White Entitlement

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Reblog on tumblr




White Guilt by Domenique Loren

(aka sunflowerintherain & thesunflowerintherain)

Artists commentary:

White supremacy, racism, and whiteness. 

To start out, I’m going to say that I do know roughly a handful of white people who… do their best to not be racist. They don’t deny that white supremacy exists, they don’t act like a victim when they’ve done something racist. They acknowledge that being white still affords them many unfair privileges over people of color. And instead of whining “but I’m not racist!”-“But not all white people!" or even like the guy in this comic, "You just want me to feel bad for being white!”, instead of acting like that, they don’t make our struggle and fight about them. They don’t support us to look good, or say they’re “white allies” while treating us like trophies or tokens.

Instead, they actively listen to us, they are proactive in their own personal effort to unlearn racism,  are open to us when we correct them, raise our voices above theirs in spaces that are dominated by white voices, and stand in solidarity with us.

Now, lets talk about the other kind of white person, like the dude in this comic.

This person is making the oppression of other people all about themselves. Not in the “not all white people way”, or “but I’m not”, way… the way they are reacting is very specific. The “You are shaming me for being white”, way.

There is something very distinct about this reaction, even when worded differently than I have it here. Here’s the thing…

There are all kinds of people, and all kinds of white people. Sometimes there are white people (like the people I trust) that actively do their best, sometimes there are white people who’ve never considered it because it’s never been and will never be a direct concern to their life, other times there are white people who know what’s going on but would rather not do anything about it and just say they’re doing their best, and sometimes there are white people who like to think they aren’t capable of being racist- while never working on themselves to even make that at possibility and still being flaming racists.

Then at last, we have the white person that, when we say “Stop being racist”, they hear “Be ashamed for being white”.

Or rather, when we say "White supremacy is wrong", they hear, "Being white is wrong."

Such a small thing says so much about this kind of person, how they view the world, the people around them, and themselves. 

It literally says so much about them and their identity as a white person, that when we talk about equality, they instantly associate that with “stop being who you are”.

So then, who are they, exactly? These people that insist we want them to ‘hate’ themselves instead of what they should already be doing, treating us with dignity and respect in ways that they already are?

For these white people, white supremacy and racism is deeply ingrained into their identity, which is why they perceive our fight for equality as personal attacks against their whiteness. To them, being racist with little to no consequence for it and benefiting from white supremacy is as much a part of who they are as a white person, as being brown or black is a part of one’s identity as person of color.

In other words; these white people consider being oppressive towards people of color, benefiting from the oppression of people of color, is all, quite casually, a part of being white. In their eyes, for anyone to challenge that (even other white people) is infuriating, deplorable, even irrational.

This is normalcy for these kind of people, and the requirement to unlearn any toxic behavior they have geared against people of color, is beneath them, and insulting.

Very much the same way it has been offensive to “let” black people ride in the front of the bus, or to “let” mexican people work alongside their white peers for the same wage.

Of course, the focus here isn’t on the word “offensive”, but on what this type of white person finds offensive, and that is the act of treating people of color with dignity and respect.

Can you think of people throughout history, or in our current society, that behave in this manor towards marginalized groups?

That’s right, groups like the kkk, and other groups that are currently listed as hate groups by the southern poverty law center, may ring a bell. While we refer to these individuals as extremists and their gatherings “groups”, the problem is not an isolated one.

You may say that all it takes is for a few bad apples to make the rest look bad, but it doesn’t take a handful of bad people to colonize multiple continents, inflict mass genocide, legislate and vote on racially based laws that are intended to oppress, and to this present day- legally value the lives of white people more than those of people of color. It takes many, many people to do this. Thousands, millions even. There is nothing isolated or small about it.

Which is why while Abraham Lincoln was talking about slavery of African Americans, the trail of tears was happening at the same time. Which is why when Helen Keller was writing in her journal, MLK said he had a dream. 

Which is why right now, white people (and others who practice anti black racism) are trying to stop a precedent being created in our justice system to protect and value black lives, while these same people will fight tooth and nail to see justice done to people that abuse animals. 

Which is why white feminists focus on misogyny and acknowledge the effect that has on the quality of life for women, and at the same time will tell native American women that native women being kidnapped and sold into sex trafficking and used by men who want to “fuck a submissive indian girl”,  has everything to do with the victims gender, and disregarding that is also has everything to do with the victims race. Locking out women of color from a movement that they helped build and telling them “this isn’t for you, but we’ll take your labor anyway.”

Which is why white Canadians can immigrate freely without stigma and restriction to the US, while people below the south border and of brown skin are called illegal immigrants and are regulated like livestock. 

Which is why when a white immigrant can join the workforce at the legal hourly rate, and a brown immigrant has to work being paid slave wages without workers rights to mow someones lawn, to do the work white people don’t want to do, but complain when someone does it.

Which is why when we talk about equality, some white person is offended at the thought of it.

This has never just been about our past, this is about our present and future, and if someone feels bad for doing these things to us, if they feel white guilt, then they should take it upon themselves to be decent people and maybe their conscience wouldn't be screaming at them so much.

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Note: I stylized the Orange guy after someone I knew who felt victimized by POC not putting up with abuse. It made drawing this extra fulfilling. Hahaha