Fangirl extraordinaire made up of buckets of ridiculousness and frequent dash spammer who happens to be fluent in keysmash, traversing the galaxy on my own adventure to somewhere.
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100 Facts About Cat
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• A List of What You May Find Here
• Ask me anything
| POC: | Hey uhm could you not do that thing? It hurts our community when you do that thing. |
| White Person: | OH MY GOD WHAT |
| POC: | I just - could you not - |
| WP: | I CAN DO WHAT I WANT |
| POC: | I would just really rather you not do that thing because it's racist - |
| WP: | OH MY GOD STOP BEING SO SENSITIVE |
| POC: | I mean, I've tried not to be sensitive for a really long time, but that really bothers me because - |
| WP: | I'M NOT RACIST |
| POC: | Well, that thing you're doing is racist, and - |
| WP: | YOU'RE RACIST AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE |
| POC: | what |
| Other White Person: | Hey, can you shut the fuck up? It's racist and it's not okay. Please stop. |
| WP: | ........ |
| WP: | IF IT'S RACIST WHY AREN'T POCS SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT IT |
"Frequently someone will say, “You keep talking about White people. People of color can be racist too.”…Of course, people of any racial group can hold hateful attitudes an behave in racially discriminatory and bigoted ways…If one defines racism as racial prejudice, the answer is yes. People of color can and do have racial prejudices. However, if one defines racism as a system of advantage based on race, the answer is no. People of color are not racist because they do not systematically benefit from racism. And equally important, there is no systematic cultural and institutional support or sanction for the racial bigotry of people of color."
— Paula S. Rothenberg, Race, class, and gender in the United States (via meggannn)
(Source: wtf-reverseracism, via meggannn)
Alternatively titled: “Why ‘The Last Airbender’ Is, Actually, A White-Washed Film — No, Really,” or simply just “Yes, Another One of Those Race Posts”
I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t inspired by a certain event that happened in the fandom a few days ago. Nevertheless, this is not aimed at any one specific person, and I mean that honestly. I’ve noticed many people using these excuses and defending very dangerous prejudiced ideas in this fanbase and I’m not all right with it. But I’m going to try not to let my rage control most of my words here. Okay.
But first, a prelude (this doesn’t just apply to Avatar, tbh).
What to Do if Someone Claims You’ve Said/Done Something Racist:
Do not pout. Do not cry. Do not throw a hissy fit. Do not immediately say “I AM NOT A RACIST HOW DARE YOU YOU DON’T KNOW MY LIFE!!”
Instead:
- Breathe. No, really, just take a deep breath and calm down before you respond. No matter how rude someone may have been in their accusations (if they were at all), nobody is going to take you seriously if you scream and act like a child.
- Do not start your argument off with “I am not a racist” or “don’t call me a racist.” Nobody’s going to believe or humor you.
- Realize that if you are white and a person of color claims that what you have said or done was racist, then it’s very likely that they are correct. White people have something called white privilege, which is invisible to most Caucasians, but many people of color see it every day. Try to recognize your privilege, and if it’s blocking you from understanding their point, step away from it and think about how they might be right.
- Understand, or try to, why they claim what you did was racist. Do they have a point? Acknowledge it. People are going to be much more willing to be nice to you if you are polite about the situation. This may be the Internet, but that’s no reason to be a jackass.
- If you really don’t get why what you said was wrong, say so in a polite way. Emphasis on the word ‘polite’ — you want to say “Hey, I really don’t get why you’d say that because a, b, c,” not “Your opinion is stupid and you don’t know shit because x, y, z.” I don’t care how “cool” the second option sounds.
- Understand that your pride does not matter. If you realize you’re in the wrong halfway through the argument, that you’re out-numbered (which is a dumb reason to give up lbr), or that you have no other legitimate points, don’t say “I’m done with this.” Don’t say “Shut up, I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” The least you can do is follow through with your argument if your actions, thoughts, or words are the ones that instigated it in the first place.
Here’s what you SHOULDN’T do:
- Don’t you dare use the First Amendment as an excuse to say whatever you like. Yes, you do have the right to free speech, and that allows you the right to say whatever you please — that does not, however, protect you from people that are similarly free to argue against it. Your right to free speech will be respected, but nobody’s guaranteeing you anything for the words you say themselves.
- Do not, under any circumstances, tell someone to:
Because you are not them. You have no right to tell somebody not to be upset. You have no right to tell somebody that they aren’t allowed to care. If your words or actions affected somebody, they matter, and you need to own up to that.
- calm down
- stop complaining/overreacting/letting it get to you
- any variation thereof that disregards their points and only serves to emphasize your inability to focus on an argument without whining about how “not fun” it is to see people fighting all the time.
This is an exert from the article Why There’s No Such Thing as Reverse Racism. It is a fantastic article and I encourage you to read it in it’s entirety. For now, I want to highlight the explanation/definition of three specific words.
Prejudice is an irrational feeling of dislike for a person or group of persons, usually based on stereotype. Virtually everyone feels some sort of prejudice, whether it’s for an ethnic group, or for a religious group, or for a type of person like blondes or fat people or tall people. The important thing is they just don’t like them — in short, prejudice is a feeling, a belief. You can be prejudiced, but still be a fair person if you’re careful not to act on your irrational dislike.
Discrimination takes place the moment a person acts on prejudice. This describes those moments when one individual decides not to give another individual a job because of, say, their race or their religious orientation. Or even because of their looks (there’s a lot of hiring discrimination against “unattractive” women, for example). You can discriminate, individually, against any person or group, if you’re in a position of power over the person you want to discriminate against. White people can discriminate against black people, and black people can discriminate against white people if, for example, one is the interviewer and the other is the person being interviewed.
Racism, however, describes patterns of discrimination that are institutionalized as “normal” throughout an entire culture. It’s based on an ideological belief that one “race” is somehow better than another “race”. It’s not one person discriminating at this point, but a whole population operating in a social structure that actually makes it difficult for a person not to discriminate.
(via meggannn)
