An article on the Internet.
Found and shared via![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dmjewelle via her FB page.
And here, as is usually the case these days, is the copy/pasted text accompanying my own FB share of this article:
Yes.
This.
It's also why I roll my eyes and sigh when angry white people today say stupid shit like "Why should I be held accountable for slavery?! What does that have to do with me?! All that shit was a hundred-something years ago! I wasn't even alive back then!" No, maybe not, but you, as a(n angry) white person, are still, even now, actively benefiting from the society that was created as a result of that slavery, by the societal "norms" that are still, unfortunately, ingrained into that society, whether you like it (or believe it) or not.
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Also from the article: "I don’t understand it. What’s at stake, people? What’s at stake in accepting that racism exists? Or even entertaining the thought? Are people really so stupid they can’t fathom that other people might be having a different experience than they are? Is it really that hard to comprehend that something can exist EVEN THOUGH YOU DON’T PERSONALLY SEE IT?"
So yeah, a lot of (perhaps willfully) oblivious white people actively refuse to accept that racism is a thing that exists. Because they can't personally see that it exists. They don't see the evidence of it, therefore it's not a thing that exists, as far as they are concerned.
Why do they do this?
Well, some of them do this because the old white guy (and it's almost invariably an old white guy) in their church (oh snap, do you see where I'm going with this?), or on their TV on Sunday mornings, is preaching to them about that other floaty old white dude with the long beard on the cloud in the sky (note that they also have no real evidence of said floaty white dude's existence, yet strangely have *no* *problem* *whatsoever* in believing that *he* exists, go figure) and is telling them that they are special, the chosen, the righteous, the snobbishly holier-than-thou who have every right, and perhaps, indeed, a responsibility, to look down their noses at the godless, non-white heathens, even if some of said godless, non-white heathens may happen to be sitting right next to them there in their little church.
They're the ones who believed the old white guy in their church/on their TV on Sunday morning/whatever when said old white guy told them that they should vote for Trump and ignore all the other people saying Trump is a vile, evil human being, because Trump will Do Something™ about the problem of all the brown people.
Yeah, I'm saying that a non-insignificant reason that racism is still a thing is because religion does a lot to reinforce its existence (as well as the existence of sexism and homophobia and the like, of course), whether we like it (or believe it) or not.
NB4 #NotAllReligion. Because, obviously, not all religious people are racist shitbags. Hell, some people are of the anti-racist-shitbag persuasion thanks to their religion. But, with that said, a large enough portion of the religious population are racist shitbags, precisely because religion has taught them to be racist shitbags, for this to be a problem that needs to be acknowledged, at the very least. And, no, I'm not saying that it is the very *intention* of (most) religion(s) to teach people to be racist shitbags. I'm just saying that turning into a racist shitbag is, for far too many people, a direct byproduct of being religious.
Yeah... I went off on a bit of a tangent there, but... nah, I'm done for now. /frothy rant
Found and shared via
dmjewelle via her FB page.And here, as is usually the case these days, is the copy/pasted text accompanying my own FB share of this article:
Yes.
This.
It's also why I roll my eyes and sigh when angry white people today say stupid shit like "Why should I be held accountable for slavery?! What does that have to do with me?! All that shit was a hundred-something years ago! I wasn't even alive back then!" No, maybe not, but you, as a(n angry) white person, are still, even now, actively benefiting from the society that was created as a result of that slavery, by the societal "norms" that are still, unfortunately, ingrained into that society, whether you like it (or believe it) or not.
---
Also from the article: "I don’t understand it. What’s at stake, people? What’s at stake in accepting that racism exists? Or even entertaining the thought? Are people really so stupid they can’t fathom that other people might be having a different experience than they are? Is it really that hard to comprehend that something can exist EVEN THOUGH YOU DON’T PERSONALLY SEE IT?"
So yeah, a lot of (perhaps willfully) oblivious white people actively refuse to accept that racism is a thing that exists. Because they can't personally see that it exists. They don't see the evidence of it, therefore it's not a thing that exists, as far as they are concerned.
Why do they do this?
Well, some of them do this because the old white guy (and it's almost invariably an old white guy) in their church (oh snap, do you see where I'm going with this?), or on their TV on Sunday mornings, is preaching to them about that other floaty old white dude with the long beard on the cloud in the sky (note that they also have no real evidence of said floaty white dude's existence, yet strangely have *no* *problem* *whatsoever* in believing that *he* exists, go figure) and is telling them that they are special, the chosen, the righteous, the snobbishly holier-than-thou who have every right, and perhaps, indeed, a responsibility, to look down their noses at the godless, non-white heathens, even if some of said godless, non-white heathens may happen to be sitting right next to them there in their little church.
They're the ones who believed the old white guy in their church/on their TV on Sunday morning/whatever when said old white guy told them that they should vote for Trump and ignore all the other people saying Trump is a vile, evil human being, because Trump will Do Something™ about the problem of all the brown people.
Yeah, I'm saying that a non-insignificant reason that racism is still a thing is because religion does a lot to reinforce its existence (as well as the existence of sexism and homophobia and the like, of course), whether we like it (or believe it) or not.
NB4 #NotAllReligion. Because, obviously, not all religious people are racist shitbags. Hell, some people are of the anti-racist-shitbag persuasion thanks to their religion. But, with that said, a large enough portion of the religious population are racist shitbags, precisely because religion has taught them to be racist shitbags, for this to be a problem that needs to be acknowledged, at the very least. And, no, I'm not saying that it is the very *intention* of (most) religion(s) to teach people to be racist shitbags. I'm just saying that turning into a racist shitbag is, for far too many people, a direct byproduct of being religious.
Yeah... I went off on a bit of a tangent there, but... nah, I'm done for now. /frothy rant
