Tacit racism and white privilege

[Alan]

This is part of the documentary The Color of Fear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vAbp...share%27%2C%29

Very powerful stuff.

[Despanan]

PWNT. blacktext

[Murder.Of.Crows]

He looked like he was gonna cry.

[Versus]

I don't think he really starts to get it until somebody tells him that his children just need to try harder to get accepted into college over minorities.

[Versus]

I like the scene where Victor explains how much he hates when white folks tell him that he's just in the wrong mind-set. I'll post it when I get home.

[Apathy's_Child]

A working understanding of the kind of majority privilege that dude is talking about would end 90% of the unintentional racism, sexism & classism, that I see in my everyday life. It's depressing how many people believe they're not part of the problem because they believe in the principle of equality but, like the white guy in that clip, just plain don't get it. In fact, it's the very fact they think prejudice has nothing to do with them that provides them with their most insidious indulgences of it.

[Versus]

Here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxfSz...eature=related

[ape descendant]

Privilege is a hard thing to understand, well it was for me at first. Once I recognized it, I see it everywhere.

What dude doesn't realize, is that as a white dude, especially in America, just about everything (entertainment and advertisements as an example) is geared toward his perceived wants needs and gaze. In a lot of entertainment, the protagonist or main character looks like him every one else is just background noise or decoration. His race was never made into a shallow caricaturization, denied access to areas, used as an excuse for enslavement or theft of land. When we learn history in school, it is the history from the point of view of white dudes, they are portrayed as being in the right and being just while the oppression of others is whitewashed or swept under the rug, ignored. And this is on top of what the other guy was trying desperately to help him understand.

Racial privilege is an uncomfortable thing to face, to accept and to those who have it, it is invisible. Once it is recognized and admitted we can start telling the story through every one's eyes instead of only from the point of view of one narrow group. Once we are honest about where we've all been, we're on the road to making the world a better, more equal place.

[Versus]

Time Wise is a boss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UJlN...eature=related

[Versus]

Originally Posted by Versus

Time Wise is a boss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UJlN...eature=related

I especially like his remarks concerning the left's poisonous concept of color-blind.

[AshleyO]

Originally Posted by Versus

I especially like his remarks concerning the left's poisonous concept of color-blind.

I agree. I have a huge problem with the idea of color blindness.

It's usually because it translates to, "Look, I'm over it and I don't have anything against people of color, so all that racism crap does not include me."

Which of course makes it pretty bad because it ignores the discussion outright.

[Versus]

Pretty much. It particularly angers me when people try to make policy or reforms around the idea because it's simply not based in reality. You can't ignore people's race on an institutional level when there are so many different things that they have to deal with.

[Pineapple_Juice]

I used to be one of those people. "I don't seeeee skin color, i'm color bliiiiind, i am not a raciiiist". How embarrassing.

I think a lot of it has to do with white education. Everyone's taught that people should be treated equally, but also that racism is this archaic thing that doesn't happen anymore. Like it's in the past and therefor isn't an issue that needs to be addressed, which is racist in itself and poses way more problems.

It's also got a lot to do with white media and how people write stories about POC struggle. There's always this stoic white person who comes along to save the poor colored folk, instead of POC doing it for themselves, i.e Blind Side and The Help. This makes white people feel comfortable because it makes them look good, even though it's essentially doing the same racist shit slave owners used to do when they see black people and assume they must be "taken care of" because they're too stupid to succeed on their own.

Or the POC main character is whitewashed and turns their back on their own culture in order to make a better life for themselves, effectively showing all the other people of their culture as being violent or uneducated or otherwise unfit to mingle with the white majority.

The worst part is white activists who always find a way to make the issue about themselves. I'm sure they're trying to do the riht thing but a white person fronting a black movement doesn't help at all. Once again, it is a white person on the front lines, drowning out the voices of the minority. When a black person says something is racist, they're "pulling the racism card", but when a white person says the same thing the issue is suddenly true and valid. White people are scared to work with poc because they're RACIST and they feel unsafe. When a white person jumps up and says "help me help POC then everyone's all over it. Nobody stops to think that safe spaces for poc are few and far between, and when white people try to infiltrate even those spaces it totally defeats the purpose, whether or not the intentions are good.

Me posting this is me white-knighting for the cause. My opinion as a white person matters exactly not at all in the issue of poc struggle and latent racism. It sucks because nobody wants to feel like a racist, but the fact is that simply existing in a white world and receiving white privilege oppresses poc. It's hard for me sometimes to understand that my place in this movement is nowhere at all, even though

[Pineapple_Juice]

I support the need for it.

[Versus]

Originally Posted by Pineapple_Juice

I used to be one of those people. "I don't seeeee skin color, i'm color bliiiiind, i am not a raciiiist". How embarrassing.

I used to be that way, too.

I think a lot of it has to do with white education. Everyone's taught that people should be treated equally, but also that racism is this archaic thing that doesn't happen anymore. Like it's in the past and therefor isn't an issue that needs to be addressed, which is racist in itself and poses way more problems.

It's also got a lot to do with white media and how people write stories about POC struggle. There's always this stoic white person who comes along to save the poor colored folk, instead of POC doing it for themselves, i.e Blind Side and The Help. This makes white people feel comfortable because it makes them look good, even though it's essentially doing the same racist shit slave owners used to do when they see black people and assume they must be "taken care of" because they're too stupid to succeed on their own.

Not only that, but from any American's earliest stage of education, we're told that we have this freedom to be anything we want to be, to succeed or fail by our own merit and nothing else. You know. The land of opportunity and all that. The thing is that we're not told about all the different forms of oppression that people suffer, as well. Or at the very least, we aren't made to understand it to the level that we need to.

So when people grow up and look around them, they see all this disparity and the only logical conclusion that anybody can come to from what they have been taught, is that there is something wrong with people who are not successful. Maybe they're lazy. Maybe they're not motivated. Maybe they're this or that.

I don't think it's a coincidence that every time, every single time that a woman, a transgender, a person of color, people with a disability, what the fuck ever, tries to tell somebody about their oppression, that someone's response is to turn it back around, like it's an internalized and personal problem. "It's not me, it's you. Maybe if you did this, or thought that."

And then,

Or the POC main character is whitewashed and turns their back on their own culture in order to make a better life for themselves, effectively showing all the other people of their culture as being violent or uneducated or otherwise unfit to mingle with the white majority.

Yeah. It really pisses me off when people try to use individuals as an exception to the rule. They try to use Oprah or Obama, or in this case, the white man in The Color of Fear tries to use Collin Powell, as evidence that blacks don't suffer from oppression. As if to say that "Well, if this guy can make it, then you can, too." But a person's ability for success is not in question. That excuse does not address that people of color have a harder time at it. And even then, it's not to say that they are free from oppression within their own class. You can't compare middle class whites to upper class blacks. You have to compare upper class PoC to upper class whites, lower class PoC to lower class whites. When you do that, the disparity still remains.

The worst part is white activists who always find a way to make the issue about themselves. I'm sure they're trying to do the riht thing but a white person fronting a black movement doesn't help at all. Once again, it is a white person on the front lines, drowning out the voices of the minority. When a black person says something is racist, they're "pulling the racism card", but when a white person says the same thing the issue is suddenly true and valid. White people are scared to work with poc because they're RACIST and they feel unsafe. When a white person jumps up and says "help me help POC then everyone's all over it. Nobody stops to think that safe spaces for poc are few and far between, and when white people try to infiltrate even those spaces it totally defeats the purpose, whether or not the intentions are good.

I disagree to an extent. If the activism is against racism, then whites really don't have anything to gain from the success. Which is to say, if it were about something else, whites have a tendency to stop the fight when it's finished for them and leave PoC to the curb. The truth is that white people are the only ones who really get anything accomplished, and I'm more inclined to believe that when white people fight for something that they can't benefit from, they'll won't quit before it's finished. The only thing that would be harmful is if they took the lead in the internal dialogue.

"How much do you know about my struggle? Better yet, how much did you care about my struggle before it started to look like your own?"

]Me posting this is me white-knighting for the cause. My opinion as a white person matters exactly not at all in the issue of poc struggle and latent racism. It sucks because nobody wants to feel like a racist, but the fact is that simply existing in a white world and receiving white privilege oppresses poc. It's hard for me sometimes to understand that my place in this movement is nowhere at all, even though I support the need for it.

I don't think that there isn't a place for white people. If it takes a white person for another white person to understand, then fuck it.

[Saya]

Originally Posted by Versus

Yeah. It really pisses me off when people try to use individuals as an exception to the rule. They try to use Oprah or Obama, or in this case, the white man in The Color of Fear tries to use Collin Powell, as evidence that blacks don't suffer from oppression. As if to say that "Well, if this guy can make it, then you can, too." But a person's ability for success is not in question. That excuse does not address that people of color have a harder time at it. And even then, it's not to say that they are free from oppression within their own class. You can't compare middle class whites to upper class blacks. You have to compare upper class PoC to upper class whites, lower class PoC to lower class whites. When you do that, the disparity still remains.

I was sad someone got cut off when he tried to say what Colin Powell did to get the power he did. He was in charge of investigating the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, routinely denied the war was racist, the draft was racist or that soldiers had a hard time.

I disagree to an extent. If the activism is against racism, then whites really don't have anything to gain from the success. Which is to say, if it were about something else, whites have a tendency to stop the fight when it's finished for them and leave PoC to the curb. The truth is that white people are the only ones who really get anything accomplished, and I'm more inclined to believe that when white people fight for something that they can't benefit from, they'll won't quit before it's finished. The only thing that would be harmful is if they took the lead in the internal dialogue.

I don't think whites are by any means the only ones who get anything accomplished. I think the fight against anything in Canada or the US would be easier if more whites got on board just because there's a lot of us, but the civil rights movement alone legitimized dissent. I don't think there would have been a huge anti-war movement in the sixties if civil rights activists didn't show that it isn't unpatriotic or communist to protest or fight back. And the anti-war movement itself while remembered as a white hippy thing, was made up of a lot of different PoC movements. There was a lot of white people involved but it was mostly working class and PoC simply because they were the ones disproportionately affected by the draft. They had more to lose than anyone, so they were willing to fight harder. People like John Kerry in the VVAW wasn't the norm, he could have easily gotten out of going to Vietnam if he wanted to.

Since the sixties the movement's been painted as white and snobby upper middle class, but it simply isn't true. But I think having that memory of that movement and others like it make it harder for us to learn from it and change our movement accordingly. With all anti-oppression movements, feminism, LGBTQ, anti-capitalism, and of course obviously racism, its PoC who suffer far more. The last 16 transwomen to be murdered in the states were women of colour. Aboriginal women suffer from sexual assault far more than white women do. Its my frustration with feminism that we whine about rich white women not being able to horde as much wealth as other rich white men (in regards to statistics about women CEOs) when women are dying for being aborignal and female, and the cops won't look for them because they automatically assume they're prostitutes and not worth their time. PoC need to be put at the forefront, lead the movements and be made a priority. I think women of colour being murdered is a bit of a bigger priority than me not being a CEO.

[Versus]

Originally Posted by Saya

I don't think whites are by any means the only ones who get anything accomplished. I think the fight against anything in Canada or the US would be easier if more whites got on board just because there's a lot of us, but the civil rights movement alone legitimized dissent. I don't think there would have been a huge anti-war movement in the sixties if civil rights activists didn't show that it isn't unpatriotic or communist to protest or fight back. And the anti-war movement itself while remembered as a white hippy thing, was made up of a lot of different PoC movements. There was a lot of white people involved but it was mostly working class and PoC simply because they were the ones disproportionately affected by the draft. They had more to lose than anyone, so they were willing to fight harder. People like John Kerry in the VVAW wasn't the norm, he could have easily gotten out of going to Vietnam if he wanted to.

Since the sixties the movement's been painted as white and snobby upper middle class, but it simply isn't true. But I think having that memory of that movement and others like it make it harder for us to learn from it and change our movement accordingly. With all anti-oppression movements, feminism, LGBTQ, anti-capitalism, and of course obviously racism, its PoC who suffer far more. The last 16 transwomen to be murdered in the states were women of colour. Aboriginal women suffer from sexual assault far more than white women do. Its my frustration with feminism that we whine about rich white women not being able to horde as much wealth as other rich white men (in regards to statistics about women CEOs) when women are dying for being aborignal and female, and the cops won't look for them because they automatically assume they're prostitutes and not worth their time. PoC need to be put at the forefront, lead the movements and be made a priority. I think women of colour being murdered is a bit of a bigger priority than me not being a CEO.

trolololololol

[Saya]

Now you got me paranoid I totally read that wrong but my brain is too tired to comprehend D:

[Versus]

T'was sarcasm.