#and also the misinformation is often perpetuated by trans people who are just not aware bc they haven't done the in depth learning

[windwardstar]

Listen. Listen. If you're thinking I like bottom surgery option except x thing. Chances are you can either not do or actually do x thing. Especially if you've not actually done research into it. Look into your options before you decide x thing has to be true.

It might make healing harder or be more difficult to find a surgeon who is willing to do so, but most of the time x thing isn't actually a hard and fast element.

[sevynspeakstothesky]

In rebuttal to Buckbreaking(2021) By Sevyn Sky Selby Wednesday June 9, 2021

If you have not seen Buckbreaking, a document by Tariq Nasheed, here is a breakdown: Black men, including Rizza Islam and Joe Brown, sitting around giving what they preserve to be a historical take on the history of homosexuality in the black community. They bestow not only brutality but genius on the white race as being the source of all alt sexuality and identity. They are in fact ignorant and forgetting that many of us, like myself are native to the Americas where Two Spirit people were and are to this day revered. The term Two Spirit is the Native American all-encompassing term for LGBTQ individuals where white Americans coined the term bisexuality from. White people are not the creator of non cis identities or non-straight sexuality. The men in this documentary give them way too much credit. However, the film makes some points like black people, especially black men where on the receiving end of anal rape and degradation for centuries.

Very violently, the disdain for the LGBT community is spit out in this docuseries. To that I ask, were the commentors sons or daughters either feminine or masculine presenting and self-proclaimed as gay or trans what would you do? I think I know the answer. They would beat and mentally, emotionally abuse their children into submission. If that did not work, would they kick them out in the street. A tale too many of us are familiar with. How are we as black LGBT people being punished for what they claim as a white created problem? Homo same relationships and gender role reversals were well documented before slavery and often as black people we equate the beginning of our history as slavery forgetting the richness of our rule and ancestry. In the documentary same sex relations and trans people are linked to pedophilia but people failed to realize the pedophiles are in everyday life, in parents, in men, women, pasters, uncles, aunts, strangers, friends and more times than often not committed acts by trusted authority figures. But calling Two Spirt people abusers because we choose not to acknowledge their sexualities and identities as valid is an easy scapegoat for ignoring these facts. We also forget that for every child failed in anyway the culprit is 9.9/10 times the fault of a cisgender and proclaimed straight parent.

What the documentary gets right is that white people are depraved and that conjunction with Christianity and so-called organized religion, a once great two spirited community became demonized. What I see is a group of black men oppressing a subgroup of black people by comparing them to their white counterparts. How can a divide be inclusive? If they had done their studies, they might find that the racial divide is just as big amongst gays. Or that black LGBT folks suffer from homelessness and poverty at way more alarming rates than their Caucasian counter parts. In black and brown communities, sexually fluid and gender non-conforming youth are thrown out as soon as they are no longer controllable in the worst-case scenario. This leaves them subject to real predators and pedophiles on the streets and often forced into prostitution rather than being abused and not being able to live their truth under a roof by their own parents. This is what the youth are experiencing. It is not fair to hold black people to a higher and harsher standard than the actual culprit of crimes against humanity, the white male and by extension the white woman.

If black and brown gay men and transwomen are the victims of mental manipulation, feminization and ritual abuse as the film suggest, how does the attack on us make the situation better? Why do we have to further stand the abuse from our own community by what was done and is still being done today. Why is so easy for us to oppress our own and not see ourselves in ourselves or our youth?

A whole community is suffering mentally and emotionally because they are not being able to express themselves or believed when they tell you who they are and their stance. And when we believe them, they are demonized. We are contributing to this detrimental atmosphere of systemic and mental slavery where our children cannot grow. This is the remanent of slavery we should be worried about and what these men could have used their platform to bring awareness to. Again, let’s not forget, the conditions we find ourselves in today stem from the failures of cisgender, straight parents. The foster system is filled by them, the gay community is thrown out by them and mental abuse is perpetuated by them. While there are historic points made, we have more important things to worry about, like better ways of parenting and letting our children express themselves.

An important conversation being had today is Dwayne wade and his daughter Zaya Wade who is accepted and thriving. I commend Wade and Gabrielle Unions parenting. I’m interested to see the growth of a young trans person who is allowed to flourish. We need more voices like Dwayne Wade and less like rapper Boosie who has been labeled as transphobic and homophobic in his career. In light of the Zaya Wade news, Boosie proclaiming to Zaya’s father in a social media video, “don’t cut off his parts man,’ misgendering and referring to the genitals of a 13-year-old Zaya. Boosie has also been called out for not only referencing a minors private but also suspected homo same comments and an obsession with the male phallus on serial occasions. Boosie is a voice of a generation of ignorant misinformed melaninated people who choose to subjugate those under the umbrella of LGBTQ+. His and other voices like his are the ones people want to flock to instead of the Wades of the world because we have been so indoctrinated with a sense of self oppression. Think of all the children and adults who have suffered mentally anguish due to these views and religion. A great example being Donnie McClurkin who just this year has said how unhappy he is and proclaimed himself as asexual because of conflicting feeling within himself.

We cannot continue to allow hate pieces like Buckbreaking to be made where a whole community is likened to child abusers when people like Boosie are praised. We cannot allow people like Rizza Islam, who loves and idolizes Prince and Michael Jackson, both men who were on the extreme feminine side of the spectrum, then turn around a exclaim how much of a sin gay people are. This documentary stunk of gender inferiority, patriarchy, and perpetuated slave mindset. The melanated Two Spirit and LGBT community is here, always has been and always will be. A goal of ours as melanated people must be to remember who the real divider and manipulator is and unifying to fight that energy and not creating schisms and oppressing parts of our own body.

[dresdoodles]

This post is an apology I wrote in 2019. (more below the cut)

Hi all-- This is an apology regarding a post I wrote in May 2019 (that I’ve since deleted and apologized for, although not in enough detail.) In it I wrote some history behind the terms butch/femme, and I foolishly claimed that butch & femme are lesbian-exclusive terms. At the time I only saw this as an opinion of semantics, because I believed the definitions of butch/femme existed as a redefinition of femininity & masculinity completely removed from men or attraction to men. I had only ever seen butch/femme used by other lesbians, and the sources I used for research reinforced this as fact in my mind. But that doesn’t really matter, because I was wrong.

At the time I did not realize these things:

1. The term “lesbian” in the latter half of the 20th century was actually used more like the way we understand wlw or women loving women today, meaning “lesbian” circles often included women and genderqueer folks who were actually bi or pan without a name for their identity yet. This also includes newfound lesbians who had a history with men (which doesn’t make them any less of a lesbian). 

2. Bi and Pan women & nonbinary people have used butch/femme as personal identities for decades, and it’s not a recent phenomenon. I would like to thank the bi women who took the time to tell me this, and I apologize for sharing misinformation in my original post.

and 3. I was, essentially, gatekeeping the personal identities of strangers, which is something I strongly abhor and I’ve actively spoken out against in the LGBTQ+ community for years. It took me about a week or so to realize what I said was wrong-- I reacted a defensively to some of the messages I got, and I regret that. But I deepened my research and spoke to actual bi/pan/queer people and came to understand why I was wrong. 

Anyway, the reason I’m making this post is not because I want anyone’s forgiveness or blessing, and I understand if you don’t trust me or don’t want to follow me any longer. I just genuinely want to apologize for the hurt I caused and let everyone know that I’ve grown and learned from this. I’m on your side.

I want people to know they can talk to me if I’m mistaken or perpetuating harmful ideology. I’m still learning and growing and I’m aware more now than ever that my platform comes with responsibility to be inclusive and loving, and not needlessly exclusionary. Again, I apologize for sharing misinformation and hurting anyone who felt excluded by my comments in May. 

Oh, and because it deserves to be said: I detest T/E/R/FS, Gold Stars aren’t real, I think Bi/Pan/Trans/Queer women & nonbinary people are all wonderful, and gate-keeping personal identities is never cool.

I hope this clears things up for anyone who was unsure where I stand now on those matters. And if you’re a lesbian who believes butch/femme are exclusive to us, please consider what I’ve said and talk to bi people (especially older bi people who have been identifying as butch/femme since before you were born) 

Love, Dres

[androgynousblackbox]

I just want to add that a big portion of negative effects of fiction on reality are also a product of lack of education. A lot of people thought that gay men are predators and trans women too by extension because queerphobes fought really damn hard to avoid actual knowledge about these groups to reach the public. Think of how we have lost entire institutions that studied queer people to validate their existence and then we had to hide as queers to avoid violence.

Keep the public ignorant about something and they will believe any shit you tell them about that something because they have nothing to contradict it. If the public is ignorant then the stereotypes are not just that, are also the only source of information about this group that they have readibly available and grow up with. People don't believe that shit because they saw Silence of the lamb, they believe it because we all grow up being told the same shit from everything around us, not just fiction but also parents, jokes our friends said, teachers, articles, news channels and everything.

Transmisogyny like homophobia are not bugs coming from a bad story, they are features build in on the systems interested on keeping the status quo and you don't combat that by decrying the fiction that is merely a result of an already misinformed society.

If you really want people to combat negative messages in fiction, education and awareness should be your first priority, not the fiction.

Edit:

Queerness as evil being used to do sneaky queer rep is also an ahistorical fucking lie. Queerness as evil was meant to relate queerness to evilness. Queer coding, as in the original term, as in making villains and monsters to be predators towards people of their same gender, is meant to be a bad thing because they aren't saying "look, we are treated as shit on society but at least we have the cool villains with great flair for you!" but rather "and this is what being queer does to you, this is what queer people are like and why you should be afraid of them!", especially when the heroes are always conventionally attractive cishet people who defeat the queerness with the power of their straight love.

I really fucking hate what Tumblr has done to the world coding. People here treat it as it was a positive that the often homicidal, often evil, cruel, vindictive, manipulative and weak character that can never win is often how we see ourselves on the screen

Like it was thought as a fun little easter egg for the queers to latch onto to enjoy pass the censors, instead of just another expression of systematic queerphobia that was meant to perpetuate it, not fight it.

Of course we still enjoy those characters, but that is not their purpose or why they were created like that. The people responsible for them don't give a fuck about giving us rep, they don't care about any of us. You all gotta stop using words you clearly have no idea what they mean or invent one already for what you do mean.

motherfuckers be like “i’m an anarchist and believe in abolishing the prison state and want to support restorative justice” and then talk about how they want to murder anyone who does a thoughtcrime about fanfiction

[mattsimas]

My thoughts on the Rose McGowan incident

(This is gonna be a long ass post lmao and I’m trying to be as unbiased as possible. Even though I’m a fan of Rose, I don’t stand behind everything she does or says)

I’m a fan of Rose. It’s not a secret. I’ve been a fan for years. She’s always been an inspiration to me.

I also truly believe in trans rights. So, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this.

I think the situation could have been handled a lot better from both sides. And I get both sides of the argument.

I think the trans woman absolutely had valid points. It’s a conversation that needs to be had. Intersectionality is VERY important and we should all strive to be better and more aware of issues that don’t necessarily pertain to us. That being said, I do feel that this woman went there looking for a fight. Yelling at someone is not how you start a conversation. People do not respond positively to being yelled at. That is something we can all relate to. If say, your boss is yelling at you at work about getting something done, are you going to be motivated to get said job done? Probably not. You’re going to feel hurt and resentful.

I think she had every right to bring up those issues and start a discussion with Rose. That could have been done in a respectful manner from both sides.

The trans woman said, “trans women are in men’s prisons. What have you done about that?”

What exactly is one woman who is just telling her story supposed to do about that? (Though I really didn’t agree with Roses response)

That is of course a huge issue we have going on in our world and it’s an important conversation that needs to be discussed, but you cannot expect one person to fight for every single issue at the same time. She was there telling her story of assault and her experiences in life.

I’m sorry, but we cannot expect people to be fully aware of every single issue out there. There’s a difference between someone being misinformed and saying some not so appropriate things and someone who is straight up hateful and bigoted.

Conversations need to be had. People need to learn, but they won’t learn if you are yelling at them.

Speaking of this trans woman, it’s come out that she herself is a known predator. It’s a little hypocritical for her to speak out on sexual harassment when she is doing just that. And she’s also giving a bad name to the trans community. She’s perpetuating the stereotype of trans women being “men in dresses that want to molest people”. It’s soul crushing. How do you think this makes trans people feel? We live in a very bigoted society and this is giving those types their imaginary ammo. How dare she put her brothers and sisters in that position. She raised some good points but she’s invalidating them by being a predator. This would not be an issue at all had it been someone else, but alas that is not the situation here, unfortunately.

Now onto Rose. I think she’s done some wonderful work with helping bring this conversation to the forefront, but she absolutely needs to be more inclusive. She’s said some questionable things in the past. She needs to own up to her shortcomings. She needs to take a step back and listen. Learn. Learn about the experiences of others. Experiences she doesn’t directly face as a straight, white, cis woman. While I think she does fall into the line of “first wave feminism”, I don’t think she’s completely bigoted. She has spoken out and acknowledged the issues that POC and queer people face, if only just the surface. Even after the argument, she said “trans women *are* women.” She’s just not fully aware of all these issues. She’s not perfect and that’s okay. I’m sure she’s open to learning.

Some of her comments made me upset, I won’t lie. She’s made some very tone deaf comments in the past. I think she’s always meant well, but her execution may not be the best.

We also must keep in mind that she’s been through some really terrible stuff. Powerful people who made it their mission to tear this woman down and break her. She’s currently telling her story and obviously bringing up past trauma. She’s got the world watching her with a magnifying glass. That would be hard for ANYONE!

Of course, someone’s issues is not an excuse to say hurtful things to others. She can benefit from being more inclusive. And she can be if we teach her. We cannot expect everyone to be experts on every single issue in the world. We all can benefit from listening to others about their issues that we may not necessarily face ourselves. There’s no way we as a society can move forward if we just brand someone as completely awful just because they are not fully aware of the same issues that we are. That’s unfair. I do think that Rose needs to take some time away from this and apologize for some of the comments she’s made.

I as a gay white man do not have the same experiences as someone who is black, brown, trans etc, but I try to be open and listen to others as much as I can. We should all strive to be better and more aware. We can all learn from each other.

Also, it’s important to acknowledge that whatever you’re a fan of can have issues and we should be aware of them.

TL;DR: I have a lot of feelings.

PS: I’m grossed out by the blatant TERFs on tumblr. I guess I’m not used to this as I don’t use tumblr that often but wth.

[mysteriouslyzealouspizza-blog]

Selfies, Fake news and White Anxiety

Technology has grown in many ways over the past few decades, it has impacted our lives in many ways from transportation to our personal lives. Our personal lives have changed through the emergence of social media, people able to tell thousands of people what they are doing at any given time and are even able to use photos to back these statements up. This has allowed for the emergence of the selfie. A selfie is a photo that is taken of oneself using a webcam or smartphone and is shared via social media (Anon., n.d.). Selfies are assorted into three different groups; the narcissist, marketer and self-expression.     

 The first group that will be looked at is the narcissist, there are multiple authors who have looked at the relationship between the selfies and narcissism as well as an increase of narcissism in general amongst American teens. Two authors who have looked at the growth of narcissism are Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell, their book called The Narcissism Epidemic:

Living in the Age of Entitlement.According to Twenge and Campbell “Narcissists believe they are better than others, lack emotionally warm and caring relationships, constantly seek attention, and treasure material wealth and physical appearance”. They look at changes in previous social norms or new processes that have become norms. This is shown is cosmetic producers and plastic surgery, the number of people getting these procedures have grown by five times over the past ten years (Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, 2009). This increase in narcissism can also be seen in the change of what is being drawn, photographed or painted. In previous decades portraits consisted of family or other people and excluded the photographer, however, today the majority of photos that are taken are self-portraits are omnipresent (Marwick, 2015). Over the past few decades, there has been an increased focus on how people look, this is perpetuated by social media. This increased emphasis on how one looks and how it has become the norm for people to take pictures of themselves has increased the narcissistic rates (Cecilie Schou, Andreassen Ståle Pallesen, Mark D.Griffiths, 2017).

The next type of selfie that will be looked at is the marketer selfie. This is a selfies taken of an individual or group of people with the main purpose of marketing a certain product or even themselves. People are able to understand pictures no matter where they are taken, language is not needed to interpret a picture and rarely do cultural backgrounds affect the interpretation of the picture (L Young, H Barret , 2001). It is one of the reasons that people like Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber are able to have so many followers on Instagram, language is not needed to interpret what they are intending to show. Some people even believe that Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber partly achieved their celebrity status through their snapping of pictures and posting them online (Iqani, M. & Schroeder,, 2016). These high profile instances show that selfies have emerged as a tool that can be used to market both people and their companies. A different way that selfies can be used for marketing can be seen in The Walking Dead branded application called ‘Dead Yourself’ and Doves “Honest Selfie”. Fans of the show The Walking Dead would post selfies of themselves looking like zombies and post it online with #deadyourself. This created advertising or marketing from the audience for The Walking Dead show using selfies (Anon., 2018). Dove did the same thing with creating the trend ‘Honest Selfie’ where they encouraged young girls and their mothers to post honest selfies the caption #beautyis this showed natural beauty without makeup and also encouraged a conversation around what beauty is. This advertised Dove through the conversation and through the pictures (Anon., 2014). This again shows in the impact that selfies can have on marketing.

The final type of selfie that will be looked at is the self-expression selfie. This selfie is used to show causes that people are fighting for, they use the selfie to create awareness about the given situation. An example of this are the trans men and women in America who have taken selfies in bathrooms with the hashtag #wejustneedtopee, this is to fight against the proposed stated bills that require people to use the bathroom according to their sex at birth (Iqani, M. & Schroeder,, 2016). These selfies create an awareness about the agenda they are fighting for. The selfies are spread over social media and thus thousands of people are able to see them. The hijab or niqab selfies are taken by young Muslim women to fight against Islamophobia are another example of people using selfies to show self-expression (Iqani, M. & Schroeder,, 2016). The final example of self-expression selfies is from the movement ‘selfie-feminism’. There is an increasingly large support and awareness being created around creating equality for women. With the growth of social media, many feminists of many different ages, cultures and ethnicities have posted selfies that push against the norms of this patriarchal society (Rozdzenski, 2018).  These selfies are easily spread around social media and have created awareness about certain problems. The selfies that are taken vary in different ways, there are selfies of women reading or working creating awareness that women are not just sexual objects and have the ability to impact society in a big way (Rozdzenski, 2018). The other type of selfies is one that rejects the current norms of shyness, shame and women exposing their bodies. This creates awareness that women are in control of their own bodies and that they have the right to do with them what they please (Rozdzenski, 2018).

The growth of technology has changed our lives in many ways. One of these life-changing things are selfies. As shown before selfies can be seen as both a good or bad thing, it just depends on how one uses them. One must be careful to see why they are posting the selfies and look for narcissistic traits within themselves, or see if they are just advertising their given product or if they are fighting for some sort of self-expression.

 Fake News

The growth of the technology has brought more than just an increase of social media and selfies, it has helped with the distribution of information around the world. People are able to access many types of information and are able to educate themselves on their preferred topic by just accessing the internet. The internet does have its flaws though, there has been a growth of what is known as fake news.

There have been many people who have defined fake news as the way that they see it. Gordan Pennycook, Tyronne Cannon and David Rand gave fake news the following definition “… so-called ‘fake news’- that is news stories that were fabricated and promoted on social media in order to deceive the public for ideological and/or financial gain” (Gordan Pennycook, Tyronne Cannon and David Rand, 2018). A different definition is by “exposed to a daily dose of false or misleading content- hoaxes, conspiracy theories, fabricated reports, click-bait headlines, and even satire. We refer to such content collectively as ‘misinformation’.” (Chengcheng Shao, Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, Onur Varol,Kaicheng Yang, Alessandro Flammini, and Filippo Menczer, 2018). There have been other definitions of fake news, however, all share the interpretation that fake news is the spreading of news that is not 100% factual.

These different definitions have brought up different questions, the first one questioning whether ‘fake news’ is completely false or if it entails false or misleading content. The second question is that the terms imply intentional misinformation however is this term too limited? These definitions have brought about more questions than answers, there are questions whether fake news is only on news type stories or whether it encompasses the other types of media. Whether these definitions define it or not or if these new questions help the situation or not one must look at whether these ‘academic’ definitions even matter in the ‘real’ world (Hunt Allcott, Matthew Gentzkow, 2017). The unclear definition has left loopholes for people to use. The scatter-gun approach brought to society, it is employed by the politicians, then later abused by the different media outlets and later on either recirculated or ridiculed by the public. This means that fake news is served more as a metaphor rather than an actuality.

This brings up an idea of changing an umbrella term for fake news, this term is called ‘false news’. This term is not as loaded as more items fall under it as well as it does not have the intention of blaming people for giving false information on purpose. Darakhshan and Wardle believed there were different types of false news and came up with the Information Disorder. There are three types of information, the first one is misinformation this is where false information is shared however it did not have the intention to cause harm. The second one is disinformation this happens when people knowingly share false information in an attempt to cause harm. The final one is malinformation this is where people share genuine information with the intention to cause harm (Hossein Darakhshan, Claire Wardle , 2017).

The previously mentioned definitions are prevalent when looking at different types of media. There will be five different media genres examined briefly. The first one is Fake new, this is news like content that is often created with incorrect or dramatized information, this is developed to create profit from people clicking on these links. The stages of fake news are as follows; first, the fictional content is created, this fictional content is created in a place like Veles, Macedonia. This information is put and promoted on Facebook spreading through the general public and then the people make money by exploiting this social behaviour as well as the information ecosystem (Naill Conroy, Victoria Rubin, Yimin Chen, 2018).

The next genre is propaganda. Propaganda contains fictional content or deliberately uses accurate information in a way that is misleading to the people. The intention of this is to create a specific social or political response. Propaganda is spread in a similar way to fake news; there is content which is misleading or fictional, there is then a press conference or press release where this information is spread. The different news agencies or even paid actors on social media spread this fictional or misleading content. This creates ham to the intended party, person or state (Naill Conroy, Victoria Rubin, Yimin Chen, 2018).

The third genre is alternative news. Alternative news is where people take the given news or given a story about the given situation and then gives an alternative view. This can be seen in four steps, the person or new news sources looks at a real news event, they then create an alternative to what happened in this news event. This alternative story is then published on alternative media platforms, people see this new news story or new narrative and start to side with the new version (Naill Conroy, Victoria Rubin, Yimin Chen, 2018).

The fourth genre takes a bit of a lighter note, this genre is called Prank news. Prank news uses satire, parody and causes mischief. This content may or may not be used to cause harm to the public, it also takes into consideration the point of which people will see the content as reasonable. Parody can have a negative effect if people take it seriously. The parody is created and spread on social media, the parody is then seen by some sort of news station and the news is taken seriously and thus they create a real news event about it. This news event is then spread again and is picked up by different news agencies and thus it is spread even more (Naill Conroy, Victoria Rubin, Yimin Chen, 2018).

The final genre is error media. Error media is often seen as fake news, this definition might not be entirely appropriate. One needs to look at what causes the error on the news source; was it due to negligence, misleading context, manipulated context or/and imposter. This information was not intended to cause harm or deceive the public however it has done so (Naill Conroy, Victoria Rubin, Yimin Chen, 2018).

In creating these different genres of ‘news’ we are able to begin to distinguish and define what fake news really is. It gives people a platform to create their own thoughts around the topic and the question the ‘facts’ or arguments given in the media source.

  White Anxiety

 South Africa has endured a difficult past in terms of racial separation. South Africa had institutional racism from 1948 to 1994. This came to a stop after both internal pressures as well as external pressures. This institutionalised racism has stopped however there are still many South Africans who are consciously racist and many more who are subconsciously racist. This subconscious racism can come out in the form of white anxiety (Aaron Spital Clive O. Callender Patrice V. Miles, 2004).

In order to understand white anxiety one first needs to look at what racial anxiety is. Racial anxiety refers to an increased level of anxiety when working or interacting with people from a different race (Harris, Herbert W., Ed.; And Others, 1995). This can be seen Islamophobia around the world as well as in South African. The reason for racial anxiety can be seen in the idea of ‘othering’. Othering is seeing someone who is different to you (in this case it is the racial difference) as a threat or as inferior to the original person. Othering has been part of the world for many centuries, from the slave trade to now (Joy L. Johnson, Joan L. Bottorff, Annette J. Browne, Sukhdev Grewal, B. Ann Hilton & Heather Clarke, 2009 ).

A different way of looking at othering is through racial profiling. Racial profiling is giving a person certain traits, characteristics or behaviour based on their race or ethnicity rather than on their individual characteristics (RONALD WEITZER STEVEN A. TUCH, 2006). Racial profiling is even prominent in many law enforcement agencies, people suspect certain people of doing a certain crime just based on their race or ethnicity. A problem at the moment is Islamophobia, law enforcers are more likely to suspect a Muslim person or a person who looks Muslim to commit a terror attack than that of their white counterparts.

In order to understand white anxiety, one needs to look at the past in more detail. Willemien Calitz did an analysis on two South African people, Bles Bridges (singer) and Laurinda Hofmeyr (poet). They are both white Afrikaans people. In their poems and songs, Calitz was able to see the subconscious racism. There is saying amongst South Africans that white people are the new victims in the new South Africa. Calitz related this due to white people struggling to accept their loss of pure power in the new South Africa. There are still some South Africans who believe that white people are superior, more intelligent and talented than those of black people. This can be seen in one of Hofmeyr’s poems (Calitz, 2014). The translated version of what she writes is “The one without whose employ this would not have once been the gem of Africa” in this one can see that Hofmeyr believes that without white people the country would not succeed due to black people not being on the same level as white people. This belief of white superiority can once again be seen when Hofmeyr says that South Africa was once a “gem”, this implies that under white rule South Africa was a prominent country with great success and potential however now that it is under predominantly black rule the country is falling into pieces (Calitz, 2014).

Similar situations can be seen in America, an example of this can be seen ay Yale. A student of colour fell asleep in the common room near her dorm room, she was woken up by a classmate and noticed the police were there. The police had been called by a white student who had noticed that she was sleeping there and thought that she appeared out of place in this building. After interrogation, the problem was solved (Griggs, 2018). This, however, shows the underlying or subconscious racism is still inside many people. This student of colour was deemed out of place due to the colour of her skin, she had not done anything wrong or done something that would imply she was going to do something wrong, it was just the colour of her skin that created the thought that she was out of place.

In a different episode racial profiling and white anxiety can be seen, three black people checked out of the Airbnb and were busy loading their luggage into their car when the police showed up. These three people were told to put their hands up and were told that they were surrounded. The police were called by a neighbor across the street that believed that these three people were robbing their neighbor's house (Doug Criss, Amir Vera, 2018). This again shows white anxiety and racial profiling, the three Airbnb guests were not doing anything wrong and acting in a strange way, they were just leaving the place they were staying yet they were deemed criminals. This again shows the subconscious racism that still exists around the world.

The act of othering people, racial profiling and racial anxiety have all contributed to the act of white anxiety. Calitz believes that this white anxiety stems from the change in power throughout the world, white people do not have the same power as they did in the past and they are struggling to come to terms with it. This white anxiety is that where a white person gives another race characteristic or presumes that they are acting or are about to act in a certain way by judging them purely on their race rather than that of their personal characteristics.

  Works Cited

Aaron Spital Clive O. Callender Patrice V. Miles, 2004. Ethical Issues in Dialysis: Institutionalized Racism and End‐Stage Renal Disease: Is Its Impact Real or Illusionary?. Seminars in Dialysis, 17(3), pp. 22-45.

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