Okay so anti-racism allies, let's talk.
I forget a lot of times that, despite masto being a hella progressive space (at times), it is still very very very white. Like hella white. And even though many of the white folks on my end of the fediverse identify as anti-racist... sometimes the unbelievable whiteness still slips through.
So when we say "Wow, white people are really fucking horrible to us," it isn't JUST because Becky Sue cut us in line at Starbucks. It's because of that, and the 39875297592789871 other things that have happened to us without consequence since we were 4 years old.
When racist shit happens to us, half of the time, we don't even *realize* that it was racist at first. We lose on promotions at work and think, "What if I just wasn't good enough?" "Maybe Becky Sue was having a bad day." "Maybe I misheard and he didn't actually say 'nigger'."
From the very earliest stages, we give the benefit of the doubt. We excuse away and convince ourselves that we just misunderstood, that there is some other angle. We need more information, let's not jump to conclusions.
Blaming white supremacy takes time and understanding. We have a tsunami of occurrences that no longer make it a coincidence.
We start to notice every twitch, every gaze that lingers too long, every word and its connotations, every pattern of behavior and word of praise and insult.
The reason white people do not recognize racism is because you don't have 24 years of experience studying, dodging, and crumbling under it.
So when we say, "Well this was hella racist," maybe you should just trust us on this?
@guerrillablack And on the topic of sexism...
@JordiGH 😪 😪 that's a whole new can of worms
Class dismissed, you may all pay me in samoyed photos and videos.
@guerrillablack Sorry I only have cats and red pandas, can I pay with them ?
@Luna all animals are good animals so yes, I also accept cats and red pandas.
@guerrillablack Great then :
@Luna tiny tongue omg
@guerrillablack no samoyed but I have a quasi-collie frustrated by goats https://mastodon.social/media/X2d1fxMBe2bpfITOLQw
@guerrillablack *sends floof*
@Alda *big ugly sobs*
@GinnyMcQueen pretty sure I've seen this video like 10 times and it is still good
@shel so precious, much thanks.
@ghedipunk ok i literally had to wipe a tear away at this one
@ghedipunk snow angel 10/10
@ghedipunk @guerrillablack Sometimes I wonder if the dearth of photos with Arctic foxes in their summer coats comes from racism. They're just as cute when they're half brown!
@Riley @ghedipunk I don't think so. I think it's just because then they blend in with the snow. The red fox is also super popular and adorable and cute, no?
@guerrillablack @ghedipunk I think I'm not coming across clearly because I'm having trouble linking this reply to my comment. Probably just because I'm tired.
@Riley Maybe my reply wasn't clear also... I understood your comment to mean that Arctic Fox photos are mostly in their white coats because of racism, as in they're not as cute because of their brown coats, but my reply was to say that I think it's not racism but rather the white coats blending in with snow that explains popularity.
the red fox thing was just a reference to a reddish brown fox coat that is also popular and considered cute.
@Riley but also I am half-asleep so lmao
@guerrillablack Red foxes do get kind of a bad rep in mythology :P
Will this do?
@guerrillablack thank you for this thread. I don't have a samoyed but
@tom such a sweet darling, this is great.
@guerrillablack He's a large pal! Also very dramatic
@guerrillablack do you follow @theoutrider ?? He has a cloud dog
Here's a kitten to thank you for your toots.
@guerrillablack thanks a lot professor
@guerrillablack
I don't have those with me, will this do?
Thanks for this thread 💪♥
@shoutcacophony I literally stared at this for a long while 10/10
@guerrillablack i went for the purest one i could find
@guerrillablack All I got is the cattes
@guerrillablack Intersectional Feminist Samoyed is dedicated to dismantling racism in all its forms. Intersectional Feminist Samoyed offers licks to humans performing emotional labor.
https://monsterpit.net/media/JxoMhvb2lp9CK0lp_BQ
@guerrillablack Same, I would have to rip some doggos' pics off some one else, but I got those two cuties:
@gourgou cats are precious too
@guerrillablack Sure they are!
CW stupid looking cat ;)
@guerrillablack Thank you.
Right. After giving it a bit of thinking (some last two years, perhaps, on and off), I agree in most cases with diagnosis.
Now you wrote:
"We start to notice every twitch, every gaze that lingers too long, every word and its connotations, every pattern of behavior and word of praise and insult."
and
"You expect THEM to be horrible. You learn every second of history class and in literature, in movies and in real life. You know they're arrogant."
(intentionally replaced "white cis men" with "THEM", to make a point -- see below).
New people from all sides enter the battlefield that was set up long before they were born. They usually know next to nothing about the history and context and they are molded through whatever education system they were accidentally born into. So they seamlessly fall into predefined ranks. And they become soldiers of the cause they had never a chance to evaluate critically.
This is how the oppression and struggle perpetuate: not through individual choices, but through social and institutional memories.
I hear your voice and I pay attention (which doesn't mean I trust blindly) because I do NOT come from an ex-colonial society and my molding is definitively un-American. :D
But only a tiny fraction of those bred, born and raised to support oppressors' ranks will ever here it, let alone listen.
I have no solution for that, I would just open a conversation about ways to dismantle the whole battlefield. US and other ex-colonial societies are deeply ingrained unhealed feeling of guilt, protected by denial and other coping mechanisms. Due to their cultural and political influence, it blocks healing of the whole humanity.
We probably have to do something with it. All together.
We say that 'Black Lives Matter'
Well truthfully they really never have
No one ever really gave a fuck
Just read your bullshit history books
But honestly it ain't just black
It's yellow, it's brown, it's red
It's anyone who ain't got cash
Poor whites that they call trash
They can't, fuck with us
Once they realise we're all on the same side
They can't, split us up
And let them prosper off the divide
When people of color talk about their experiences with racism, it is never one small thing. It's a lot of things. It's a tsunami of things.
We don't wake up one day and just decide to blame all of our problems and our incompetences on white people.
From the instant we become aware of our place in the world, we are told again and again and again that, because of our race, we will struggle. And when we forget, when we surpass, when we get a little bit of happiness, racism knocks us down again.