When you've moved on from forgetting to wear pants to buying assless chaps…

[splash_the_cat]

After spending the last few years watching and reading and working on getting my head out of my own ass on issues of racism and privilege, I've started to notice the problematic patterns of behavior by fellow avowed progressive, liberal white people in these imbroglios. Like this pattern that's becoming ever more popular in Race Fail 2009

Comments

[surreallis]

WHAT?

I can't preface everything by saying, "I'm not a racist, BUT..." and then follow it up with the most racist thing EVER and expect you to think, 'Well, but she did say she wasn't a racist, so OKAY THEN.'

[dirty_diana]

And yet. There's also the awesome follow-ups, everyone's a racist, so what else do you expect, and everyone's a racist, it's not my fault, it's yours because you didn't teach me how to do better!

[splash_the_cat]

And all of these often from the same person in one conversation. It's like some escalating little metal checklist people go down as they don't get the responses they feel are appropriate.

(also I would like lj to stop randomly assigning icons to my posts)

[surreallis]

It's only everyone else who has to self-examine. NOT ME!

Nothing I've ever seen or heard or absorbed in my life could possibly have any sort of effect on me now. It's impossible!

[wiliqueen]

I have had the entire score of Avenue Q running through my head for a week solid, and just now figured out why.

I'm oddly grateful to the people who say stupid shit, because I'm over here STFU and just reading, and it saves me from being the publicly stupid one. Up to a point. Y'know, the point where people are saying "NO! I MEAN WHAT YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW! LOOK! RIGHT THERE! Oh, for..." and they just keep digging.

Dude. If you can't figure out what you're doing wrong? How hard is it to just frakking stop until you manage to borrow a clue?

[splash_the_cat]

I'm conflicted, because yes, it's great that every time this going around it gives us an opportunity to learn, but as I think it's as ciderpress said in a recent and incredible post, this is not cathartic or good for people of color to keep having this conversation over and over.

In the end it still ends up all about white people and what white people gain form these conversations. Sure we learn, and sure it's cathartic for us to work this shit out, but we're still benefiting at the expense of POC.

[wiliqueen]

Oh, I totally think it's ridiculous that it's turned into That Conversation All Over Again to this extent. It seems like most people are fine with getting up to the point of "Hey, this is going in a direction that we've done NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND TIMES BEFORE, please go check out one of those easily-found prior iterations," and it's only after that gets ignored that it grates their cheese. Even that far has GOT to be tiresome, but there seems to be general agreement that it's not unreasonable.

I don't know if I even find it cathartic to watching it happen AGAIN, even knowing that I still have plenty to learn. Yeah, I got some new nuggets out of it, thanks to people like ciderpress being willing to stick their necks out in brilliant ways. But not nearly enough to balance the cringeing from the epic stupid splattering all over the place. And that's just vicarious cringeing.

Until and unless white people stop expecting POC to say anything beyond "You are being a douchebag, bye," and understand that anything above and beyond that is a gift

[ultranos_fic]

You know, I've tried to keep reading all of this Race Fail and...god, I think I've given up. I'm tired. I'm tired of seeing the great circle-jerk of people thinking their behavior and words are beyond reproach because they think there's no way in hell the can be racist. And piling on obfuscating words and arguments so that I can't even pick out what the hell they're even saying.

Splash, why do people suck?

[splash_the_cat]

Oh god yes. The implied threats, the posturing, the scorn and accusations of people claiming moral superiority and defensiveness and...

*bangs head*

Honey, I wish I knew why people sucked so hard. I really don't want to think people are innately assholes.

*HUGS*

[holdouttrout]

*blinks*

[splash_the_cat]

Yeah. Pretty much that.

[riffalike]

You say "assless chaps" like it's a bad thing.

[splash_the_cat]

In this context, yes. :)

[splash_the_cat]

Also lj randomly chose the icon for the above comment!

[rydra_wong]

As I said elsewhere: so much pantslessness, and all of it the bad kind!