BookShaka
Gold Member
It's probably a good thing that so many of you have such a strong opinion about it. Look, I'm not saying all or even most white people have it easy, I'm not dismissing the hardships and anxieties of the Louisiana share cropper, I'm not trying to dismiss the very real stigma many black people have against white people, and I'm definitely not trying to downplay racism against Jews or say that racism is only perpetrated against people of African ancestry.
What I am trying to say is that, in reality, not all pain is equal, and yes, not all racism is felt as strongly. I lived in rural Japan for a year, and I experienced some racism - being stared at wherever I went, shopkeepers glaring at me for no reason and shoving change into my hand, being asked to represent my race as if all white people were like me, being harassed by cops who told me to leave the country - hell, I was even accused of being a terrorist for not being Japanese and asked to leave a bar. It was annoying. It hurt a bit. Sometimes it hurt a lot. But in the end, honestly, I've felt worse.
In the end I could come back to the U.S. where no one gives me a sideways glance, where shopkeepers don't look at me twice, and where white terrorism, though very real, is deemed non-existent. So I ask myself, what if people in the U.S. looked at me sidelong wherever I went with fear, or anger, or mistrust just because I'm white. What if half of every man I knew who was white had been to jail or was bound for jail at some point, what if I endured constant racism in my OWN COUNTRY but was told that it didn't exist. How would that feel? If I'm going to be honest, I just don't know. So it's good to leave the door open for the possibility that other people have it worse than me, even if I can't understand how.
You’re equating racism deniers to everyday reasonable people who are aware it exists and don’t engage in it but also don’t take their time to combat it. I like talking with kind, honest POC about racism in America bc they can share things with me that I can’t possibly understand and it’s okay for me not to understand bc it was never my destiny to be any other race than white. We are born how we’re born. No matter our race we live and cope with life the best we can. Just as you think a person shouldn’t suffer bc they’re black you shouldn’t feel bad for being white. Intelligent people know skin color is nothing more than biological and it’s attitudes that put so much importance on it. Your white guilt isn’t going to do shit to fix racism. Telling white people how racist they are (incidentally bc of their race) isn’t going to do shit to fix racism... if fact, it might just fuel it.
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