#a few posts and then thinking they're automatically being anti-racist

[mogai-sunflowers]

no offense, but aren't you white? it feels really weird for a white person to use black history month to educate people on history and culture they're not even part of, instead of boosting actual black voices discussing these things

yes, i am. i'm not trying to "use" Black History Month. i'm trying to educate people. it may not be history i'm part of, but that doesn't mean i can't try to educate others. i'm not trying to be performative or whatever. i'm trying to do something to make the MOGAI community safer and more accepting of its Black members. I don't take things like this lightly- I want to do SOMETHING to make this community better, and i don't think reblogging will do that. i wanted to make my own posts. i wanted someone who's a big presence in the community to make original posts because that would reach more people. so no, i'm not trying to use Black history to my own advantage, i'm just genuinely trying to improve the MOGAI community. i've asked for extensive advice from Black people in my life and in this community on how to navigate doing this, and I'm trying to stick to their advice. but i think that it's more important for white people in this community to actually actively do something, than it is to give the appearance of "staying in my lane". i don't discount the importance of boosting Black voices, and i absolutely plan on doing that as I frequently do, but i wanted to do more than that.

anon, i’m not upset with you so i’m very sorry if this response feels rude. if you are Black, then please feel free to tell me that and elaborate on your concerns. but if you’re not, then I ask that you try to understand where i’m coming from.

[pebblysand]

whilst i totally agree with the above, i think what we need to recognise here is that a lot of this positioning of europeans lately (and, as a european, i'm the first to criticise it, please see previous posts here and here before anyone comes at me) is also the result of decades of american cultural hegemony and constant belittling of europeans as being racist, uneducated, and generally backwards, compared to The Best Country in the world. as a french person, i still remember the countless 2015/2016 "enlightened" tumblr posts from "liberal" americans, saying that the charlie hebdo cartoonists had been disrespectful to muslims and thus automatically deserved to die. i still remember being told that all french people were racists for banning the burka, refusing to even consider any cultural and legal subtleties that, while not excusing (i personally am against the burka ban, but that's another issue), at least explained this phenomenon. i remember the hungarians being all called nazis because they all de facto agreed with orban's anti-gay policies, or the polish being called imbeciles when their own government banned abortions a few years ago. i remember eastern europeans being told they couldn't be victims of racism because they're white, which in a european context is frankly laughable. but, most of all, i remember decades of feeling like for every european issue that ever came up upon which we tried to express any kind of subtlety or cultural framework, we were all just called names and spent posts upon posts receiving hate and screaming into an internet void.

for me, personally, as i explained in my first post about the supreme court ruling in may, this phenomenon has caused me to avoid ever commenting on american politics. when i do, (like on the abortion issues), it's been through the lens of having lived in ireland back when abortion was still illegal, and my own experience campaigning in this context. having seen how toxic ignorant american comments could be re:european issues, i have always tried not to "return the favour" and tried not to comment on issues that i do not know first hand, in the hopes that maybe one day, americans online would have the courtesy to do the same. i very much believe that by modelling good behaviour, one might one day make the world a better place.

this being said, we do have to acknowledge that while not ideal, feelings of revenge and schadenfreude are very natural in human beings. and whilst my first reaction was to get mad at my fellow europeans for their reactions i have since accepted the fact that maybe, years of abuse and mistrust cannot simply be ignored by being instructed to "take the high road". i do hope that we will come out of this with more respect and understanding for each other, but i think the road there might be longer than originally anticipated.

lastly (and i think this works for both sides), if you feel like responding to a critical post by: "well, i'm european and i never said shit like this" or "well, i'm american and i never said shit like this", remember why "not all men" is never a valid response, before posting.

with lots of love, compassion, and regret as to what is currently happening ❤️

Do you think the helpful Europeans on tumblr and twitter who keep advising Americans in red states to move to blue states realize that that distance between Dallas, TX and Chicago, IL is about the same as between Paris, France and Warsaw, Poland ?

I’m going to say probably not, no. Also, “just move!!!” is about as helpful as “start a revolution!!” in terms of a workable solution, which is… not at all. I have had to move a lot (a LOT) in my life, and it totally absolutely sucks even when it’s somewhere you WANT to go/do! When you don’t and you’re being forced by external circumstances, it sucks even worse. It is expensive, exhausting, time-consuming, stressful, and generally a pain in the ass, and when you get to where you’re going, you’ve got to transfer your voter registration, your driver’s license, your utility bills, your health insurance, navigate a new administration system, find a job, resettle your life, make new friends, etc etc. It is a total absolute fucking HASSLE, and not to mention, most people who won’t be able to afford so much as traveling out of state for an abortion will absolutely not be able to afford moving!

Like, I am lucky enough to be a lesbian living in a blue state (albeit a very red part of said state), so this is very unlikely to apply to me personally. But if, God forbid, a situation arose where I needed to get up and leave immediately, I would almost surely not be able to do that. I haven’t been able to do it in the last three years despite vigorous trying, and the only reason that I might be able to do it now is because a) my grandmother recently died and my mom inherited some money from her estate, and b) she also has a job now when she hadn’t for a while. So in my personal circumstances, if it was extremely necessary, my parents could help me get out. But that is a sheer fluke and dependent only on our own situation and, given how poor all of us have been for many years, would absolutely not have been an option before.

Besides, “just uproot your whole life because fascists run your home state!” is astoundingly tone-deaf. Due to gerrymandering and other Republican dirty tricks, a state counts as “red” if only 50.1% of the population votes for the Republican candidate; that still leaves the 49.9% who didn’t and yet are subject to GOP nonsense anyway. It’s like when liberals write off the entire South or see them as “deserving” it, when, like… you know how the South has been structured, built, and sustained on minority-white-conservative rule since the beginning, right? The many good people who are NOT racist Christofascist KKKlowns have been fighting for DECADES to undo some of those structural barriers and systemic injustices, and some of the keyboard warriors need to do as much work as even one day in the life of a southern community organiser or local Democrat before they shoot their mouths off about The Establishment.

Anyway, I suspect that telling someone from Poland (where abortion is likewise tightly restricted/outlawed) to “just move to France” as a solution wouldn’t be particularly well-received. Plus, Europeans, or indeed any non-Americans at all, who feel like chiming in right now should restrict their commentary to “I’m sorry the Supreme Court did this” and “let me know if I can help.” That goes double for all the non-American leftists who get cred points on Socialist Twitter by bashing the Democrats endlessly, and never have to live in American society, participate in it, vote in it, live with the consequences of their words, or anything else at all. The end.