#western privilege

[crisis-progress]

do y'all every think about how westerners talk about passports/residency like a thing they can collect for fun, and how others have to see it as like a ticket to a different world that is getting increasingly hard to obtain?

Like I was talking to a Canadian friend who said, oh I might just go to Europe, I have family there and I might just get a passport

Meanwhile I am having to take tests to prove I speak the language I've spoken my whole life (English) for the vanishing chance at residency, all the while wondering if they'll end up rejecting my visa for some Random Reason

[northern-punk-lad]

If you where born in the west and move down to the global south regardless of skin colour 9 times out of 10 you will be doing gentrification

[sissa-arrows]

(Diff anon) Hi! I read your post about PoC being defensive about colonialism, and I'd like to know your opinion about the subject of your last paragraph

I know someone who is exactly like that, and I have noticed that white people love using them as tokens to justify their racists and anti lgbtq+ opinions, and when they use their "I'm not racist I have PoC friends" excuse, they actually mean PoC who act and think like them

PoC who live in the Global North (myself included) benefits from the imperialism, colonialism and neo colonialism of the countries where we live.

I’m an Algerian woman born and raised in France. France hates me. France spends its time saying that the colonisation of my people was a good thing. My little brothers are the ONLY people in their generation who have a lower life expectancy than their parent (a study made in France shows that the life expectancy grows in France EXCEPT for North African men who happen to be children of 1st gen immigrants parents because of all the racism). I live in a country where I cannot wear the hijab at my job, a country where one of the biggest party was created by people who tortured Algerians for fun and wanted all of us dead. I’m not even going to start on employment discrimination.

Guess what? I’m still privileged because I still benefit from French imperialism and neocolonialism. The reason I have a dentist is because France loots Africa to the point where African doctors come in France because they will have a better salary here. I probably wouldn’t have the job I have if France paid back for all its colonial crimes (but then if France did that I would have the money to leave the country forever also I am NOT a cop nor do I work with them or the military just to get things straight).

The problem is that too many PoC don’t realize that. The second you talk about their privilege they react like white people and take it as a personal attack. Just like white people go “I grew up poor I don’t have privileges” PoC in the west will go “Have you seen all the racism? I don’t have privileges.”

These same PoC especially Africans in France also internalized the racism so much that they convinced themselves that just because they studied in France they can fix their home country. The amount of times I see Africans (from North to South from East to West) saying shit “You don’t realize if we went back to our homeland we would fix everything”. I had a friend (one of the reasons we ain’t friend anymore) who told me that when I was a student and I was like “girl we’re studying Japanese and English what the hell do you think we’re going to do?! Our countries have engineers, doctors, scientists but sure we’re going to fix everything with our French degrees in English and Japanese.”

And these are not even the actual sell out foot soldiers of white supremacy these are often PoC who are on the left and are more of less anti racist. But they have a superiority complexe and internalized racism.

I have so many things to say but people get defensive over it the second you mention it. A woman who survived to the Bosnian Genocide made a comments about all Americans being privileged and she got so much hate especially from PoC and I’m like “BUT YOU FUCKING ARE PRIVILEGED WE LIVE IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST WE BENEFIT FROM IT” anyway I’ll stop here because I’ll get angry and I’ll insult people and anyway.

[badgerhuan]

western privilege is despite knowing communism is bad they still miss the hammer and sickle in any given blogger’s icon bc that symbol simply doesn’t pack the same ice cold punch to gut to them

[nastylittleman]

[sepialunaris]

One of these days we gotta have to talk about racism against non-western people of color in non western and especially third world countries. And the frequently neglected Asian racism by general western people.

Western black people have called Indonesia "dirty," "primitive," made colonial slavery and natural disaster jokes after a big earthquake rocked Eastern Indonesia, and using photos atrocities for oppressed ethnic minorities as a "haha you cat eating Asian apes" card at Indonesian people cuz we got mad for their Murican gentrifying behaviour, accusing complains about that to be antiblack while also using racist imperialist and antiblack ideologies to enforce their argument like it gives them moral superiority.

And as if america doesnt get their gold from bleeding us dry and commiting genocides.

[scripttorture]

Hi! Can you please delete my question about if advocating against torture was more of Western thing? I wasn’t sure if it came out well and I don’t want to start any fights on your page. Thank you.

Anon, I understand that this was well-intentioned but I don’t think you realise the effects of your actions here.

 It is unfair to approach someone, invite a conversation about your own privilege and then decide that you do not wish to have that conversation. It is unkind. And the fact that you can walk away from the issue is a function of privilege.

 By the nature of the blog you’ve now put me in an extremely awkward position. Because now I have to wonder if I can talk about how Western privilege affects conversations about torture and abuse. If I do so, even without a question, it could be interpreted as answering your specific question and hence going against your wishes. I have a new ask now on a similar subject. Do I assume this is you and you just wanted to rephrase your thoughts? Do I assume it’s someone different and that answering it may result in you assuming I’ve answered your question against your wishes? Because that’s happened to me before.

 I deal with the difference between Western and non-Western experience or perception of the world every single day. So this isn’t just an interesting philosophical or cultural point to me. It is intensely, painfully personal.

 With respect Anon, do you understand how much I have to censor myself every single day? Do you know what it’s like to have to invest time into educating other people just to try and work out if you could be friends? Can you imagine what it’s like to live without an unspoken assumption of shared experience?

 Are you aware of the silences, here and now, as I try to find a way to express this that will be both understandable and acceptable to Westerners generally and Americans particularly (a culture I’ve got no experience of or real frame of reference for)?

 Do you have an idea of the things I am not saying?

 Because there will be people reading this who not only know but feel that silence in their bones.

 Now I’ve volunteered to help people here and spend my time educating others to the best of my ability. But that does not mean the askbox is a dumping ground for personal problems or a way for you to offload your emotional troubles on to me.

 The ask is deleted.

 I will probably give my limited, individual perspective on Western wealth and privilege at some point. And I will continue to expect bouts of hate mail or guilt-trippy disapproval every time I express something that does not align with the Western ‘norm’.

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[bauliya]

western privilege is new york's rat infestation being seen as just a quirk that adds character to the city. if nyc was in the global south they'd be yearly thinkpieces by whites who visited it for one week decrying it "uninhabitable" and calling the locals "brave'' for "persisting in such adverse circumstances"