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February 24, 2012 at 11:39 PM

Dumb Things White People Say: Examples of White Privilege →

underwaterbimbofromouterspace:

dank-potion:

  • Not getting followed around in a store.
  • Not getting stopped by the police without probable cause.
  • Not getting your credentials and college standing delegitimized by affirmative action.
  • People not assuming you’re on welfare.
  • People not instantly crossing the street or…

Get real.  I’m a caucasian woman and go through the exact same things, because I have metal in my face and visible tattoos.  People think I’m a bum and I’m out for blood or for their children.  They don’t give me the time of day or even look at me when I walk in a store that is not directly aimed at my demographic, until I’m passed the entrance and they send someone to follow me around and make sure I’m not stealing anything.

This kind of ‘lack of privilege’ if you will, it also happens to disabled people, trans people, vegans, people who aren’t dressed to your standards, people who wear a burka or a turban, teenagers simply because they’re young.  People who wear something you consider offensive can be a target if you’re an asshole.  Whatever.

Reality check people; not everything is racism or reverse racism.  People just don’t like people who are not like them, whatever the reason.  My skin colour is white, well big deal that doesn’t make me privileged.  Not in a sense where I’m immune to the shit everyone else go through anyhow.  I am allowed to say FUCK YOU, YOU ARE WRONG.  Being racist would be saying you are wrong because your ethnicity is wrong.  No.  You are wrong because you are so self-absorbed with the ignorance you feel you encounter every day, that you don’t even realize that you yourself are spreading ignorance by not understanding the grand scheme of things.

Everyone needs to stop fucking harping on how persecuted their own people are.  If you’re on Tumblr then there’s a fat chance your life really isn’t that hard.  I’ll never deny that societies as a whole have undergone some dreadful things, but I’m not going to fucking APOLOGIZE for it.  Am I a perpetrator?  If my great great great great grand-mother set fire to the school and burnt all the children down would I have to apologize for this too?  Fuck you and the giant ego you rode in on.  

We’re all humans, we look different because over tens of thousands of years we’ve evolved according to our environment.  While we develop in the womb all kinds of gene mish-mashing is going on, mutations are born and erased.  Some people are tall, some short, some have brown eyes, some have blue eyes, some are born deaf, some are born without an arm or with an extra toe, some of of us have pale skin, some of us have dark skin, brown, black, mocha, caramel and everything in between because that’s in our background as much all the other genes.  Everyone is born a blank slate and grows according to their environment, upbringing and values.  You can take a Korean child to be born in Uganda, to parents who teach him French as a first language and never a lick of Korean language or culture and the child will be a perfectly normal human being.  It happens and it’s perfectly healthy and possible because we are all the fucking same.  How hard is it to understand.

Culture is culture, and other people will always appropriate other people’s culture that they find appealing, or at least try to incorporate it into their life.  It’s part of learning different cultures.  If you never try different food, try to wear different fabrics, try to dance, try to do yoga, eat sushi, weave baskets, fucking anything!  Trying something that is not from your own culture doesn’t make you disrespectful, it makes you aware.  Whatever you do with it afterwards is where tings get out of hand.

Some things are straight up disrespectful, but you know what is also disrespectful?  Shit like this:

I had to quit school because I couldn’t afford to stay.  My parents didn’t have the ‘privilege’ to set up a trust fund for me, and with limited loans AND a night job, I still couldn’t afford a roof over my head AND my tuition.  I am 26 and am still waiting for the day I’ll be able to afford to go get a degree.  I’m a white girl and I think you should go fuck yourself with your classism.

I’m done for the day.

You need to just…shut the fuck up forever.  I am a POC with a face full of piercings and have several tattoos.  You know what the goddamn difference is?  If I take my piercings out and cover my tattoos…my skin is still brown.  I still suffer from long-standing, ingrained, institutional subjugation and dehumanization in the form of racism every.  single.  day of my life.  I can’t turn it off, can’t take it out, can’t cover it up.  And I wouldn’t want to…because I’m not the one who’s wrong.  The racist pieces of shit are.  Honestly, re-evaluate the validity of that entire rant and the privilege that is absolutely running fucking rampant in it.  I’ll let you in on something:  just because your family was not wealthy enough to pay for your higher education does not mean you do not still benefit from white privilege at every turn.  For example, the ability to just shrug off cultural appropriation as no big deal is a fucking privilege.  It is painful to the people it is happening to, but it’s run-of-the-mill to you because your culture isn’t being pantomimed for entertainment value.  Face full of metal…give me a goddamned break.  The discrimination you “suffer” because of that doesn’t even come close to scratching the surface of what POCs go through on a daily basis because of their skin color…which, by the way, is something they have no control over.  Sit the hell down.

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