Coca Cola

[pam290358]

Has anyone else found the ‘try to be less white’ advice given to Coca Cola employees offensive ? The training video urges them to be less oppressive and less ignorant - thus aligning those traits with being white. I find it offensive to the point of reverse racism. Imagine if the training video had advised ‘be less black’. There would, rightly, have been an outcry. So why is this OK ? AIBU to boycott their products ?

I haven't seen the video but - The training video urges them to be less oppressive and less ignorant - seems fair to me.

White privilege is definitely a thing and many, many people don't see it. Having it highlighted is helpful.

Reverse racism isn't really a thing FYI.

🎵 reverse racism doesn’t exist 🎵

Allso you can boycott their products if you wish, I really don't think they will notice, or care.

@pam290358

Has anyone else found the ‘try to be less white’ advice given to Coca Cola employees offensive ? The training video urges them to be less oppressive and less ignorant - thus aligning those traits with being white. I find it offensive to the point of reverse racism. Imagine if the training video had advised ‘be less black’. There would, rightly, have been an outcry. So why is this OK ? AIBU to boycott their products ?

Because racism adversely affects people of colour whereas white people experience the kind of racial privilege that leads them to believe that “anti-black” and “anti-white” sentiment are the same.

It just seems to me that if the goal is to eradicate racism, this kind of thing just perpetuates it.

@pam290358

It just seems to me that if the goal is to eradicate racism, this kind of thing just perpetuates it.

No it doesn’t. It confronts it.

Reverse racism... absolutely exists.

@Masterbeth. How does it confront it ? it’s a kind of racial profiling - so it’s OK to racially profile one race but not the other ? And the word ‘privilege’ baffles me lately. The transgender weightlifter Rachel Hubbard qualified for a place in the olympics on the New Zealand women’s weightlifting team. The contenders she beat, quite a few of whom are black, complained that they had trained hard and it was unfair for a transgender contestant with the strength of a male to be allowed to compete in this type of womens’ competition. They were dismissed out of hand and told that they were the ones who were ‘privileged’, despite Hubbard being white and from a wealthy background. It’s a race to the bottom.

You’re clearly very confused. You’ve just confused a discussion about race with a discussion about gender.

@pam290358

AIBU to boycott their products ?

What ever makes you feel morally superior - although I doubt you'll dent their profits.

Although I think it's amazing you've got transgender into a post about race inequality in less than 10 posts.

Saying that someone or something should be "less white" is obnoxious, imo, even before they aligned "whiteness" with negative traits. You're absolutely right that if they'd done this with any other race, sex, or other trait, it wouldn't have been deemed acceptable.

I don't think boycotting will make a bit of difference, but of course you can boycott any company for any reason you like. I'm afraid this sort of nonsense is just part of life, at the moment.

Why not spend some time over on Black Mumsnetters and listen, don't talk. Maybe see how much racism affects people every day and see if 'reverse racism' affects you even a hundredth as much.

I’m not one bit bit confused - my example was to highlight the way in which the ‘privilege’ in this case was being assigned to mainly black contenders for the olympics to dismiss their claims of unfairness. You can’t have it both ways.

Yeah I think you can phrase it in hundreds of ways that are better than 'be less white'. Being white isn't a fundamentally bad thing, same as every other race.

@pam290358

I’m not one bit bit confused - my example was to highlight the way in which the ‘privilege’ in this case was being assigned to mainly black contenders for the olympics to dismiss their claims of unfairness. You can’t have it both ways.

You seem confused that more than one type of prejudice exists.

@georgarina

Yeah I think you can phrase it in hundreds of ways that are better than 'be less white'. Being white isn't a fundamentally bad thing, same as every other race.

Of course being white isn’t a fundamentally bad thing. I’m white. I’m a nice person. And I have white privilege.

“Try being less white” here doesn’t mean what you think it means. It means “try putting yourself in a less privileged position.”

@Masterbeth. Sorry I don’t understand that last comment.
@Georgarina. This is exactly my point - it doesn’t help the situation to imply that being white makes you a terrible person.

I think it's unhelpful, because it puts racists backs up rather than challenging them. And if the goal is to reduce racism, it won't do that. However, that doesn't magically mean systemic racism is something white people experience. Because it isn't. Incidents of prejudice, absolutely. Systemic racism, absolutely not.

@Masterbeth. Try being less white” here doesn’t mean what you think it means. It means “try putting yourself in a less privileged position.”

But the terminology used in the training video was ‘try being less oppressive, try being less ignorant, try being less white”. I’m white, and I hope I’m a nice person, but I don’t see how aligning being white with being oppressive and ignorant is helpful and I don’t see how it’s any different from other racial profiling which is just as wrong.

Being white does not make you a terrible person.

What being white means is that you don’t need to consider racial identity, racism or your own race at all for the vast majority of the time. That is your white privilege - a privilege denied to people of colour.

When you are asked to “be less white”, you are being asked to consider race and racism more by putting yourself in the shoes of others.

For example, it’s quite oppressive and ignorant of you to try and equate your experience of “racism” here with the black experience of racism.

@MasterBeth yeah I get that, that's why I say there are hundreds of better ways to phrase it

I’m white, and I hope I’m a nice person

Arguing for reverse racism does rather mean in this particular place, you aren't a very nice person. It's what people who are either ignorant of racism, or actually racist, say. Now I'm sure you're kind to puppies and help old people across the road.

Could you consider that anti-racism initiatives, however misguided they might be, are not some terrible slight levelled at you. Rather an attempt to deal with a very serious issue you will never have to face.

Definitely poor phrasing. I would have thought trying to be less white = cultural appropriation!

[quote georgarina]@MasterBeth yeah I get that, that's why I say there are hundreds of better ways to phrase it[/quote]
I’m sure it’s deliberately provocative. It needs to be to cut through.