IMHO (reply)
Reblogged from skunkitty
If a PoC is just hurling out insults at me for the simple fact that I’m white, my reaction probably wouldn’t extend beyond the mere lift of an eyebrow and carrying on with my day.
As befits every mature person.
But a lot of PoC make some valid criticisms of whiteness and the behavior of white people in general on their blogs, and a lot of offended white people cry foul.
Well, I wouldn’t know, but I’d like to think that you take every case on its individual merit, and that you don’t just assume that every criticism black people have of white people is valid simply because they’re black. That would be an extremely stupid position to adopt. Again, generally, it’s possible that your mileage may vary on “valid”.
So in one case, you’ve got a random angry PoC making fun of you for being white, wherein being offended is not even the appropriate response.
I don’t think “being offended” is an appropriate response to anything, but even I am prepared to admit that your mileage may vary on “appropriate”.
In the other case, a PoC is commenting on the hurtful things white people do, and you get a lot of dumbasses missing the point that go, “NOT ALL OF US DO THAT!!!11!”
Well, if we can leave the editorializing aside for a moment, I have seen black bloggers claim that something happened to them, which may or may not be true (there’s no way to tell unless I follow them around all day), but there is the strong implication that this is what they believe white people are like in general. That this anecdote should form the basis of an entire system of racist prejudice against individual white people (as opposed to the power structure, which is what they should be aiming at) for the rest of their lives, such that if one of them judges me for the color of my skin and nothing else, I have no right to check that. This, to me, is bullshit.
I will check your racism no matter where it’s going. Being a white person, I’m occasionally in a situation with a bunch of white people and if ANYONE says ANY FUCKING THING that sounds remotely like racism, I will step up and say something. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again. I don’t give a fuck. I do the same thing when someone makes fucking smart-ass comments about gays or whatever. That’s nothing to do with this conversation, but it’s the same impulse where I refuse to just say nothing, like they’re expecting.
If some white person did something horrible to a black person, yes that is racism, and yes it is probably a symptom of the institutional racism that pervades our society, but I refuse to be held accountable for something someone else did. And I am entirely within my rights to defend that refusal to anyone, any time, anywhere.
We need more communication between our different communities, not less. We need more information exchange, not less. We need fewer walls between us, not more. And if one community refuses to deal with another community until all the members of that community admit that they’re always wrong about everything, that’s not going to move us forward, is it?
Can a person be prejudiced against white people? Sure. But it has absolutely no effect on my life. Call it racism, call it whatever the fuck you want, but it’s absolutely fucking pointless to bitch about it because who the fuck cares if some random asshole doesn’t like you?
I agree with everything in this paragraph. I would take it further and say that it should apply to everyone: Who the fuck cares of some random asshole doesn’t like you?
That’s actually going on my description. Well done.
(Source: superneutral)
