#white guilt

[storyweavingspider]

If you’re white and/or a yankee and feel so guilt-ridden by the crimes of white supremacy and empire that you feel the need to be in the notes/asks telling nonwhite and/or nonUS folks you want to kill yourself specifically due to it, either go out John Brown style doing something about it or STFU and stop expecting those you have privilege over to coddle your immense guilt holy shit.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Another Christian cultural hegemony thing in leftist/progressive circles is people who feel the need to confess their sins either publicly or directly to some marginalized person in the hopes of being granted absolution.

If you recognize a racist/homophobic/transphobic/etc habit or thought pattern, you just need to reflect and do better. By yourself. You can't Recite 20 Hail Mary's your way out of existing under white capitalist patriarchy.

IE If you misgender someone, apologize to them; but don't ask random trans people in your general proximity (online or irl) to absolve you for buying Harry Potter merch.

[afriblaq]

Malcolm X spoke the truth‼️

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[outraged-honk]

being anti-Israel is at this point exhausting. There is one thing that colonizers do to indigenous populations around the world, they do not let them have their land back.

So when the same people who want Palestinians to have land, tell me Im some kind of parasite, or animal, or whatever racist opinion you have, do you not see you're being played?

Played by your government so you feel threatened by actual decolonization efforts, in your own country/colony. Why do you think american governments allow this "poltical view"? Saying "land back" for one side thousands of miles away, but if asked about their own land reject the movement in a second without even knowing the entire meaning of the movement, or even knowing it at all.

I find it absolutely disgusting that so many people don't give a shit about their local indigenous people, and refuse to learn about them, and constantly refuse to let us actually own land. To have equal rights, to be treated with dignity.

So many of you are anti-indigenous and Jews fall in the same group as all other indigenous populations, aka "they dont deserve land and we will never let them have it back because they will treat us like we treated them." Even going as far as handing our land to openly terrorist regimes. You all dont want land back, you want to keep land out of it rightfully owners hands.

Racists, antisemities, hypocrites, mindless drones spreading old libels and and racist rhetorics.

Honestly if you dont see it this way, you are flat out refusing to acknowledge every colonial country is against equal treatment of the indigenous peoples that truly own that land.

[reblogbaithater]

I know you must be getting a lot of white guilt asks so I wanted to see if it’s alright if I recommend some books to those askers? I’m not officially diagnosed yet but it’s pretty clear and I get a lot of guilt and fear of being racist, and these books as a white person have helped me a lot.

The first is ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’ by Reni Eddo-Lodge. It’s the first book where I’ve actually learnt what racism is—because we’re not actually taught it. I didn’t believe in reverse racism, just racism, but this is the first time I understood that that’s wrong and that racism is a structure and only goes one way. A quote I’ve saved is ‘no useful movements for change have ever sprung out of reverent guilt’.

The second is ‘White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Race’ by Robin Diangelo. It explains why we’re so scared of racism or being racist and why we get so defensive if we’re questioned or have a mistake pointed out — because we believe and are taught that racism is an individual thing and not a system. It’s also the worst thing we can be and any insinuation we’ve been racist is an insult to our whole character. The author explains that we don’t mean to, but we uphold this system everyday and that we will be racist in some way a lot of times and the only way we’ll change anything is by accepting when we’re told we were racist, listening, be willing to learn and grow. They also go over common ‘well intentioned’ phrases and acts and how they actually aren’t well received. They say that we do need to feel grief about white supremacy and our role because numbness upholds it, but it must lead to sustained and transformative action.

I’m not describing either with the justice they deserve but I found them both really powerful and informative. Even though I thought I knew all this, having it laid out and explained was really helpful.

both very good books on my to-read list! for anyone who needs to see this, these are great resources. thank you for sharing them.

[bossymarmalade]

I went to a talk/video presentation by Inuk artist Lindsay McIntyre and it was incredible, she talked about her handmade film with caribou gelatin emulsions, she talked about her experimental shorts, she talked about her matrilineal heritage and the way her great grandmother was stolen from the North by an RCMP officer who told her "you're too pretty to stay up here with these savages". The whole thing was moving and riveting and when it was done the gallery director asked a question about her b&w vs colour film choices to get it going, and then I asked a question about the uncomfortable fractured process of tracing your ancestors when that line of stories has been silenced by colonialism, and then.

And then a white woman wanted to speak. Oh some of you already know exactly where this is going.

"This isn't a question I just want to say your culture is beautiful!" she says and puts her hands together and bows in her seat. And then she goes on to yammer about how it's great that the Canadian military is consulting Inuit people about how to navigate in Nunavut 😑about how she's so happy Justin Trudeau supported the appointment of Inuk Gov. General Mary Simon "even though she can't speak French and I'M French so you can TELL how much I like her!" 🙄 and how "you have to respect the RCMP for finally admitting that they would have died in the North if your people hadn't helped them survive" and I tell you I very very narrowly held myself back from FLINGING MYSELF DOWN THE AISLE TO CHOKE HER UNTIL SHE SHUT THE FUCK UP

... anyway. Yes. If you are a white person and you go to a talk by a person of colour, especially if what they're talking about is their lived experience and history and heritage, please please PLEASE do not speak up to re-centre whiteness. That's all I'm asking.

[snowbunnywatching]

How are you familiarising yourself with black/Afro culture?

It's shameful to admit, but I'm not really familiarizing myself with Black/Afro culture. Whatever little I know has come to me passively, like listening to R&B on the radio. It is not something I actively seek out.

The excuses come easily: I have a busy life, I don't have any Black friends to help me, yadda, yadda, yadda.

But the truth is that I just don't prioritize it.

That would change if I had a Black boyfriend.

He would scold me for not knowing enough about his culture.

He would make sure my Spotify was playing nothing but Black artists.

He would make sure that books like Ibram X. Kendi's How to be an Antiracist and Layla Saad's Me and White Supremacy were on my nightstand - and that I was reading them.

He would introduce me to Black women and encourage me to spend time with them. Even if it meant spending less time with my all-white friend group.

He would make sure I was in frequent attendance at Black Lives Matter rallies - in the back with the other white people.