A white privilege pincer movement to shut down any debate

[Soph0571]

I think it safe to say that if challenged the vast majority of people would accept that racism is wrong. Hell even the KKK or Britain First does not self-define as being racist organisations. However it does not matter that they refuse to admit that they are racist fuckers. We all see it. (On a side note I was watching a TV programme last night and it had footage of an early 1980’s Neo Nazi march in England and there was the confederacy flag flying proud!. Oh my!)

Heard the one about the chap on the internet who insists on calling you racist when you challenge their white privilege? It is reverse racism they cry. If anyone tries to challenge any racist behaviour by anyone anywhere they just have to jump in and wail about the injustice of it all. Any challenge of racism has to be met with a group of generally white, generally male, generally middle aged or older calling out the caller out as racist. Just look at the wankers leading in in Trumps America. They understand that by accusing people of playing the race card it will stop then challenging their own racist behaviours, their own dog whistles and their own pathetic attempts to appeal to a far-right racist base of true nutters – those who actually want a race war. Every time they call out an anti-racist as playing a race card for not accepting their racist bullshit remember that this is what they are doing. They are pandering to a far right fascist racist co-hort – a vote that no normal person would seek to win or retain.

The majority of sentinel human beings understand that reverse racism is not real. The white privilege crowd choose not to understand that racism at its heart is about supremacy and power. Without power you cannot have racism within any real definition of the term. Couple that with the "if you call me racist that makes you the real bigot" shtick and the right wing racists really has an effective power play in trying to shut down the conversation. In the UK this has been manifest through the Breixt debacle. So far right and so racist but apparently, they were just holding an ‘honest debate’ about the issues. Not pandering to the far right at all, honest guv. You have to hand it to them on this one. It is a white privilege pincer movement to shut down any debate. Their contradictory and hypocritical position relies on an almost impressive level of arrogance combined with ignorance: it demands that not only you not be offended by the racist comment or deed perpetuated against you, in addition, even though they hate when you challenge their behaviours or take offence at their narrative, they are allowed to be offended that you have the nerve to take offence. Challenging a person who is shrouded in white privilege causes division, apparently.

It is pretty simple. White Privilege is a thing. Reverse racism is not a thing. Not even a little bit.

[Qutzupalotl]

1. I think fear and hatred of the "other" are at the heart of racism.

That often manifests in abuses of any power or superior position that is available, but I see the power component as an effect rather than a defining characteristic.

I attended one of the schools that was closed for years after the Brown decision. I was a white kid in a school that was about 80% black. For a few hours a day, I experienced what it was like to be a minority — though with a reprieve at the end of the day that I realize my classmates never got.

My classmates were children of parents who were not able to complete their education, and they often struggled. I was put in a situation where I faced a lot of lingering resentment and even malice for things I did not do, simply for who I was. There was always a sense that you could not stick up for yourself due to the overwhelming numbers opposed, so you learned to get along and let racial taunts slide, and avoid people and situations that physically threatened you.

One could argue that this was a special case where numbers gave social power to people who did not have it in society at large, and so the racism-as-power definition would hold. But to say I never experienced racism because whites have power in the larger society is to deny what I went through every day. Any advantage, even height and strength, can be leveraged by any person, regardless of color. That is why I say everyone is capable of racially motivated actions regardless of whether they have power in larger society, and everyone should examine themselves in this regard.