The fact that the white man even bothered the use of the “black card” astonished me. He was an eye witness to blatant, inappropriate disrespect of a woman merely based on the color of her skin, yet agreed with the sale’s clerk actions – and then later went as far as to act as though he felt sorry for the black woman. Disgusting.

My apologies on my lack of editing.

I wouldn’t call deconstructing social issues in an anthropological or sociological sense is ‘trite.’ That’s what sociology is. If you had actually read the context of these comments you would see that they weren’t negative jabs at anybody or meant to demean or belittle anything concerning the OT. But sorry if it has distracted you.

Elaine, if you are sick of the oppressed telling you how they’d prefer to be treated, I’m certainly sick of people telling me how I should feel. I wonder if you even caught how you tried to belittle my stance and trivialize my feelings on this issue or if you do this so often you have ceased to notice. Please get over yourself. Any negative reactions you have experienced as a woman, for being Jewish, for having tattoos, for being naturally skinny, for being blonde, for being an american in a foreign country and yes, even for being white, first don’t have anything to do with this discussion. No, it’s not time to compare oppressions, or try to “relate”. It’s time to STFU and listen. No empty phrases about how you know this doesn’t equal the historical dicrimination of blacks, because clearly if you thought that you never would’ve gone into your self-serving tirade. You don’t have an edge in this conversation, you don’t even understand it. So rather than trying to return the focus to yourself, just be quiet and allow the affected to express what they are going through.

This is probably going to go in one of your ears and out the other, but as a POC who deals with white ‘anti-racists’ often, I must say just because you have anti-racist sentiment doesn’t mean you aren’t still engaging your privilege. Really do try to listen to the issues of POC and learn how we would like to be treated in these situations. To try and superimpose your thoughts on how we should be treated on us is another expression of privilege. And speaking of which, I was observing (in my earlier comment) how the other white patrons responded to the siren call of one of their own, but ignored call of racism from POC. I also said the leader was secure in her activism because she was white and thus safe from the treatment the black woman was receiving. I didn’t say she was rubbing her privilege in anyone’s face, but if you read Racism 101 you’ll see that’s how unearned privilege works. It’s there and unless you work to mitigate it will be a prominent feature in these interactions.
Side point- because one part of your identity is othered doesn’t automatically bequeath you consciousness. In other words, white female plus bisexual, Jewish, etc. still equals privileged

Also thanks to Jillian C.York for pointing out yet another person expecting praise for what should be a natural response. If you intervened in a rape, would you want praise? Or would you be more concerned with the victim?

Finally, I made the trigger observation because I note almost everything with any kind of sexual or violent content oh here has it but none of the race related items do. They could really use the labels because anyone who has suffered traumatic racial experience would be triggered by these posts. But good effort in trying to belittle and discredit my feelings on this bobsfrankenbeans and Elaine. Why are here if all you want to do is refocus the issue on yourselves? Try StormFront instead.

And I pride myself on that because I know many people wouldn’t do that, even if they weren’t necessarily racist. I think standing up for your beliefs is important, and harder to do than just believing in the right thing.

Stop with your derailing already…Being an American in a foreign country, being blonde, and being skinny?

http://www.derailingfordummies.com/