An anon’s 2/2 ask from my inbox:
“I do not want to sound rude. I am in America the past year or so, and I make a few friends in high school then college. I have to say but Latvians are very judgmental this is true but Americans seem very are judgmental. These kids say white people don't use spices and kill everyone and are colonialists and are evil. I say nothing wrong with how we cook and it is racist to say all white people are bad which is what they say. Then they yell at me and say I should say prejudice not racist. I do not see why this is okay. The word means the same things and even not you still prejudice are why is that better? Why argue that you are? Americans seem very judgmental and are rude. Why all have to be about skin color? And why it okay to say all white people something something but not all black people something something? Please forgive English, trying to write it more so I become good.”
I don’t think it’s okay either, like, okay, flame me for this, but I, personally, as a white person (if we’re talking about skin color, about which I frankly don’t give a fuck about) don’t understand what the >privilege thing is about. What privilege? Currently living in Norway, I can’t express my opinion about neither any issues where black skin-colored people are victimizing themselves, nor about any issues where they’re actually being racist towards others, simply because I’m white. I was told, yesterday, by my own mother, that my thoughts are invalid because the white people have hurt blacks so much in the past. Slavery is a thing of the past. The Baltic and Balkan peoples were subjected to inhumane conditions more recently, several decades after slavery was abolished in the United States. The problem with America is that racism is imbedded into the nation’s white canvas like a red stroke of paint, ruining possibilities for the artist, it’s people. The mindset is passed on generation through generation, and it’s not stopping even though people are fighting against it, trying to clean that streak of paint off, trying to make the smudge less visible by paint thinner. I remember in English a few weeks ago we had a discussion about the Ted talk “why gender equality is good for everyone - men included” (https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_kimmel_why_gender_equality_is_good_for_everyone_men_included/transcript?language=en). I am still unable to understand why people victimize themselves.
“And during one of our conversations, I witnessed an interaction that changed my life forever. It was a conversation between two women. One of the women was white, and one was black. And the white woman said -- this is going to sound very anachronistic now -- the white woman said, "All women face the same oppression as women. All women are similarly situated in patriarchy, and therefore all women have a kind of intuitive solidarity or sisterhood." And the black woman said, "I'm not so sure. Let me ask you a question." So the black woman says to the white woman, "When you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror, what do you see?" And the white woman said, "I see a woman." And the black woman said, "You see, that's the problem for me. Because when I wake up in the morning and I look in the mirror," she said, "I see a black woman. To me, race is visible. But to you, race is invisible. You don't see it." And then she said something really startling. She said, "That's how privilege works. Privilege is invisible to those who have it." It is a luxury, I will say to the white people sitting in this room, not to have to think about race every split second of our lives. Privilege is invisible to those who have it.“
Explain to me, what is privilege? I do not feel like I have been privileged ever in my life. Is this all about skin color? Racism? I don’t fucking get it. Alright, some people are still very surprised when they see a black person in Riga, but that’s simply because we’re not used to seeing them as almost everyone in LV is white. I have no problem with black people, I literally don’t give a shit about your skin color, I have black people in my goddamn class. All I ask of you, is be yourself and realize the possibilities you have. You’re not your ancestors, you’re you, in the 21st century, trying to make a good life for yourself. Fucking behave like a decent human being and you will be respected by all the decent human beings around you.
