This is why we have to be mindful, always
Jul. 13th, 2009 08:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
megwritesBlack and Latino children turned away from a swim club because they might change the "complexion" of the pool. (Thank you to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scififanatic for the link).
This is why I get upset when white people come to this journal and try to act like white privilege doesn't exist. This, my friends? Is white privilege in action. Don't you dare tell me that racism is dead, or try to throw the dictionary definition of racism at me as though somehow cutting and pasting something from Webster makes things like this suddenly stop existing. Racism = power + prejudice. Don't agree? Fine, be it on your own head. But do not even attempt to come here and argue that point with me, because I have no interest in listening to you deny reality when it stares us all in the face.
This is why I don't tolerate people who want to come here and deny to me that racism still affects people's lives daily in this nation. No matter how many Black presidents we elect or Latina justices get appointed, so long as things like this are even imaginable, much less a reality, in this country, we will not have moved forward the way we must. Token symbols are not enough. Equality, diversity, and mutual tolerance and respect need to come from the ground up.
This is why I examine everything I read and write and ask myself to examine my own privilege as a white person, and why I feel that I cannot justify doing anything less.
This is why I get pissed when I see my fellow white people pretending they know bugger all about racism and how it works, and why I get pissed when white authors who act like they're so enlightened about race try to derail conversations about racism, when they think themselves somehow worthy to teach everyone else about racism and tell us all to shut up about it, because it makes them just slightly uncomfortable. Because they don't have to worry about their kids getting kicked out of a pool they paid to swim in for "changing the complexion" - because THEY haven't had the thorn of racism digging in their sides their entire life. Because rather than be uncomfortable for five goddamn minutes in order to help someone else, they tell us all to shut up about it so they can wander back to White Privilege Land, without realizing they're living there at someone else's expense. And who think that crocodile tears on the internet will fix everything, but still keep writing books that erase people of color or whitewash them. We white people have already had plenty of teachers to teach us. What we need now are students. People willing to shut the sweet lovely fuck UP and listen. Starting with me. Because for all that I post about this? I know I need to listen twice as much to the people who suffer from this oppression, this racism, this unreasonable, unconscionable state of affairs in ways that I never will.
This is why I am trying so hard to be a good ally. I believe my country is better than this. I know that the people of my country deserve better than this. Especially those kids in Philadelphia. I cannot control the actions of others, but I can start with myself. I can learn, I can listen, I can do better, I can be better, I can help, I can support, I can speak out. And above all, I can keep my eyes open.
ETA: Typos, grammar, coding. I should *so* not type when I'm pissed off.
scififanatic for the link). This is why I get upset when white people come to this journal and try to act like white privilege doesn't exist. This, my friends? Is white privilege in action. Don't you dare tell me that racism is dead, or try to throw the dictionary definition of racism at me as though somehow cutting and pasting something from Webster makes things like this suddenly stop existing. Racism = power + prejudice. Don't agree? Fine, be it on your own head. But do not even attempt to come here and argue that point with me, because I have no interest in listening to you deny reality when it stares us all in the face.
This is why I don't tolerate people who want to come here and deny to me that racism still affects people's lives daily in this nation. No matter how many Black presidents we elect or Latina justices get appointed, so long as things like this are even imaginable, much less a reality, in this country, we will not have moved forward the way we must. Token symbols are not enough. Equality, diversity, and mutual tolerance and respect need to come from the ground up.
This is why I examine everything I read and write and ask myself to examine my own privilege as a white person, and why I feel that I cannot justify doing anything less.
This is why I get pissed when I see my fellow white people pretending they know bugger all about racism and how it works, and why I get pissed when white authors who act like they're so enlightened about race try to derail conversations about racism, when they think themselves somehow worthy to teach everyone else about racism and tell us all to shut up about it, because it makes them just slightly uncomfortable. Because they don't have to worry about their kids getting kicked out of a pool they paid to swim in for "changing the complexion" - because THEY haven't had the thorn of racism digging in their sides their entire life. Because rather than be uncomfortable for five goddamn minutes in order to help someone else, they tell us all to shut up about it so they can wander back to White Privilege Land, without realizing they're living there at someone else's expense. And who think that crocodile tears on the internet will fix everything, but still keep writing books that erase people of color or whitewash them. We white people have already had plenty of teachers to teach us. What we need now are students. People willing to shut the sweet lovely fuck UP and listen. Starting with me. Because for all that I post about this? I know I need to listen twice as much to the people who suffer from this oppression, this racism, this unreasonable, unconscionable state of affairs in ways that I never will.
This is why I am trying so hard to be a good ally. I believe my country is better than this. I know that the people of my country deserve better than this. Especially those kids in Philadelphia. I cannot control the actions of others, but I can start with myself. I can learn, I can listen, I can do better, I can be better, I can help, I can support, I can speak out. And above all, I can keep my eyes open.
ETA: Typos, grammar, coding. I should *so* not type when I'm pissed off.
