(Untitled)

[pullthestars]

I think that I would be more willing to listen to people talking about Race!Fail and white privilege if it wasn't for the fact that those who talk about it the most are SO condescending. When you (the ubiquitous you, of course) insist on insulting the people you are trying to convince of your rightness, they will stop listening.

Really.

Comments

Re: SO PEDANTIC, part the second.

[angrylemur]

Ah. Well, speaking again from my own experience, I have frequently felt really goddamn frustrated with other white people when confronted with "Privilege Is Not An Issue Because I Say It's Not, So There" and it's hard for me to know how to deal with that, sometimes. Especially since there is this weird thing with whiteness, where sometimes other white people think that because I'm white it's "safe" to express weird, racist things to me, and then it's like, UM, ACTUALLY, NO, GO AWAY.

I have been accused of being overly hostile and a big fat meanie who hates everyone with my responses to this kind of thing.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. I honestly don't think that white people have ANY right to self-righteousness when it comes to racism. Srsly. Still and all, I sometimes feel kind of... embittered? when it comes to talking about race with other white people. I don't like getting shat on for daring to challenge the effects of whiteness on perception, and that's happened to me, just like I've been shat on for talking openly about abuse and sexism and how those things are intertwined. I'm still willing to talk about these things, but I think my attitude has suffered from the fact that I've actually lost friends and been treated like crap over calling people on abusing their privilege, and had people start avoiding me because that stuff just makes them too uncomfortable or whatever. And I am sure those people don't actually give a shit, but it sucks to deal with sometimes! Not as much as it would suck if I were not white, though, I'm sure - I don't mean to go all White Women's Tears over here, jesus - It's just, I am not a graceful person, so I have a hard time handling that shit gracefully on occasion. But this is getting really off topic and THE POINT IS, discussing racism is hard and reactions are usually ugly on many ends because racism is ugly! This is your shocked face, I know.

Did I mention it's midnight here? THAT KITTEN IS AMAZING. I'll stop rambling now! Yes.

Re: SO PEDANTIC, part the second.

[apestyle]

Wait, so Eddie Murphy was right? When there are no "minorities" around white people party?

In my little corner of the internet, I've angered several white men in their 50s by gently trying to prod them away from the word "oriental". The defensiveness was almost comical. Almost.

Re: SO PEDANTIC, part the second.

[apestyle]

Oh, I found a better version:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/10356/saturday-night-live-white-like-me

Re: SO PEDANTIC, part the second.

[angrylemur]

Yeah, well, my most significant experience of this has been with my dad's family, who are just nuts (like, certifiably), and also quite racist, specifically against Asian people. They will actually go out to dinner and be like, "Hey let's try that new sushi place" and smile and be all polite in the restaurant, and then as soon as they leave start in with "OMG DID YOU SEE THAT JAPANESE GUY BEING ALL ASIAN IN THERE, WHAT NERVE". (And then I'd be like, "That's, um, some pretty racist attitudes you've got going on there," and my grandfather would be like, "BUT I LIKE BLACK PEOPLE!" Just... so much dysfunction. But anyway.)

It is no small part of why I no longer speak to them.

I have observed something similar, but on an unconscious level, going on with other people, too. I think that sometimes white people will just be more inclined to check themselves around people of colour than they will be around other white people, because they don't think about race when surrounded by whiteness. It's not always because white people are consciously racist (like my family) but just because socialization tends to manifest when allowed to go unexamined like that.