I struggle with the whole racism issue. I'm a white female, I've never seen or experienced racism, for all I know it's a mythical being only prevalent in unicorns. Yet I know it's something that a lot of my fellow Funsubstance peeps probably have experienced, so I get kinda awkward around posts concerning racism. I almost feel like I don't have a right to comment on it because I've never seen it? Is that weird?
Yeah, I know it's out there. It's just a little bit surreal to imagine it, I suppose in some ways I've been very sheltered living in a small country for most of my life
You are very lucky then. As a German I experience a lot of hate because of WWII - no one cares that I wasn't even alive back then. No one cares that if I had been alive back then I would have been killed as well because of my grandpa being Estonian and mentall illnesses running in my family. It's hard because you can't really defend yourself against racism because the other side does not listen to logic. They just hate someone for some little thing or something they think they resemble.
That truly is awful, it's incredible to think that their are people out there who would despise a whole country because of the wrongdoings of a political party 70 odd years ago.
I find it hard to hold anyone accountable for the actions of their ancestors, regardless of race.
You are not your ancestors. You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.
I think not enough people understand that when someone says you are privileged, it's not equivalent to them saying you're prejudiced. I have white privilege; that doesn't mean I'm racist, it just means there may be things in my life which I can take for granted, but which a person of colour might not be able to. On the other hand, most of my friends have straight privilege while I, as a lesbian, don't. I don't hold it against them because that's unreasonable, but they don't have to think twice about, for example, holding their girlfriend's hand in public, among other things.
I am not a racist, and my friends are not homophobes. However, we are privileged, because there are problems we don't have to worry about by virtue of belonging to a certain group.
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· 8 years ago
I've seen racism and it disgusts me. I'm white, but I've also experienced it. Guy I was dating refused to let anyone know we were dating because I wasn't Saudi Arabian like him
White privilege means, you get benefits due to you being white, alot of those benefits are there because they came at an african american expense. White privilege means white people are still benefiting from the pain, suffering and loss of slaves, you live in a society that was built on slavery and you continue to reap the benefits....thats white privilege. Maybe their children are off the hook and damaged because their people have suffered a legacy or racism and torture. abuse takes time to heal and the abuse that was done to these people will take generation to mend, especially since there is a push to keep african american people marginalised, poor and uneducated.
um...maybe there is class privilege, but white people don't get anything just for being white. if anything ethnic people get things just for being ethnic. they get scholarships and food stamps and even jobs just because people need to be "diverse" and not for their actual skills. but the first female millionaire in America was the daughter of a slave. maybe the reason people still think black people are held back is because they're holding themselves back.
That could be true.have you ever seen someone who is black speak proper then another black person is like " why are you speaking white ? " as if all of a sudden being well educated makes you any less of your race.
There's also hate between " light skinned " and " dark skinned " blacks. At least where I live.
On one side I'm first generation American and another side I'm Native American and white ( with the white side being full of abolitionists )
I'm also a red head, which is still seen as a terrible thing today, and they were treated like African Americans way back when
But people look at my skin color and tell me I'm the racist one when I haven't even opened my mouth
I have experienced racism by older black people towards me and Asians but that's all I've seen first hand
You are not your ancestors. You are not your job. You are not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You are not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.
I am not a racist, and my friends are not homophobes. However, we are privileged, because there are problems we don't have to worry about by virtue of belonging to a certain group.
There's also hate between " light skinned " and " dark skinned " blacks. At least where I live.
I'm also a red head, which is still seen as a terrible thing today, and they were treated like African Americans way back when
But people look at my skin color and tell me I'm the racist one when I haven't even opened my mouth
I have experienced racism by older black people towards me and Asians but that's all I've seen first hand