This... is White Privilege

Jun. 14, 2012 at 10:21am with 172 notes

Anonymous asked: I really wish this blog were run by someone less full of hate. It really is such a great idea- which I do commend you for. You have proven to be a very intelligent person, and could really do a lot of good in changing the attitude& actions of white people, but instead claim for your only objective to be “compiling” and therefore rid yourself of any responsibility. I’m a white cisfemale with SO MUCH to learn on this subject,but because ‘that’s not what this blog is for’, I’m missing out on some potentially life-changing advice via you; someone who cares enough about white privilege to make a blog about it, but not enough to try to FIX what wrongs we’ve done by simply responding to asks without spewing hate, anger, apathy, condescension and argumentativeness. Shit, half the time you don’t even read through the whole ask before deciding what they meant to say and answering it from what you choose to hear. Even with this ask, my guess is that you’ll only hear me saying that you’re full of hate and you’ll respond with justification for your hate and that you didn’t have any ‘responsibility’ to begin with. I sincerely hope that you don’t, though. I put more thought into this than I meant to, I hope you can respect that. This is me asking(in a way that could admittedly be more polite) for you to please help me learn how to check my privilege, to please be an example of how to retort and defend against racism and privilege in a distinguished, educated and “bigger-man” fashion. I’m genuinely sorry if “my privilege is showing” and I sound like an idiot. Can you help me fix that?

I just had to post this. You know what, white cis female? I’m going to do exactly what you asked. I’m going to individually explain to you everything about this message that makes you sound like an idiot, and I’ll even tell you why it makes you sound like an idiot, why this message in all its passive aggressive niceness is one of the most racist messages I’ve received in awhile. That’s right. I deleted five different posts calling me a nigger this morning, but this is the only message that legitimately upset. Now, I’m not doing this for you, because I know that even though you explicitly asked me to do this, you’ll still refuse to believe that you’re capable of any hate, and you’ll do what you’ve been doing from the beginning: dismissing any criticism of whiteness as hatred of white people. Shall we begin?

“I really wish this blog were run by someone less full of hate.” There are pages and pages on this blog that explain that I don’t hate white people and that criticism of whiteness is not hate. However, you choose to ignore those posts in favor of crafting your own image of this blog, an image that better protects your feelings. It’s easy to dismiss this stuff when you’re able to find an excuse like “oh, he hates white people.”
“You have proven yourself to be very intelligent.” You assume my intelligence is something I have to prove, and also assume I should care that you have improved of my intelligence. That’s condescending.
“…but instead claim for your only objective to be “compiling” and therefore rid yourself of any responsibility.” You put a condition on my intelligence. You imply that my intelligence is somehow less legitimate because I do not run my blog in the way you think I should. You also call me honesty into question, taking the explicitly stated purpose of this blog and trying to make it seem as if this is a calculated effort to spite white people (again, despite hundreds of posts on this blog stating that it has nothing to do with white people). You also place responsibility for educating the oppressor on the oppressed.
“because ‘that’s not what this blog is for’, I’m missing out on some potentially life-changing advice via you.” You assume you are entitled to my blog and my intelligence for your own benefit, despite me explicitly stating several times I have no desire to educate white people on white privilege.
“Even with this ask, my guess is that you’ll only hear me saying that you’re full of hate and you’ll respond with justification for your hate and that you didn’t have any ‘responsibility’ to begin with.” A favorite white supremacist tactic of mine: defining the terms of the discussion in your favor. Hear, you have made assumptions about my response, assumptions which are based on additional assumptions about my character which ignore my explicit statements, and you’ve pre-decided that if I do not respond to your message with kindness, then I lose the argument. White supremacists love to do this, because it lets them feel as if they’ve won something without even having to argue.
“I put more thought into this than I meant to, I hope you can respect that.” The posts you put thought into should be valued, yet you have dismissed hundreds of my posts by sending me this long-winded message. You have implied that your feelings are somehow more important than mine, or that you put more thought into your feelings than I do.
“This is me asking(in a way that could admittedly be more polite) for you to please help me learn how to check my privilege.” This is my favorite part: in a message about how I should be more polite, you tell me that I should be nice to you even though your message has not been polite. Do I even have to explain how entitled and condescending that is?
“…to please be an example of how to retort and defend against racism and privilege in a distinguished, educated and “bigger-man” fashion.” You are judging me based on my responses not fitting into the mold whiteness has determined for writing about sociopolitical issues. What are the connotations of those words: distinguished, educated, etc.? Do I not fulfill them because I curse? Or because I write in Black Vernacular English at times? Or because I refuse to stifle my anger for whiteness to spare the feelings of white people? Do you see the pattern forming here?
“I’m genuinely sorry if “my privilege is showing” and I sound like an idiot. Can you help me fix that?” I just did, but you will ignore it, which is why I don’t bother educating.

You know, I don’t know exactly what compelled me to type this this morning, but whatever. That’s my once-in-a-year educating white people post. Look, nonny, your issue here is that you’re incredibly condescending, passive aggressive, entitled, and whiny. Judging by this post, you’re certainly a white supremacist at best and an outright racist at worst. I hope this message passes your minimum niceness standards so you can actually read it and notice exactly how awful this message is. Also, fuck off.