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It's Official: I've De-Volved
Jul. 5th, 2008 05:08 pmI was really hesitant to respond to the post about "Turn Left" because I know that it basically doesn't count when a white person says "but that isn't racist!"
I'm not even going to touch on the fact that my actual white-ness is debatable - I don't go around saying OMG I'M WHITE and I am not white as in anglo-saxon, but I'm not going to deny that I enjoy white privilege, and on The Internet apparently if you don't identify yourself otherwise you must be white anyway.
I get that my growing up not even thinking about race is part of white privilege.
I grew up in a town where everyone was white. When I moved to Philly, I did start thinking about race.
Then I moved here. And somewhere along the line, I stopped thinking about race again.
And I guess I can't get too defensive about a "here little white girl, let me teach you what racism really is."
But I can still say I don't agree, that "Turn Left" wasn't racist.
Racist is the police pulling over the black guy driving through a white suburb because he "appeared suspicious."
Racist is the cashier in the supermarket asking the Korean guy if he understands English when he hands her his coupons.
Racist is assuming that black people are good dancers, Asians are good at math and music, and Native Americans are drinkers and gamblers.
Racist is walking up to an Asian person and saying "ching chong ching chong chang, omg, did that mean anything in your language?"
Racist is the waitress deciding the Indian family isn't going to tip her.
Racist is even the subway attendant asking the white girl if she's lost (in Philly, anyway.)
Racist simply is not a TV show set on another planet that has a Chinatown-like bazaar where the baddie is an alien fortune teller trying to disturb the timelines and working with some type of beetle that attaches to it's victim's back. It just isn't.
That said, I still haven't thought about race in quite some time. Combine that with the fact that I went from being eighteen and thinking I was so enlightened and free thinking and going to a BDSM club where everyone is recognized and respected as an individual and there was a great emphasis on not objectifying women or men, and building trust-based relationships (not necessarily romantic ones) in order to safely play at, oh, sexual role playing games, I guess you'd call them... I went from that to being twenty four, going to bars and drinking beer and engaging in raunchy and decidedly UNENLIGHTENED conversation and going to strip clubs and drooling on women and waving dollars at them. (Ok, just one strip club. But it still happened.)
I've become disgustingly self-centered, is what it comes down to. I always have been, but I wish I could figure out when it got this bad.
I'm not even going to touch on the fact that my actual white-ness is debatable - I don't go around saying OMG I'M WHITE and I am not white as in anglo-saxon, but I'm not going to deny that I enjoy white privilege, and on The Internet apparently if you don't identify yourself otherwise you must be white anyway.
I get that my growing up not even thinking about race is part of white privilege.
I grew up in a town where everyone was white. When I moved to Philly, I did start thinking about race.
Then I moved here. And somewhere along the line, I stopped thinking about race again.
And I guess I can't get too defensive about a "here little white girl, let me teach you what racism really is."
But I can still say I don't agree, that "Turn Left" wasn't racist.
Racist is the police pulling over the black guy driving through a white suburb because he "appeared suspicious."
Racist is the cashier in the supermarket asking the Korean guy if he understands English when he hands her his coupons.
Racist is assuming that black people are good dancers, Asians are good at math and music, and Native Americans are drinkers and gamblers.
Racist is walking up to an Asian person and saying "ching chong ching chong chang, omg, did that mean anything in your language?"
Racist is the waitress deciding the Indian family isn't going to tip her.
Racist is even the subway attendant asking the white girl if she's lost (in Philly, anyway.)
Racist simply is not a TV show set on another planet that has a Chinatown-like bazaar where the baddie is an alien fortune teller trying to disturb the timelines and working with some type of beetle that attaches to it's victim's back. It just isn't.
That said, I still haven't thought about race in quite some time. Combine that with the fact that I went from being eighteen and thinking I was so enlightened and free thinking and going to a BDSM club where everyone is recognized and respected as an individual and there was a great emphasis on not objectifying women or men, and building trust-based relationships (not necessarily romantic ones) in order to safely play at, oh, sexual role playing games, I guess you'd call them... I went from that to being twenty four, going to bars and drinking beer and engaging in raunchy and decidedly UNENLIGHTENED conversation and going to strip clubs and drooling on women and waving dollars at them. (Ok, just one strip club. But it still happened.)
I've become disgustingly self-centered, is what it comes down to. I always have been, but I wish I could figure out when it got this bad.
