Comments | pullthestars: (без темы)

pullthestars

(Untitled)

Jul 19, 2009 17:22

I think that I would be more willing to listen to people talking about Race!Fail and white privilege if it wasn't for the fact that those who talk about it the most are SO condescending. When you (the ubiquitous you, of course) insist on insulting the people you are trying to convince of your rightness, they will stop listening.

Really.

Comments 8

SO PEDANTIC, part the first. angrylemur July 20 2009, 02:08:10 UTC

Um. Differing and largely unpopular opinion! OH NOEZ ( ... )

SO PEDANTIC, part the second. angrylemur July 20 2009, 02:10:15 UTC

ANYWAY. Re: condescension equaling "I don't have to listen to you": All I can really say is, I find a good thing to keep in mind is that the requests being made on the part of the more marginalized people are not along the lines of "make me a sandwich!" but rather along the lines of "stop standing on my face!" - if that makes sense. There is an urgency there, as what is going on is painful, triggering, and oppressive for a lot of people. I find it very easy to relate to the anger that results of that pain, and, as Leonard Cohen once said, feeling anger is often the first step to healing in women. I'd extrapolate that it is the first step to healing for many marginalized people, including those who are marginalized by racism - that it's natural and deserves to not be invalidated by white people writing it off as condescension and saying, "I don't have to listen to you because you're so mean ( ... )

Re: SO PEDANTIC, part the second. pullthestars July 20 2009, 02:45:31 UTC

HAI LAURA.

don't apologize, sweetie. I don't mind :)

So far, the people that I've experienced this condescension with are all white people. And it comes across as, "I'm fully aware of all of my white privilege and you OBVIOUSLY are not, and thusly I am Better Than You."

Which honestly makes me want to punch them in the face.

Mind you, this is the internet, and as I have yet to perfect my Mind Reading Technique (SOON, MY CHILDREN), I could be reading more into than what is there.

But I really don't think it's that difficult to have a reasonable and respectful conversation and discussion between two people!

And I'm not saying it's what's making people stop listening and continue with their racist ways. It's what's making ME want to punch certain folks in the noggin.

And here, have a redonkulously cute kitteh.

Re: SO PEDANTIC, part the second. angrylemur July 20 2009, 04:09:34 UTC

Ah. Well, speaking again from my own experience, I have frequently felt really goddamn frustrated with other white people when confronted with "Privilege Is Not An Issue Because I Say It's Not, So There" and it's hard for me to know how to deal with that, sometimes. Especially since there is this weird thing with whiteness, where sometimes other white people think that because I'm white it's "safe" to express weird, racist things to me, and then it's like, UM, ACTUALLY, NO, GO AWAY ( ... )

Thread 7

candidgamera July 20 2009, 13:13:40 UTC

Some folks talk about those things to leverage themselves above other people to boost their own self-esteem. The condescension is an inevitable by-product.