For those of you that think ‘all lives matter’ heres a quick and easy explanation

[TeddyIsaHe]

MN can be extremely racist at times, most posters that have been here for a while will know this.

All lives can’t matter until black lives do. It’s something we ALL need to understand and I think this makes it very easy for people to grasp.

OP - I thought what you posted was pretty clear. That is wasn’t to so many posters says so much

Dave's song 'Black' is an astonishing description of why Black Lives Matter is needed and what white privilege is.

This is his performance at the Brits

Try telling a white person who was abused their whole childhood, vulnerable and then abused as an adult that they have white privilege!

Well, I am a white person who was abused my whole childhood and up until I was 30 and I absolutely admit I have white privilege!

White privilege doesn't mean that we sail through life with no struggles, it means that we are not automatically suspected of wrong doing or being inferior simply because the colour of our skin. I didn't choose to be born white just as someone doesn't choose to be born black, the whole point is it SHOULD NOT matter!
The BLM movement is pointing out an inequality and if people find that offensive perhaps they should be questioning why they find equality offensive?

The case of George Floyd is by no way a one off or an exception, its just that it is being recorded and seen by a wider audience these days. Denying it does not change the fact it exists.

@ThumbWitchesAbroad
Trayvon Martin was not shot by a cop. You can't even be bothered to get basic facts straight?

Try telling a white person who was abused their whole childhood, vulnerable and then abused as an adult that they have white privilege

You really don't get it do you.

Please stop yapping, Yappity, it’s painful for even me to read. And I’m white!

Nobody likes to be told they’ve got it easier than someone else. White people can be dealt some very hard cards in life. But they aren’t the victims of systematic racism that can touch every area of life. They - we - just aren’t. And as we can’t understand it, we need to listen to what POC are saying if anything is ever going to change. Not tell them that they are wrong about their own lives and experiences!

@TotalFlustercuck
*youtu.be/4K5fbQ1-zps

This always resonated with me*
I like this video but I do wonder if using this kind of video as part of the Black Lives Matter movement is slightly problematic.

I grew up in a predominately white, working class town with a lot of poverty. I imagine that a relatively high proportion of the white kids from my school would struggle to get off the start line too using the statements (or UK equivalents) read out during this video.

Structural inequality is rife in our society and exists in all kinds of areas including religion, sex and socio-economic background. This video in my opinion focuses on the latter and will be highly relevant and relatable to anyone growing up poor and dealing with the inevitable hardships and issues this creates. It is not necessarily a race issue, although of course I accept that some races may be worse affected by others.

I guess my point is that the Black Lives Matter movements wants to focus minds and attention on racism and by extension white privilege. Videos like this inevitably broaden the discussion as people of different races identify with the fundamentally socio-economic inequality being highlighted.

OP - I thought what you posted was pretty clear. That is wasn’t to so many posters says so much

This has to be ironic.

I have always felt strongly that we need equality so I do, despite being white, come on to these threads. Sometimes they do not necessarily foster understanding with white people but instead put them off - make them think it is a bit dangerous to discuss the issues or nothing that we say can ever be right and that kind of thing but we should keep building bridges with people of all kinds.

If you took my mother's originally Irish immigrant mining family in NE England I am sure their core principles being Catholic and based on the Bible that all people are equal always won out but I agree with Bumpity above that in some ways in the UK class is our bigger divide, not race. My sons were at a private school where most boys were not white - we certainly in London have a large number of fairly well off and in some ways posh non white boys including black boys. Their parents are very sensible in in some cases putting every last penny into a private education as did Diane Abbott. I am not saying that and perhaps the accent that goes with it in England is then a pass card into high paid jobs where you work with more educated people who tend to be less likely to discriminate always works but there is certainly a huge keenness in City firms etc to get a better ethnic mix so if someone is well spoken and thus fits with the clients and black that is a useful person to hire on a lot of grounds as well as the fact they will have the stellar exam results which are only the starting point to getting those much fought after positions.

@Xenia, what does your experience of the pupils at yours sons school and their success have to do with this issue? I think you're failing to understand the problem.

I'm a white middle aged woman, well aware of my privilege. I think the most helpful thing white anti racists can do is keep their unconscious bias in check.

Xenia is making sure to shoehorn in the fact (assumed) she’s minted 🤷🏼‍♀️

I can remember seeing the video posted above on here ages ago and by hod it was sad. Seeing the kids faces destroyed me. The ones stuck at the start line looking angry, resentful, upset, the ones gleefully moving forward until it started to dawn on them what it was all about and then feeling embarrassed and guilty.

So powerful.

@ItsLateHumpty

Xenia is making sure to shoehorn in the fact (assumed) she’s minted 🤷🏼‍♀️

And that Diane was a sensible ‘black’ because she could afford private education, those who can’t aren’t sensible therefore their lack of privilege is their own doing.

@Xenia, what a ridiculous post. Catholics, Irish or otherwise, have historically had no more investment in racial or other equality than anyone else, and have very little interest in the Bible compared to say, the C of E and other Protestant denominations. If you knew anything at all about Irish immigrant history in the UK, you would be aware that there were significant clashes and tensions between Irish immigrants and Caribbean ones. It is highly unlikely your family were magically immune, but well done on highlighting your immigrant roots.

And as for the rest of your post — are you actually suggesting racism evaporates if you’re sufficiently ‘posh’, so that all those silly black parents need to do is put ‘every last penny into a private education’ and call their children Tristan and Charlotte to magic their way into high-salary jobs where the well-paid frolic in a colour-blind nirvana?

The house on fire analogy is helpful. All lives matter when it is life or death. In a catastrophe like a fire, all lives need saving and are equal. I think people have misunderstood the movement when they say all lives, and mean it like this. Black rights matter, right now.

And that Diane was a sensible ‘black’ because she could afford private education, those who can’t aren’t sensible therefore their lack of privilege is their own doing.

Good point, well made! Guess it’s also a nice bit of tokenism re “... posh non white boys including black boys. Their parents are very sensible...” Can’t possibly be racist dontcha know.

I find these threads unsettling, especially compared to those around living as a woman in a dangerous patriarchal society.

Over the past few years, I have had many conversations with male friends about the ways our society has affected my life, from assaults through to workplace harassment and every day sexism - and how pissed off I have been every man I speak to seems to live in ignorance that this happens at all, or that they could do something about it.

The sexism I experience (and I'm guessing most woman have experienced) pales in comparison to what non-white people experience, at a higher frequency and with worse consequences.

We have lots of battles to win to achieve something close to equality in the country, or any other. But right now, tying it back to the second analogy in this thread - the black house is engulfed in a raging fire. It's not much to point our hoses in their direction.

And with regards to white privilege for posters like Yappity. Yes, there will be some black people who have life better than some white people. But white privilege is when you compare identical circumstances, where the only differentiator is race, and yeah - the white person is better off. The white person is more likely to get the help they need, more likely to be taken seriously by police, and more likely to rebuild a life after a tragedy.

Xenia bleating on about private schools in London is the epitome of white privilege. I’d laugh if it wasn’t so sickening and tone deaf in this current climate.

@YappityYapYap

”A black judge for example will certainly receive more respect and support if they need it than a white bin man.”

Given that only 1% of U.K. court judges are black, that’s a ridiculous thing to say. I’m not even going to pass comment on the rest.

It is not the job of black people to “foster understanding” or “build bridges” with white people. Xenia’s post relies on stereotypes of the “good black” and puts responsibility on the victim to police their own behaviour.

That’s like saying women need to only talk about rape and misogyny in a sweet, gentle way, to avoid pissing off men.

Jesus fucking hell some posters really think being told white privilege exists means they’re being accused of being a white supremacist.

What actually is wrong with some people.

God @Xenia I've heard you talk some shit but really?

"Their parents are very sensible in in some cases putting every last penny into a private education as did Diane Abbott"

Oh yah, vaaaaar sensible.

I think excellent education should be free to all and private education breeds idiots like our PM. ( whatever their colour)

Racism is a blight on humanity. Unfortunately it's not something with a simple easy solution. Also it's not something that only happens as white people doing to black people, although that of course does have a terrible history. It is something that tends to happen to any minority group in a society. Of course the minority group can also aim racism back at the majority group, though generally, by defi nition of being the minority, they do not have control of the power structures to give it impact on society. But again, racism takes different forms and disguise - for e example, the kind of prejudice and discrimination that a white person might experience in Hong Kong is not the same as what a black person might experience in Hong Kong - and that isn't the same as what a Filipino domestic worker might experience. This is why I dislike the term person of colour as though it may have some limited validity in the American context or, at a stretch, the British context, it's pretty useless when applied elsewhere.