sophiaserpentia | to those who felt stung by the "stuff white people like" blog

...I didn't mean you any harm, but i think the blog communicates a point about racism very effectively that probably can't be made in a gentle or abstract way.

Many of you have heard, i'm sure, of Jane Elliott's "Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes exercise," and other similar seminars and exercises, designed to give white people a taste of what racial discrimination and stereotyping is like. Many who have participated in these exercises describe feeling rage, sadness, and considerable upset lasting for years, even though they know it's only an exercise that lasts a few hours and that they can go back to their lives and everything will be the way it was before.

We white folk don't have any callouses when it comes to racial stereotyping, and so even a little bit of it stings very much.

But i'm certain a person of color would tell me that it doesn't sting them any less than it stings me... and worse, for them there's no "going back to your life" after the exercise in stereotyping is over.

I talk a lot about racism, sexism, classism, transphobia, and other kinds of discrimination, and it's easy to start to think of these in abstract ways, especially where i get into things like terminology and misappropriation and other kinda esoteric aspects. But at the heart of it, always, always, is the neverending sting. You can take the sting you felt with you whenever you read a discussion about racism, and perhaps it will all be more clear.

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I'm trying to think of a way to say I appreciate this journal without sounding dumb, but...I really do appreciate this journal. Thanks.

Aww, thank you. ::blushes::

I found it very interesting, and it did give me a new perspective on the privilege I have as a white person.

At the same time, I think "trying to reduce your carbon footprint is a silly, pointless middle class excess" is a dangerous lie, and so I'm never very sympathetic towards anything that propagates it.

It amused me that many of the blog's sterotypes of 'white people' are the same as my sterotype of 'Americans' (the idea that India isn't in Asia, for example - European people find that weird). I guess this highlights both the author's prejudices (people are American by default) and mine (Americans are white by default).

huh, I always use "Asian Indian" to distinguish from "(N/S) American Indian". There I go being anachronistic again.

Well, what i took from the articles about recycling and the Prius and so on, is that the author feels that there's a culture of people who recycle and drive Priuses (Prii?) and who feel that they are "doing their part" to counter the destruction of the environment, even while continuing to buy fully into the consumption model which is a real threat to the ecological balance that sustains us. IOW, you can't join the revolution by buying a product, you have to actually change what you're doing.

That said, harm reduction is better than nothing, if only marginally so. If many people do a little bit of harm reduction, these little bits can add up to significant harm reduction. But, ultimately, some actual sacrifice will be needed.

People are actually feeling offended by that blog?

People need lives.

Me?
I'm offended by the idea that is constantly perpetuated that all white people have it way easier than all people of color, that no white person has ever experienced racism or that it isn't possible to be racist against someone if they happen to lack melanin in their skin, and that white people are evil oppressors and people of color are helpless victims. Racism exists, it happens, and it fucks up. You can't single out one ethnic group and claim that they are a complete exception. That will never lead to equality, and that will never heal the scars.

Well, I'd agree - but I think most people are looking at the big picture moreso than individual experiences.

True, put perpetuating the concept that one ethnic group is always a victim and another is always the bad guy and an oppressor is a part of the big picture. Please not that I do agree that there is a hell of a lot of racism and that something should be done about it. I just don't like seeing racism replaced with... racism.

We white folk don't have any callouses when it comes to racial stereotyping, and so even a little bit of it stings very much

Speak for yourself, darlin'.
In the town I grew up in, I was a minotiry. I was constantly put down, beaten, spat on, raped, and shot at as a child. I had hair that was so pale it was almost white, my skin was pale, my eyes were blue, and I suffered for it every day.

Not every part of the world is the same. Do remember that.

I'm sorry you were treated so despicably.

But, if it doesn't apply to you, then i wasn't talking about you. This is one of the downsides to discussions about race, that just about every statement someone could make has implicit and explicit exceptions.

I suppose it's because I'm one of "us white folks."

I agree with you, evergrey. I went through hell this year because my boss is prejudiced against white women, and is actually finally being investigated. I've always gone out of my way to be sensitive to issues of diversity, but after my experience with this man this past year, I'm no longer going to feel guilty for being white, either.

My problem with the blog is that it entirely ignores class, or at least it did in what I read.

Yes, it does, but then so do many other discussions about ethnic or PoC cultures, and I think that is part of the point of the blog.

...Racial stereotypes are inaccurate. That's the *point*. They ignore class. Stereotypes of Black and Asian Americans ignore class too.

Exactly.

to those who felt stung by the "stuff white people like" blog

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