At Towson Univ., A Student Makes His Case for a White Student Union

[teacoat]

Race has arrived on the front doorstep of Towson University, and it’s a package no one wants to open. This fall Matthew Heimbach, a student at the public university in the Baltimore suburbs proposed starting a white student union. His calls attracted immediate attention; with his cloudy but very emphatic views on race, he’s excellent at courting

Comments

[kitanabychoice]

I don't understand why it's taboo to talk about the fact that white people did some really awful shit in the past. If I have to live with the results of things white people did in the past that marginalized people like me, the least white people could do is own their past and acknowledge they've done wrong. -_-

[teacoat]

And when we do admit to that shit it's couched as "Yeah we did that and we continue to benefit from it but GOD that the was THE PAST and can't we just STOP TALKING ABOUT IT. Living with white guilt is SO HARD, GUYS."

And I used to think that it was just ignorance of how the world really works, which yeah, is true. But isn't it AWFULLY CONVENIENT that everyone (= everyone white) thinks racism is over?

[lickety_split]

"BUT I DIDN'T PERSONALLY DO ANYTHING WRONG Y DO U WANT US NICE MODERN WHITEFOLK TO APOLOGIZE FOR THINGS WE DIDN'T DO???"

[astridmyrna]

Did you stop by my grandparents' house for Thanksgiving last year and never told me?

[alryssa]

BUT MAH GRANDPAPPY DIDN'T OWN SLAVES

AND THIS BLACK PERSON WAS MEAN TO ME ONCE WHICH IS TOTALLY LIKE THE SAME THING IN REVERSE

[bleakwinters]

This is the exact reaction I got from a dudebro on the UK subreddit, in a post pointing out that the UK never actually apologised for colonialism. Add a splash of "Them Africans are better off now" and it's pretty much word for word.

[mollywobbles867]

My friend who is half-Syrian went off on white people a few months ago and then said "Sorry" to me. I was like "No, you're right. White people suck." Historically and presently we do. If I can't acknowledge that, what kind of friend am I?

[thelilyqueen]

Exactly. I try to be as unsucky a white person as I can, and call out sucky behavior from my brethen but a) I probably still screw up and b) I still benefit from being white in ways that harm POC.

[mickeym]

I acknowledge it. Own it. We (the white, European settlers who came to America) fucked up royally with the Native Americans, with the Africans who were kidnapped and brought over specifically to be slaves, with the Chinese, the Jews, everyone. We're still screwing up, as far as I can tell.

I am sorry :(

[kishmet]

It's omitted at an institutional level too, which makes sense since all of society is basically structured to make white people feel comfortable. Public school history courses completely affirm that it's not worth talking about by leaving out colonialism, othering, privilege rooted in past events and various atrocities, so by the time a lot of people get to college history and sociology classes etc., they feel way more uncomfortable than they would've if they'd been discussing it all along

So yeah, that institutional propping up of white people's poor delicate feelings has to stop