hijacking perfectly good kink

Published by vegankid | Filed under 101, Whiteness

The following comment from an anonymous reader came in response to One Tenacious Baby Mama’s essay Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of Sexual Conservatism. It caught my attention not because of its racist undertones, but because it was so incredibly out of place. Allow me to break it in to pieces…

I am white, bi, my life partner (OK, husband, though I’m sure you are against the oppressive institution of marriage) happens to be South Asian, and my best friend, who I love to death, happens to be black.

I read about the white priveledge thing and it looks like you are reading racism into almost everything. It looks like this is a creed that you expect people to repeat or memorize blindly. I also think that most of it is untrue.

Ah, “the white privilege thing”. Already setting the tone as if the topic is a whim, a farce, a “cute” little topic. The essay that this is in response to isn’t about White privilege, per se, its about the privileges of sexual conservatives. Certainly race plays into that, but we’ll talk about that later. The fact is that White Supremacy is something that is repeated and blindly memorized by White people. I’m reminded of a comment at a workshop a few years back when a White persyn said, “I don’t see people by their race. I’m sort of colorblind.” To which the facilitator responded, “You’re not sort of colorblind, you’re just sort of blind.” One of the privileges of being White is to be able to not look at how pervasive White Supremacy is. But let’s move on.

Some of the reasons whites are “priveliged” in your writing (for instance, always being able to find someone of their color) is due to the simple fact that there are more of them.

Ok, now i’m starting to think that anonymous didn’t read OTBM’s essay at all, and instead read Peggy McIntosh’s Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege. In which case these comments would have been better targeted to Peggy, who could of done a much better job than myself at responding. But, alas, we wouldn’t want to disturb a nice White lady when we could attack a persyn of color. As far as that second sentance goes, you may want to check your stats. Because White people are not a majority in this world, which is one of the reasons i hate people of color being referred to as minorities. Numbers have nothing to do with it. Let’s take for example my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Now Wisconsin is not known for it racial diversity. Seventeen percent of the population is of color. But ninety-seven percent of the student body at UW is White. Why is that? Because of the racism inherent in our education and economics systems. Another, more recent example, is New Orleans. Why is it that this city that was once a majority people of color is now a majority White people? Was it a racist hurricane? I doubt it. Instead, the response has been plagued with racism that is working diligently to carry out a campaign of racial cleansing. But others have written far more intelligible essays on this than i will be able to here.

More importantly,as a white person I could not afford to live in some ritzy neighborhood. I just barely could afford to live in a slummy apt with crack addicts as neighbors. I didn’t feel safe walking the streets and I certainly felt singled out for my race (my husband, even more so.) I have been robbed, verbally harassed, physically assaulted, sexually assaulted. My husband has been verbally harassed, had his bike stolen, been mugged and had got a concussion from a gang of people assaulting him. The cops did nothing in any of those incidents.

I’m sorry all of this has happened to you and your husband. However, I can’t really respond to what you are saying because of some uncertainties which would determine how i respond. For example, you say that you felt singled out because of your race. But you don’t say of what perceived race those doing the singling out were. Are we to assume that the “crack addicts” comment is to be synonymous with people of color? Because i’m not willing to make that leap of logic. There are a number of issues that we could talk about in these few lines, but i’ll wait for more details before proceeding.

However, the other day when I honked at someone, a black male cop pulled me over, screamed at me for a half hour and called me every name in the book. I think it was because I am a small, shy white girl and he knows he can pick on me and take his problems out on me. I have had the same experience all my life with black females who have acted as bullies because I am white and they know I’m not interested in fighting verbally of physically. I have even known people who have had groups of black women declare that it is their mission to get their white coworkers fired. If you think that white people are never victims of racism, you are very wrong and in fact I have seen much more racism among blacks than whites, and it is permitted. If I say that this is wrong I am immediately labeled racist.

Don’t worry, anonymous, i’m not going to label you racist because of these comments. I’m glad for you honesty. The fact is i label all White people racist, myself included. But i will get more into that on another post. The main thing i want to say here is that these acts aren’t institutionalized. Well, except for the male cop exerting dominance over you. That’s a pretty good example Male Supremacy, i think you just read race into it. Most of these instances seem like pretty common responses to institutionalized racism. As a social activist there are plenty of times when i lash out against those with more power than myself. I’m reminded of the recent SHAC 7 trial where the CEO of Huntingdon Life Sciences claimed that he was being persecuted unfairly. But the fact is that he was being targeted because of what he represented - the pointless murdering of 500 animals a day. Its not real often, certainly not as systemic as you seem to imply, but i do see a fair amount of people of color lashing out at White people with violence. But i don’t think this is necessarily racism. I think its an example of oppressed people lashing out at what you represent - the oppressor. In my opinion, the best way to fight against this is not to lash back at people of color or to claim that therefore racism doesn’t exist, but instead to lash out at what it is you represent - oppression. That, to me, seems to be the most productive and empowering response.

The only thing that is being accomplished with PC thuggery and hatred toward white people is creating a more negative image of blacks and keeping the cycle of racism going. I know lots of people who were raised to be colorblind, but experience has made them feel very differently.

Classic. The old blame the victim switcharoo. I’d first like to say that PC is a term that was created and used by the right wing. So unless you identify with the politics of the Right, in which case i’m probably going to consider this conversation closed, then i’d suggest finding another way of expressing yourself. The fact is that what is Politically Correct, here in the US and in Canada where ONTB resides, is acts of White Supremacy. From economic initiatives like NAFTA and Plan Puebla-Panama to the bombing and colonization of people of color to the denial of Native treaty rights, White Supremacy is the correct stance if you wish to make it in politics. Otherwise you end up like Ray Nagin and Cynthia McKinney.

I don’t think that anger is a bad thing. There is a great chapter in Paul Kivel’s Uprooting Racism title “Thank You for Being Angry” in which he talks about how outrage at White Supremacy is doing us all a great service. After all, that anger is pointing out a disconnect between the egalitarian ideals of our society and the realities that people of color live. But your response is very natural. I’d be lying if i said i’d never felt the way you do. Anger is very scary. Especially when there is so much tension inherent in that anger. Reminds me of the short cartoon in Bowling for Columbine when slavery is outlawed and White people think that they are all going to be lynched, but in the end Black folks just wanted to live as equals. Granted, its a cartoon. I encourage you to take the suggestion of Kivel and respond to this anger with the following words, “thank you.” But don’t stop there. Look at why we really should be thankful for anger. I’d suggest reading Kivel’s book.

You already know how i feel about the colorblind comment.

I used to feel that men have automatic privelege and all that too. After some life experience I don’t feel so hateful toward men and don’t assume sexism every time I don’t get my way. It feels liberating to see each person as an individual.

I’m glad that you are working to see people as individuals. However, that’s not really the impression i’m getting with your comments. You seem to attribute the acts of a few people as systemic racism on behalf of people of color. I’d say that men do have unearned privilege in this society. How else do you explain the unequal pay? The high rates of sexual assault? The international slave trade? Street harassment? And so forth. I’d agree that sexism isn’t to blame for everything that doesn’t go right in your life. There is such a thing as persynal responsibility. But the cards are so often stacked up against people because of their sex, gender, race, ability, sexuality and so on. I don’t think you have to feel hatred towards men to recognize sexism. And i certainly don’t think you have to feel so in order to work against sexism.

I can’t exactly help the color I was born with. I am really tired of being blamed for all of someone else’s problems. My ancestors weren’t busy enslaving yours.

Ouch. Double Ouch. And an Oh Shnap! There is no reason to be ashamed of your skin color. I don’t think anyone is asking you to. All that’s being asked is that you challenge White Supremacy. This is a persynal challenge that does mean challenging a lot of what you hold to be true, but its a challenge, not an attack. Challenges come from places of love, not hate. The way i experience you is that you are bearing a lot of White guilt on your shoulders. You are looking at anti-racism as an attack on you when it is really an invitation for you to take action to rid yourself of the subconscious guilt that White people deal with daily; by actively working to stop oppression instead of just saying that you are above it or beyond it.

And i don’t remember any part in Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege that asks whether your family owned slaves. My family didn’t own slaves either. My great grandparents were very poor immigrants from Ireland who worked in the cotton fields. But i benefit from racism because my family was able to assimilate into Whiteness. How the Irish Became White by Ignateiv is a good look at how Whiteness has been constructed and benefits all White people regardless of ancestory.

They were actually busy being killed in the Holocaust. (Many radical blacks are also very vocal about their distrust of Jews, even though a lot of Jews supported the civil rights movement.)

I think a lot of Jews got involved in the civil rights movement because they were able to draw the connections between anti-jewish semitism and White Supremacy. I’d suggest you look into those same connections which are alive and well today. As for the Black distrust of Jews, that’s a discussion of horizontal oppression that i’ll save for another time.

I was raised to see people for their character and not their race, but if their character is shit then I am not going to pretend it isn’t just because of their race.

Are you implying that One Tenacious Baby Mama’s character is shit? Because i’ve begun to get to know OTMB and i’d say that i whole-heartedly disagree. She’s one of the most open, honest, complex and challenging people i’ve had the pleasure of getting to know. I’m thankful everyday for her presence. It gives me hope. But regardless of how you feel, is name-calling really going to solve anything?

I’m not asking you to see all people of color as saints. That’s ridiculous. I think one of the problems with racism is that White guilt doesn’t allow many White people to get involved in taking action because they are afraid of appearing racist when there are other issues at hand. For example, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. On the other hand, a lot of people attacked Gonzalez simply because he isn’t White.

There is so much going on here that i find it difficult to respond in a very comprehensive manner. So i open it up to discussion.

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