caractacus-potts:

ancientbruises:

caractacus-potts:

dagseoul:

You won’t like this, but too bad.

For centuries white people have developed a sense of modernity with an ideal that looks like an educated, modest, upwardly mobile, Christian, white male. That’s a fact.

For centuries, non-white, not-male bodies have been the mark of illiteracy,…

Um my ancestors were European peasants who didn’t oppress shit. Although I guess to be far they did oppress women to a degree but not to the degree that the royalty and upper class did. So I for one refuse to let white male guilt affect me. Because it’s really counter productive to blame people. What does it do? It’s just pointing fingers and not actually solving a problem. Pointing fingers, even if you are right (which in this case you are), is the best way to not get anything you want.

the point.  you missed it.

this whole “but my ancestors were poor people in europe!” is a classic strawman argument against confronting white (often male) privilege in the modern day. dagseoul’s post was not for you to be able to throw off white guilt.  it was about the need to acknowledge the history, the consequences, and the constant presence of the privilege acquired by peoples benefiting from centuries of oppression.  understanding this privilege is vital in understanding the structures of oppression that people who do not hold said privilege face. so while you may “give everyone a fair chance and judge on character, not any stupid physical attribute that people give so much importance,” you also have to understand that other people do give these things importance, as do the institutions of oppression.

Ok thanks for that. I do understand that I am befitting off of other people oppression and I wish I couldn’t. I know it’s sorta digging myself into a hole here but I want to try to resay what I meant. I don’t quite understand what you mean by this though “you also have to understand that other people do give these things importance, as do the institutions of oppression.”.  Because isn’t that the main problem to begin with?

yes, the main problem is that there is racism/sexism/classicism/heterosexism/cissexism in pretty much all institutions because they are controlled by oppressors and seek to benefit those with privilege.  asking to not be blamed for the existence of these things does not do any good because at the end of the day you do benefit from your privilege.  professing yourself to be for equal rights or anti-racist is not enough when you also refuse to acknowledge and check your privilege.  

i recommend researching white privilege before calling people “stupid.”  most recently, i’ve found this comic to be a pretty good example of the problem.  and here’s a good privilege 101 post.  there’s a ton more about this out there - plenty of bloggers like dagseoul devote the majority of their blogs to discussing these issues.