Talking about race makes me tired (take 2)
I made the following post earlier this morning, and then deleted it, and then started wondering how the hell I'd come to think of my LJ as a place where I can't say what I want when I want, and how fucking WRONG that is. This is my space, and as long as I'm not hurting someone else I am entitled to my opinion, because that's what this is at the end of the day, *my opinion*. I own it and I'll be damned if someone else's failure to respect or understand other races is going to make me worry about it. So, if you don't like it, you are more than welcome to fuck off out of here. In fact I'll even hold the door for you.
I was all set to make a post about the speculation behind Alexander Skarsgard from Generation Kill being cast as Thor after his lunch meeting with Kenneth Branaugh and how excited I was at the prospect of him finally getting a chance to be appreciated and adored by a wider audience, that he would be working with Bob and Sam (Robert Downey Jr and Samuel L Jackson respectively), and how I couldn't wait for him to get off that HBO show, because it is my opinion that True Blood is a POS, waste of production value and invokes all sorts of racist stereotypes that makes my blood boil.
I say this having attempted to watch several episodes simply because Alexander was/is on the show (I tried this with Castle, because it has Jon Huertas (Poke), but that didn't work out). But then I wasn't going to say anything, because I knew the minute I said I thought True Blood is a stereotypical racist piece of shit, somebody would come along and say, "Hey, it's not racist!" and I would say, as a black woman, "Fucking, yes it is!" And then it would be more of the same. More of that shit that everybody's been saying about Race Fail '09, and how obviously my POV doesn't count because I'm a POC and that's some BS.
And then this made me think of Race Fail in general, which I hate to break it to you, happens all day every day every year, but if you're not a Person of Color, you probably don't know that. Probably don't think about it unless it's thrust in your face, which is what seems to have happened at this point. And I could address it, but POCs deal with racism 15 times a day EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES. Plus, I have better things to do with my time. I will say, however, that a) outing people just because you are being mean and hateful is just WRONG. And you should be ashamed. And b) as active as people are being about this, when it's over, it'll be forgotten, like it always is, because if you spend enough time dealing with racism, you know that's how it goes. People who don't deal with it every day dismiss it until someone forces them to look at it and then they wave their hands around and shriek, "I'm not a racist!" Um, you're missing the point.
Talking about race is good. Screaming about how you're not a racist? Not really the point. I agree with Eric Holder (The new US Attorney General) I do think Americans are afraid to deal with race, and Race Fail shows that, because instead of dealing with the issue at hand, it becomes, "How dare you accuse me of this!" Which has nothing to do with race, but everything to do with someone being offended that someone else would dare to accuse them of being anything less that the most liberal of liberals, because we're all post-racial now that a black man is in the White House!
Except that's how distraction works, if I yell at you loud enough, maybe you'll forget what you were angry about in the first place.
People, don't be distracted from the issue at hand: racism is alive and well.
And to that white guy at the grocery store who was staring at me like he'd never seen a black woman before? Fuck you too.
Goddammit, I'm so angry now I can't even be happy about Alex. The fact that I didn't even want to come to my OWN LJ and say what the fuck was on my mind because it deals with race and I know how people are about race?! This is just untenable. And yes, there are lots of people, who say this better, and with more coherency, and on some level I hope you'll go and find them and listen to them, because this whole thing just makes me tired and upset.
God, sometimes I hate the world.
*Do not link. I like to keep my meltdowns in house.
**Also, I most likely will not be answering comments. I just needed to get this out. Badly.
The fact that my day has mostly been made up of awesome things that have totally been overshadowed by racism doing its thing again? Wow. That's power, dog.
I was all set to make a post about the speculation behind Alexander Skarsgard from Generation Kill being cast as Thor after his lunch meeting with Kenneth Branaugh and how excited I was at the prospect of him finally getting a chance to be appreciated and adored by a wider audience, that he would be working with Bob and Sam (Robert Downey Jr and Samuel L Jackson respectively), and how I couldn't wait for him to get off that HBO show, because it is my opinion that True Blood is a POS, waste of production value and invokes all sorts of racist stereotypes that makes my blood boil.
I say this having attempted to watch several episodes simply because Alexander was/is on the show (I tried this with Castle, because it has Jon Huertas (Poke), but that didn't work out). But then I wasn't going to say anything, because I knew the minute I said I thought True Blood is a stereotypical racist piece of shit, somebody would come along and say, "Hey, it's not racist!" and I would say, as a black woman, "Fucking, yes it is!" And then it would be more of the same. More of that shit that everybody's been saying about Race Fail '09, and how obviously my POV doesn't count because I'm a POC and that's some BS.
And then this made me think of Race Fail in general, which I hate to break it to you, happens all day every day every year, but if you're not a Person of Color, you probably don't know that. Probably don't think about it unless it's thrust in your face, which is what seems to have happened at this point. And I could address it, but POCs deal with racism 15 times a day EVERY DAY OF OUR LIVES. Plus, I have better things to do with my time. I will say, however, that a) outing people just because you are being mean and hateful is just WRONG. And you should be ashamed. And b) as active as people are being about this, when it's over, it'll be forgotten, like it always is, because if you spend enough time dealing with racism, you know that's how it goes. People who don't deal with it every day dismiss it until someone forces them to look at it and then they wave their hands around and shriek, "I'm not a racist!" Um, you're missing the point.
Talking about race is good. Screaming about how you're not a racist? Not really the point. I agree with Eric Holder (The new US Attorney General) I do think Americans are afraid to deal with race, and Race Fail shows that, because instead of dealing with the issue at hand, it becomes, "How dare you accuse me of this!" Which has nothing to do with race, but everything to do with someone being offended that someone else would dare to accuse them of being anything less that the most liberal of liberals, because we're all post-racial now that a black man is in the White House!
Except that's how distraction works, if I yell at you loud enough, maybe you'll forget what you were angry about in the first place.
People, don't be distracted from the issue at hand: racism is alive and well.
And to that white guy at the grocery store who was staring at me like he'd never seen a black woman before? Fuck you too.
Goddammit, I'm so angry now I can't even be happy about Alex. The fact that I didn't even want to come to my OWN LJ and say what the fuck was on my mind because it deals with race and I know how people are about race?! This is just untenable. And yes, there are lots of people, who say this better, and with more coherency, and on some level I hope you'll go and find them and listen to them, because this whole thing just makes me tired and upset.
God, sometimes I hate the world.
*Do not link. I like to keep my meltdowns in house.
**Also, I most likely will not be answering comments. I just needed to get this out. Badly.
The fact that my day has mostly been made up of awesome things that have totally been overshadowed by racism doing its thing again? Wow. That's power, dog.