Race and racism anon meme thing

[dreamer_easy]

International Blog Against Racism Week begins tomorrow, 6 August. Before the week officially starts, I'd like to try something a bit dodgy.

For the next twenty-four hours, you can leave an anonymous message here with any questions you have about race or racism. IP logging is off and there are no LJ Toys or other IP-capturing stuff to worry about.

I know many people are afraid to say or ask things about these subjects, for fear of looking stupid or causing offence. I'll delete anything that's obviously just supposed to be abusive, and anything that uses insulting words, but otherwise, anything goes. POC, please be warned: that means there may be annoying, frustrating, or offensive material - you may prefer not to read the comments left here.

I can't guarantee answers to questions that are posted, but I will try to respond if I can. I won't judge or lecture anyone for honest curiosity or confusion. (Keep in mind I'm just a well-meaning White middle-class liberal, and no expert on racial issues.)

The twenty-four hours is up, folks! You can still post anonymously, but IP logging is back on. Thanks for your comments!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

POC, please be warned: that means there may be annoying, frustrating, or offensive material - you'll probably prefer not to read comments left here.

To be blunt: the second half of this sentence comes across as incredibly condescending, in a paternalistic, "I know what's best for you, PoC" sort of way. A better phrasing might be, "POC, please be warned: that means there may be annoying, frustrating, or offensive material - please take this under consideration and make your own decision as to whether or not you would prefer to read the comments left here."

To be even blunter: I think setting yourself up as some sort of information resource about race and racism is a bad idea for a lot of reasons. However, I encourage you to point people to sources where they can do further reading and research, such as the links being collected on the ibarw community.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Edited - thanks.

[(Anonymous)]

.... It still comes off as condescending. Why emphasize that they "probably" or "may" not want to read? Why don't you seem to think PoC can draw their own conclusions about the type of question likely to be in your comments, and make their own decisions about whether to dive in or not?

signed,
The same person.

[the-cockfighter.livejournal.com]

Are all these issues based on skin colour or does ethnicity or culture come into play? Is the prejudice I experience, because I am of Serbian origin, of any relevance to this discussion?

[outsdr.livejournal.com]

Racism will exist within humanity until intelligent extra-terrestrials are contacted. Agree; disagree; or do I need to elaborate further?

(And yes, I'm being serious)

[the-cockfighter.livejournal.com]

Aliens will be perceived as a threat, this will galvanise those with power to obtain more power at the expense of others. Lets hope they don't decide to tidy up the single mothers and homosexuals etc... Well the poor at least:

I live and lived in an Olympic city...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/olympics2012/story/0,,2100795,00.html

And an APEC city:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200705/s1925224.htm
http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/715/37140

[(Anonymous)]

I'd be interested to hear what FoC thought of the recent South Park story "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson". Personally I thought it was one of their finest ever satires. I am a white boy.

[(Anonymous)]

Do people reckon it's normal for a white person who grew up in an almost exclusively white area, and who has learned non-racist opinions and beliefs (in which they quite sincerely believe) only as an adult, to still be a bit scared of black people?

It's not something I can control, but I know it's there, and it troubles me.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

I found myself momentarily terrified of the Middle-Eastern Islamic couple who sat on a bus next to me last year in London, and hated myself for it. Then I hated the government and media who put that sort of fear in me.

Is being anonymous on this thread compulsory? I can't be bothered being anonymous.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

same here :(

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

I suspect that it goes in all directions... if you grow up in a community consisting exclusively of X, and you're a member of X, you may very well subconsciously inherit some unfair assumptions/beliefs about other groups.

I suspect that it's worse when X is a majority group, but X could also be an isolated minority and the same thing would probably happen.

[the-cockfighter.livejournal.com]

It is normal, but it is something you can control. You recognise it as a problem you can be pro-active in addressing it. Engaging on this forum is a start.

[(Anonymous)]

Are you not confusing racism (a real problem, where people treat others differently, up to and including attacking them, for perceived differences in somethign that for the sake of argument we can call 'race') with an outdated quasi-Marxist view that sees everything as 'power struggles'?

Does this not firstly obscure the real problem as people focus on these 'power struggles' and 'false consciousnesses' instead of dealing with actual racist acts and people, and secondly lead to bad results such as identity politics and other 'reactions' that simply serve to encourage those who see others as 'different' based on whatever their idea of 'race' happens to be?

That is, does you explicitly dividing your readership up onto 'POCs' and 'non-POCs' not play into the racists' hands by legitimising the idea of some fundamental, essential difference between the 'POC' and the 'non-POC', when the ideal would be for the C-ness of each person to be irrelevant, and them to be treated exactly the same regardless of perceived 'racial' characteristics?

That is -- by you drawing the distinction, you are accepting that a black person is not the same as a white person, in ways that go beyond phenotype. Is this not exactly the idea that racists use and that we should be combatting, not endorsing implicitly or explicitly?

Should we not instead be trying to treat everybody the same?

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Race shouldn't matter. I want to live in a world where race doesn't matter. But I don't.

[thegameiam.livejournal.com]

Why exactly should anyone who doesn't sell skin-care products give a hoot about someone else's skin color?

[(Anonymous)]

Until the existing inequalities in society and culture are addressed, for a white person to say "I don't care about race" is the equivalent of saying "I don't care about racism." You cannot fight racism without acknowledging that in many nations around the world, a person's skin color has a significant affect on how they are treated by others, every day of their entire life. Not "giving a hoot" about that is not laudable, it is merely blind.

These links may also be helpful in answering your question.

http://tep.uoregon.edu/workshops/teachdiversity/idontseecolor/idontseecolor.pdf

http://www.rachelstavern.com/?p=395

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Now let me tell you an interesting thing about skin colour. I was very fascinated to learn that, when Jewish immigrants first arrived in the US, they were considered to be "black". The same was true of the Irish. That seems ridiculous to us now, but apparently it seemed natural and obvious then.

[(Anonymous)]

How about when one feels unease around someone of color, but that unease seems at least somewhat related to class differences as well?

[(Anonymous)]

Is it strange for a white person whose best childhood friends where from many different countries to be slightly annoyed by other white people who fuzz about the absense of black/asian characters in tv series or think it's special that one is present? This is not meant in a 'don't want these people' kind of way, but rather in a slightly blind 'what's the difference, we're all people' kind of way. After all, feminism wasn't started by men either. Off to think about this for a while.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I've scribbled a couple of things over at cluelessxh1x0r about this - my links, let me show you them:

http://cluelessch1x0r.livejournal.com/7021.html

http://cluelessch1x0r.livejournal.com/1020.html

[lordshiva.livejournal.com]

This is definitely a dodgy proposition, Kate. I don't see how it can help, and the disclaimer to POC is like a giant red flag - or so it seems to me. What questions are you qualified to answer in this regard?

Because here's what's likely to be said in some version or other,(the same thing said to women who question sexism,) "I don't understand why you can't just get over it. You can vote and own property and go to school now. Stop harshing my oblivious mellow as a member of the privileged class/gender."

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I'm no expert on racial issues - I'm not offering to answer people's knotty questions, and a single anonmeme read by a few hundred people is hardly going to change the world at a stroke. But I think something useful I can do is talk with other White people who perhaps haven't had to think much about these issues. I have friends who fall into that category - good people worth talking to. What are their concerns? Can I convince them of some of the things I believe?

[(Anonymous)]

Why are people so bothered about depiction of race in Doctor Who when the relaunch series featured an inter-racial snog within the first two minutes? Such snogs being still surprisingly rare in mainstream media, after all.

[hnpcc]

In one of those "I seriously don't believe they managed to do that" moments, take a look at this. I don't think it's intentional, but seriously? Oh. My. God.

Oops.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

*jawdangle*