I can’t embed the post, but take a look here. As Matt Walsh points out, slavery is not “white history,” and it is racist to claim that it is.
Tag: racism
bookmark_border“If you plan to make content that isn’t the exact same content that I would make…. just don’t”
I recently came across a social media post that said the following:
“If you plan to make content on the distinctions between ODD and PDA* but gloss over the racial disparities and intersectional factors, just don’t.”
My response: Excuse me? Who the heck are you to tell me what type of content I can and cannot make?
The author of the post describes themselves as black, “moderate support needs,” and “agender and queer.” Perhaps belonging to demographic categories that qualify them as more “oppressed” than others gives this person a sense of moral superiority. Perhaps their membership in these socially favored demographic categories makes this person feel that they are in a position to determine what others are and are not allowed to do.
Guess what? If someone wishes to make content about the distinctions between ODD and PDA without going into the alleged racial disparities and intersectional factors, they have every right to do so. As a white, high-functioning, asexual autistic person, I have the right to voice my opinion just as much as you do. You have no right to tell other people what type of content they can and cannot make.
* ODD is the abbreviation for “oppositional defiant disorder,” and PDA is the abbreviation for “pathological demand avoidance,” two mental health conditions that share some similarities.
bookmark_borderA blatant example of anti-white racism…
It shouldn’t even need to be stated, but the person who made the below tweet is a racist bigot:
View this post on Instagram
And people claim that anti-white racism doesn’t exist…
bookmark_borderThe hypocrisy of wokeness
It’s hard to put it better than this:
View this post on Instagram
bookmark_border“F*** your dead” – the atrocity done to the Lion of Atlanta
It’s been several years since the atrocity that was done to the Lion of Atlanta, but I saw this Instagram post about it recently, and I felt the need to share my thoughts.
“F*** your dead,” wrote the excuses for human beings who committed this atrocity. And of course, “BLM.”
The excuses for human beings also crossed out the word “Confederate” from the phrase “unknown Confederate dead” on the monument.
Translation:
F*** anyone who differs from us in any way. F*** anyone who differs from the norm, from the majority.
Only our lives matter. No one else’s. No one’s feelings, perspective, or viewpoint matters, other than ours.
Anyone who differs from us in any way needs to be erased from existence, as if they never lived at all.
Only bland, mundane people who conform to social norms and mindlessly comply with authority should be allowed to exist.
The only people who deserve to be honored, memorialized, or respected are those who look and think like us.
Those are the attitudes of the excuses for human beings who committed the atrocity towards the Lion of Atlanta.
And those attitudes are the antithesis of diversity, the antithesis of inclusion, the antithesis of tolerance.
I say:
F*** you, excuses for human beings who wrote these things.
F*** your contempt, hatred, and intolerance for anyone who differs from you in any way.
F*** your bigotry.
F*** your authoritarianism.
You demonstrate that supporters of the BLM movement are the real bigots, the real racists.
Our society should have unanimously and unequivocally condemned this movement the instant its slogan was found graffitied, alongside profane insults, on the Lion of Atlanta.
Yet despicably, our society did the opposite.
Society’s embrace of the movement responsible for this and countless similar atrocities is an injustice worse than words are able to convey; it is the worst injustice imaginable.
bookmark_border“Hey white people”
I saw this post on Instagram the other day, and it really pisses me off.
This is an example of blatant racism.
What does a fondness for golden retrievers have to do with a person’s race? What does gluten free bread have to do with a person’s race?
Nothing.
Such blatantly racist statements about any other group would be immediately and universally condemned, but for some reason our society considers it acceptable to ridicule and insult white people with pejorative and nonsensical generalizations. In our society, anti-white racism is allowed to go completely unchallenged, unquestioned, and uncriticized.
And then people claim that anti-white racism isn’t a serious problem, or perhaps that it doesn’t exist at all. For some reason, anti-white racism such as that demonstrated in the above post is not recognized as real racism.
Well, it is. The person who made this post is a racist bigot, and the post’s existence is proof of the systemic, ubiquitous, and entrenched anti-white racism of our society.
PS: The person who made this post seems to have done so with the goal of encouraging white people to care about, and help with, the situation that is going on in Palestine. The person who made this post seems to have done so with the goal of encouraging white people to support his/her cause. Well, maybe if you want people to support your cause, you shouldn’t ridicule them or attack them with race-based insults. If you are trying to convince people to support your cause, ridiculing them and attacking them with race-based insults probably isn’t the best way to do so.
Just a thought.
bookmark_border“The USA is a white settler colonialist state”
“The USA is a white settler colonialist state…”
What the heck does that even mean? What is a “settler colonialist state”?
We need to eliminate the term “settler colonialism” from our lexicon. Phrases like this are meaningless mush, with no use or purpose other than to insult and shame people based on their skin color.
How exactly are immigration laws racist?
How exactly is your statement “truth,” Bree Newsome?
And how exactly are people wanting to outlaw it? Who exactly are the “they” of whom you speak, and what steps have they taken to outlaw statements like yours? More importantly, how can you claim that statements like this one are in danger of being outlawed when every major politician of the ruling party, every major corporation, and every member of the mainstream media, is parroting it?
Similarly to the question with which I began this blog post… what the hell is a “white colonial power structure?” This seems to be just more meaningless mush whose only goal and only effect is to paint an autistic person like me, who has been told that I have no choice other than to sacrifice my wishes, preferences, needs, and happiness for the expectations of others for my entire life, as somehow “privileged” and therefore bad and having no right to complain or be upset about anything. Thereby doubling down on the exact things I’ve been told ad nauseam by neurotypical society my entire life. Awesome.
Also, how can someone “maintain white rulership in the USA” when such a thing has never existed?
Also, what racist violence, exactly, is Newsome referring to?
And what anti-democratic violence, exactly, is Newsome referring to?
And why is it a bad thing for something to be anti-democratic, anyway? To speak of anti-democratic violence as if it is a bad thing presumes that to be pro-democratic is good, and I strenuously dispute this presumption. Democracy is a form of government in which the policies implemented are the ones that are favored by the largest number of people. Given that the goodness or badness of a policy has nothing to do with the number of people that favor it, democracy is not a good form of government. To be anti-democratic is not something bad, because a democracy is not something good.
In conclusion, this Instagram post and the account that posted it are just another example of our society’s practice of privileging and elevating the voices of those who have not experienced discrimination or significant hardship, while stomping on those who have. If the people who run this Instagram account actually wanted to feature the voices of the oppressed, they would feature tweets and blog posts by people like me, who have been shamed as sick and bad our entire lives… and for our entire lives had our feelings and perspectives dismissed as “privileged” because we were born with the wrong skin color.
bookmark_border“You are standing on Native land”
This picture, seen on social media, angers me.
It angers me that some organization or company or government entity (I’m not sure exactly who is responsible) made the decision to create a sign like this.
All my life, I’ve been told that I do everything wrong. That everything about me is wrong and bad. That I wear the wrong clothes, the wrong shoes, the wrong socks. That I read the wrong books, listen to the wrong music, watch the wrong shows. That I hold my pencil the wrong way, play with my toys the wrong way, wash my hair the wrong way, wash my face the wrong way, floss my teeth the wrong way. That I stand wrong, sit wrong, speak wrong, use words wrong.
And now I am being told that I have the wrong skin color and the wrong ancestry. After a lifetime of being told that everything about me is wrong and bad, I am now being told that I don’t deserve to exist in the city of Boston, due to the color of my skin and the fact that my ancestors came from Europe. Due to things about me that I have absolutely no control over.
All my life, I’ve suppressed my autistic self in order to fit in with neurotypical people. And now I am being told that because I happen to have European ancestry, I need to grovel at the feet of indigenous people in order to be allowed to exist. That because of where my ancestors came from, I don’t have a right to exist in the only city that I have ever called home.
All my life, I’ve been told that I need to apologize for everything about myself. And now I am being told that because of my skin color and my ancestry, I need to apologize for my very existence.
All my life, I’ve been made to feel wrong, worthless, bad, and messed-up. It is angering and demoralizing that someone would create a sign designed to make me feel even more this way.
I’m sick and tired of having to apologize for my existence. A native person is not superior to me. I have just as much of a right to exist in Boston as anyone else does.
bookmark_border“Basic white girls”
“Basic white girls.”
A little while ago, I watched a YouTube video in which the speaker casually used this term. It was a video about the two newest American Girl dolls, Nicki and Isabel, who are twins from the 1990s. The YouTuber stated that she is not a fan of the twins overall, but praised the fact that American Girl decided to make the sisters half Jewish, so that at least they are not just “basic white girls.”
The more I thought about it, the more this flippant, offhand comment bothered me.
Why are white girls considered “basic”? Why are white people considered more “basic” than black people or Asian people or Hispanic people or indigenous people? What exactly is it about light skin that makes a person “basic,” while people with darker skin tones are not classified that way?
To label white girls as “basic” is racist.
People come in a wide range of skin colors, from dark to light. All skin colors are equal. People with light skin are not “basic,” any more than people with dark skin are.
People come with a wide range of eye colors, hair colors, hair textures, and hair lengths. Nicki happens to have long, brown hair and blue eyes, while Isabel has medium length blond hair and green eyes. These attributes do not make them “basic,” any more than a doll with dark skin, dark brown eyes, and black hair would be “basic.”
There is also the attitude that the only characteristic saving Nicki and Isabel from being completely “basic” is their Jewish ancestry. This, of course, implies that Christian people are “basic.” Therefore, this comment reeks not only of racism but of religious prejudice as well.
People – both fictional and real – have all different personality traits, backgrounds, life experiences, abilities/disabilities, hobbies, interests, preferences, and views. People have different stories, different struggles, different obstacles to overcome. Yet our society has seemingly decided that some attributes make a person “interesting” and deserving of having their story told, while other attributes make a person boring and “basic.”
Honestly, comments like these hurt. I am tired of seeing and hearing comments like this being thrown around so flippantly and casually, as if they are nothing. Comments like this are not nothing. They are racist. The fact that it is so common for these types of comments to be casually tossed about, and so rare to see them called out as the bigotry that they are, demonstrates the systemic, anti-white racism that pervades our society.
Nicki and Isabel are white girls. But they are not “basic,” and neither am I.
bookmark_borderThis is what real privilege looks like
Today is December 1, which means that we have reached the end of Native American Heritage Month. Throughout November, various media outlets, companies, and brands acknowledged and celebrated Native American heritage in various ways.
For example, the Starbucks app had a section on its home page honoring indigenous employees.
The Microsoft Edge browser introduced an Indigenous Heritage Month theme.
And all month long, Comcast had a special section in the main menu on the TV dedicated entirely to Native American related programs.
What you wouldn’t have been able to tell from consuming mainstream media or going about your day in mainstream society is that the previous month, October, was Italian-American Heritage Month. Unlike with Native American Heritage Month, neither Starbucks nor Microsoft nor Comcast acknowledged Italian-Americans at all during our designated month. Nor, to my knowledge, did any mainstream media outlet, company, or brand. With the exception of an Italian flag being raised at Boston City Hall Plaza on October 1, I did not witness any recognition of Italian-American Heritage Month by any entity other than Italian-American organizations.
There is nothing wrong with the fact that so many companies and organizations celebrate Native American Heritage Month. But in my opinion, there is something wrong with the fact that they do this while ignoring Italian-American Heritage Month. To acknowledge one group’s month but not another’s is discriminatory. It sends the message that indigenous people are more important than Italian-Americans. Companies and organizations should treat all cultures and ethnicities equally. Either acknowledge and celebrate all cultures’ designated months, or none.
Making this inequity even worse is the fact that an increasing number of cities and states are abolishing the observance of Columbus Day on the second Monday of October and replacing it with Indigenous People’s Day. This in addition to the fact that the day after Thanksgiving is celebrated as Native American Heritage Day in the U.S., and August 9 is designated as International Day of the World’s Indigenous People by the United Nations.
I have heard it argued that Italian-Americans should be okay with the obliteration of Columbus Day because they still get the entire month of October. But indigenous people already have the entire month of November, as well as specific days in November and August. Why do they deserve a third holiday more than Italian-Americans deserve a single one?
It could also be argued that for all practical purposes, Italian-Americans don’t even have a month at all, given that our month is almost entirely ignored by mainstream society. Additionally, with Columbus Day – the reason for designating October as Italian-American Heritage Month in the first place – being obliterated throughout the country, it becomes hollow and meaningless to celebrate a month when one is no longer allowed to celebrate the reason for its existence.
Essentially, indigenous people get a month plus three holidays to celebrate their heritage, while Italians get nothing.
Adding insult to injury, indigenous people also receive additional benefits through government programs solely because of their ethnicity (for example, the Lifeline emergency broadband program provides an extra $34.25 per month for internet service to people living on tribal lands).
It is clear that our society values some cultures more than others, an inequity that has grown even worse in recent times. Privilege certainly exists in our society, but not in the way that most people believe.