You're white. You haven't experienced racism

[PatricksRum]

I'm so sick of repeating myself today.
AIBU or is ignorance just bliss?

@Mathanxiety

I agree with all that, but I still don't agree that insisting that P+P is the only valid definition of racism is helpful.

@Biber I LOVE that imagine. I think it's my favourite.

This is a huge problem right now.

If a mum lost her son, would you shame her if she shouted at you in her grief?

@Porcupineinwaiting. "michling" is an offensive word :(

Eloquently put @mathanxiety. I spent a lot of time yesterday and today arguing with people about why is not ALM and you've absolutely nailed it. If you don't mind I'm going to plagiarise you?

Tell that to white women who go to Arab countries and end up being imprisoned or killed for being sexually promiscuous/a government spy/whatever, when they were nothing of the sort, their only crime was being a white woman.

Listen, the fact that a white woman could even travel to the country without being shot is privileged. You have no idea.

This is a thing that has become more prominent in recent years, this thing of "white people CANNOT experience racism because racism means the person has power over the other" or whatever. But the dictionary definition has been posted. It mentions nothing about power.

I don't even see the point anyway tbh. I get that white people saying "oh but I've experienced racism too" is unnecessary and ridiculous 99% of the time, but what is even the point of trying to have this semantics debate. Seems like a total waste of breath.

Seems like a total waste of breath

Spoken by someone with the benefit of privilege. There it is. Right there.

How can you eradicate the racist mindset when you literally wont listen to others experiences, it doesn't matter if you're black white pink or green. People respond and relate better when they can reconcile through their own life experiences. Dismissing peoples experiences just leads to apathy.

NO.

We don't need to relate through experiences. You need to listen to our experiences.

I've seen many a thread where a poster has sadly lost a family member. MN is at its best, "TELL us about him" they say. The OP doesn't want to hear of your tales of your son whom is alive, neither do I.

Spoken by someone with the benefit of privilege. There it is. Right there

Point proven I guess.

@RyanBergarasTeeth I know, it's a Nazi term. But that's what they called her. Sorry I should have used inverted commas.

@TakeMeToTheDarkSideOfTheMoon

This isn't about you.

You're not in a position to question how we feel and we don't need to hear your experiences.

@MarinePsychologist but it isn’t a waste of breath! It’s central to the problem!

Whenever this argument is used that white people cannot understand racism and, instead of listening to the daily experience of black people, they just shout back “yes they can” it becomes all about “what about me ism” drowning out the endless daily acts of racism perpetrated against non white people and so it goes on.

Progress won’t happen until this is understood and faced square on

[quote PatricksRum]@emptyplinth White people are the ethnic majority. It's simply not possible.

Why, again, am I forced to educate you? This is not my duty.[/quote]
Um no. Have you been to Africa? Have you seen the racism towards white people? Yes, I know, Apartheid and all that, but that was more than 20 years ago and the tables have completely turned. Even me, as a white South African living in the UK, experience racism because I'm white, so I'm considered a racist even though I'm not. People just assume.

@redbigbananafeet

Listen very clearly.

Fight for us or don't. That is your choice.

But either way shut up.

When your race is a minority and being murdered left right and centre then I'll listen until then. Put up or shut up.

I've as much right to be heard as you do. Put down the booze and go to bed.

I'm white. I'm listening to POC experiences and reading posts from POC all over my facebook. If everyone else did that, it would go much further in helping the BLM movement than multiple "I'm white and I also experience racism" posts.

This ^^

Understand this, redbanana

11 pages with too many people arguing that actually no racism doesn't affect black people anymore than it does white people, anyone who disagrees is just a nasty racist or obsessed with the past or doesn't know how bad black people are.
Okaaaayy then.
Night internet. You're drunk

Okay, firstly I have experienced racism. Misogyny, xenophobia and racism possibly all bound up together, but racism nonetheless.

Secondly, serious question. . . How do you feel about people of other ethnicities joining protests and demonstrations? Would you rather they didn't?

You may have power over me irl (you could be my boss for example) or you may not.

@CayrolBaaaskin Being black means it's the latter. I could boss you around all I want and could get fired the same day because I'm black.

red stopping telling OP she’s drunk. Fucking weird.

Whenever this argument is used that white people cannot understand racism and, instead of listening to the daily experience of black people, they just shout back “yes they can” it becomes all about “what about me ism” drowning out the endless daily acts of racism perpetrated against non white people and so it goes on

Well yeah, you're not wrong. White people won't ever experience the systemic racism that non-whites suffer – true. White people who claim to have suffered racism are talking BS almost all of the time – also true. I don't see why we can't just say that instead of arguing that no white person can EVER suffer any form of racism because of this new definition of racism that some people have just decided on. Seems like such a pointless tangent.

You made it about me when you made a blanket statement about my race and how we are supposed to feel and what we experience.

Please stop causing more of a divide and focus on what we need to do now rather than accuse another race of not experiencing it at all. Let's concentrate on BLACK LIVES MATTER, you have turned it into something else. Yes I hate the all lives matter response too but at the same time blanket statements like this are bad too. Others experiences may not matter right now but it doesn't take them away.

Anyway I'm done as it doesn't matter what I say at the moment. Changeitupagain made some really great balanced points. I hope this fight for equality really does win, racism is ugly in all forms.

I'm a white female who has lived in the Middle East most of my adult life and I can tell you in no uncertain terms I have experienced racism due to my skin colour and ethnicity.

Course you have(!)
Do you understand that you being able to step on a plane Is a privilege of your race?
You being able to step in a country without being shot at is a privilege of your race?
You even being able to choose whether to travel to the ME is a privilege of your race. We aren't able to live where we're from. Your ancestors pulled us and dumped us here. I wouldn't be able to safely travel to the US. You would.