Here’s the list:
- Listen more to more Black people – and amplify their voices
- Post less – and think before you post
- Call in, call out, and/or report anti-Blackness when you see it
- Support Black people and Black-led instances and projects
- Approach it intersectionally
The full article goes into detail, and also has links to anti-racism resources and appendices with a list of common mistakes to avoid and blocklist resources for moderators.
Thanks to everybody who gave feedback on earlier drafts!
I don’t think it’s okay to be white, but I also think that it takes a while for white folks to realize that they can stop being white.
Sorry, what? Race isn’t something you can change, and nor is it something you should feel ashamed about/be discriminated against
are you sure that you understand the context and meaning of what you just quote-replied on?
I am certainly not sure. That’s why I quoted it and replied to it as if it meant it literally, since I wasn’t sure how else to interpret it. If you have a different, less bigoted-seeming interpretation, please do share.
“I even hate when you say the word ‘nigga’, but that’s just me I guess. Some things just cringeworthy, it ain’t got to be deep I guess.”
- Kendrick Lamar, euphoria, in response to Aubrey Graham.
There is no such thing as biological race. Race is a purely social construction. People are “white”, not because of some imaginary gene or imaginary scientific classification, but because their skin is pale enough to be socially privileged.
So, while it’s true that “white people” can never stop being “white” in the sense of social privilege, it is absolutely possible for pale skinned people to recognize that “whiteness” is a phony racist category and thus to disassociate and dis-identify with this completely unjust and irrational system.
The alternative that you’re promoting is “race realism” which is discredited fascist/rascist pseudo-science.
If you want to call it skin color instead of race you can, but that’s just a semantic argument, which I don’t care to engage with.
Biologically, race isn’t a coherent ontological classification; you’re thinking of ethnicity/culture and heritage. Whiteness isn’t a biological classification, but a belief system. Incidentally, part of whiteness is the belief that races exist and are meaningful classifiers, along with the belief that whiteness is worth defending, leading to white defensiveness, also called white fragility.
If you still insist, then here’s a speedrun: are they white? Why or why not? The Ainu, the Inuit, Michael Jackson, the Scottish, the Irish, the Italians, etc. Whiteness is one of what George Carlin called “big clubs;” they are defined primarily by power-sharing agreements between political power brokers rather than by scientific evidence. The power of whiteness has been extended in various ways even as science has shown that it is bullshit.
Also, on a personal note, I’m routinely discriminated against because of the color of my skin, along with other physical properties. I don’t deny that this happens to me or others, nor do I deny that it is a large part of our society (or at least the USA.) I merely opine that this discrimination is undesirable, unmoored from scientific evidence, and something that we should work to eliminate. I’m not pulling one of those stupid “colorblind” routines.
