For White Folks Commenting on Blogs Run by POC

(Taken from what I scribbled on Abagond)

Thaddeus,

So that’s my question to Ank: what would he see as a healthy level of discussion about these issues and how does he intend to go about that, seeing as how he himself apparently classifies as “insane” a good portion of the people who diagree with him?

I can’t believe I missed this!!!

For starters, as you may know by now, I’m a she. Now, about healthily discussing these issues.

1) “Disagreement” is not the problem. Denial is the problem. Delusion is the problem.  Disrespect is the problem, and just because these all start with "D" doesn't make them interchangeable or remotely synonymous in any way.

(a) WP who argue about race skirt around the fact that America isn’t actually theirs – which is a crucial, historical fact. In fact, it’s so crucial that when this fact is denied and not factored in, all racial dialogue immediately begins to deteriorate from that point on.

(b) WP run this country. They own pretty much everything. All but one of the presidents has been white. All the VPs have been white. Schools are taught a Eurocentric curriculum. Hollywood consistently flirts and dances with the notion of white perfection. Law enforcement favors whites. The legal system favors whites. These are all facts, not opinions. These are all backbones of white privilege. So when WP enter a racial discussion crying “reverse racism” and how they’re losing “their” country, and how they are the “ultimate victims”, they tend to be ignored – and rightly so.

So for people to even start a healthy discussion, a & b have to be clarified and firmly established and accepted from the get-go – no exceptions.

2) Whites have limited insight about POC (which is not a racist category if you understand why POC use it in the first place). This too is a fact (see “whitopia”). POC, however, insight is not so limited about whites, but not because of our “saintliness” or our moral or cultural “superiority”. We know so much about WP…because we have to know. The “white world” is what we’re taught from day one. In addition to our myriad cultures, we have to learn what whites like, think, believe, and how they see the world. If we don’t read white authors, memorize their works, and recite it on cue, we can forget about getting an education (which we’ll need, by the way, in order to work for white-owned & run institutions).

So when WP wonder why their opinions on race are met with silence or derision, it’s because they often don’t have a clue what they’re talking about. And this is what ruins so many discussions: the inability of WP to simply accept their own ignorance about other people. Which leads me to:

3) White cowardice (and vanity) prevents WP from accepting their own ignorance, admitting their own conscious and unconscious racist leanings, confronting and analyzing their own dysfunction, fully and unequivocally accepting the existence of white privilege…all for fear of “looking bad” and “losing the argument”. The main point of discussing racism, by the way, is to learn how it affects its primary targets, and in so doing, whom it benefits and how – not “win” an argument and look good while doing it. This is another reason POC have trouble taking WP seriously in racial discussion.

4) White arrogance also hinders healthy discussion. WP often try to “control” racial discussion. They derail POC very often, they employ hipster racism when the mood and topic are serious, and they tend to brand POC liars when POC relate their experiences. They do not consider the needs, thoughts, or feelings of POC because whether they admit it or not (or even realize it or not), they’ve been raised from birth not to see POC as fully human in the first place, and so treat them thusly. In other words, they invoke white privilege consistently.

5) Draptoresponsia, or “running away from responsibility”, flat-out kills healthy discussions about race. This is where “white guilt” and derailing (or hiding from) POC anger often come in. Classic example #1: a black woman is minding her own business and a white stranger asks to touch her hair. As politely as possible, she says no. The white stranger gets mad instead of seeing the error in their behavior and apologizing accordingly (which if they simply did, would actually lead to a healthier dialogue).

The black woman goes home and blogs about the experience. Other black women co-sign and provide similar experiences. A white female fanfic writer researching the texture of black women’s hair for her story comes across the blog and runs back to write in her author’s note about how “angry and scary” black women are with their hair.

Classic example #2: hipster racism. Enough said.

Classic example #3: I use quizzes and “case studies” to examine these behaviors in whites. In both instances, I always use racist statements from whites themselves, and when they catch themselves agreeing with these statements (or recognizing them as ones they themselves made), they get angry at me.

Yeah...I know.

Some then accuse me of trying make them feel “guilty”, or as one drapto on there said, “you seem to be another complainer who beileves [sic] if it were not for the presence of whites, the world would be a swell place.”

Forget for a moment, that these statements were made by whites confidently and comfortably, without any coercion at all. They expressed their thoughts and opinions – as is their right. Forget that they read racist commentary by other whites and again – of free will – co-signed in a public forum for all the world to see.

Forget all that…after all they do, as is their privilege.

When called out on it, however, they often play the guilt card (while making it seem as though I’m the one playing the card) in order to change the subject and not have to actually deal with what they said and why they said it.

Now…how are POC supposed to conduct discussions dissecting and dismantling systemic racism when most WP – who insist on joining these discussions – bring their core benefit from the system with them?

Denying basic facts, throwing temper tantrums the moment one hears something they don’t agree with, crying at the first sound of criticism, and trying to control all participants in an event are negative behaviors commonly practiced by most WP in racial discussions and – not-so-coincidentally – are also commonly practiced by children.

Is it really such a surprise, then, that POC resort to the most often prescribed therapeutic remedy of simply ignoring the person indulging the behaviors?