from:http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/05/28/101-being-offended/#comment-156567
they following comment posted on stuff white people like describes pretty accurately stuff that I experienced throught my life in the Twin Cities:
blackHat on June 1, 2010 at 1:29 pm
i love the fact that so many of the comments on this post express offense. Self-fulfilling prophecy, perhaps?
Seriously, being offended on someone else’s behalf is the most pathetically self-righteous, entitled notion one can have.Using the joke example: If someone makes a joke about Asians, let’s say, and you (a white person) announce “i’m offended by your racist characterization of Asians,” you are inherently speaking from a position of supremacy-as if to say, “[insert minority] are unable to defend themselves! It’s up to me to (a) decide how something is intended in the first place (whether it’s offensive or not), and (b) to defend said ‘poor minority.’ It usually comes from a place of white guilt, where one feels as though one ‘should be’ hypersensitive to the plight of non-whites, due to the abuses of the past.
The reality, however, is that white guilt is inherently racist. It assumes an attitude of dominance over all others, and the right to arbitrate between them, plus most poignantly, operates on the fallacy inherent to racism, classism, sexism, etc-lumping people together into a generalised “they.”
blackHat on June 1, 2010 at 1:29 pm
i love the fact that so many of the comments on this post express offense. Self-fulfilling prophecy, perhaps?
Seriously, being offended on someone else’s behalf is the most pathetically self-righteous, entitled notion one can have.Using the joke example: If someone makes a joke about Asians, let’s say, and you (a white person) announce “i’m offended by your racist characterization of Asians,” you are inherently speaking from a position of supremacy-as if to say, “[insert minority] are unable to defend themselves! It’s up to me to (a) decide how something is intended in the first place (whether it’s offensive or not), and (b) to defend said ‘poor minority.’ It usually comes from a place of white guilt, where one feels as though one ‘should be’ hypersensitive to the plight of non-whites, due to the abuses of the past.
The reality, however, is that white guilt is inherently racist. It assumes an attitude of dominance over all others, and the right to arbitrate between them, plus most poignantly, operates on the fallacy inherent to racism, classism, sexism, etc-lumping people together into a generalised “they.”