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

I took my dcs to see How To Train Your Dragon 2 yesterday. Obviously it's set in some nordic place (with Scottish accents) so you expect a lot of white people and you get them. I think that's fine, except they didn't feel the same sense of authenticity when they made Aladdin with characters no darker than those in Beauty and the Beast. The entire cast of 'Noah' (real people-not animation) was also white despite the obvious setting.
The main woman (Astrid?) is very light blonde, and obviously very attractive. Everyone else is white. A couple have dark hair but in general they have blonde or red hair and blue or green eyes. All except one. The 'baddy' who wouldn't look out of place in 1001 Arabian Nights. It's not like animations haven't been criticised before for having dark/BME baddies. The lion King was criticised for it 20 years ago but nothing has changed.

I'm with OP. I'm almost permanently in the minority on MN. Only on MN do I get to feel like a reactionary dinosaur.
Mexican friends (poor, recent immigrants) always referred to me as Honky, not offensive in the least. "Undernourished* and back luck white girl" was the Spanish translation and they talked in front of my face of me using those terms in 3rd person, too. We both thought it was hilarious.

I think I can't be bothered with all these accusations of subtle racism in the world when there is still so much overt prejudice.

(*vegetarian)

Hang on - am I getting this the right way around Llijkk? Which are you classifying as 'subtle racism' which you can't be bothered with and which is the 'overt prejudice'?

Petula but you're still inserting a qualifier. A black man assaulting a white bitch or for that matter a P* bitch is a racist. A Latino man assaulting a black man simply because he is black is racist. UK law doesn't distinguish between degrees of hate crimes in the way you seem do. You seem to imply "Oh it wasn't that bad , as you're part of the ruling elite" or if the victim isn't white "oh it wasn't that bad, your attacker wasn't white so he's just a bigot"

The original question by OP is ridiculous. Of course "proud to be white" isn't the same as "black is beautiful" What decent person goes around saying they are "proud to be white?" Well we know who does and enough said.

Of course there's under-representation of non-whites in the media and that applies in all its forms and is clearly wrong. Non white characters in adverts and UK and European cinema still stand out. A UK or European film featuring non whites will be focusing on some special characteristic of the cast (essentially their non-whiteness) rather than they are simply characters in a plot.

lljkk you "can't be bothered" with something that is actually happening and has huge implications (it's not just an "accusation")? Well lucky you that you don't have to be bothered it as it has on effect on you whether you do or don't.

Closing your eyes to the issue won't make it disappear.

I'm not saying that the law should distinguish (though I'm not sure it's completely egalitarian in practice). I'm saying that people in the privileged class need to acknowledge their privilege. No one should be on the receiving end of bigoted behaviour, and of course even if one of the privileged class to be on the receiving end must be utterly horrible to experience. But it cannot be aligned with bigoted behaviour from the privileged class towards the oppressed class – the historical and social context is totally different.

YY Petula - nobody would wish to diminish the experience of anyone who has been shouted at, abused or bullied. But the problem with phrases like 'it cuts both ways' is that they suggest some kind of pendulum swinging evenly to and fro, with all races taking their turn at abusing, having power over, discriminating against, all the others. Which manifestly is not the case.

Everyone should watch that doll video posted above. It's heart breaking. :(

Completly agree with OP. People fight for equality and then segregate themselves by doing things like that.

Splendide it really is - thanks for sharing, Esther.

Soul how is 'black is beautiful' segregation? It's saying - you know what, black is beautiful - not ugly, like the kids in the video think. Not worse than white. The notion of beauty has to be, sadly, consciously extended to incorporate blackness, and we are doing that by stating, repeatedly, black is beautiful.

It's not saying 'black is beautiful therefore white is ugly'. Although it is in opposition to the massive overwhelming message from the media over years and centuries that the opposite is the case.

YANBU. No point in fighting double standards if it is to celebrate new ones, sorry.

And might I point out that the love for white skin in Asia predates the arrival of white people. It just shows that the white-skinned lady is wealthy enough not to work in the field, out in the sun. Expensive and rich is beautiful, not particularly white people.

Yeah, and the tendency of the rich people who didn't work in the field to be white is mere coincidence, is it? Because Asian people are only dark-skinned because they're sun-tanned?

We don't need pictures and slogans telling us that blonde haired blue eyed children are pretty, or that white is beautiful - every advert, magazine cover, film and poster does that already. That's why people post a little claim on facebook that Black is Beautiful too!

Read the responses to the casting of Rue in The Hunger Games - because this would have happened if she'd been a little white girl

No one should be on the receiving end of bigoted behaviour, and of course even if one of the privileged class to be on the receiving end must be utterly horrible to experience. But it cannot be aligned with bigoted behaviour from the privileged class towards the oppressed class – the historical and social context is totally different

No one should be on the receiving end of racist behaviour full stop.

The OP is wrong. "Black is beautiful" is fine. Asking for the privileged class to acknowledge its privilege, fine too; my first post on this thread did just that.

The OP's points are wrong but 2 wrongs don't make a right. If I were attacked and called a "white bitch" by a black man that is racist. Making excuses that he's just bigoted or a bully sounds a bit bigoted in itself.

THERES A FRICKIN FACEBOOK TOPIC

I would read "Black is Beautiful" as "Black is beautiful" too.

It has nothing to do with self-imposed segregation.

I live with a family of Chinese people. That's how they think, and I will not presume to be patronizing enough to tell them they are wrong. They are pretty white, but loath the sun as they tan very easily, and look "like peasants", as the grandma says. However, they have no urges at all to conform to " western white" criteria of beauty.

Just to understand. If I have a post on Facebook praising hot blonde male babes as awesome and the best (my taste, love blondes), I would be offensive and not inclusive enough?

Well, do you want to do that? Do you feel hot blond men are too often considered ugly, and made to conform to less Caucasian standards of beauty? You're right though - not enough people sing the praises of the blonde.

I also live with a family of Chinese people. My family. I'm not buying for a second that Chinese culture has escaped unscathed from western influences. There have been White people in China for almost 3000 years and the white people who were there during the last 150 years have had enormous influence and power. Can you imagine a park in the UK with a sign on the gates saying 'No dogs, no British' with a lot of rich Chinese people strolling about inside? Maybe it's just a coincidence that people want to be taller and have plastic surgery to give them double fold eyelids and have implants in their arses and the models on the front of the magazines are whiter than most Scandinavians but I don't believe it is.

You're welcome TheOriginal. I tried a similar test on DD (not in such depth though, just questions such as "which one do you like?" or "Which one looks like you?") the results were scarily similar. I need to do more to make sure that she gets out of this!

OP is right.

Soulrebel why is OP "right"?

Is it because racism cuts both ways?

I don't think "black is beautiful" is racist. Yabu.

The statement isn't "black is beautiful, white is ugly as fuck" is it.

Not everything single thing people say has to be qualified. The statement "black is beautiful" isn't about white people. It isn't a statement for white people. Or indeed about or for people of any other ethnicity. It's for black people, end of. Who doesn't it hurt? Nobody.

Argh terrible typo!

Who does it hurt. Nobody.

Is how that was meant to read