"Real Reason White People Say, 'All Lives Matter.' "

Started by Shiranu, September 22, 2016, 12:00:49 AM

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Shiranu

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-halstead/dear-fellow-white-people-_b_11109842.html?


QuoteDear fellow white people, let’s have an honest talk about why we say “All Lives Matter.” First of all, notice that no one was saying “All Lives Matter” before people started saying “Black Lives Matter.” So “All Lives Matter” is a response to “Black Lives Matter.” Apparently, something about the statement “Black Lives Matter” makes us uncomfortable. Why is that?


Now some white people might say that singling out Black people’s lives as mattering somehow means that white lives don’t matter. Of course, that’s silly. If you went to a Breast Cancer Awareness event, you wouldn’t think that they were saying that other types of cancer don’t matter. And you’d be shocked if someone showed up with a sign saying “Colon Cancer Matters” or chanting “All Cancer Patients Matter.” So clearly, something else is prompting people to say “All Lives Matter” in response to “Black Lives Matter.”


Many of the people saying “All Lives Matter” also are fond of saying “Blue Lives Matter.” If you find that the statement “Black Lives Matter” bothers you, but not “Blue Lives Matter,” then the operative word is “Black”. That should tell us something. There’s something deeply discomfiting about the word “Black.” I think it’s because it reminds us of our whiteness and challenges our notion that race doesn’t matter.


If you’re like me, growing up, the word “Black” was always spoken of in whispers in your family. It was like we were saying something taboo. Why was that? Because it was taboo. We might feel more comfortable saying “African-American,” but not “Black.” The reason is that we were raised to believe that “colorblindness” was the ideal for whites. We were taught that we shouldn’t “see color.” And saying the word “Black” was an acknowledgment of the fact that we did “see color.”


The problem with being “colorblind” â€" aside from the fact that we’re not really â€" is that it is really a white privilege to be able to ignore race. White people like me have the luxury of not paying attention to race â€" white or black. The reason is because whiteness is treated as the default in our society. Whiteness is not a problem for white people, because it blends into the cultural background.


Black people, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of being “colorblind.” They live in a culture which constantly reminds them of their Black-ness, which tells them in a million large and small ways that they are not as important as white people, that their lives actually do not matter as much as white lives. Which is why saying “Black Lives Matter” is so important.


“All Lives Matter” is a problem because it refocuses the issue away from systemic racism and Black lives. It distracts and diminishes the message that Black lives matter or that they should matter more than they do. “All Lives Matter” is really code for “White Lives Matter,” because when white people think about “all lives,” we automatically think about “all white lives.”


We need to say “Black Lives Matter,” because we’re not living it. No one is questioning whether white lives matter or whether police lives matter. But the question of whether Black lives really matter is an open question in this country. Our institutions act like Black lives do not matter.The police act like Black lives do not matter when they shoot unarmed Black people with their arms in the air and when Blacks are shot at two and a half times the rate of whites, even when whites are armed. The judicial system acts like Black lives don’t matter when Blacks are given more severe sentences than whites who commit the same crimes and areturned into chattel in a for-profit prison-industrial complex.


And white people act like Black lives do not matter when we fail to raise the appropriate level of outrage at unjustified killings of Blacks or when we respond with platitudes like “All Lives Matter.”


But we still say it. We say it because “All Lives Matter” lets us get back to feeling comfortable. “Black Lives Matter” makes us uncomfortable. Why? Because it reminds us that race exists. It reminds us that our experience as white people is very different from the experience of Black people in this country. It reminds us that racism is alive and well in the United States of America.


Now, I just said the “R” word, so you’re probably feeling defensive at this point. You’re instinctively thinking to yourself that you are not a racist. You may be thinking that you have Black friends or that you don’t use the N-word or that you would never consciously discriminate against a Black person. But most racism today is more subtle than that. Sure, there is a lot of overt racism that still goes on. The KKK is still active and some white people do still say the N-word. But overt racism is really culturally unacceptable any more among whites today. The racism that we need to face today is much more insidious than white hoods and racial slurs. It is the racism of well-meaning people who are not consciously or intentionally racist.


The racism that we need to face is the racism of average white middle-class Americans who would never think of saying the N-word and would vociferously condemn the KKK, but nevertheless unwittingly participate in institutionalized racism. We most often participate in racism by omission, rather than commission. We participate in racism when we fail to see it where it exists. We participate in racism when we continue to act like race is a problem that only Black people have. We participate in racism when we seek comfortable responses like “All Lives Matter.”


We white people need to embrace our discomfort. Here are some things we can do:


1. Recognize that we are not “colorblind.”


We can start by recognizing that we all have an “implicit bias” toward Blacks. Think you don’t have it? Consider how we mentally congratulate ourselves when we treat the random Black person the same way we treat white people. Here’s a tip, if you give yourself brownie points for treating Black people like you do white people, you’re not really treating Black people like white people.


Still don’t think you have unconscious bias, go to the Harvard implicit bias testing website and take the tests on race and skin-tone. Even white anti-racism activists like me have these biases. And they come out in all kinds of subtle ways, as well as not so subtle ways.


2. Work against unconscious bias by spending time with Black people in Black spaces.


Next, go out of your way to spend time with Black people in Black community settings. Many of us live segregated lives in which we have little to no interaction with Black people. Let’s face it, Black people make us white people uncomfortable. It’s because we’ve been socialized by a racist system to fear Black people.


Even if you feel comfortable around individual Black people, you most likely do not feel comfortable in a room full of Black people. You might have Black friends, but you probably socialize with them in white spaces. Have you ever been to a Black space and felt uncomfortable? Maybe you felt like no one wanted you there. Welcome to the everyday experience of Black people in white culture.


And when you go to a Black space, go to listen rather than lead. Learn to follow. Leading is a white privilege. Let go of it for a while and learn from those whose experience you will never have. Listen to Black people, and if what they are saying or how they are saying it makes you uncomfortable, so much the better.


3. Talk to white people about institutional racism and say “Black Lives Matter.”


It’s no good sitting around feeling guilty about white privilege. We need to dosomething about it. One thing we can do is to use our white privilege to dismantle it.


One white privilege we have is that other white people listen to us.
We can go into white spaces and talk to white people about implicit bias and institutional racism. We can unapologetically proclaim that “Black Lives Matter.”


After the Orlando shooting, I went to an interfaith vigil in my small conservative town. Almost no one among the speakers said the words “queer,” “gay,” or “lesbian.” This was probably unconscious, but it revealed a lingering, but deepseated discomfort among heterosexuals with gayness and queerness, a discomfort that the popular use of the acronym “LGBT” obscures. Similarly, we whites are uncomfortable with Black-ness. We don’t even like like to say the word. It feels wrong in our mouths. We hide it by using code words like “inner city” or “urban,” terms which allow us to hide from our unconscious racism. We need to say “Black Lives Matter” because we need to overcome our discomfort with Blacks and face up to our unconscious bias.


Dear fellow white people, we are in the middle of a second Civil Rights Movement. Most of us white people idealize Martin Luther King, Jr. and we like to think that we would have been on his side of things during the Civil Rights era. But the fact is that the majority of the American public did not support the Civil Rights movement while it was happening and only came to see King as a hero after he was killed.


The Civil Rights movement was unpopular among most whites when it was happening. It was unpopular because it made white people deeply uncomfortable. Today, the Black Lives Matter movement makes us uncomfortable, too. In forty years we will look back on this second Civil Rights movement and have to ask ourselves whether we were on the right side of history. If we want to be on the right side of history this time, we have to make ourselves uncomfortable. There is no comfortable way to change. And the change can start with saying this simple but powerful phrase: Black Lives Matter.
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Hijiri Byakuren

Yup, Black Lives Matter is a totally benevolent organization that doesn't want to force its views on anyone else, nor institute racial supremacy. Have a gumdrop from the gumdrop tree.
Speak when you have something to say, not when you have to say something.

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drunkenshoe

#2
Neither protests, nor protest groups are about positive behaviour; they are NOT about well meaning and kindness, good nature, tender heartedness, spreading love, accomodation, conforming, obliging, compassion. They do not occur from these positive circumtances . IN FACT, their existence is completely the opposite of ACCOMODATING. They are all about creating negativity, disturbance, distrupt the flow of things; daily life or a process that affects the daily life; impose their issues on other groups, some times even harass people. Without creating conflict, creating a disturbance, taking solid attention nothing is done.

They are definitely out there to impose their views on other people. Promote those views, those opinions, thoughts and feelings which are results of their experiences and what they see. Because other groups of people, being people do not give a fuck about any issue if they are not suffering from or affected by themselves without being made a part of it. And by doing that they will emphasis-over emphasis their own traits, qualities, agressively defend them, promote and put them above over any other groups. This is active human nature without being a part of a protest group for starters.

There is no, has never been a protest group that people know; heard about; that actually managed to raise their voice about something that didn't develop this attitude which is a normal dynamic of being an active protest group.

In a country where racism is one of the biggest issues and has been systematic and institutional through all its existence, blaming a group like BLM with 'institutes racial supremacy' is equal to White American Christans screaming their heads off on how much they are oppressed. OR how Islam is the religion of peace. OR how West is morally superior to other cultures.


"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

Shiranu

#3
Quote from: Hijiri Byakuren on September 22, 2016, 02:14:04 AM
Yup, Black Lives Matter is a totally benevolent organization that doesn't want to force its views on anyone else, nor institute racial supremacy. Have a gumdrop from the gumdrop tree.

"Black lives matter" =/= blm.


Edit: Wait, what? Just woke up, so wasn't fully braining. I don't understand what that has to do with anything... and frankly it sounds exactly like my mom when she says, "Yeah, black people only voted for Obama because he was going to give them all free Cadillacs."

An organization that is trying to enact social change to end oppression is kinda obliged to be forceful about it's views. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would expect otherwise. As for racial superiority... again... what?
"A little science distances you from God, but a lot of science brings you nearer to Him." - Louis Pasteur

Gawdzilla Sama

Always entertaining to read "what people are really saying when they say" posts.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

drunkenshoe

Quote from: Shiranu on September 22, 2016, 07:23:24 AM
"Yeah, black people only voted for Obama because he was going to give them all free Cadillacs."

*Starts to paint herself black. Damn. Too late isn't it. :sad2:
"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

drunkenshoe

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on September 22, 2016, 07:36:55 AM
Always entertaining to read "what people are really saying when they say" posts.

Yeah in a society as open as America, that is swift and accurate in acknowledging and expressing its main issues without any political correctness, free from fear of back lash, demonisation and marginalisation, it looks ridiculous to explain certain things... Wait, what?
"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: drunkenshoe on September 22, 2016, 07:54:19 AM
Yeah in a society as open as America, that is swift and accurate in acknowledging and expressing its main issues without any political correctness, free from fear of back lash, demonisation and marginalisation, it looks ridiculous to explain certain things... Wait, what?
Over the top much?
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

drunkenshoe

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on September 22, 2016, 08:15:30 AM
Over the top much?

Nope. On the same wavelength with this one:

QuoteAlways entertaining to read "what people are really saying when they say" posts.
"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

Gawdzilla Sama

We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

drunkenshoe

"science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. ıt is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good." - tp

Nonsensei

Well at the risk of courting the wrath of someone I'm going to chip in my two cents here.

It feels like there's a lot of presumption in that article. I don't know who wrote it but I guess they are white? I suppose in their mind that gives them some sort of special insight into the hearts and minds of white people. I hope I don't have to go into why that is a fallacious presumption.

Now I'm not going to respond to everything I have a problem with because I would be responding to every single line, but I will hit some key points.

First is this idea that all white people are unavoidably racist. Even those who don't believe themselves to be racist are in fact racist. Apparently just by virtue of being white. I hope I don't have to point out the racism inherent in such a viewpoint

Second, it seems like the writer really needs all white people to be racist in order to support his thaory that racism in america is universal and systematic. If there's a large population of white people out there that are not racist, that would mean that black people have a grievance with only very specific groups of people engaging in racist oppression and that would make the universal outcry against white racism seem stupid and, well, racist.

Third are his hilarious suggestions about what a white person, newly enlightened to their inherent wretchedness, can do to solve this problem of all white people secretly hating all black people.

Go spend time with black people in black spaces. Interesting. I didn't know there were places I could go with black people just waiting for a white person to show up for enlightenment. Please, you can't just go conjure black people to hang out with, and if you do hang out with some of them because of this article they will see you for what you are: a poser.

Talk to white people in white spaces about racism. Yes brilliant please excuse me while I walk into a local dunkin donuts and start screeching like a maniac about racial injustice I'm sure that will change a lot of minds. Better yet let me talk about it at work. Nothing has ever gone wrong with talking about social issues at work. Does this person even live on earth?

This article is jubk. Racism is real. There are racial issues that need to be addressed. Demanding all white people acknowledge their inherent racism and then instructing them to take unrealistic or even self destructive action in the name of social justice is not going to get the job done.

Here's a hint. Every time you suggest that white people are to blame for racism by virtue of being white, the ear they would have lent to the cause you are trying to represent gets a little more deaf. You're alienating people who would be on your side, you moronsm
And on the wings of a dream so far beyond reality
All alone in desperation now the time has come
Lost inside you\'ll never find, lost within my own mind
Day after day this misery must go on

Jack89

This white person doesn't use the phrase, "All Lives Matter."  I just say that BLM, the organization and the phrase, encourage hatred, violence, racism, and ignorance.  The hatred BLM spreads might be understandable if there were any truth to the original claim that police across the US are targeting and killing unarmed black men, just because they're black.

Gawdzilla Sama

At least we can check off the "Sweeping Generalizations Post" box for the day.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Baruch

Quote from: drunkenshoe on September 22, 2016, 07:48:32 AM
*Starts to paint herself black. Damn. Too late isn't it. :sad2:

You are a bit too south and east to be a Goth ;-)
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Azee’ Å,a’ish nanídį́į́h?
Táadoo ánít’iní.
What are you doing?
Are you taking any medications?
Don't do that.