Questions for white people

[Questionspandemic]

Why are white people offended by black people talking about racism?

Obviously not all white people are racist and name changed - in case of gaslighting.

@DoubleDolphin

I dont get offended at all, I get a bit fed up with it though because it seems sometimes everything is stated to be racist. .so say if you say hello to a white person but Hi to a black person it's because you are racist. Black person didnt get the job? Must be racist....it never stops.

You need to read through this thread, earlier there was a person saying positive discrimination is a thing here and white people are missing out on jobs. Which is it? I know which there is evidence for but it won’t stop the bigots from insisting their version of the truth is correct.

"Clearly, Hitler didn't perceive Jews as being the same race as him. They were not white. "

It was an excuse. Hitler wanted their collective wealth and he needed a scapegoat.
If that meant he had to demonise an entire people, well he wasn't exactly the kind to lose sleep over it.

Rather like Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries.

Generally the same dynamic as men and sexism/misogyny. They don't want to acknowledge or surrender their privilege.

I would call white on white "racism" xenophobia.

Anti-Englishness in Scotland is simply to do with accent, as until I open my mouth in Scotland, nobody will know that I am English. Most Scots, certainly those from the Central Belt and further south, are the same ethnically as the people of southern England (source, the BBC programme Meet the Vikings).

@DarkMintChocolate

Well, yes, but this is a thread about racism, not sexism. Not sure what the "Actually" is for. It just reinforces that there is privilege. Male white privilege, mostly.

You asserted there is white privilege in medicine - I don't think there is. There is white male privilege - all women are disadvantaged by the assumptions in medicine, based on clinical trials conducted predominantly on men, and I suspect the throwbacks to the 19th century of women, of being "hysterical".

Just because this is a thread about racism, does not give anybody the right to make sexist statements and then refuse to entertain the idea they are sexist, because they then chose to constrain the discussion to racism.

Are you saying that pointing out that there is white privilege in medicine is sexist because it wasn't also pointed out that there is also sexism?

Are you saying that there is no white privilege at all? Only sexism?

How do you explain the bias towards white skin if there is no white privilege?

Are you denying that black women also have worse outcomes than white women? Notably at natal outcomes in the US, for example. (I haven't seen data for other countries, so I can't comment)

Please help me understand this.

Some white people do get offended when black people want to talk about racism. Some Asian people do too. And some black people get offended when any other race wants to talk to them about racism.

This is an individual action, can’t really say that in general one race is more likely to be offended when another race talks about racism. It just looks that way where you have a majority of people who are white, well more of them will be offended. It’s just a numbers game.

I’ll have to search for it, but research was done into unconscious racial bias and every race had about the same % of people biased against another race. I would think actively racist people would be similar fraction of the % that are biased. I’ll try and find link to post....tonight.

It's a case of 'Not All White People', which translates to 'I am personally insulted that you would think that of me'.

History is very badly taught.

@Lweji

Sharpton said.“But people living on the ground need proper policing,” he said

Proper policing doesn't necessarily require more officers on the streets or more bullet money. It should mean better policing, and not more policing.
Most developed societies, with low disparities between the top and low earners, don't require heavy policing. If people get good education, good access to health and decent salaries, the police won't need to be heavily funded.

As Al Sharpton says, some of the palest 0.0001 percenters chanting 'defund the police' will not be affected. They live in gated communities with private police forces. Sharpton is right. To suggest social workers can replace policing in some of the most vulnerable communities in the US is idiotic.

@DarkmilkAddict

Really good point Covert20

Agree

@IncandescentSilver

I'm not offended by it but what I am offended by is the assumption that all white people are the same. I look white but have a Chinese grandparent, and in common with many people with similar ancestry don't look quite white enough not to be asked where I come from in the UK and have a very Asian eye shape with epicanthic folds, so get all the insults that come along with that (as well as sunglasses not fitting).

But thats nothing compared to being told "I'm white" numerous times when I try to talk about this and being completely shut down. You can imagine the insults I've had over the years about my eye shape...

This is like the woman who posted on here a week or so ago about being mansplained (and whitesplained) about racism by her boss when she said she didn't feel like a victim, and someone on here said she probably just looked like a white woman with a tan as she was Moroccan (so presumably doesn't get to have a voice). Shutting people down gets you nowhere, as we discovered with Brexit. Had people not been told they were racist bigots when they complained about immigration, maybe we wouldn't be in the mess we are now in.

I’m white. I’m not offended by black people talking about racism. I am offended by you asking ‘Why are white people offended by black people talking about racism’.Why didn’t you ask ‘why are some white people offended by black people talking about racism’ ?

I think that for some it’s ignorance, fear, a belief that they’re superior. For others, that they got to where they are in life purely on their hard work and that everyone has the same opportunities as them.

It’s a narrative that we’ve been fed over years and years and some people choose to continue to believe this. Luckily there are many that don’t and are aware

I think it's one of a few things.
It's either your outright racists
Well meaning but genuinely naive/uneducated on black issues (for want of a better phrase) as maybe don't really know many black people in real life
Most importantly I think it makes for feeling uncomfortable, making you look inside yourself, acknowledging any conscious or unconscious prejudice you don't even realize you may have, all because of the privilege of never having to think of it what with being white.

Ok so question.

Who’s fault it is that more research even independent research has not been done into black medicine? Considering how many black people are doctors my own gp is as are all the other doctors at the surgery I don’t understand how that’s a racism issue.

Surely the people best to provide the evidence and research for black medicine is black doctors and researchers along side those needing medical help.

In majority black countries are they following white medical books? If so Why haven’t they done work into this field surely it’s hugely beneficial to them.

The Scottish emphatically don’t see the English as a different race

People have their prejudices and the word racism is misused

As I said, there have been successful racial discrimination legal cases brought by English people due to racism in Scoltand. So legally, it does count, yes.

I lived in Scotland for 26 years of my adult life. Repeatedly called an Rnglish bitch, had scottish people complain when I answered the phone to them at work because I was English and they shouldn't have to speak to me 'in their own country, had an English friend followed to the toilet and beaten up for being English (by people he didn't know but were clear about they did it), had a colleague called a traitor for marrying an english woman. Heard an English Asian comedian say then when he was in Glasgow he was told to fuck off back to his own country (by which they meant England) said it was the first time he experienced racism that wasn't based on his colour. You can argue about the semantics all you like, but if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and sounds like a duck it probably is a duck.

@SoVeryLost

I posted “I literally said I think that I am responsible for my own behaviour not that of my forefathers how is that a “cop out?” How is it blaming them? Each of us is responsible for our own behaviour. That in no way implies I don’t see racism or understand the impact of history.”

It is a common excuse used by people who are trying to deny racism exists and/or a way of claiming that they aren't benefitting from a system that is racist. You are responsible for your own behaviour and that includes inaction. I’m patently NOT denying racism exists OR that white privilege exists and stating that I am responsible for my own behaviour. . What on Earth is your point?

[quote SoVeryLost]@Wherehavetheteletubbiesgone I suggest you go and understand what is meant by statistically more likely. www.bbc.co.uk/news/52890363 As this shows per percentage of population black people die in or after police custody at a higher rate. You can’t look at raw figures you have to compare it to the population as a whole.[/quote]
That's fine until you look at the number of arrests that looks at the population as a whole. Do a plot of arrests against deaths then you will go and see that you @SoVeryLost are wrong and misguided there is no reason at all to suspect 85% of arrests for each crime should be white British and 4 time more asians should be arrested than black people to keep in proportion with the population. I also bet that a disproportionate amount of them are men too and no-one is suggesting that the police are sexist against men.

Is Al Sharpton in favour of locking up youths rather than educating them?

The issue of defunding and what Sharpton has said.

www.politifact.com/article/2020/jun/09/defund-police-movement-what-do-activists-mean/

"On June 8, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough asked the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil-rights leader and TV host, what he had heard from activists about calls to "defund the police." Sharpton said he understood that they want to redirect funding toward community policing, mental health services, police training and intervention that does not involve policing.

"I don’t think that anyone other than the far extremes are saying ‘we don’t want any kind of policing at all, any kind of public safety,’"Sharpton said. "It’s to reinterpret how we do public safety and to reallocate those resources in ways that solve the problem in areas that I just outlined. So I think that the slogan may be misleading without interpretation.""

Anti-Englishness in Scotland is simply to do with accent

It really isn't. That is like saying racism against polish people is just to do with accent. It clearly isn't.

White people aren't offended by black people talking about racism.

They're sick of being told they're offended by black people talking about racism.

People have their own problems and issues. In London, 40% of the population is non-white. Across the country, it's 13.8%.

Racism isn't a big problem in the life of a white person who lives in a town where maybe less than 5% of the population isn't white. It doesn't make them racist that they're more worried about their jobs, their children, their livelihoods. To tell them that their silence is violence, that they should be talking about racism is just insulting.

@EnjoyingTheSilence
Why does that offend you? Do people really have to do NAWPALT (not all white people are like that?)
To phrase it like that I think is completely missing the point I think
(I'm white by the way)

I think a lot of people are horrified by deaths in America but don't consider themselves to be racist and are a bit sick of being criticised as a mass and having the agenda rammed down their throats.

@cologne4711

I would call white on white "racism" xenophobia.

Anti-Englishness in Scotland is simply to do with accent, as until I open my mouth in Scotland, nobody will know that I am English. Most Scots, certainly those from the Central Belt and further south, are the same ethnically as the people of southern England (source, the BBC programme Meet the Vikings).

It’s more than accent. I thought it was also long history of tribal clan identity, ethnicity and religion. Jacobite rebellion? Highland Clearances? Since Roman times, the English were called Britons and were slaves of the Romans, but the Scots were called Picts and were feared. Which is why they built two walls across all of the island to keep them north of the walls.

@Runningjump

White people aren't offended by black people talking about racism.

They're sick of being told they're offended by black people talking about racism.

People have their own problems and issues. In London, 40% of the population is non-white. Across the country, it's 13.8%.

Racism isn't a big problem in the life of a white person who lives in a town where maybe less than 5% of the population isn't white. It doesn't make them racist that they're more worried about their jobs, their children, their livelihoods. To tell them that their silence is violence, that they should be talking about racism is just insulting.

Well said

QueenOfPain
Also white privilege is definitely a thing and you definitely cannot be racist towards white people.

Yes to the first part.
and don't be stupid to the second part.