One of the ironies of white racial identity is that white Americans tend to see themselves in non-racial terms, as the norm against which all other groups are compared. This perception of whiteness as “normal” distances all other groups and reinforces the power relationships that have been imbedded in U.S. society since colonial days. Whites regard themselves as “just people” and see only “others” as having race.
For example, in causal discussions and everyday conversations, whites often mention the race of non-whites, even when racial identities are not relevant to the story. For example, a white American might say, “This black guy asked me for directions to city hall,” identifying race even though it plays no particular role in the anecdote. When people are not identified by their race (“This guy asked me for directions to city hall.”), the assumption is that they are white: normal people who need not further description.
This view places whites in a highly privileged status. “Other people are raced, we are just people”…. There is no more powerful position than that of being ‘just’ human. The claim to power is the claim to speak for the commonality of humanity. Raced people can’t do that—they only speak for their own race.
Just as whites tend to be unaware of their racial identity, they also tend to be unaware of the privileges that attend “whiteness.” Sociologist Peggy McIntosh notes that whites (like men) are reluctant to acknowledge their privilege vis-à-vis non-whites (women). This denial is a way of protecting the privilege—if it doesn’t exist, it doesn’t have to be explained, examined, or defended.
Joseph F. Healey, Diversity and Society: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender (via humanformat)
For the cheap seats.
(via racialicious)
(via no-i-in-threesome)
Source: humanformat
If you laugh at jokes about raping people I will laugh at my fist punching your throat because sure it’s violent and demeaning but I think it’s funny so why aren’t you laughing get off the floor and stop whining I am trying to assert that my desire to make a joke out of your traumatic experience is more important than your pain it’s called Freedom of Speech read a book.
(via delacroix)
Source: tinydragongina
I don’t know if rape jokes encourage rape culture. I don’t care. You still shouldn’t tell them.
Statistically, if you have told a rape joke to a group of more than five people, one of the people you told it to was a rape survivor, possibly of multiple rapes. They will not necessarily disclose this to you; rape apologism is endemic in society and most rape survivors are cautious about whom they tell. Some may even be too ashamed of their rape to admit it to anyone, or because of rape-minimizing narratives like “men can’t be raped” and “I consented to oral, so I couldn’t have been raped” may not admit it even to themselves. The fact remains: if you’ve told dozens of rape jokes in your life, then you have almost certainly told a joke that minimizes or trivializes rape in front of a survivor.
And if you put as your Facebook status “I totally raped at Halo today” for your two hundred Facebook friends to see, statistically, you have just reminded thirty-three people of one of the worst experiences of their entire lives.
To describe how well you did at a video game.
Good job!
I know I’ve reblogged this before, but I’m gonna do it again because duh.
(via fwarg)
Source: zombiemovies
![tastefullyoffensive:
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Asians are people of color, and we too have struggles.
It upsets me when people forget that Asians have had a nasty history in this country and think that we have it all grand and dandy.
White people did not want any of us in this country for a long time (see: Chinese Exclusion Act), and any recognition of our culture comes in the form of wildly distorted appropriation, like “Chinese” takeout and the appropriation of Asian languages’ characters (because they look “cool”).
And hey, we all look the same, and all Asian cultures are pretty much the same even though they are all distinct and unique from one another.
We don’t get taken seriously unless we are smart, and god forbid if you can’t speak English. Kids think it’s okay to make squinty eyes at me and yell, “Ching chong chang chong” and “Ai-ya!” at me. I’ve been looked on as a communist who wants to take a gun and shoot all the white people in this country. The expectation of society is that either we are making great advancements in science or we are running laundromats and nail salons.
Asian actors and celebrities are far and in between, and the actors usually only play stereotypically Asian roles or roles in Asian-centric films. There are painfully few Asian politicians and leaders in the Western world, because while we are a majority in number in the world, few of us actually have a voice that matters.
The U.S. doesn’t give a shit about Asia unless it’s doing well economically, and even when it’s doing well economically, Asians are suddenly a threat to the U.S. as a superpower. People don’t like to see Asians as anything more than complacent, pale-faced geishas doing things for my “famiry honor” or a militant Red Army soldier. It’s either those or we, especially the women, are a fetish, like feet and BDSM.
Severe human rights violations are occurring in Asia as we speak, but no one in the West bothers to know about them because it’s only Asia. Sure, go ahead with the Asian jokes, but the fact of the matter remains: we are still largely regarded as foreign. We’re either flat-out ignored, not taken seriously at all, or unreasonably feared.
I am a person of color—and for other people of color to act as if the struggles of Asians like myself are not as valid as their struggles is insulting and harmful. Go ahead and piss at me all you want for being wrong about other shit, but don’t you dare act like Asians are somehow just white people with a golden tint.
(via stfuconservatives)
Source: vogueflo
Besides, I think as Americans (at least for me and a lot of the people I know) were raised with a savior complex.
beardsbeerandliterarybadassery:
We are constantly inundated with heroic movies about war, our history classes are all one sided, our parents are always telling us about our grandparents or great grandparents (or in my case great great all the way back to the Mayflower grandparents) that valiantly fought for this country. We can’t help it. And these stories DO need to be told, but they need to be tempered as well with the other reality of what war really means.
Even though this country has been at war for the past 10 years, so few of us have directly been effected. We don’t see it or feel it and we have so many ways to escape it. We don’t understand it.
(via erinairout)
Source: amadgirl-withablog
I’d like every man who doesn’t call himself a feminist to explain to the women in his life why he doesn’t believe in equality for women.
We are not feminists because we hate men, we are feminists because we respect and love men and we don’t understand why they do not always return that respect.
(via themyxomatosis)
Source: lozren
Okay, let me explain something to you. You can’t always just choose to be happy. It doesn’t work like that. You can wake up everyday and say to yourself “I’m going to be happy today” and maybe it’ll work for a little bit, maybe you’ll get through lunch happy, but every day is unique. You don’t know what is going to get triggered when and where your mind is going to wander. Some people are easier at suppressing those thoughts and carrying on normally but some people just can’t. Some people just can’t stop thinking about that one time that they tripped in 5th grade, even though it was over 8 years ago, and some people can’t stop worrying about their future and what they’re going to do to make money in the future and as much as you want to say “live in the moment” it’s much easier said than done. I’ve tried it. It’s really hard. And I constantly keep trying but sometimes you just can’t escape your mind and you have to realize that just because maybe you can just choose to be happy, other simply can’t. Minds don’t work like that.
Source: erinairout
Source: fuckyeahyoga
“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.
The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.”
— Carl Sagan
(via jackscoresby)
Source: abaldwin360
