The idea that racism will die out with the white baby boomers is a myth perpetuated by white millennials who do not want to take action and responsibility for calling out racism in their own generation. White millennials are not inherently less racist than white baby boomers and racism does not disappear with a generation. Racism is a construct that exists in all aspects of society, from politics to economics to social norms and activities. It can only be eradicated with constant and fervent dismantling of these powerful constructs in place and new generations must keep working at it. I’ve heard too many fellow white people say that when all these ‘racist old people’ die off then we’ll be fine but we all know that racism is not limited to old white people and that the alt-right is littered with white millennials. Check your friends and family on bigoted and racist remarks. Be a good ally. Sitting back for old people to die is not good allyship and you’ll soon see that they are not the only racists in power.
Posting these threads not to taint anyone’s positive feelings and inspiration they got from participating and/or witnessing the women’s march, it is not to erase the fact that the march was diverse and people of color led and participated in the march, it’s also not to isolate or be hypercritical of white women who are trying to do the right thing.
Posting them because it is a reminder to act beyond the march and because it’s a teaching moment, especially those of us who are new to political activism should listen and learn.
Protesting can’t be the new form disaster tourism, and it’s also a starting point, not the end goal.
She shouldn’t have been allowed to speak anyways considering she supports Israel, victim blamed Dylan Farrow after she publicly denounced Woody Allen and those celebrities who still support him, and has taken roles from women of color. It’s especially gross she was given this platform when the majority of the organizers are women of color and one of the organizers of the Women’s March is literally a Muslim Palestinian woman.
Johansson said, literally out of her own mouth, that she would support Trump if he supported women and would give her [Johansson’s] daughter the same reproductive health care “privileges” as Ivanka Trump had in her youth. This is after she made statements like “don’t let the helplessness make you complacent”, as if standing in the middle of a crowd of thousands of women marching for their rights is the appropriate venue to talk about people’s complacency.
I won’t force myself to go through the full seven minute drivel she poured out on that stage before being cut off, but those two statements alone show the gigantic gap in understanding the struggle’s of being a woman in America when you come from the most privileged groups of women in the country, if not the world.
Reproductive health care is never a privilege and the fact that it is ever viewed as such is an affront to women’s humanity. This isn’t the “March for Women’s Privileges and Special Treatment”, this is a march for the rights which women, by nature of being humans, are entitled to have recognized by the government and those in office.
For Scarlett Johansson to make her speech about her as an individual and to even think to speak the words “I will support [Trump]” is abhorrent. It flies in the face of the entire purpose of the March. This isn’t about bargaining rights for patriotism, it’s about demanding rights and promising resistance if they’re not acknowledged. To stand in front of a crowd of so many women from so many backgrounds and say “I, a White cis woman, will support your oppression of others so long as I’m looked out for” is the epitome of White supremacism through the feminist lens.
White women don’t belong in leadership positions in movements for women’s rights, and honestly they don’t belong in leadership positions of any movement seeking to recognize and protect human rights. They don’t get it and they can never get it. They shouldn’t be given a platform to prove that time and time again at the expense of the women of color, trans women, disabled women, and etc. who they carelessly speak over.
I’m only doubling-down on this after seeing how many people are coming home from protests and talking about how many White cis women were at these demonstrations, nationwide, with nothing but trans-exclusionary, one-dimensional slogans on their signs. White women, and White cis women especially, only care about themselves. They don’t deserve platform or credit in movements intended to benefit all women, They don’t understand that concept of “all”.
I know other white feminists are going to get all sensitive about being told that we can’t be leaders in these posts. My sisters, LET DOUBT SINK INTO YOU. Don’t panic it out. If you’re a feminist, and all your feminist icons, heroes, and teachers are white women, you have a SERIOUS PROBLEM that will undermine your feminist practice and theory until you address it. You don’t even know yet how much you need women of color IN THE LEAD. Go and read even a handful of their books, and you will know what I mean. Start with bell hooks if you want my personal suggestion, her love trilogy, All About Love. Google these women. Follow them online. Eventually, you will recognize who our real leaders are. And they won’t look so much like you.
Sharing this because it seems like some people do not know their history.
The most powerful voices I have ever heard, voices that ring with an agony of a truth so hard-won, are the voices of black women, women of colour – and that includes trans women as well.
White, cis women, even if you’re queer – push your pride down. Understand what intersectionality means and recognise your privilege. Gender politics and racial politics intersect. That doesn’t mean we need to divide over it.
Whatever suffering might be ahead, it’s always worse for them. Respect their strength, their vision, their wisdom – and their voice. If anyone can lead us to something better, it’s women who, for generations, have carried the weight of our worst.
First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can’t agree with your methods of direct action;” who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a “more convenient season.“ Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Letter from Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King Jr. (via dadrielle)
How disappointed and yet how not surprised would he be.
THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS THIS.
On my TL, just now: a video of a man throwing a raccoon with anger and violence down a flight of stairs. The comments: complimentary of the man, laughing at the situation (he was, allegedly, defending the dog he had left outside).
The video was shared from a white nationalists’ tumblr page. His entire tumblr is about ‘god freedom and everything usa.’ Lots of gun memes, fake news, the repetition of ‘alt-right misinformation’ about everything from whether Obama is Muslim to the reality of climate change. Hate for trans people. Hate for immigrants. Dump supporter.
I’m not sure those commenting on this were aware, but it was appalling to think that ANYONE found this funny and decided to share it. But this is how some awful people slink into the cracks and become ‘normal.’ Their sarcasm is a disguise for not having a stronger argument to make. Everything is oppositional to what they hate, and they don’t have to use racist or nationalist terminology to put their point across. They don’t always have to post such things. Sometimes they post things that seem harmless. Sometimes they disguise their hate as ‘humour.’ It’s a good lure. They believe what they’re selling.
I’m certainly not sharing this post, but if you come across it, or anything similar – look where it came from. Look at the user who posted it. Make sure you’re not sharing something that benefits who and what they are. If it doesn’t matter to you, if that kind of awful behaviour, without morality, appeals to you, unfollow me now.
The Doctor Is Out 