AIBU to find these fb posts a bit racist?

[choochootrain1]

I have so many friends who seem to think its fine to share "black is beautiful" type posts (for the record I don't disagree and my family is mixed) however as a Caucasian woman can you imagine it going down ok if I posted a pic of a blonde haired blue eyed child with "white and proud of it"?

I'm not actually going to do anything about it, or confront anyone - it just upsets me a bit that id be shot down as a racist white supremacist for the same type of posts

of course it's not ok, i never said it was. but i can tell you which one i'm going to put my energies into fighting

Applause for squeaky. Had a very heated discussion with my family recently when two of them claimed it was just the same and they'd been on the receiving end...

Ah ok. So you're a white person, who is part of a non white community, and has a non white partner? Feel actively excluded by these messages? Your perspective makes more sense.

I mean yeah I agree, the ideal is that we are awash with such diverse images of beauty that anyone can stand up and say xyz is beautiful. But women of colour are virtually invisible in mainstream 'beauty' - ads, mags, film, TV, newspapers. As pp have said, African and Asian women have for a long time been fed messages about the inferiority of their skin colour and hair. White people simply don't have this. We see our image everywhere. Horribly exaggerated, of course, and hardly pro women, but white.

I think it's great to hear black women celebrating their beauty. Yeah, it's probably a little aggressive, but given the cultural and historic context that really is their prerogative.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/18/black-models-fashion-magazines-catwalks

www.beautyredefined.net/beauty-whitewashed-how-white-ideals-exclude-women-of-color/

These links make for dispiriting reading.

Yes rooty I am. I spend my life going to Kenya this, Jamaica that, Ghana this... And I celebrate and love all the cultures that cross into my life.

However nobody would consider celebrating British this or white that in my community - it would be seen as intrinsically racist to suggest it, and everything supporting it I can think of (aside sports) IS imo racist - Britain first etc

And squeaky it's your assumption and perception that I could never have been and never have been on the end of racism - if being made to feel inferior due to skin colour is racism I most certainly have, many times.

I'm a proud white, blue eyed woman. I'm proud that I am who I am.
If anyone is offended by that then shame on them.

And squeaky it's your assumption and perception that I could never have been and never have been on the end of racism - if being made to feel inferior due to skin colour is racism I most certainly have, many times.

Still not racism. You were bullied, and bullies will make you feel inferior about whatever you are being bullied about. That's terrible. But let's not confuse terminology.

if being made to feel inferior due to skin colour is racism

It's not. Just clearing that up.

Racism is systematic oppression due to skin color. You will never feel that because of your race. Not ever.

If you get assaulted, the police will care. If you go missing, the police will care. If you are arrested the jury will not be biased against you simply because of your skin color. When you hear something on the news you will not cringe and go "please don't be white". When you pick up a magazine and look through it your race will be the majority of what's represented.

I know you really want to feel hard done by. But you were hard done by individuals that targeted you. Not be society at large.

squeaky I'm nodding along with everything you say here... How would you respond to the idea that white people in SA now face 'racism' and are discriminated against in job applications etc? Because I know exactly what I feel about that, but can't make the argument come out right!

Seriously fucked up thinking that being assaulted because of your race could ever not be racism or that being belittled for your sex could ever not be sexism.

Wow.

TOSN if it is positive discrimination in favour of black people then you might call it "redressing the balance"

Racism is systematic oppression due to skin color. You will never feel that because of your race. Not ever.

Rubbish. I said it once and will say it again:

Racism swings BOTH ways.
And anybody who disagrees is living in a bubble.

i have never knowingly behaved in a racist way towards anyone, but i am sure that i will have benefited from racism due to the privileges attached to being white. while i do my best to acknowledge and avoid this privilege, i am sure that i have unknowingly received more resources than a BME person, had my voice heard over and above a BME person, had my needs met more readily etc

Totally agree 100% with sweet

a BME person discriminating against a white person simply isn't equivalent

TheOriginalSteamingNit

I don't know enough about SA politics to form an opinion, their history with race is complicated and intense.

My gut says that they're just getting their privilege revoked and put on the same playing field as everyone else. No longer having an advantage isn't being discriminated against, it's giving someone else the same advantage you now have.

If the majority of job holders are white, then I think hiring more black people is good for representation and equaling out the work force. Ideally you'd go off skill and interview process, but if you've got a workforce that is majority male and a female is equal to a male applicant, it's good to get a female in there to get fresh perspectives and ideas. Too much of the same causes stagnation.

But on a personal level, being out of a job isn't fun for anyone...

sweet I think anyone who thinks racism 'cuts both ways' is living in a bubble, frankly.
squeaky thanks for your thoughts; as you say, it's a complicated story there! But I agree with you re privilege etc

Racism swings BOTH ways.
And anybody who disagrees is living in a bubble.

Fine.

Show me one example where is a missing black girl made media headlines and national outcry, and you know her name. I'm only asking for one.

What letter and sweet said

What a strange example.

Actually, I can think of 200 girls that made media healines recently.

(shot yerself in the foot with that one).

Show me one example where is a missing black girl made media headlines and national outcry, and you know her name. I'm only asking for one

Actually, I can think of 200 girls that made media healines recently.

Oops my mistake - make that 300.

An example? Of this media headline:

www.nbcnews.com/storyline/missing-nigeria-schoolgirls

I think it's quite a good example. WOC are paid less but you will always be able to come up with an example of a well paid successful WOC. WOC are under-represented in the media but everyone has heard of Moira Stewart. You can always find examples of powerful members of subordinate classes to 'prove' that oppression doesn't exist. Black missing women and girls are pretty much invisible. The counting dead women project often can't even get a photo of BME murder victims. I don't know what the stats are in UK but in the USA 40% of missing women are black but missing white women get 80% of media coverage.

Victoria Climbé was a pretty big one.

Also, I cringe at paedophiles while watching the news as they're always white, as far as I've noticed.

Wonder what Barack Obama makes of that?