Comments
An_Old_Big_Tree wrote
I'm glad you came up with these, my best so far has been;
It's hokey to be white
000 wrote
For what it’s worth, it helps to know where the term ‘white race’ came from:
The Invention of the White Race is a groundbreaking analysis of the birth of racism in America. When the first Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619, there were no "white" people, nor, according to colonial records, would there be for another sixty years. In his seminal two-volume work, Theodore W. Allen details the creation of the "white race" by the ruling class as a method of social control in response to labor unrest precipitated by Bacon's Rebellion. By distinguishing European Americans from African Americans within the laboring class, white privileges enforced the myth of the white race through the years and has been central to maintaining ruling-class domination over the entire working class.
If you look at Europe today, you’ll see a variety of cultures who celebrate their uniqueness from each other. The French having the same skin color as the English means nothing to either.
And if you look at European history you’ll see the same, only amplified.
There is no white race. It’s too broad a category to ever work. I stopped calling myself white and correct people who use that term on me. Yeah, I’m a lot of fun like that!
goof_goat wrote
you could add "racists say" or put quotes around it and put "racist proverb"
culprit wrote (edited )
just scratch out the white - the whole word
So:
It's OK to be -----
makes it a zen statement
marx wrote (edited )
I say keep it simple. Put up "it's NOT okay to be white" stickers. Fuck pandering to white fragility. We all know that the real meaning behind "it's okay to be white" is "it's okay to wholeheartedly endorse your white privilege without ever thinking about it". Shut them down. Let them know we fully understand what they mean, and that it is NOT okay to be white as they understand it (or in any way other than "I'm not ignoring that I am coded as white arbitrarily based on my physical phenotype and given privileges that I don't deserve, and I'm trying to fix it"). It is NOT okay to support the social construct of whiteness.
I mean of course it is okay, in a hypothetical society that does not privilege it for no good reason, to be melanin deficient. You can't control that. But it is NEVER okay, in this society or any other, to be "white", because whiteness is an artificial social construct invented specifically to oppress people. It is not okay to be white. Let them know and fuck their reactionary feelings.
zorblax wrote
Keep in mind that none of this will be conveyed by a one-sentence sticker and such a sticker will hurt the feelings of everybody not already on the far left, not just racists.
marx wrote (edited )
You can't change minds without confronting people. Like I said, it is literally not okay to be white. Whiteness is a social construct that needs to be abolished. This can't be done without hurting someone's feelings, just like redistributing wealth and giving workers control of the means of production can't be done without hurting someone's feelings. Are we going to stop saying "all cops are bad" or "eat the rich" too? You could hurt a rando's feelings! They could be rich or their dad could be a cop.
I'll say it again: fuck the feelings of the privileged. Their feelings have been endlessly catered to for centuries. Time's up.
zorblax wrote
Hey, just sayin', from a propaganda standpoint it's a very bad move.
marx wrote
Because attempting to use "moderate propaganda" has worked up until this point and hasn't led to a massive resurgence of fascism.
zorblax wrote (edited )
Doesn't have to be anything moderate about it, but I think "it's not okay to be white" is a bad slogan. It appeals pretty much only to black nationalism and white guilt, neither of which are very positive things.
marx wrote
...Black nationalism and white guilt aren't good things? Are you sure?
zorblax wrote
Yes. Guilt does jack shit materially and nationalism of any kind is a cancer.
marx wrote
Guilt does jack shit
You're right. Whites can't just feel guilty. They also need to take active, actualizing steps to destroy the systems of white privilege that benefit them. But they should absolutely feel guilty on top of that, and if they don't, I don't see how they'd be motivated to do so.
nationalism of any kind is a cancer.
Please tell me that you're not seriously conflating oppressed PoC banding together for their own survival with fascist nationalism. That they're both called "nationalism" is nothing more than a flawed convention caused by an etymological quirk. There is a huge difference between them. Or do you believe in the dictionary definition of racism too?
zorblax wrote (edited )
But they should absolutely feel guilty on top of that, and if they don't, I don't see how they'd be motivated to do so.
I don't think so. Guilt is a terrible motivator imo, sort of a catholic-style way of getting people to do things if they don't really want to. I don't consider guilt-motivated altruism to be much more than patronizing charity.
Please tell me that you're not seriously conflating oppressed PoC banding together for their own survival with fascist nationalism.
We seem to be talking about different forms of black nationalism. There are people out there who seriously think that parts of the US should become a black ethnostate.
marx wrote (edited )
I don't think so. Guilt is a terrible motivator imo, sort of a catholic-style way of getting people to do things if they don't really want to. I don't consider guilt-motivated altruism to be much more than patronizing charity.
Fine, it shouldn't be their (entire) motivation. Their motivation should be to make the world a better place and help their fellow man. But if they don't feel at least a little guilty about the unearned benefits they receive from white privilege, then they are probably terrible people anyway.
There are people out there who seriously think that parts of the US should become a black ethnostate.
Can you blame them? Obviously in the long run all nations and borders should be abolished, but in the short run for many populations of PoC kicking whitey out entirely would probably be their best chance of literally surviving. It is incredibly privileged and close-minded to dismiss their real and pressing concerns in the present because it doesn't line up with some ideal of utopian praxis.
Defasher wrote
it's okay to kill fascists
ziq wrote
It's okay to be shite
surreal wrote
it's okay to be white yogurt
LostYonder wrote
It's okay to be white rabbit
MisterDoctorProfessorX wrote
Why would you want to cover that? Of course it's okay to be white.
[deleted] 0 wrote
DissidentRage wrote
There are a few of us who are falling into that trap, which is not helpful. With enemies like fascists, you only need one to serve as an example to be exaggerated into being representative of all of us, and liberals will eat it up.
LostYonder wrote
Not to mention that there really is no such thing as "white" - it isn't an ethnicity, a nationality, and certainly not a race. It doesn't exist!
MisterDoctorProfessorX wrote
Would you prefer "it's okay to be Caucasian"?
LostYonder wrote (edited )
Sure, if you honestly believe that you are a descendant of Noah whose ark supposedly came to land in the Caucasus mountains. Or, if you don't mind employing terms made-up by an 18th century anti-Semitic German anthropologist.
MrPotatoeHead wrote
It's okay to be you. That's about it.
GrimWillow wrote (edited )
Unless "you" are a racist/sexist/bigoted piece of shit.
LostYonder wrote
It's okay to be you*
*Unless you are a racist/sexist/bigoted piece of shit then you can crawl back to the toxic superfund site you oozed out of
MrPotatoeHead wrote
So, no one should be okay with who they are, or just white people should never be okay with how nature made them? Your comment is quite weird.
GrimWillow wrote (edited )
What?
I'll try to lay it out:
You originally said "It's ok to be you."
So I appended "Unless "you" are a racist/sexist/bigoted piece of shit."
So does it make sense to say that this implies that "no one should be okay with who they are" or that "white people should never be okay with how nature made them"?
Essentially I changed the whole statement to be "It's not ok to be a racist/sexist/bigoted piece of shit".
edit: Took out my rhetorical question, as it doesn't help and may have even been a bit antagonizing.
LostYonder wrote
it's okay to be human
it's not okay to be racist
it's not its - education trumps racism