coverup conspiracy to prevent further scientific study that will prove his real ancestry. I wish I was making this up...)

[mijan]

Wow, that encounter with the Afghani guy in the chip shop is one for the record books. Everyone thinks about their own heritage a bit differently. For some, they want to know where your DNA originated in the grand scheme of history. Some want to know what language you speak and what religion you follow. Some just want to know where you and your parents were born. You'll get a different answer from everyone

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[melisus]

I've had similar discussions in my race and racism class on the question of, "What is White?" and no, Jewish people generally aren't considered white. "Whiteness" traditionally isn't as broad a we usually think it is today.

In general discussions on race and identity or "White versus the Other", white generally means "Anglo-Saxon". Jewish? Not white. Irish? Not white. Anything east of France? Not white.

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[glockgal]

The Irish aren't white?!

Actually...If you ask my mom, everything the Irish got, they got from Aryan East-Indians anyway, so. LOL maybe you have a point, ahahaha!

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[melisus]

They didn't used to be! Or they were... but not white ENOUGH or something.

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[glockgal]

LOL OH RIGHT - not for the British of yore, yes - that's for sure. No one was whiter than them! (whiter to rhyme with 'better'). Oooohhhh good old British empire/imperialism, eheheh.

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[melisus]

Lol, it was all part of a discussion which basically was the prove that you CANNOT place the human race into racial categories because everyone is always going to have a different definition about what "white", "black", "brown", etc. means.

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[reallyreally]

Did I mention that Sweden had the first national Institute for Racial Biology in the world? They didn't just look at skin colour, they used to measure skulls, too! And nope, that didn't work, either.

(Possibly I shouldn't joke about this, but it's so fucking horrible that I'd lose my mind if I couldn't joke about it).

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[glockgal]

AHAHAHAAH HOORAY EUGENICS!!!

Unless, it was some institute for anthropology or something normal in which case I just made a really bad joke. ;D