[Serious]
Fuck racism.
Fuck racism.
Fuck racism.
I have in-person commitments that I need to go to, so I’m letting y’all know for later. I’m making this post as sort of a bookmark because I think it needs to be said, and needs to be said right away. We white people are not doing a good enough job of being allies to our black, indigenous, and people of color comrades. We need to do a better job here, on this site. We need to create a better anti-racist culture here. We need to do way more of the heavy lifting when it comes to educating ourselves, doing emotional work, identifying racism, supporting our black, indigenous, and people of color comrades, educating other white people, and dealing with the fragility of other white people and in ourselves. We need to help build a culture where black, indigenous, and people of color feel welcome and safe, and where white people are educated and emotionally competent about racism, and where white people deal with the clean-up of the messes white people make. We owe this work, this time, this intellectual and emotional labor, this vigilance, this ongoing effort over time, to our black, indigenous, and people of color comrades. We have to do better.
Don’t be racist. Don’t say racist stuff. Don’t make racist jokes. Don’t make racist ironic jokes. This website has a strong shitposting component, but use that for good, not by “pretending” to be racist. It’s not funny and our comrades deserve better. Our black, indigenous, and people of color comrades get too much racism in the rest of their lives, they don’t need another white person who thinks they’re not racist making racist jokes. If you think ironic racism is funny then you need to take a good look at your sense of white privilege. If that makes you upset, you need to do some work on your white fragility. I need to do better. You need to do better. We white people need to do better. I have to go now but I can talk about this more tomorrow. Don’t be racist in the comments, and if people are, call them out, tell them not to, and report them because that shit is not supposed to be here.
I get it. And I agree the intent is 100% correct (if read correctly and OP is operating in good faith). But ultimately it’s overkill. And their own words can ignite yet another struggle. For example:
“How do you know I’m not ‘being better’?”
Start at ground zero: shutting the fuck up. I didn’t get the trans struggle until I shut the fuck up. Didn’t get toxic masculinity until I shut the fuck up. The list goes on. No one is going to analyze themselves from a defensive posture, engaged in a war of words on some shitposting messageboard. And if the OP is inadvertently coming off as sanctimonious and self-aggrandizing then the reader will just go full reddit-mode “I must defend my good name!!!”
Also, even if the shithead white person doesn’t agree but they shut the fuck up anyways, at least our BIPOC fam still has room to breathe.
So. Like I said. Shut the fuck up with your whiteness. If you still don’t get it, its not for you to understand anyway.
(And yes I recognize this post is way too long. Been drinking. What can I say?)
Hey sorry I’m scrolling back and forth kind of getting adhd brain and it’s late, I just want to follow the whole conversation better- is this quote like something that was edited out of another post here, or is this a thing that some white person would theoretically react with, in the context of igniting a struggle sesh? Sorry just hard to follow thank you
You don’t need to apologize :)
But it’s the latter: it’s how a white person with chronic whiteness would react.