You're white. You haven't experienced racism

[PatricksRum]

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

I saw Professor Kehindra Andrews on breakfast telly a few months ago and he was saying that the British Empire was much worse than the nazi regime in such a way that it was really starting to sound very anti semetic.

TBF, it's a bit off OP to have a rant and then expect capitulation. That's not the way to get agreement.

It's historically muddy, the US is so racist, as are many European countries. China has software to recognise Han Chinese above other Chinese ethnicities.

It's madness really. South America has ethnic grades depending on which blend of Portuguese and which Caribbean islands you're from.

BUT, it really, ultimately comes down to education and class.

No one gives a shit about your colour or race once you attain a certain level.

@OP

"How can I be racist toward you when I have no power?"

I think this is where you are going wrong. You can absolutely be racist towards people without power as racism is

Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.
‘a programme to combat racism’

	1.1The belief that different races possess distinct characteristics, abilities, or qualities, especially so as to distinguish them as inferior or superior to one another.

www.lexico.com/definition/racism

So if you you were to antagonise someone (shove them, yell at them in the street ect) simply because they are white you would still be being racist.

If you were to say 'all white people are X' or 'all white people do 'Y' (making a generalised assumption based on race) you would still be being racist.

However, although these things would still racist, this racism is not nearly as bad as the racism people of colour, particularly black people experience. That is the key difference.

No one gives a shit about your colour or race once you attain a certain level.

Do you really believe that?!

I believe I do in my every day life, but what do you need exactly? And I hope that doesn't come across as a request for education because it isn't. I challenge racism where I see it, I understand that others do not experience the automatic acceptance I do, as a white person. I genuinely want to know what you need but I am having horrified posts directed at me not not knowing.

Don't believe you do. Know you do.

The beginning...

We are angry and tired and upset and oppressed and fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting.
If a black person screams "humans are born with one eye" don't correct. Allow us to grieve. We are trying in any way we can to grieve.
Don't ask us how and why, read our stories, read our books and don't stop till you know the answer.
Don't talk for us. Listen to us. And I mean listen, shut up and listen. Don't say I agree but
Evaluate every thing you do, I guarantee you will find a racist element (this thread for example)
Let us fight our fight but help us by standing behind us

"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."

The problem with this statement is that your elders maybe bigoted and prejudice against white people, but this affects white people not one jot. Because the white people are in charge and your elders' opinions, whilst unpleasant, don't materially affect any white persons life, income or civil liberties.

No one gives a shit about your colour or race once you attain a certain level.

Not true. And irrelevant anyway as that level / power is retained mostly by white people.

I've reported you Carole as you are a troll

No. The op is not racist she's frustrated and angry and rightly so. Ypur attitude is exactly the reason the OP IS PISSED OFF. You are part of the problem.

Schoolsoutforcovid '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'

No one at any point has said it does! It was OP that caused folk to talk about their own experiences. No one, no one is claiming that their experiences trump or even equal the racism experiences by black people. Literally no one has said that!!!!

This crystallises the issue of “reverse racism” beautifully:

Unfortunately, systematic prejudice did happen to Irish people. Under British rule the Irish were always treated as second class citizens. We were denied our native tongue, religion, education, land ...food during famine.

In NI it still continues, although subtly

Same Covid

@schoolspitforcovid

I was answering a question the @OP directly asked me. She asked how someone from a minority could feel superior to a majority and I was giving a real life example.

If you'll read the rest of my post you will see I am well aware that black lives matter. That it is rightly the focus of the movement at the moment and should be our focus.

But don't take one tiny section of a long post out of context. And don't try and tell me off for answering a question directly addressed to me.

[quote CayrolBaaaskin]@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.[/quote]
I said Ashkenazi Jews specifically (who generally appear to be the whitest, out of all groups of Jews) are 50% Middle Eastern (i.e. half their DNA is of ME origin; the other half is European). I didn't say "Jews are at least 50% ME". It varies.

I have explained the difference between racial bigotry and systemic racism. Yes white people can be murdered due to racial bigotry (though you could question whether that would have happened if the murderer had not grown up experiencing systemic racism), but the whole of society is not set up against them like it is against black people.

And since I don't think any Jews are white (even when they are light-skinned), mentioning the Holocaust doesn't prove your point to me.

Reported them for what?! Disagreeing? Ridiculous.

I do think you need to educate yourself a little here too.

I've explained already. I've experienced this from the day I was born. We have no option. Racism is thrown at us, we are educate in it by force.
We have to go home from school and ask our parents "Why am I black?" Because Billy called us a poo face
How can I educate myself on my own life?

Not all races can experience racism from oppressed ethnic minorities

@AllNaturalIngredients I'm sorry. I can recall a lot of bigotry towards the Irish. It was/is shameful.

@CandyLeBonBon -you don’t know how that family’s racism that affects White people. Maybe not at all or maybe significantly. But you have no idea where they live, what they do etc. Your idea that non White people are powerless is racism in itself

Cayrol You keep bringing that attack up - obviously it’s close to your heart and understandably so - because you’re white, and he’s white? And it was horrific.

So I would imagine you can empathise with how op feels about black men and women who are the victims of white people in many equally horrific ways.

She’s not being racist in any way imaginable. If you don’t agree with her, fine. But capping her racist and part of the problem is laughable.

*calling, not capping.

OP You do not speak for all of us. My sister once got kicked out of a class when her white professor tried to say the same as you. Her as a black woman who has seen racism towards white people was silenced because she disagreed. It really offends me when I see anyone speak on behalf of an entire race. My mother had a boyfriend who grew uo in south Africa and was shot at the age of nine while swimming for being white. You are being ignorant.

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.

Really? I think the goading is mostly done by the whataboutery posters on this thread.

How can you eradicate the racist mindset when posters are literally falling over themselves to tell us how they've personally been the victim or 'racism' and they're white? As if their own personal experiences are important enough to dilute the message that the systemic racism suffered by POC in the west must stop?

When I was in primary school a black girl called me a white dog. So I called her a black dog. Guess who was hauled into the office for racism? It took me until I was in my teens (and I educated myself) to realise that wasn't an injustice (me being punished for racism while she wasn't), I was being racist while I laughed her comment off. Because even as a child I thought I was "better". Her words couldn't hurt me. Her calling me white wasn't a slur. Thankfully I grew up and educated my own children better than I was educated.

The OP didn't mention the west because she didn't have to. Anyone who has watched the news in the last week would know she is talking about the west.