First off, my race doesn't matter. Secondly, I never said I speak for people of color. I said "In my Experience." I hate this notion that white people can't have opinions on social issues.
It's as much up to me as anybody else. I won't be discounted because you think I don't have the right skin color to have a valid opinion.
> There is something resembling a consensus among black people
I doubt you have any reliable way of knowing whether your claim is true, but it wouldn't matter if it was. I simply don't respect your, or anyone else's, racist notions about what skin colors entitle the wearer to say certain words, any more than I would respect racist notions about who gets to use which drinking fountain.
I have no desire to say that word, but if I want to use it, I will, as is my right as a human, and if someone wants to persecute me because they think my skin color does not authorize me to that word, that is their own racist, neo tribalist, re-segregationist thing, and nothing I've done wrong.
> The statement "Black Lives Matter" offends me, because it makes the assumption that because I'm not black, I don't think black lives matter, and therefore have to be told that they do.
Well, I'm not. This is nothing but a load of racist and intersectionalist tripe uttered by a brainwashed zealot who starts her twitter bio with a preferred pronoun. It represents a lot of what went wrong between the 90's and now. The solution to these problems might just be to a) totally ignore these self-proclaimed representatives of 'oppressed' groups and b) do exactly those things which they don't want you to do. Yes, white people have just as much right to speak their minds as people of any other skin colour. The thing is, skin colour does not a person make, nor does any other inalienable characteristic. It is the content which matters, not the container that content is carried in.
So be gone, you person of pronouns. Shed your intersectionalist skin and you'll be welcomed back, keep it and prepare for a life of loneliness behind your barricades.
So his opinion should be dismissed 'cuz he's white? It's a topic where white people aren't allowed to talk about, except if we wish to talk in politically correct platitudes?
I agree with you that racism is still a real problem and that k33n's comment seems somewhat out of touch. However, what you say is tantamount to "shut up because you're white", and that's not cool either.
You actually went to the trouble of looking up his race in order to make your point. Think about that for a second. You looked up his race in order make a judgement about what he wrote. Didn't your irony detectors go off at that point?
That first sentence, man. Like, I feel bad second guessing people, in some ways it's not my right -- but it so feels like the kind of "respectability" talk I used to say out of what I thought was "the truth," but now realize it was a sort of habitual way to defuse the room.
So I will state clearly -- yes, I am aware my opinions are absolutely related to my skin color and that's precisely why you all need to pay special attention to them. Not because of some sort of silly inherent genetic thing, but because I have experiences that many of you don't.
Who made you the spokesman for every non-white in America? You're no more qualified to speak on their behalf than amylene. You certainly have no justification for writing off his arguments with "You are white, right?" That's called racism.
My take was that it was a racist comment, its as if OP was implying that non-whites are less likely to do something about it. Either way, I also hated it. Why do people always, always have to bring race into everything lately?
I find it extremely condescending to say you understand and empathize with something you have no direct experience with. Like put your money with your mouth is. Instead of telling people to live a certain way, live that way yourself and get back to me. Imagine we were talking about something else, say race, instead of of child rearing. Would you really consider the opinion of a white person saying “I understand the experience of black people in America because I have a lot of black friends” valid? Sounds pretty crazy to me.
My changing my tech terminology isn't going to fix systemic racial tensions. It's not going to fix white officers getting away with killing unarmed black civilians. It's not going to fix the mass incarceration of black males due to broken public policy over the last few decades. It's not going to fix systemic policy issues that lead to a higher chance of poverty for minorities, preventing class mobility.
Pick the right fight. How many man hours have we all wasted on this discussion already?
My time is valuable. Through my dollars earned I contribute to positive social change wherever possible. What's your contribution besides berating me?
> Cry "dogwhistle" all you want, but skin color has nothing to do with this story
Then don’t mention the skin color in the first place. I wouldn’t have replied if the two comments above me didn’t paint this as a racial issue by specifically mentioning this was an issue for middle class white people and not just middle class people.
To return to my original point: there seems to be
an underlying worry that the people we should be
listening to about race are incapable of nuanced
conversation, either nuance of tone or nuance of
content, which strikes me as nakedly racist.
Nobody is suggesting that any group of people is intrinsically incapable of nuanced conversation. If they did, they would be profoundly (factually and morally) wrong.
What is being suggested that, yes, some individuals and groups are experiencing circumstances that -- while not as exigent as being trapped in a burning building -- are something like that.
Certainly, if I or my loved ones personally experienced police brutality, or if it was a common enough experience for people in my area who looked like me, and it was a real possibility that I faced every day... it would of course be challenging for me to discuss it in a nuanced way. I do not feel this would represent some sort of weakness intrinsic to my race.
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