smashleyed:

ixas:

smashleyed:

ixas:

see i despise this shitty rhetoric bc if im racist no matter what i do bc im white, why should i even try? if youre gonna group me in with KKK members and neo-nazis why should i even care about Not being racist? if i am going to be racist no matter what i do, why should i try to be anything else? its stupid as hell

in the second part of the op, they explain that if we understand that we are racist by default - which is because we benefit from racism whether we want to or not, and do not always have the power to work against it - that helps us to unlearn the things that have been ingrained in us by white society, and that helps us to become less racist. or i think that’s what they’re saying

you should try not to be racist regardless of how people perceive you because not being racist is the morally correct thing. i don’t mean any disrespect here: saying that is like when an lgbt ally says “well i won’t support you guys anymore” if we don’t include them in everything

i mean in that same part is says that you will never fully unlearn what youve been taught and that because of that youll Always be racist no matter what you do. im not saying that if this is how people think than everyone should just be as racist as possible, im saying that this rhetoric can very easily lead people (and has, ive seen it happen) to that line of thinking since it practically presents it to the reader, and because of that this way of thinking of stupid. if we’re white, and we benefit from racism without actively being racist, how does that make us racist? it makes society racist, not the individuals who unwillingly benefit from white privilege.

i think if someone tried to use this idea as an excuse to be as racist as possible, it was probably in them to begin with and the fault is still with them. we should try to work against racism because it’s the right thing to do, not out of the expectation that we’ll be seen as one of the good white people. the fact that we are white makes it much harder.

i think the understood definition of racist is broad enough that it doesn’t strictly refer to a person’s actions or behavior. being white falls under it because we contribute to the system of racism due to the privilege we are automatically granted over poc. tbh it’s already kind of an abstract concept and i don’t think i’m explaining it perfectly so i understand it can be hard to wrap one’s head around

if the definition of racism youre suggesting is correct and white people contribute to racism just by existing, what can be done to solve it? a white genocide? racism Can’t be an abstract because if it was, anything anyone said could be twisted to be racist (which most ppl end up doing anyway). racism is a concrete. its hatred and bias towards a group of people based on the social construct of race, particularly towards non-whites. you cant be racist just by existing, and pushing the idea that you Can is reinforcing the idea of race as an actual scientific idea, when the closest thing to it is ethnicity which is based on cultural background and not skin color. pushing this shitty rhetoric ends up contributing more to racism than me existing as a white person.