SHARING TIME!

[glockgal]

It seems like every single post I make about Avatar: The Last Airbender casting ends up in people needing to share their experiences growing up as a social outcast and/or a survivor of abuse and/or victim of visual judgement. I've also seen a lot of demonstrations of subverted self-loathing and (the more amusing) claims from multiple people that

Comments

C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[reallyreally]

I don't know, I feel I have to share parts of my life which relate to this in like, general pissed-off-ness

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[reallyreally]

And I don't mean to differentiate in a way that says "hey, all white people are not this-or-that way" but in a way that separates an observation about someones skin colour from an observation about someones racial identity, since that is obviously not apparent.

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[katho]

This is really interesting! I would love to hear what "white Canadian" means to someone else -- I can barely tell what it means to be Canadian, and I only have vague ideas about what it means to be white from situations that are negatively defined (IE the fact [?] that I am white means I am not this instead of I am white and therefore I am this

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[r0knr0ll]

Wow. Wait 'til I tell ym Irish mate she's not white...

She'll chuck a fit; she's got skin so pale, it practically blinds!

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[dainichijess]

Here in Texas, we have a term similar to "invandrare," ie, "illegal." It's used to refer derisively to pretty much anyone who even looks Mexican, even if they were born in the States (which legally means they are American). It's absolutely ridiculous, especially since "whites" are almost the minority in the state (according to the 2006 census, we are 48.9% White non-Hispanic and 35.7% Hispanic/Latino, hooray). Of course, how absolutely mean people are about this whole thing depends on what part of Texas you go to; here, in South-Central and around the border, most people think the whole thing is stupid; further North and North-East, people get really nasty and start using "Illegal" and sometimes "Spic." (If you ever hear someone on the news or internet claiming to be a Texan talking about the whole thing like this, please, please know that they don't speak for all Texans or even a majority.)

(My apologies if this is ramble-y, I'm kind of tired.)

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[reallyreally]

No, that makes perfect sense. Your explaination of it, I mean, not their behaviour. Quite often someone who is called invandrare is second generation, born in Sweden and has a Swedish passport, which makes them legally Swedish. Of course it is up to each person to define themselves as Polish or Swedish or immigrant or whatever, but to call someone who is actually technically Swedish and has been legally Swedish his/her whole life "invandrare" in a degratory way is just... ARGH.

Re: C&P from previous post: what is "white" in a North American context?

[reallyreally]

This whole thing with putting lables on people? I get that humans want to categorise and all that, but good god, it's so damn complicated!