You're white. You haven't experienced racism

[PatricksRum]

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

@SharonasCorona

Why don't you pop along and explain the concept of 'white privilege' to Victoria Agoglia's grandmother? You can't explain it to Victoria. She died at 15 after years of sexual abuse.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-51093159

I can't believe the amount of whataboutism on this thread...

Right now it's time to focus on black lives matter -

But the thread is about white people. It's in the title.

The OP is asking white people is she being unreasonable to say you white people haven't suffered from racism.

I think one of the problems you may be facing in saying that white people cannot experience racism is simply that most people (backed up by the dictionary) understand the meaning of 'racism' to be:

"racism
/ˈreɪsɪz(ə)m/
noun

1. prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.

Similar:
racial discrimination

1. the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics, abilities, or qualities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races."

Based on that definition, anyone can experience racism, I would say?

In many cases you may find that people agree with you that the racism faced by the black community is a much bigger problem for many reasons, including the power structures you identify ('structural racism'?) and agree with essentially everything else you say. But it's simply confusing to try to change the meaning of basic words that people already understand to have a particular meaning.

Is that possible?

White people only move to non-white countries when they have the assurance of good paying job, schooling for kids, nanny/maid etc.

Please let's not pretend they are a suffering ethnic minority in those countries,

@BovaryX

Why don't you pop along and stop the whatabouttery?

Why I people surprised about the apparent "whataboutism" here?

Do you really find it so weird that if someone wrongly says that you cannot experience something, people who did will answer "This is wrong because I did...."?

Op's post absolutely invited this. It's not whataboutism. It's simply answering the OP. Whataboutism would be if OP started discussion about BLM and people started jumping in with "but what about... enter anything from transrights to local animal shelter".

Any race can experience racism. Do not try to re define racism. If you are attacked, shamed, discriminted against because of the colour of your skin, you experienced racism.

No one wants to take the light of BLM now. But Op did it. And I very much suspect that this thread was design to ignite argument, not discussion. Only thing this achieves is alienating people and people simply not discussing topic which need to be discussed without hissy fits, insults and apparent flouncing.

Evaluate every thing you do

This. I'm a white middle aged woman. I didn't turn an Instagram square black nor did I protest outside a city landmark this week. I'm not an activist but I scrutinise my thoughts, words and behaviour

You list all these examples, but don't mention the Asian people or Islamophobia, which is as bad as anti-Semitism in the UK. Your agenda is very obvious.

A. Because the topic is racisum towards white people.
B. Because Muslims are not a race. Islamaphiboa is not racisum, its discrimination and/or xenaphobic. Jewish people are a race and a religion, that's why it's racisum when towards Jewish people.

@SharonasCorona

The thread falsely claims that white people can't experience racism. Google whataboutery. You clearly don't understand its meaning.

because when I was in China, Chinese people were unfailingly friendly to white people. So I don't think Plan's experience was the norm.

But thats not relating your experience.

If you cant see what's wrong with telling someone, that gheir expeience and knwdge of their home country, is wrong. They you arent switched on to this issue as you think.

Your brief exeprince of China, in certain areas of China....is not representative of china.

Telling someone their experince doesn't count because its rare, when you have simply briefly visited a country is poor behaviour. And yes, I will call it out.

I have worked and visited America for several years. New York, Atlantic, florid....I haven't experienced racisim, against me or against people I have travelled with. I dont tell Americans, their experience isn't valid or its rare.

Why did you think I was defensive of me?

@TheFencePainter

I'm surprised because I can easily prevent myself from rabbiting on about my own experiences as an Asian immigrant. Today, I simply don't care what Asians/white/Jewish/Chinese etc people are 'suffering'. Today, it's about the people suffering the most.

White people only move to non-white countries when they have the assurance of good paying job, schooling for kids, nanny/maid etc.

This is totally wrong. How many predominantly non-white countries have you lived in? I can list many where that is absolutely not the case and have white friends living and working in these countries earning a salary comparable with locals, sending their children to local schools etc.

It's a fundamental misunderstanding of racism to say white people can suffer from it. We can't. We can be discriminated against because of our colour on an individual level, but the structures and systems aren't in place to oppress us in the way they are for black people.

I know in the middle east white expats are lower on the ladder than the Arab elite, but that's not racism. White people aren't being exploited and oppressed.

Honestly. I'm with you OP.

@HeatherIV thank you for the predictable response.

@Cam77

To be white is to gain privilege on account of your race, but it does not mean you are necessarily privileged in an absolute sense. Most working class white people will have tougher lives than, say, Obama’s daughters. An average working class boy from a poor neighborhood in Britain will have a tougher life than an average middle class woman.

That is an obvious point (or at least it should be) but seems it’s often brushed aside. And failing to acknowledge it means that the fact of white privileged or male privilege is often, understandably, met with resistance or resentment by underprivileged people who see people pointing and saying “you are SO privileged because you are white/male”. And they resent it and refuse to acknowledge the privilege they DO have.

Until society has greater economic justice in general, racism and sexism will just go round and round without getting solved. It’s like expecting a team to build a safe and functional home with insufficient building materials... and then when the thing collapses blaming the mostly white builders on £10 an hour rather than the building company - and, yes, those guys in the company office are mainly white and male but too, but there also women and POC there. And the defining thing they all share is their greed.

A very silly comment on a number of levels.

Builders on the minimum wage trying to feed their families are greedy, are they? Ridiculous.

How can a white working class person have more privilege than a black middle class person? You've mistaken the real world for your A Level sociology homework.

This thread is a perfect example of white fragility. Someone calls out white people on racism and they all try to justify it or defend it. Being told you are racist makes you uncomfortable, it should but that doesn't mean it isn't true. The only way racism will be challenged is if white people accept they are responsible for it and stand up and challenge it on a daily basis.

Are you pissed?

@Trevsadick I have related my experience. Given you're not interested in the experiences of black people and are whatabouting on Asian sex gangs, your impassioned reasons for denying me my own opinion is bizarre.

Lots of people telling OP her experience is wrong. Nothing so say to say to them? Thought not.

It's a fundamental misunderstanding of racism to say white people can suffer from it. We can't. We can be discriminated against because of our colour on an individual level, but the structures and systems aren't in place to oppress us in the way they are for black people

So what you are saying only black people suffer from "structural racism" but everyone can suffer from .one-off racism. I agree with that except that I think anyone who isn't white can suffer from structural racism.

How can a white working class person have more privilege than a black middle class person?

That is not what the quote said at all

The OP is asking white people is she being unreasonable to say you white people haven't suffered from racism.

Exactly.

So yes OP. You are.

I agree with that except that I think anyone who isn't white can suffer from structural racism.
Yes sorry, I was being lazy with my language. I meant anyone who isn't white

OP, I am white and I can see why you despair looking at some of these comments ! No white person can truly understand racism because they will never experience it - I don’t care how many ‘examples’ they bring up. I understand that and my kids understand this because I have explained it to them - the people who choose not to are part of the problem. And I agree that it’s not up to you to educate them - there is plenty of material out there if you want to try to understand !

@QuentinWinters

It's a fundamental misunderstanding of racism to say white people can suffer from it. We can't. We can be discriminated against because of our colour on an individual level, but the structures and systems aren't in place to oppress us in the way they are for black people.

I know in the middle east white expats are lower on the ladder than the Arab elite, but that's not racism. White people aren't being exploited and oppressed.

Honestly. I'm with you OP.

Ludicrous.

White people aren't a single race. There are many races within your category of 'white'. Do you deny that racism against people from eastern or southern Europe exists in this country?

This thread is a perfect example of white fragility.

it's interesting that you assume that all the posters on here are either black or white, and you have decided in which group they belong based on answers you agree with or not.