(no subject)

[judecorp]

Why do I know so many white people who seem to want SO MUCH to be the victim of "racism"?

I just don't get it.

Comments

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

People feel a need to validate their ally status.

Which is really kind of backwards, because I have SO much more respect for someone who owns their privilege and recognizes it as one of the reasons they're actively anti-racist, rather than someone who purports to understand because they're a minority in another respect, or because they're close to POC, whatever.

(I recognize there's definitely victimization of majority people based on who their family members or friends are, or based on their ally status, but I'm talking about people who pretend that being called "n*****-lover" is an equivalent experience to going around every day of your life as a POC. It's not.)

[eeka13.livejournal.com]

Also, most people don't get the concept of an "-ism."

You know, like, the idea that racism occurs, and I contribute to it in several ways (some of which are beyond my control and some of which aren't), but I'm hopefully not "a racist." That's hard for a lot of people.

[geniusorafool.livejournal.com]

This is just another example of THE MAN trying to keep them down.

[dustyskinandall.livejournal.com]

so many people want to be 'victims'. period.

but i agree with the above poster, too. if they can claim they have experienced racism then they are somehow exempt from participating in racism themselves. whatever.

[amyura.livejournal.com]

You know, I'm a white person who's had to deal with racist comments (directed both towards myself and towards Asians) from African-American students, and there's no way I would EVER, EVER consider myself a VICTIM of racism. Encountering a few racist individuals does not a victim make. I really can't imagine too many circumstances where a white person in this country even COULD be the victim of racism. I can imagine a few, but they're very few and very hypothetical.

[nikisazombie.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I've had people say horrible things to me. I just shrug it off and move on. A person is only a victim of racism if they let themselves be. (Because, honestly.. I just think it's all stupid. And if someone wants to behave like an idiot, I just let them.)

[kat-chan.livejournal.com]

Because they think that victimization carries all of these great benefits that are being denied to them.

[smurfbrother.livejournal.com]

Who are these people (those who want to experience racism) and where does one find them?

Oh, the answer to the latter is "Amherst." :)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

I don't know enough people in Amherst to know if that's true.

[realsupergirl.livejournal.com]

White liberal guilt.

[carina-s.livejournal.com]

That's weird. I don't know.

[calliopeblogger.livejournal.com]

I took an African-American history class in high school and a lot of white students insisted that because they had felt guilty for being white that they were thus victims of racism. THAT then gave them empathetic leverage - or so they thought. So many stupid conversations in that class that began with, "well since I have experienced white racism I know how you feel when..."
I think there is partly a need to want to be completely empathetic and then there are the fuck-wads that just want to deny history.
Calliope
http://steinbockfrau.wordpress.com/

[00solstice.livejournal.com]

I don't know if so much involves them wanting to be a target of racism, as much as it is pointing out that, yes, racism flows in different directions.

I've known two people, for extended periods in my life, who were racist against white people. Pure and simple. There was bias, hostility, mistrust, conveyed hate. Maybe it was due to racist events perpetrated against them or their family members early in their life, or maybe it was simply a genetic personality trait (some people are genetically/chemically prone to depression, maybe others are prone to xenophobia). Regardless I recognize that feelings of hate/mistrust/resentment toward others unlike oneself exists throughout each and every demographic.

Maybe it's because I just watched the movie Crash (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375679/) again, no more than 8 days ago, and with the images and concepts fresh in my mind, can't help but acknowledge the racism and hate and shame flow in many, many complex directions... yes, sometimes even toward white people. But I recognize the fact that me or my skin color may be the target of racism or hate or resentment by no means invalidates the racism inflicted upon others, and (I hope) vice versa.

Personally, it's crystallized within me over the past couple of days that I /will not/ feel white guilt. Period. I will feel no shame in the color of skin I happen to have, I will feel no regret of what flesh I have hanging between my legs.

I'm Steve, not some generic Christian, white, middle-class male whose heritage and gender can be associated with patriarchal white oppression.

When someone points out that I regularly have access/do things that are, at times, still denied to others based on skin color, gender, or orientation, I refuse to view what I can do as a "priviledge", but rather as a 'basic right' that's being denied to others and needs to be corrected.

Maybe I've spent too much time picking up behavioral mannerisms from the T-monster, but I will not be chastised, much less motivated, by "guilt" or shame for injustices I neither committed or condone.

"Tracy took advantage of my white guilt, which is to be used only for good — like overtipping and supporting Barack Obama." -- Tina Fey's character in 30Rock. Sorry, it just doesn't fly with me. It reflects that guilt causes use to do things we otherwise wouldn't do for others. So the adoption of white guilt is pointless for me. I acknowledge the injustices of the past and present... and while I may take action against them, I will not take accountability for them based simply on the color of my skin.

Put simply, I believe in a world filled with clear band-aids, not beige or brown ones. I hope that doesn't make me a bad person in your eyes.

[nikisazombie.livejournal.com]

I don't know! It's rediculous! I mean, there are some cases of white people being discriminated against, but there is also discrimination with all the races! I really don't see the point in it. I like people for who they are.. not because they're a certain color, religion, or sexual preference. People are so damn stupid.