Hating an entire group of people for the way they were born is never a good idea. I don’t even care if that group is currently enslaving your people, it’s still not okay. Everybody is an individual, and there’s no “oppression” gene. Hate the hateful individuals who have wronged you, not the countless ones who have done nothing to you besides be born the “wrong” color or of the “wrong” sexuality or of the “wrong” gender. That is never okay. Bigotry never solves anything.
We need to have a talk about what social scaffoldings of oppression look like real fast.
The fact is that, in most cases, you don’t really find people who are openly, vocally, and violently bigoted. (Though this obviously differs depending on what axis of oppression we are looking at.)
Most oppression manifests itself as more systematic, social, legal, financial forces that reenforce marginalization and inequality. These forces do not need evil hand-rubbing snickering villans, ready to commit personal and physical acts of violence to support them. These forces, rather, are supported by attitudes many of which are so normalized and socialized that the privileged don’t notice them. This means that anyone, even normal, nice people can be supporting systems of inequality without realizing it.
The idea, for example, that LGBTQ+ characters are inappropriate for children’s TV. Or that the “way black people talk” is funny. Or that women are just naturally much better at taking care of children. That it’s ok to pretend that there were no PoC in Europe until the trans-atlantic slave trade. Or that a “tranny” (please excuse the slur) is good for a joke. That it’s ok to dress up as an “Indian” for Halloween, and that Cinco de Mayo is a great excuse to wear a sombrero and get drunk. These kinds of attitudes are taught in our culture, taught in our media, and reenforce and justify the oppression and marginalization that permeates our culture. These attitudes, held by normal, nice people, are the BIGGEST problem and the biggest source of support for those systems of oppression.
To make it simple: It is not enough to simply NOT be a raging, vocal bigot. You must actively and consciously work to be an advocate for equality if you don’t want to uphold injustice. You must unlearn the shit you’ve been taught and then help others unlearn. Otherwise you ARE the problem. Doing nothing at all IS the problem for most people.
Oh my god did you just take intro to sociology in school wow so impressive. Too bad you’re delusional as hell. Apparently bigotry is A-OKAY until EVERY SINGLE person on Earth becomes an SJW? That’s what I’m getting from your last paragraph. Here’s an idea though: how about instead of waiting for the world to become a unified utopian society, we all try to stop hating individuals for being born a certain way? I think that’s a little more realistic. We can start with you since you seem to be justifying bigotry.
Also, if you’re gonna reply to this, leave out the irrelevant wall of text and save it for somebody who doesn’t have a degree in history and social sciences. I’ve read all that shit way too many times and it has nothing to do with my post.
I like the subtle gaslighting there. Yes, because YOU, sir, don’t agree, I, the woman, am “delusional”. Good job. A+
My point was not that we should “hate people because of they way they are born”, or whatever you think it was. I apologize for not being clearer.
My point is that we AREN’T being bigoted against people because they are born male or white or straight or cis or whatever. However, we do often criticize people who still hold problematic attitudes because of the privileges they were born with, even if they aren’t being intentionally problematic.
For example, there are plenty of nice, wonderful white people who would never intentionally be racist in their life, who still dress up as “Indians” for Halloween. Which is racist. Calling those people out is not targeting them for being white. It’s pointing out that they are doing racist shit, even if they weren’t doing it intentionally. I can say this from personal experience. I am white. I’ve had to unlearn a lot of racist shit over time. I’m still unlearning some of it. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, these things must be unlearned, or you are part of the problem.
it can be so hard to get other people to realize that their way of thinking is wrong. especially if they don’t care enough to try and hear what you’re saying. it’s easier just to ignore it and go about your life the way you’ve always done than to actually sit and try and deconstruct the way bigotry has influenced your own attitudes.
it’s exhausting enough trying to educate yourself, to say nothing of other people. that’s why i have so much respect for “SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOGGERS OH NOEZ” because you guys actually put the effort in. it’s a fucked up world we live in and you can choose to try and run away from it but it’s gonna find you somewhere.
my tumblr is a reflection of my life: geeky fandom shit side by side with my efforts to become a better human being. and if you don’t like it then fuck off. i’ve no obligation to make you comfortable.
Source: thegodamill
