Permalink
Reblogged from ladyatheist
ladyatheist:
struggle-and-emerge:
I don’t agree with this.
“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind…”
Racism, whether against blacks, hispanics, asians, or whites, is racism nonetheless.
How ‘bout we find a positive way of ending it rather than perpetuating it??
Cool, but you’re really wrong though. First of all, you really need to figure out what racism really is. Go ahead and read all of that first.
Opinion. Condescending. Which is fair enough, but you seem to think it’s something else. Here’s a newsflash: black people do not get to redefine words. They don’t get to redefine words that already have perfectly acceptable meanings, and they certainly don’t get to act butthurt when other people refuse to accept these new meanings. This is what racism means. Go ahead and read all of that first.
You done reading? Good. Now let’s move on. There is no “positive way” to end racism. That’s some hippie little pipe dream that can never come true.
Opinion. Condescending. Anyone who thinks positive measures can eliminate racism is now put into a box with “hippie little pipe dream” written on it. You know, if you’re going to twist a narrative to suit yourself, you could at least try to be less obvious about it.
Racism is not a “positive” thing. It’s not comfortable and it doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings.
Well now that works both ways doesn’t it? Demonstration: do you care about my feelings? Or do you only care about people whose experience validates your own opinions? Think carefully about what your answer means for those people who are fighting racism.
No one asks nicely if they can oppress and dehumanize PoC. Due to that, conversations about race cannot be had in a “nice” way. The conversation has to be uncomfortable if you really want to get to the root of the problem and fix it.
Of course it’s going to make a lot of people uncomfortable. That’s fine. Making people uncomfortable is kind of where I live. Confronting people with the bullshit ideas they have is fine, too. But that’s not what the poster was talking about. The poster was talking about engaging in petty, personal, racist abuse. If you are claiming that black people are somehow unable to rein that in, that somehow they’re so angry that no only are they unable to form coherent thoughts, but that they should be entertained in those incoherent thoughts, then I think you are underestimating African-Americans as a whole.
I refuse to think less of black people than I think of anyone else.
If you try to coddle white people’s feelings during the conversation, all you’re doing is making them think that there is no real problem and therefore no one should be complaining. That is part of the reason why we have a generation full of white people who truly believe that racism ended with the Civil Rights Movement.
Refraining from racist abuse in a conversation which is designed to eliminate racism is not “coddling”. It’s common sense. That would be like if we as a society decided that murder was such a horrible crime that we had to kill anyone who did it. Well, OK, we do that, but that’s about the same level of logic (i.e. there is none).
No group has ever gotten their rights by simply asking nicely for them. The world doesn’t work that way.
While this is true, I can’t think of any group that ever got their rights by shouting angry racist abuse either. Can you? As ever, I’m open to correction here.
If you want your rights, if you want to be treated and respected like a full member of society, you have to fight for it. You have to take it from them. During that fight, hell yes some people are going to be “uncomfortable.” They’re supposed to be. They have to be if you expect any real, tangible change to occur.
There’s nothing wrong with fighting for your rights. Please keep in mind all the people who have managed to fight vigorously and energetically for their rights without ever hurling abuse at anyone. If you can’t think of anyone, please let me know and I can link you to some pages.
So by calling white people “crackers,” no one is “perpetuating” a damn thing. All they’re doing is making white people experience a fraction of the discomfort they experience on a daily basis. That’s the only way you can really get them to even begin to understand.
No, they’re not. They’re not making white people feel anything. There is no way for white people to relate to the black experience, being on the business end of racism in America. Pretending that hurling personal racist abuse at white people is some sort of conscious social experiment is ridiculous. And you should feel ashamed for making such a shoddy argument. Black people hurl personal abuse at people for the same reason white people do: they don’t know how to formulate their thoughts in an orderly fashion, or they just have pure blind rage that they can’t control or express properly.
Black people aren’t a different species. They have the same thoughts and feelings and failings as everyone else. What they don’t have is equality of opportunity, due to post-civil war institutional legacies. There are ways to combat that, but indulging inarticulate anger will never be one of them.
(Source: dionthesocialist)
