dev_chieftain (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dev_chieftain) wrote2013-01-12 02:12 pm
dev_chieftain) wrote2013-01-12 02:12 pm
Check this out: 28 common racist attitudes and behaviors...
...that indicate a detour or wrong turn into white guilt, denial or defensiveness.
The essay / .pdf is here.
Number 8 especially spoke to me. I have several students who try to justify racist stories they begin to tell me on the phone with this rationale, and this is one hard line I do take at work:
"But what about me? Look how I've been hurt, oppressed, exploited..."
REALITY CHECK + CONSEQUENCE:
This diminishes the experience of people of color by telling our own story of hardship. We lose an opportunity to learn more about the experience of racism from a person of color, while we minimize their experience by trying to make it comparable or less painful than ours.
The essay / .pdf is here.
Number 8 especially spoke to me. I have several students who try to justify racist stories they begin to tell me on the phone with this rationale, and this is one hard line I do take at work:
"But what about me? Look how I've been hurt, oppressed, exploited..."
REALITY CHECK + CONSEQUENCE:
This diminishes the experience of people of color by telling our own story of hardship. We lose an opportunity to learn more about the experience of racism from a person of color, while we minimize their experience by trying to make it comparable or less painful than ours.