When PoC say they don't mind your racist shit:
I used to be the one who said, âI donât mind.â
 âIâm Asian and I donât mindâÂ
"Iâm a woman and I donât mind"
"Iâm queer and I donât mind"
 - So why donât the rest of you just lighten the fuck up.
In fact, Iâm Asian and I think itâs funny.
You say it because there is a place inside of you that hurts and it shouldnât. Â
You think itâs weak. You think, who the fuck cares?
Maybe you say it because youâve heard it so many times that youâve become desensitized to hurt, and you accept it as normal.
Or maybe you say it because youâve made yourself blind to injustices so you never hurt at all.Â
I laughed. I laughed at the jokes and the stereotypes. I laughed because I made myself laugh, and the sound of it covered up my discomfort, and my shame.Â
When you laugh enough, laughing becomes second nature.Â
Not caring becomes second nature. And then, you eye everyone who does care with disdain. They have no sense of humor. Theyâre too sensitive. Youâre better than them. They make the rest of us look bad.
Theyâre being a bad minority.
Theyâre so annoying. Theyâre the reason why people hate feminists.
What I actually meant when I said âI donât mindâ is:
Please think Iâm specialÂ
Please make me one of you
And what they heard when I said âI donât mindâ is that itâs okay.
Itâs okay to laugh at someone for being Asian - my mother, father, my grandparents; my cousins, my aunts, my uncles.
Itâs okay to laugh at women - my mother, my sisters, my friends
Itâs okay to laugh at queers - my friends, my loversÂ
Because theyâre friends with a PoC, you see, so they canât actually be racist, especially if their friend is okay with it.Â
I said it was okay. So it must be.
Everyone else is just oversensitive. Everyone else is just uptight.
What they heard when I said âI donât mindâ is that if you mind, you donât matter. Your experiences donât matter. Because they have this friend who said it was okay.Â
What I meant when I said âI donât mindâ:
I want to laugh with you; I donât want to be laughed at.
And what I didnât know was that just because I didnât mind, it didnât make me special. When you laughed at those people, that included me, too.
And what they donât tell you when  you say âI donât mind,â is that from that moment on, you will be championed as a representative of an entire race/gender/orientation/identity. And your words of âI donât mind,â or âI think itâs funnyâ will be used as an example, to put down countless others of other races/genders/orientations.
To say âI donât mindâ is not what makes you strong. It takes far more strength to care, and address the issues. It takes courage to look unpopular, to look âhumorlessâ or to be a âbad minority.â
We should mind. It does matter. If more people minded, instead of feeling like they didnât have to, then maybe people would start seeing that there is a very real problem.
theartofmadeline
2087
gummygunk
pixelskylines
