You're white. You haven't experienced racism

[PatricksRum]

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

YANBU.

I live in the US. I am not a citizen. I am white. Nobody has ever demanded I produce my birth cert to prove anything about myself. Nobody has ever questioned my right to be here. In fact, I have been told by many people that they don't mind me being here. I know what they are implying. The two times I have been pulled over by traffic cops, nobody gave me the third degree about where I lived or what my business was in the places I was pulled over, and despite my accent and very foreign first name, nobody asked me to show proof of legal residence.

Well if not really thought about it before but I suppose I challenge/educate racism daily through my job

Just hadn’t given it a thought

OP if your tired you need to go bed, obviously.

Madein when I say I'm tired, you have no idea what I feel. I am not sleepy tired. I'm tired of fighting for rights that should come natural. I'm tired of repeating myself to racist/ uneducated people.
I don't want to tight anymore. It's like I'm out of fight. I just want to be heard without a BUT
I'm not racist but
The officer was wrong but
Black lives matter but
If I sleep do you think I'll awake with equal rights?

@PatricksRum I hear you and thank you. I didn't/don't experience life full of racism towards me. It was a "racist attack" as such though? Or is my wording still wrong?
Anyway, my one "experience" isn't the issue right now I know...

Only prejudice here is your source, imagine trying to change the definition of a word to suit your own ends.

@schoolsoutforcovid - I second that. I spoke to my kids today about how to call out casual racism. I needs to be said, every single time. By people who have the loudest voices. The same as men need to call out sexism amongst other men. It the strongest group that makes the biggest impact.

@PatricksRum

"Being of an ethnic minority yourself, how do you think it's possible to think you superior to a, for example 70% majority race compared to your 1.2%?"

I don't think I'm superior, nor do I think I'm inferior.

However I have witnessed first hand people from my own race (mostly elders) being racist towards white people. Saying all white people are stupid and shallow, being horrified when I've dated a white boy (simply because he is white and therefore different to them), telling me not to listen to my cookery teacher because 'she's a white woman, what do they know about good food, they all just heat thing up from the freezer', criticising white people's way of life from how they dress (not conservative enough) to how they raise their children (they don't teach them to clean or cook properly, not enough discipline ect).

My elders genuinely think they are superior to white people. Just because they don't share these views doesn't mean they aren't racist. I am genuinely horrified by some of the stuff I hear them say. They don't care that white people are the majority, they just think the majority is stupid.

White people absolutely can experience racism, however I don't think they can experience systematic racism (particularly in the west) in the way ethnic minorities can, I think that is a Key difference.

All racism needs to be eliminated. However the first racism that needs to be dealt with is absolutely that which puts people's lives at risk. My elders racism, though ignorant is not dangerous. I call them out on in when I can which everyone who witnesses anytime of racism should do, nothing should be excused, but national focus, legislation ect, needs to be on dangerous racism first, we can get to the ignorance later.

It would be like if a town had one police man and two criminals at large, one a serial killer, the other a vandal who causes damage (graffiti, smashing windows ect). Any regular person who witnesses anything to do with either crime should absolutely report it but the polices attention should clearly be focused on the serial killer as they are the one putting people in danger, whilst the other, although still absolutely wrong and does need addressing, can be dealt with later as they don't pose an immediate threat to life.

I'm sorry if that's not the best analogy, it's just the first one that came to my head.

@Cornana Exactly what you said. Down to a T

@rosiejaune - jews are not “at least 50% middle eastern”. What are you talking about? There are black Jews, white Jews and Asian Jews but we are all Jews. There is prejudice within the community yes, but also prejudice by others (black, white and Asian) towards Jews.

Being white doesn’t mean you never suffer racism. Ask Chris Donald’s mum (15 year old white boy killed in horrific racist attack in Glasgow) or the victims of the Holocaust.

And for fucks sake stop acting like a stroppy toddler. Yiu come on here stating people arent educated enough. Then shiut at someone saying it's not your job. Well then why bother posting? Were you expecting flowers and a pity party?

I don't wish to be pitied for being black.

I posted in hope that MN would read and educate themselves rather than, again, asking black people to explain it.

OP I see where you're coming from, and I'm sorry for what you have been through.You have my deepest sympathies

I'm white and Irish, I have suffered violent prejudice in my time.

Well, I’ve experienced racism (many times, though thankfully not daily as I pass as “white”), but I also know this movement is important and is so outside my own experiences. Racism against black people is a whole other level.

Sadly after 9/11 (although it also went on in the 70s and 80s), racism against middle easterns was pretty fucking disgusting. As a British citizen we were told to “go home”. There are a lot of M.E. Brits who have suffered violent attacks.

I feel like prejudice against blacks is a huge issue that’s separate to the M.E. issues. It’s spans across every part of life and it’s just wrong. I hear you. I agree things need to change. It has to come from the top. Sadly the “top” is controlled by white old men.

Themental OP never mentioned the west. I am far from 'all lives matter' and I 100% agree that it's like saying 'all cancers matter' at a breast cancer benefit or putting a plaster on all the kids arm when it's only one kid with a cut because 'all arms matter' 100%. I'm completely with the current movement in America and spreading today into UK cities. It's so important. But it's just unhelpful to make statements that white people cant experience racism. It's just gaudy and unhelpful. The OP has no idea about my life experience the same as I have no idea about hers. BLM is meant to be about coming together and working to eradicate the racist mindset so using it to cause divide and a 'them and us' mindset is gaudy and unhelpful.

*You don't know what someone has or hasn't experienced by looking at the colour of their skin.

If you think you can, you have persuaded yourself it's ok to be racist. Well done you.*

How can I be racist toward you when I have no power?
I'm not looking at the colour of their skin. I know you cannot experience racism.

@Cornana

So white people can be prejudiced against individually, ie, attacks due to being white, or living in a country with a lower percentage of white people. But systematic racism is not a thing white people experience, ie, society being discriminatory at every level, doesn’t happen to white people.

This is what I was trying to articulate to myself...I'm terrible with words.

@PatricksRum Thank you for those kind words I’m so sorry you’ve had a beyond shitty week and had to deal with some shitty attitudes. But thank you for this thread; there will always be people who will hear you and will understand and will support you.

(In a personal rant - Ds is mixed race and in the space of a week at school was called the n word, the p word and the Chinese racial slur (I mean.. either he’s really racially ambiguous or bullies are dumb.) He got put in detention for fighting back. I asked the school why they were calling me to tell me he’d pushed someone and not calling me to tell me he’d been racially abused. Yes, I understand why he’s got a detention. They weren’t keen to punish the other boys though, until I told them I’d call the police and they could do it for them. But schools as a hotbed of systemic racism? Apparently that doesn’t happen!)

Changeitupagain

Now this I completely agree with "systematic racism", this is where white privildge certainly comes in, particularly in the western world but not limited to.

@PatricksRum I completely agree with you. Racism is so deeply entrenched in every part of our society. Here are just a few examples from the book Why I am no longer Talking to White People about Race:

• Black pupils are more likely to be excluded from school than white pupils.
• Black pupils do worse in exams than their white peers (until they are marked anonymously).
• The Department of Work and Pensions conducted a study whereby the same job application was sent out with different applicant names. Those who had a 'British sounding name' were more likely to be called for an interview than those with a 'non-British sounding' name.

I know I am privileged because I have never had to worry about how I am going to be perceived or treated by society as a whole on the basis of my race.

I am white and have experienced racism a number of times in my life, particularly unpleasantly once as a child from an adult.

All colours can experience racism. There are definitely some Countries where white people experience racism. I've lived in them.

@Boulshired Whataboutery NoC I like it

@rosiejaune I have Jewish blood on both sides but all converted generations ago. I am white but have far darker skin than my SiL who is is a British Jew of many generations standing. I would say that what she has sometimes experienced as a direct consequence of being Jewish is racism. She does enjoy some white privilege but at the same time its frightening how some people home in on her Jewishness and she's had bad experiences with teachers and health care professionals as well as random members of the public.

Here's what a black woman posted on another thread ( NoVegPlease ), and it really made sense. Painful, but true:

I think that black people face the most amount of racism, because we get it from not only white people, but Asian, Arab, Indian, mixed raced and even other black people like Somalians and Dominicans, who see fully black people with a fully black African heritage as the lowest, thus they are in turn better and more worthy than us because at least they are not the last rung on the ladder. Every race on earth feels better because we are the bottom of the pile.

After reading posts like this, reading non-black experiences of racism (including my own as an Asian woman) is actually embarrassing and almost laughable. Honestly, who cares? I don't.

Pitied? OP clearly wasn't after that! Have a word with yourself

"My elders genuinely think they are superior to white people. Just because they don't share these views doesn't mean they aren't racist. I am genuinely horrified by some of the stuff I hear them say. They don't care that white people are the majority, they just think the majority is stupid."

Right, and that's fine. Because we have white privilege. Your elders might be racist...and that has nothing to do with making you and the rest of the world know that black lives matter

Patricksrum no need to apologise. It must be tiring fighting the same fight over and over.x