As a self-identified Muslim and gay person who's a national of a third world country; where privileges are often come to the extreme: either people like me for being one (or all) of those things, or people don't like me at all; I have been in edge to talk about reverse racism, mainly because I championed individual liberty and I don't think individual member of any race deserve to experience racism.
I have stayed silent, when the New York Times journalist being called a bigot, for example, for her racist tweets against whites (click here); or when I saw a facebook user showed the respond facebook had to her reporting a racist comment against white people, saying that it does not violate facebook policies (see picture below).
At first I was appaled by the double standards the society has; imagine if this happens to black people, we would IMMEDIATELY and UNDOUBTEDLY side with the blacks, saying that it's racism against black people and that it's bad and it shouldn't happen. However, when it's against white people, do we have the same IMMEDIATE and UNDOUBTED response? No. At least, not me. And I believe many of you do the same. Oh don't get me wrong, I feel the injustice, I just don't feel as strong as if it's against blacks. And I don't think such response is right for me; well, for anyone, any individuals who called themselves humans. A white person is a person after all. I even start to think deeply if I should adopt a white kid in my later stage in life, I don't want my kid, regardless of what his/her race, sexual orientation, and gender, to face any kind of discrimination and unprivilegedness. So I start to analyze, putting puzzle pieces together; and I come up with this: we might want to think again before we call out someone racist for being racist against white people.
The first puzzle piece that I found is about racism itself. I watched this YouTube video (click here) about the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, and it strikes me right away: it was all about superiority. So before and during 1950s and 60s, the segregation laws were in place; white and coloured/black are not to be mixed together. Not in school, not in bus, not in housing areas, or even not in toilet; and of course not in marriage. You saw a lot of films depicted the situation of this era, I believe I watched a dozen but I can only remember three now, it was The Help (click here), Loving (click here) and Hidden Figures (click here). The most iconic word that symbolizes racist at the time is "nigga" which used to demean black people; in which some people now believe that it should not be mentioned, and should be referred to as "the N-word" (well, I don't believe this, but that's an explanation for another time).
It was privilege, of course, to some extent; that the white schools have better education than the coloured/black ones, and even the access to health insurance and better wages is subsequently higher among white communities than the black ones; but the most important thing is the notion of superiority. Why couldn't whites mixed with blacks/coloured? And why there were more privileges directed towards whites than blacks/coloured? Because white race is more superior. The main premise is that being born of a white race is perceived as inherently better in society; and the rest of the problems are the result of this premise. You see, the segregation, racism against blacks, the N-word, are all resulted from the fact that the society believed the blacks are less than the whites: of everything. Of quality of brain, that's why the schools should be segregated; because of course the black brain couldn't process as sophisticatedly as the white. Of the biological sensitivity towards diseases, that's why toilets and housings should be segregated; because of course there are contagious diseases that blacks are resistant of but not whites. The N-word itself is being bursted out as the crystalization of these unfair perceived differences: that the blacks worth less.
Now, to take it to the context of white racism, and compare it to black racism; are they the same? Not even close to similar. There are no surrounding situation that physically symbolizes one race is worth less than the other. No segregation, no N-word for white people, no nothing. And most importantly, no feeling of race superiority. It really struck me, when I try to search "black supremacy" on the web, and there's nothing I could find--which is not the case when you replace the 'black' there with 'white'.
I suspect, racism against white people is still rooted from the same feeling of race superiority. You might think it's the superiority of blacks over whites, but that's not the case; because if so, than there should be chant of black supremacy everywhere, no? I suspect, it's still the same notion that "whites are better" all over again, and this what brings me to the second piece of puzzle. Recently I started to watch Loose Women on youtube, it's a British TV program where prominent female personalities from different backgrounds are brought together to discuss current issues; and more often than not, their views clash. Very similar to my favorite American TV show The View; where Joy Behar and Meghan McCain never see eye to eye in almost any topic. In one instance, the panelists discuss whether James Bond film franchises are sexist, because they portrayed the Bond women as nothing but sex objects (click here). What I understand, everyone agree that it's indeed sexist; but the polarizing positions appear when they come up with whether the film itself should be banned. One side stated that 'yes, of course, no question.' The other is more dismissive, saying 'oh come on, it's just a film.' One of the panelists took a more moderate view when she tried to analyze the root of the situation. I don't exactly remember the words, but what she said was: "it might be a little too much to ban the older films of James Bond, because it came up from a different era and it showed the history where back then it's OK for women to be object for entertainment; HOWEVER, it is important to remember that it should not happen in the future films." She also noted that it is really interesting to see how feminism has gone extreme by criticizing past films; and she said (again, this not her exact words): "it might have gone to the extreme in order to balance out the uneven situation." Meaning, feminists are not correct in saying that Bonds films should be banned, but this position is understandable after such systematic and structural inequality between genders women have experienced in the past; because such extreme voices are needed as a wake-up call for the society, not exclusively for men only or women only, to understand that no sexism should not take place anymore.
Now to apply it to the race issue, white racism is needed to keep the conversation going. For such years of structural discrimination like racism against blacks, it is not enough to just "do the obvious": to abolish segregation, to ban the N-word, etc; but it is important to also target the mentality of the society, so that they would not forget such brutality should not happen AGAIN. I stress the importance of the word "again", because this is where it differs from the Libertarians who defend Human Rights as if they defend all humans regardless of who they are. I don't disagree with the Libertarians, in fact I'm with them on this issue. However, in order to defend all humans, whichever race they belong to, we have to understand that there are individuals being systematically oppressed of their rights in the past simply because of their race; and in order for such thing not to happen again, we need a reminder. Think of it like this: black people saying "screw you white people!" is black people saying "screw the system that glorifies white people, otherwise known as racism! I know this personally because I belong to the group where in the past we were the victims of."
The last piece of puzzle I manage to gather is when I try to relate it to my own experience as a homosexual. I try to position myself as equal to my straight peers, and for that, I need to feel equal. I am as open to them about my sexual life as they are about theirs to me. I am also open to welcoming them to gay bars, as if I'm welcomed to straight bars. I found some of my gay friends are not as open as I am. I don't agree with them, but I understand them. It's a defense mechanism, in my opinion, which implies that "we were oppressed by you in the past, sorry if we're not open to you now." To contextualize it to racism against white people, an unwelcoming gesture towards whites exist as a defense mechanism of what happened in the past.
All in all, when I encounter a white racism, I understand why I do not strongly feel bad about it. I didn't say it's not wrong, I just say it's understandable. It might require a bit more thinking and analyzing, but to outrightly say that white racism is racism doesn't sit right with me. And with this, I release myself from the constraint of not wanting a white kid as my kid in the future. What I need to promise myself is that, I must teach him/her the value of everybody is equal; and to think before judging when there are people who might not seem to share this value.
[Originally posted on my Facebook page, 22/09/2018]
No comments:
Post a Comment