black lives matter and other racial issues

Call me a radical (as in, please do, I by no means find it offensive ♥ ). I think race is an outdated concept altogether.

Now, don't misunderstand me - 'racial profiling' etc. is a good, appropriate term to describe that structural reality. And skin color is, for some reason, an important variable for many cops when taking action against someone they deem to have broken national or international laws.

But as for me, I don't think of myself as "caucasian" or "Arian" or even "white". I do have white-pink-brown ish skin, yes. But that's not something that's important enough for me to personally identify with. I see myself as human and a member of the human family and the human race.

As for interracial dating, well, obviously I don't have any problems with it. My taste in men and women are not white-centric. I have my kind of favorites... Although mostly I don't care much.

 

I think your post expresses exactly what 'white privilege' is.

I am guessing that you are not from a minority yourself.

It is a privilege to say that 'race does not matter'. You might be a very nice person to whom race does not matter, and you will never encounter problems with it, because white counts as the 'norm'.
But, people who are not white have to carry the burden of race- because despite how much everybody wants to 'forget race'- it is still something that stands between people, and in everyday they will encounter others who make distinctions according to race, not just the people to whom 'race is outdated and does not matter'.

As a person of colour you never know if the person you encounter is one of those to whom race does not matter, or if they subconsciously do make such distinctions.
It is just as a matter of consciousness which marks the experience of people who are not white- it just adds layer, over layer of weight. So say that race does not matter to you -is kind of dismissing the fact that in other peoples experience, it matters to them.
The fact that you don't see your own whiteness and it is not particularly important to you- is a privilege. It is the privilege of not having to think about race in your everyday life.


With regards to the OP- you mentioned you are mixed race- I wonder if you feel a different sense of belonging because of it?

I live in the UK- and before I came to live here, I was not particularly aware of race-related issues.
Race was usually presented as this "neutral" category such as hair colour. This is how I've learned about it, this is how I thought about it.
Only later did I learn how historically oppressive the whole concept was and how far from being neutral it is.
Europe is hugely influenced by these views- and so many are still not aware of it.

And even I as a white kid was influenced by it- eg. being of Polish origin made me inferior to Germans & I remember people commenting how much nicer I would look if I had blonde hair. Not to mention how horribly Germans treated the Greeks in the recent crisis- 'they are not European enough', and how little humanity Europe shows to the humanitarian crisis with immigrants. So structures relating to race runs deep in our history and culture- so deep that we don't usually notice it.


The Black lives matter movement is very important- we have to support it, and it is important even outside the US- because it illuminates that race is still very much in the picture of politics - be it local,or global.

I think we should use the emergence of the movement as an opportunity to learn and understand race related issues- and look at whiteness as such - because we might be more supportive through understanding on our end as well.

We need to stop treating whiteness as 'neutral' and to understand what our own privileges are, and how those institutions also oppress us, and how we contribute to oppression- because at the moment white people still pretend that whiteness does not exist, or if they acknowledge it they get all defensive at being brushed together with all the historically oppressive class.

But a lot of us where historically somewhere in the middle- also 'inferior' due to class, or ethnicity (Irish, etc)- just because we are a bit better of in the pecking order of the system- it does not mean it is good for us either- so being defensive about being white does not help anyone- it just shows that we have internalised our own oppression and privilege. These structures deserve to be dismantled because they are crap- & supporting the Black lives matter movement is a first step in the right direction.

 

Thank you so much for not reading my post, apparently not looking at my gender even, and then criticizing me. That is the way to hold intellectual discourse. For the love of god...

I clearly stated in my second paragraph that I unequivocally agree with your sentiment. So don't publicly say that I don't, please. Ugh...

Is this saying I don't recognize white privilege? No it isn't. I do recognize white privilege and that that is something I have access to.

Now. How in the world can you say that I don't know what it's like to be in a minority? I am transgender. Okay? Do you think I get a nice time with that?


I tried to express an uncomprising PRO BlackLivesMatter sentiment.
When I said race doesn't matter, I didn't mean that there is no systemic racism. I meant there SHOULDN'T BE, but there is.

 

I agree completely with this.

Saying "black lives matter" does not imply that other lives don't matter any more saying "save the rainforests" implies that other forests don't matter. "All lives matter" is not a reaction to injustices faced by non-black people, it's a reaction to Black Lives Matter. It exists to spite Black Lives Matter.

We are capable of focusing on a specific issue. We do not have to "include everyone" in every issue that is focused on in order to show that we do not "hate" the other side. How would you like it if every time someone brought up "LGBT rights", someone else said "Straight people matter too!". How asinine and meaningless is that?

That said, I'm sure most people who support Black Lives Matter oppose all police-based discrimination and violence against unarmed civilians. But there is a problem with the way black people are treated by police and it is not wrong to address this problem.

 

Yah, wrong idea. Becki isn't racist. She just means that race as a social construct is bad and stuff. <3 Police officers should kill people regaurdless of race, obvs.

 

I did not mean it personally *towards you* and I absolutely did take on board the other parts of your posts, so please don't take it as me trying to antagonise you, or calling your support into question, or anything like that.

My point was that- for me, and for anyone else who is white- we don't have to think about our whiteness in everyday life.
And I was particularly referring to the point you've made:

I don't identify with my whiteness, either (or my gender for that matter)- it is one of the things that I'll think about last when trying to describe who I am. But this itself is a very big privilege- because we have a choice to say "we don't identify with our race".

Non- white people simply don't have that choice- it is made for them every day by everybody else who perceives them as different.

The basic difference is that when you, or I say:

we are entitled to this, and are recognised as saying this legitimately.

When a Person of Colour says this - they have to *claim* and assert their their right to be seen as a member of the human race & *no different to a white person*, because historically race was used specifically as a tool to deny people membership in the wide "humanity" category.

Be it African, or Jewish- those people were said to have traits which make them less entitled to claim 'general humanity', and at some point they were also denied the right to humanity all together, so to me in this context when somebody who is white uses words which proclaim being not identified by their race, they are still asserting their white privilege- because it implies that it is a choice to not care about race- when others clearly don't have that choice.

---------- Post added 22nd Aug 2015 at 11:50 AM ----------

And wannahavechange aww- that is a bit too much- I am just speaking my mind.
:hugs: dear!
(thanks for making this thread)

 

Nicely worded! My mind is at peace. I might add that perceived criticism makes me livid.
and the thing about assuming I'm not a minority still stands. hell, we're all in an umbrella minority group here.

peace yo