look-a here

deliciouskaek:

this transethnic shit? nah, son.

A line has been drawn, and you ain’t crossin that shit today. unless you are actually a transethnic adoptee, taken from your own culture as a child and inserted into a new one, you are not what the fuck you want to be.

My ethnicity is in part what my ancestors carried over here with them — what’s left of it — and in part what was forced upon them, and thereby upon me. You don’t have that, that never happened? You can’t claim it.

My race was forced upon me and mine, based on my skin color and my parentage (good old “one drop rule,” remember that?). You don’t have that, that didn’t happen? You can’t claim that either. 

My Blackness, as defined by white folks the world over, has been a means and an excuse for races and cultures all over the fucking globe, including yours, to step on me and treat me as less than human, as a soulless thing that now has to be tolerated because (locally) Constitutional Law and the (globally) UN says so. 

As one who does not share this background, who will never have this experience, who is of the fucking oppressive class/culture/race, you don’t get to say “We took everything else, we gon’ just snatch this up, too?”

No. You cannot — you will not — think I’m going to just sit here and let you tell me that this is one more fucking thing I have to stand for in my quest for equity. Not equality, mother fucker. Equity. 

You and yours, you took us, slapped chains on us and called us yours. You took our children from the arms of their mothers and called them yours. You took fathers from their families and called them yours. You took our languages. You took our histories. You took everything from us. When you were forced to let go, you slapped legal bindings on us and called us yours. You took our music, repackaged it, and called it yours. You took our styles, our fashions, our clothes, repackaged them, and called them yours. You took our skin, repackaged it as a leathery fucking tan worthy of a Coach handbag, and called it yours. You took our hair (remember those fucked-up 80s perms?) and the term “natural hair,” after we fought long and hard for the right to wear it, and called it yours. You have taken everything.

And now that we’ve endured it all, fought for it all, struggled with it all, been broken and even died en masse for the little we have, you want this, too? You want the experience without the fight that laid low so many of us? You want the title without the struggle by which it was earned? You want to wear Blackness without having been Black?

You can’t have it.

As they say, real recognize real, and bitch I DON’T KNOW YOU.

I will not try to understand. It is you who do not understand, and it is because of your white privilege that you do not understand. You have been swimming in that privilege so long, it’s starting to stink.

Also, fuck you for even considering you can say that word. You can’t. I don’t give a fuck who you think you are inside your heart of hearts, dried-up and desiccated thing that it must be. That word has too much fucking history and pain and death behind it for you to snatch it up and taste it like a fucking hors d’oeuvre, I don’t give a fuck what internal struggles your white ass is having.

In short, fuck you.

confessions of a naive white woman (who is dating a black man)

bookishboi:

I ran across this post in the racism tag. It made my eye twitch a bit. Added my 2 cents but feel free to msg me/reblog with thoughts/commentary.

samspeaks:

I was ignorant when we started dating. In a lot of ways, I still am. I’m not claiming to be all-knowing about the intricacies of race in society, or how oppression works, or anything like that.

The adults in my family were not ok with me dating him, but I went ahead and did it. The most I could have lost was my car or college, but education is the most important thing ever to my mother, so that was pretty secure…and I needed a car, living in a different city.

They said some pretty nasty things to try and change my mind, but really it simply encouraged me to go ahead and date him because I was offended…I had very strong feelings for him, after all. How could they so blindly hate someone they’d never even spoken to just because of the pigmentation of his skin? He is such an incredible human being. I mean, everyone, generally, is aware of racism in our society, but until it actually stings you, then white people can just brush it aside and ignore it.

White privilege, folks.

Anyway… whenever the subject came up between us, I would always tell him “I don’t see you as a color. You’re just you.”
In retrospect, that’s total bullshit. I think part of me, the deeply ingrained part, was still coming to terms with the fact that my heart wanted someone so badly that my head kept yelling “This isn’t how you were raised! You shouldn’t be with a black guy!!” So I kept brushing it off by saying that he wasn’t any color. He was himself.

If you want to respect your boyfriend, you need to acknowledge his race and the challenges that he is faced with by existing within a Black body.

Fuck that. My boyfriend has the sexiest cocoa-colored skin ever, and it has become a huge reason that I’m sexually attracted to him. I’ll not get into details, but you understand. BLACK IS SEXY. 

Also his hair. I love getting my fingers dug down into that hair.

Ever heard of fetishism? Google it. Cause that’s not even complimentary, that’s uncomfortable as shit.

I’ve actually said, even though I know some people would slap me for being seemingly ignorant about my privileges, that I wish my skin were a darker shade. It’s more natural-looking… trees are brown, earth is brown, leaves turn brown… what is tan? I can’t think of anything off of the top of my head. Sand?
Great. I give you a rash and chafe your crotch once I’m in your pants. 

No… Just… No. Stop. Stop. Stop.

He teaches me things, too. Not because it’s a focal point of our relationship or anything, but people can be assholes and they need to be addressed. And it comes up from time to time. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned about why ”nigger” is offensive on a level deeper than it being a “bad word”. I’ve learned why blackface can be offensive to some people. I’ve seen dozens of examples of why we aren’t living in a post-racial society.

If you’re learning so much, next time be thoughtful enough to realize that if you’re going to be typing out the n-word you need to censor it. It’s not yours to use, nor does it do any kind of good to trigger the fuck out of Black people who may stumble across your post/writing.

Our next-door neighbor was kind enough to give us a first-hand example on that one.

I’ve listened to the hardships of the man I love, and humanity’s cruelty brings me to tears when it’s my partner that is experiencing it.

By “Humanity” you mean white people, right? And it only hurts you when your partner experiences racism/harassment? Just your partner, huh?

I’ve fought tooth and nail with my family, who is finally getting to love my brown-skinned lover; my grandmother, the matriarch of the white-superiority mindset in the family, kisses him on the forehead whenever she greets him. She even gave him a beanie baby from her lifetime collection. Even if the gestures aren’t sincere, she is trying her damnedest to make us happy, and she’s going up against 75 years of having learned that she is inherently better than him.

I have a whole life ahead of me of things that are going to come to light. I’m looking forward to it, to be honest. He means a lot to me, and if I’m going to appreciate him for all that he is and who he is going to become over the course of his much-weathered life, I need to hear his side of the story. I need to stand beside him and see what he sees, experience what he goes through.

You need to get over the notion that you’re going to experience what he goes through. You’re not. I promise you, you will NEVER understand what it’s like to live as a Black person (or a Black man to be more correct). What you can do though, is sit down. Listen. Don’t rely on him to educate yourself. Research. Read. Do everything you can to learn about your own white privilege and prejudices. 

You have a lot of conditioning to undo, and it’s not something that’s going to disappear overnight. It’s going to be a lifetime of work.

This relationship is bettering me in more ways than just one.

This is the ickiest damned thing. Cocoa skin? Farreal? I just, I need a shower.

#623

thepanduchessofshade:

thisiswhiteprivilege:

White privilege is accepting that POCs can relate to films and TV shows with all white characters but being unable to accept that a white or mainstream audience can relate to or enjoy a film or TV show with predominately POC characters because they are too ethnic . You call media and literature that features Black people(and other POC) : black films, black literature, African literature, African American literature, Black art, Asian art(even if the artist has never been to Asia before).  Yet you call the same forms of media and literature that features white artists: literature, not european literature, not White American literature, but just literature or simply American literature, you call films that feature only white characters films, not white films,  you call it porn not white porn. 

You demand that in order for you to enjoy any form of entertainment whiteness must be present yet however when Poc demand to be represented in the same  way you scream reverse racism. You exclude Pocs from your media and when we complain you say why don’t you get off your lazy asses and make your own. When we do create our space where we can control how we are represented or heck when we can simply represent ourselves you claim reverse racism.

Isn’t Reverse Racism About Priorities & The Reverse Of The Norm?

seekingwillow:

karnythia:

The number of white people who think “Reverse racism”, “Black people were mean to me once in 6th grade” & “POC won’t date me! They’re racist!” are relevant to conversations between people who have to worry about racism killing them & destroying their communities boggles my mind. We’re over here trying to save our cultures, our kids, & our sanity & you want me to hold your hand because a black guy told you he doesn’t date white girls? Farreal? Y’all I need you to spend some quality time with Google or some shit & pay attention to a reality outside your bubbles of privilege. Or shut the fuck up. Actually I probably need you to shut the fuck up anyway if you think the way to end racism is for POC to listen to white opinions on how to exist.

Totally rhetorical question here, of course. But why are you acting like our lives are more important than than their feelings? Like self-determination and survival and the fight to thrive as a multicultural, multi-tribal diaspora is more important than awkward feelings, and transitory moments of embarrassment or loneliness?

For real, it’s like you think we’re people or something.

I for one? Have a hard time believing they CAN’T see (even if just in the back of their minds) the parallels between; one time at school, this one time on the street…. with ‘One time my slave had the nerve to talk back to me. Can you believe it? Even though I treat her better than I have to, she started talking about her feelings, her family, her pain. I had to slap her silly! I am her family. I am her first priority! I am all she should ever be concerned about!’

Cause it’s clear as day to me. Bright day.

Welp…

Poverty and White Privilege

darkjez:

suicide-pacts:

I figured I’d right a small, sort of, piece on white privilege while being a minority in poverty. I see a lot of whites trying to get out of the whole “racism = prejudice + power” thing by claiming “omgz i’m a minority” or “b-b-but i’m so poor!” and i figured that since i’m from THE poorest state in america, not one of, but actually THE poorest state (Jackson, MS), i’d say a bit about why you absolutely can have white privilege while being a minority and living in poverty.

First off, our poverty rate for the state (source) is 20.1%, while the city of Jackson, MS has 23.5% of people below the poverty line, with the median income of a family being only 30k (source). This, of course, is no where near the poorest city in Mississippi. Other cities have a percentages up to 31.2% (source), 26.3% (source), and a whooping 62.6% (source). Now, one would assume “Wow, what a large percentage! Everyone must be poor in those cities!” Almost. I’ll get there in a moment.

Next I want to talk about the racial demographics of Jackson, MS and other poorer cities. For Jackson:

The racial makeup of the city was 79.4% Black or African American, 18.4% White or Euro American, 0.1% Native American, 0.4% Asian, and 0.9% from two or more races. 1.6% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. (source)

For other poor cities previously mentioned (since I’m lazy and don’t feel like finding new ones)

The racial makeup of the city was 42.99% White, 55.76% African American, 0.09% Native American, 0.15% Asian, 0.61% from other races, and 0.39% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.23% of the population.

The racial makeup of the city was 29.30% White, 68.59% African American, 0.02% Native American, 0.48% Asian, 0.59% from other races, and 1.02% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.05% of the population.

The racial makeup of the village was 4.56% White, 92.28% African American, 0.70% Native American, and 2.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.16% of the population.

If you haven’t noticed, the pattern is as follows: places with higher number of “African-Americans” have a higher poverty percentage. If “white privilege” didn’t exist in poverty, then how could this be possible? Compare these cities to other cities with extremely high number of white folks:

The racial makeup of the city was 93.23% White, 4.89% African American, 0.07% Native American, 1.20% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.18% from other races, and 0.40% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.69% of the population.
The number of people below the poverty line is 2.5% (source)

The racial makeup of the city was 86.61% White, 11.89% Black, 0.10% Native American, 0.58% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.30% from other races, and 0.47% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.30% of the population.

The number of people below the poverty line is 6.0% (source)

I could list more, but I think everyone understands the point by now. Now, back to lil Jackson, MS. The number of Black-owned firms is 41.9% (source). If the population is almost at 80% then why do Blacks only own barely half the number of firms as white people? That means that 18% of Whites own 44.2% (subtracting the 2.0% owned by Asians and the 0.3% owned by Hispanics). Could it be…white privilege…in poverty…I dunno…Let’s keep going!

Another thing I’d like to bring up is the percentage of Whites in higher-paying jobs. For the record, yes, everywhere I go, there are Blacks employed. But that’s the thing. I go in fast food restaurants, shoe stores, book stores. Let me go to a doctor’s office and watch how fast Blacks appear and Whites take their space. In a survey done in 2002, the statistics state “Mississippi has a much higher percentage (90%) of Caucasian doctors than the nation as a whole (75-80%); yet, Mississippi has a much higher percentage (36.3%) of African-American residents than the nation (13%) as a whole.” (source) As the survey states, this is extremely important because we all know White folks ain’t gonna care for Black people as they should. Other studies that you’ve probably seen will show that. Even in another statistics sheet I found, it states that Black babies (under 1) die at a rate of 13.6, almost double the 7.1 compared to Whites. (source) Sounds like white privilege to me.

I also want to relate this to some people that claim that because the majority of cops in Jackson are Black that that means that they can be racist against Whites. To that I’ll refer back to the death rate of their children compared to ours and hope that they’ll understand that that’s not the case at all.

One of the last major issues I’ll address is poverty stemming from slavery. Everyone knows that Mississippi was p much the epitome of slavery. Hell, our state flag has the Confederate Flag in it. The government has long since not given a single shit about Mississippi, and they know it’s because of the large percentage of Blacks. A lot of people say that education is the key to growing out of poverty. It’s easier said than done when your poverty extends far, far behind your time. The schools get shitty funding, so they don’t get taught how to fill out job applications or how to apply for scholarships or how to speak the head white bitch in charge’s english. And why would they have the time to worry about that when they have to help their family pay for bills by getting menial ass minimum wage jobs? And then getting incarcerated at higher rates for finding something that can help to pay their bills better.

Meanwhile White people already known this shit for decades; we made this shit up. We know how it works. And PoC are far, far behind us, especially since segregation only truly ended around 1965. That’s my mother. That’s my classmates’ mothers. Another reason why I don’t understand why Whites complain about shit being fair. Talkin about how you make the same as everyone else ~~ yeah but with way less effort. Don’t give me that bullshit.

And one more minor issue that I’ve thought about a lot since it happened. My dad was recently arrested for assault on 6 police officers. No one really knows what happened, but I do know that he had a gun. And the cops beat the shit out of him while he was handcuffed. He couldn’t open his mouth to eat for a week. And for a really, really long time I was pissed as fuck about this. Until I realized that if he was Black, he would’ve been shot in an instant. There would’ve been no handcuffing or back-up or bail or any of that. He would’ve died. THAT’S white privilege in poverty.

Also, as a signing off note. Dear white girl who always gets beat up by Black people for being the only white girl in her class, I’ve been in that situation tons of times. Don’t think that’s ever happened. Maybe you’re an asshole?

*This is the first time I’ve ever opened my mouth to speak out about stuff like this, but if I’ve made a mistake, please let me know (kindly or not - however you prefer) so that it can be changed.

*Bolding mine

(Source: angrier)

#520

thisiswhiteprivilege:

White privilege is when you know more about your purebred dog’s ancestry than many POCs know of their own family histories.

#346

thisiswhiteprivilege:

White privilege is The Mummy (1999). A story about a white woman who goes into someone else’s country, becomes solely responsible for the death of hundreds because she refused to listen to orders from the Natives, acts like she’s the victim and in the end, her and her white buddies are portrayed as the hero for conquering a villain.  The whole thing would never have happened is she just listened to the Natives. But who cares, she’s white woman so it’s okay. 

footnote to my post about in/visibility

so-treu:

biyuti:

My comments about it, I hope, makes it clear just why it becomes so *grating* when white people with tattoos, piercings, who are punk, or whatever the fuck else white people do to show their counter-culture individuality, equate their whatever experiences they have for their increased visibility with the experiences of dark skinned PoC, or visibly genderescent and/or trans people, or anyone who lacks any real choice about how visible they are and the ways that this visibility negatively impacts their lives (also inclusive of disabled people, fat people, women, etc. and all intersections thereof).

White people, your choice to become visible is predicated on the notion that you are the default human, thus you must do something extra achieve the same level of visibility that various marginalized bodies experience.

It is not only the assholeishness of engaging in a false equivalence (choice to get tattooed = skin colour) but it reenforces the white supremacist notion that you are default and, thus, normal.

all of this.

(Source: biyuti)