The Problem of "Woke Racism"
Nov. 27th, 2021 05:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThe antiracism movement has, regrettably, forgotten what racism actually means. The whole "woke" thing is performative rather than practical. Oh, and anything that quashes discussion and dissent is almost certainly a bad idea.
Racism isn't about who you are or how you look. It's about what you DO. It's a belief that some groups of people are inherently inferior, and then acting on that belief by trying to oppress them. This has nothing to do with what vagina you fell out of or how much pigment you have. It has to do with thinking your appearance entitles you to act like an asshole. Just because some people think skin color is important, doesn't mean you have to agree with them. You are free to call it stupid. You still have to deal with the mess they make, but that doesn't make their nonsense valid.
Antiracism is the same. It doesn't matter what you say or what slogan you wear. The only thing that matters is whether you support or oppose the interests of diverse people.
You want to fight racism? Listen to what people of color ask for -- things like "Stop murdering us" and "We need affordable housing" and "Don't run oil pipes through our water supply." Then simply back their goals.
https://reparationscomm.org/reparations-plan
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/25/us/indigenous-people-reclaiming-their-lands-trnd/index.html
https://unitedwedream.org/our-work/#campaigns
https://www.thedemands.org
As much as possible, support people of color in solving their own problems. Encourage them to lead. You can reduce the tendency toward tokenism by trying to get them in clusters instead of alone, and making sure they have authority and resources to make meaningful choices.
Look at your strengths and skills. How can you apply that to undermining the idea that skin color is a thing which matters? I happen to be a writer, so my contributions include things like boosting the signal and writing culturally diverse characters. *chuckle* And some very subversive classes in which I hooked some mostly black and brown prison inmates on reading and writing.
Another option, open to everyone, is shopping. Buy goods and services from businesses owned by people of color. Pour resources into their communities.
https://intentionalist.com/b/tag/minority-owned
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/people-of-color
As always, check your results as you go along. You do not want to create solution-caused problems.
Be aware that skin privilege is NOT as indelible as some people say it is. It rubs right off as soon as you align with people of color. People might mistake you for a racist from a distance but the difference should come clear as soon as you open your mouth and tell them where to shove their jokes, their NIMBYism, or their thin blue line. Choose mindfully. Some of them will be just as happy to beat you to death as they would your friends of color.
Racism isn't about who you are or how you look. It's about what you DO. It's a belief that some groups of people are inherently inferior, and then acting on that belief by trying to oppress them. This has nothing to do with what vagina you fell out of or how much pigment you have. It has to do with thinking your appearance entitles you to act like an asshole. Just because some people think skin color is important, doesn't mean you have to agree with them. You are free to call it stupid. You still have to deal with the mess they make, but that doesn't make their nonsense valid.
Antiracism is the same. It doesn't matter what you say or what slogan you wear. The only thing that matters is whether you support or oppose the interests of diverse people.
You want to fight racism? Listen to what people of color ask for -- things like "Stop murdering us" and "We need affordable housing" and "Don't run oil pipes through our water supply." Then simply back their goals.
https://reparationscomm.org/reparations-plan
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/25/us/indigenous-people-reclaiming-their-lands-trnd/index.html
https://unitedwedream.org/our-work/#campaigns
https://www.thedemands.org
As much as possible, support people of color in solving their own problems. Encourage them to lead. You can reduce the tendency toward tokenism by trying to get them in clusters instead of alone, and making sure they have authority and resources to make meaningful choices.
Look at your strengths and skills. How can you apply that to undermining the idea that skin color is a thing which matters? I happen to be a writer, so my contributions include things like boosting the signal and writing culturally diverse characters. *chuckle* And some very subversive classes in which I hooked some mostly black and brown prison inmates on reading and writing.
Another option, open to everyone, is shopping. Buy goods and services from businesses owned by people of color. Pour resources into their communities.
https://intentionalist.com/b/tag/minority-owned
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/people-of-color
As always, check your results as you go along. You do not want to create solution-caused problems.
Be aware that skin privilege is NOT as indelible as some people say it is. It rubs right off as soon as you align with people of color. People might mistake you for a racist from a distance but the difference should come clear as soon as you open your mouth and tell them where to shove their jokes, their NIMBYism, or their thin blue line. Choose mindfully. Some of them will be just as happy to beat you to death as they would your friends of color.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2021-12-02 06:17 pm (UTC)Some aspects include ...
* Never knowing when someone will attack you.
* Some people are most aggravated by microaggressions, the endless tiny stream of signals that you aren't good enough or don't belong.
* Others are more upset by rarer but more serious things like fearing for their life at every police interaction, or worrying they'll get deported despite being a citizen.
* Some people thing racism is stupid and exhausting and want nothing to do with any of it.
* People of color raised by white parents are especially screwed because they don't learn the in-race survival skills.
Fortunately, some people of color talk a lot about how racism affects them and what changes they want. So if you can find those references, it creates a more complete picture. I've looked at Native American, African-American, and Hispanic branches primarily -- and they all have very different concerns. ||
Rephrase here - I have no idea how they use this specific word, and what the word means to them. I have a rather better idea of some of the shit they receive disproportionately, and some of the crap they are statistically more likely to have in their individual backgrounds.
That's partly because people talk and publish about problems they encounter, and some publish about systemic issues.
It's also because of personal intersectionality.
- I share the experience, more common among black than white children, of being raised poor and being afraid of both the police and child welfare services.
- I share the experience of never knowing when someone might attack me; all female-appearing persons do. (So do queer-appearing persons, and many autistics.)
Amusingly, part of the current shibboleth rules is to never compare my experience to that of those in the target demographic I'm supposed to be allied with. In my world, comparing helps develop empathy. "If it's this bad for me, I can hardly imagine how people who have it worse manage to cope". "That sucked when .... happened to me - and you have incidents like that all the time?!" But in the officially correct world, comparing with my experiences is a whole raft of things, all of them hateful, and should be avoided at all costs.
Related to this, in the real world, I see a smart kid trying to do well in school, either for its own sake or to get themself out of the poverty they were born in, and I see someone like me in ways that matter very much to me. I want to help them. But as an ally, I'm supposed to focus on them being black and me being white. Focussing on our differences rather than their similarity, and obscuring my awareness of their individual nature, is the only acceptable attitude for a "good ally". Likewise, when I see an interviewee with a particular set of skills and experience, which may be similar to mine and similar to those we need, I'm supposed to pay less attention to that, and more to their racial categorization. I.e. I'm required to deal with them as "not us", as part of improving the way I treat them. That way lies condescension and charity, not anything resembling equality. But it's not OK to say that, and in any case, all good allies "know" that as a white person, I'm incapable of empathy with any black person in any case.