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A thread for my black friends:
Via the nature of my job and where I was raised, I wager I& #39;ve been exposed to more actual open racism (decades) than the majority of my white peers. I want to equip you with a potentially deeper understanding of white silence to help reduce it. 1/?
Via the nature of my job and where I was raised, I wager I& #39;ve been exposed to more actual open racism (decades) than the majority of my white peers. I want to equip you with a potentially deeper understanding of white silence to help reduce it. 1/?
Quick bg: I& #39;ve worked the lower and upper levels of one of USA& #39;s largest country music festivals all my life + my school was historically 99.9% white. It& #39;s forgivable to assume it& #39;d be a hotbed for racism. It& #39;s really like many things: 90% good, 10% awful. Let me dissect.. 2/?
Sadly the 10% may never change. Easy way to identify active is they& #39;ll become visually heated if you cause them cognitive dissonance over casual racist jokes, sweeping opinions of minorities, legacy brainwashing, segregation values, etc.
But there& #39;s big problems with the 90% 3/?
But there& #39;s big problems with the 90% 3/?
Fear. Driven. Passive. Racism. Be it lack of exposure to minorities, creeping influence from the 10%, media (huge), subconscious aversion to darker color value...whatever. Many white people who have never met you still get struck like a bucket of water when they see you. 4/?
It& #39;s important to know a huge batch of this 90% are raised where minorities are basically chimeras until migrating to cities. At that point there& #39;s so much stigma that one bad experience with a black person can tip the scales to a negative association with your entire race. 5/?
You shouldn& #39;t have to baby whites into seeing you as humans, it& #39;s on them to overcome. Just also know they likely have isolated opinions working against them through their entire development. Most people don& #39;t escape towns like mine feeling all Jedi about race. 6/?
7/? So strap in. Here are some terrible reasons well-meaning whites stay silent:
- They are cowed from years of uncle Jeb ripping on black people at xmas while influential people like parents/peers fail to step in
- Black crowds = danger has been forever enforced in them. 8/?
- They are cowed from years of uncle Jeb ripping on black people at xmas while influential people like parents/peers fail to step in
- Black crowds = danger has been forever enforced in them. 8/?
- Their shitty network of Facebook relatives/childhood friends will give them flak over minority support posts
- They& #39;re afraid they& #39;ll say the wrong thing even in solidarity and offend you
- They can& #39;t let go of the notion that helping you might harm their social position. 9/?
- They& #39;re afraid they& #39;ll say the wrong thing even in solidarity and offend you
- They can& #39;t let go of the notion that helping you might harm their social position. 9/?
- They are exposed almost exclusively to the negative parts of your culture and none of the positive
- They weren& #39;t taught enough empathy to validate your frustrations over police targeting as it never happened to them
- ^ Similarly financial stability 10/?
- They weren& #39;t taught enough empathy to validate your frustrations over police targeting as it never happened to them
- ^ Similarly financial stability 10/?
- They& #39;ve come to believe blacks are encouraging racism towards whites en masse and that grouping with their own kind is safest (they took 4chan seriously)
- They& #39;ve never made a black friend and can& #39;t work out how to virtue signal without that key element. 11/?
- They& #39;ve never made a black friend and can& #39;t work out how to virtue signal without that key element. 11/?
Anyway, 90%-10% is just a descriptor. Point is I& #39;ve been close to a systemically fucked up group of "heartland" USA for ages and if exposing helps 1 minority suss out/alleviate irrational white fear or inspires 1 white to speak up in solidarity, worth it
Miss my mocha mates
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Miss my mocha mates
