I donāt hate you. I know you are convinced that I despise you and your entire existence and want nothing more than to destroy you and the unicellular body you evolved from, but that is not the case.Ā I know Iāve said āugh White peopleā and āfuck White peopleā and āI hate White peopleā, but there is more to those statements than blanketed, unprovoked bitterness. There is an underlying understand that maybe you donāt see that I assume is evident.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate that I have to be compared to you in order to get any recognition. Iām saying that I hate the fact that everything that I do is judged by your standard. I hate that no matter where I go, I will be scrutinized based on your principles. I hate that I cannot exist without being subjugated to you. I hate that you donāt have to think about these things on a regular basis.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate that I get told any time I mention race or racism or racial inequality that I should āget āover itā and that Iām being ātoo sensitiveā and that racism ādoesnāt exist anymoreā or that Iām not āaffectedā by it becauseĀ IāmĀ not a slave.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate that when something political is deemed unsavory, it is quicklycomparedtoslaverywithoutamomentāshesitation, trivialisinghundredsofyearsofoppressionanddehumanizationtothelevelofwhether or not someoneās party affiliations are satisfied; and that actual slaveryis consideredto be a positive for American society and Black people in particular. I hate that people think this:
is proper justification for slavery. Or that using slavery as a fashion piece:
is evenĀ vaguelyĀ appropriate in any form for any reason.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate that when a White person commits a crime it can be excused with a defense like āhe was too rich to know any betterā while a PoC who commits a crime of lesser damage will get more time. Iām saying I hate that the prison industry is built as a legalized form of slavery, and that it is fueled primarily by racial inequality and injustice.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate that blatant displaysof racismagainstPoCareignored, considered anomalies, and not taken seriously. Iām saying I hate when racism is acknowledged by White people, itās blamed on PoC themselves for causing White peopleto be racist towards them.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate how things like yellowface, blackface, brownface, and redface are still so popular and openly practiced in media and by āaverage peopleā without any complaints or disgusting from White people, but the moment āwhitefaceā occurs there is unabashed backlash and outrage against it because itās so very offensive.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate how it happens that whenever White people do anything offensive, racist, or otherwise unsavory PoC are expected to look the other way, to āget over itā, to ānot take it so seriouslyā, to not react, to not be angry, to not hold you accountable. Every year there is at least one āracist teenagerā scandal, and every year itās another White person talking about how much they hate, despise, and find disgust in PoC. Ranting about how much they hate Black girls, how much they hate having them in their schools, how much they hate Asians, how much they hate Mexicans, how much they despise Black people some more (and still think they are niggers), even going so far as to do Blackface while talking about how much they hate Black people, and holding rallies against Mexican Independence because of 9/11 (because somehow every non-White group is to blame for that)āI hate that somehow they canāt be called racist, somehow we canāt infer that the widely accepted attitude from White people towards PoC is one of hate and disdain, and hate that if we even slightly voice offense at their insults, ignorance, slurs, and abuse, we are the racist ones; we are putting things on White people that White people do not deserve, we are oppressing you. Etc. If we ever do anything to make sure they have their justiceātelling their employers, their school, making a post go viral on Tumblr, absolutely anything, we are the bad guys again because we are āruiningā their lives and giving them harm they donāt deserve.
I hate how no one considers how these mindsets grow into those of uncaring and apathetic violence or abuse, and how dangerous it can be to let them go unpunished, or how ridiculous it would be to have someone who has such aggressive, negative, harmful mindsets towards an entire group of people in a position where they may deal with these peopleāwho they blindly hold prejudice againstāon a daily basis.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate that no matterĀ how many timesĀ you are shown definitions, theories, and entire books on racism, what it is, how it is used, and itās manifestations throughout society, youĀ still believeĀ you can be racially oppressed for being White. I hate how your only defense is a basic dictionary definition that varies across dictionaries and doesnāt have any context or academic merit other than showing one denotation of a given word.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate how White people are still convinced that theyĀ mustĀ be included on the party of oppression that PoC are apparently holding without them, because otherwise your worlds will end. I hate that no matter how many times I say that White people can face discrimination, or interpersonal racism (being a manifestation of prejudice), or even have stereotypes against them, you will go to your graves shouting āWE FACE RACISM!ā I hate how you treat racism as if it is a Girl Scouts badge that you feel you are not being allowed to wear, rather than as a negative, horrible, indescribably painful experience which no one should willingly ask to be subjected to. Even as someone who has faced it, I would never wish it on anyone. It should not have to be tolerated.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate how the knee-jerk reaction of White people when confronted with jokes about them is to snap back with a harmful stereotype about PoC:
ā¦yet you still think that this is not racist for you to do because someone else āstartedā the argument; and I hate that you will be pissed off when PoC air their frustrations and angers with White people because they are ājust being racist back to themā.Ā I hate how you think comments like this:
are acceptable as jokes, and that PoC should not be offended by themā¦ Yet a joke like this:
warrants being called a racial slur with no complaints from White people, in addition to getting an amass of hate while the aggressor is excused and pardoned for being a young (White) girl:
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate that White people conveniently miss blogs like these (TW: extremeĀ racism; graphic images; etc.):
even though they are not hard to find, plenty in abundance, and all-together disturbing, and instead attack and complainĀ aboutĀ blogs like these:
It is as if White people who say that āracism hurts everyoneā really donāt care that it hurts PoC, they are more focused on the fact that in conversations on racial issues, they are not regarded as the most important, and their opinions are not immediately considered valid without any qualification. It seems to me that you donāt actually care about racism when you do thisāif you really cared about racism at all, would your retort ever be to call someoneĀ a racial slur? If you are so condemning racism, would your first inclination be to use a racial slur? Would your first inclination be to be racist?
Yet, somehow, when PoC address this in any way other than giving sweet, sugar-coated, baby-coddling āexplanationsā of why some things are bad or disrespectful, they are discredited as being mindless racists while you can continue to berate, threaten, insult, degrade, and otherwise bully whoever you wantāhaving the defense of White people across the internet on your side.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, I am saying I hate how White people can ignore the facts of active racism and oppression in Western societies. Iām saying I hate how White people donāt believe that a Black man being killed every 28 hours by police has to do with race; Iām saying I hate how White people donāt believe that race has anything to do with the fact that over 60% of incarcerated persons are people of color even though they only account for 30% of the US population;Ā Iām saying I hate how White people donāt believe that race has anything to do with the fact that while persons of color are no more likely to be involved in drug related crimesĀ than White people, they are disproportionately represented in the number of persons arrested for them; Iām saying I hate that White people donāt believe that race has anything to do with Black and Latina women being arrested at double+ the rate of White women; Iām saying I hate how the list goes on and on, but the denial that you throw only gets stronger and stronger.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate how no matter how many statistics, websites, references, and resources I provide you, nor how nice, kind, or articulately I express my standpoint to you, or how many times I revise, reword, and reiterate my messages for you, you will still stand by with your ears plugged chanting ālalalala White people are oppressed tooā.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, Iām saying I hate that you will never understand what I understand, and you will never have to accept what I have to accept, because you were born with less melanin in your skin, into a society that deems White the ārightā color.
When I say āI hate White peopleā, I am not saying I hate every single White person individually. I am saying I hate the history of oppression and injustice that continues to be overlooked and ignored by the greater White populous because it makes you uncomfortable or makes you feel guilty, while I debate whether or not I ever want to have children because one day they might be the unarmed victim being shot down, or the promising young person whose life was shortened because they were in the āwrong placeā or were there at the āwrong timeā, because they might be blamed for their own murders and deaths or assaults no matter how kind-hearted, intelligent, and respectful I raise them to be.
I am saying I hate the continued spewing of āhate only breeds more hateā rhetoric when I say things like I have said in this letter to you, because White people cannot understand the difference between hating the oppression a group of people benefit from and continue to persist in using to their benefit, and hating the people in the group as individuals because they belong in the group which benefits from the oppression of others.
I hate the false equivalence of me hating your privilege with people who hate me for existing as a person of color and preferring to have me dead than ever have to deal with me, though they have never met me. You do not hate me or my people because of oppression by us. You do not hate us because you have been wronged by us. You hate us because in the fibers of your existence you believe my life is worth less than yours because of who our ancestors are. You believe that because we do not resemble blue-eyed, blonde-haired porcelain, with narrow noses to gaze down, that we are dirty and useless; that we are beneath your throne of superiority.
You believe that simply because we are not White, that we are inferior. That we are sub-human. That we are things to be used and abused however you so choose, because we are not White. Though our ancestors served your ancestors for hundreds of years, persisted through slavery, through colonization, through genocide, through rape, through lies, and through the Hell of being a White Manās inferior without returning the wrongdoings in tenfold, you hate us for existing as something not White.
So please, understand, when I say āI hate White people, I am expressing a hatred of āWhite peopleā, as you stand as a group, with all your strikes and credits considered, because you have shown time and time again that if given the choice between (1) equality between you and PoC, and (2) continuing oppressive and harmful institutions of racism and discrimination which promote White supremacy in some form or another, you always choose the latter. Understand that I hate your privilege, and your perceived superiority of yourself against me and those like me in society because somewhere along the line, a European colonizer decided that those who were deemed āgoodā would be called White, while those who were to be enslaved or colonized were Black and Brown. Understand I hate āWhite peopleā. Not people who are White.
The Young Woman Who Took 2 Weeks To Write You This Letter
