#culture privilege

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Credits: pxhere (CC0 Public Domain).

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ANTS WITHOUT ANTENNAS

Being born into cultural privilege can often be an ethical handicap.

It is very difficult to empathize with pains one has never experienced.

When one is born on a mountaintop above the storms of poverty and oppression, it can be very hard to empathize with those caught in the flood waters below.

Like ants without antennas we privileged people are tempted to use own own numbness as proof others exaggerate their own pain.

What is easier than for a white person to use "law and order” to silence the cries of pain coming from Communities of Color?

What requires less sacrifice than for a man to oppose the reproductive rights of women?

What is more self-serving than for Christians to call for bringing God into the public arena, and by “God” to mean the deification of our own point of view?

We cannot arrive at ethical integrity by reason alone. Justice is impossible for those of us privileged people who cannot, or will not, empathize with the pain of those lacking the privileges into which we were born and which we vainly consider as proof of our own superiority.

(Jim Rigby)

[fatphobiabusters]

That person the other day who said they love seeing photos of thin people holding up 3XL jeans to show all of the "hard work" they put into living "the life they want," there's so much I could say about that.

I could explain that any fat person you see has almost certainly put in that same amount of "hard work" to become thin and then watched as their body refused to stay that way.

I could explain basic, unbiased weight science proving that weight loss is only temporary for the 4 millionth time.

I could explain that fat people are human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity, respect, and humanity, again for the 4 millionth time.

I could explain and explain and explain, but I'm tired of explaining to people who don't listen and pull their views out of their ass. So instead, I think we should applaud photos of fat people holding up the jeans they temporarily wore as a thin person.

Let's celebrate the fat people who once were a size small. Let fat people hold up their old tiny jeans in celebration of:

Beating an eating disorder

No longer experiencing food insecurity

Recovering from an illness that had caused weight loss

Accepting their fat body instead of abusing themself to become thin again

Leaving an abusive family/living situation where they were starved and/or forced to conform to prevent abuse

Having the genes of ancestors who survived famines

Knowing that there is not a single scientifically-proven method of weight loss

No longer wasting time fighting their body's weight gain from health conditions that cause weight gain, like PCOS

Accepting their body that changed due to pregnancy

Accepting their body that changed due to puberty

Accepting their body that changed due to transitioning

Allowing themself to take the medicine they need to treat mental or physical illness no matter the weight gain side effects

Not listening to harassment from bullies, friends, family, or anyone else who demanded they be thin to deserve peace from mistreatment

Literally just getting older and having a body that has changed with time

Loving themself despite the entire world believing that fat people do not deserve love

Existing, because fat people do not need to justify their body and existence to anyone

And so much more

-Mod Worthy

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

Just two tweets on why non-Black people really should not be using "Rest in Power" for the deaths of White people (even when they are allies for the cause):

And

- mod sodapop

[maulfucker]

racism in star wars will have wikis saying shit like "this species that is inspired on a real life non-white people is just too stupid to use the Force"

[strawberrystepmom]

if you're holding very rich, extremely sheltered people to the standards you live by in your life you're always gonna be disappointed and im sorry about that but we have to stop letting celebrities decide our morals and ethics for us. even the coolest, most down to earth famous person you love lives in a totally different world than you do and the issues that you face daily do not matter to them. it's cruel but it's true. stop putting your faith in rich people to do the right thing no matter how much you like them. you will always be disappointed.

[mikasasrippedtoenail]

Long nails are proof that women's beauty standards have always focused on frailty, rejecting any physical prowess exuded by women. Defining feminity with fragility connotations dissuades women from gaining strength and fighting for themselves. Long hair, Long nails and underweight bodies are all physically uncomfortable- they prevent the wearer from fighting back. Even when women excercise, it is focused on maintaining an aesthetic instead of gaining strength. Men are afraid of what we are capable of so they try their very best to suppress us.

[solitaireships]

I feel like I should say since there's been a recent uptick in a lot of communities I'm in/see stuff from a lot of white people pretending to be Asian, but you are not welcome here if you are in anyway stealing from Asian cultures for clout or the aesthetics of it

This includes if you're white and you give your self inserts Asian names, I truly do not care if your f/o is from an anime, you should not be using an Asian name under any circumstances. I hate that whenever I see someone using an Asian name online, I feel like I have to start searching their account to see if they're actually Asian or just a white person who likes the aesthetic of it bcs far too many white people will use Asian names here just bcs it sounds cool, with no regard for the actual cultural meaning behind it. Meanwhile actual Asian people will be mocked for their names, or treated like their names are too hard to learn to pronounce, or discriminated against based on their names

Asian cultures are not a fun little costume for people to dress up with. They aren't just a nice aesthetic, they aren't just a thing you can borrow from bcs you think it sounds cool

[rebellum]

The whole transandrophobia discussion thing is weird bc it feels like it's a bunch of poc and jewish trans people being like "here are my experiences of how specifically being MASCULINE had affected me, and the discrimination and violence I experienced based on that. And here is how that relates to me being a racial/ethnic minority"

And then a few loud white trans people going "ohhh you wanna be oppressed so bad you *slur*. This is why there aren't any poc in your movement it's because REAL poc understand intersectionality"

[chroniclesofajewishteen]

Whiteness

Whiteness is such a weird concept. To me, you are white if you are of European heritage. Weirdly enough, that's controversial.

Let me ask you a question: are Turkish people white? Do you have your answer? No matter the answer, to someone it is clearly wrong.

Let's talk about being white-passing. Do you know Darren Barnet, who played Paxton-Hall Yoshida in Never Have I Ever? Let's talk about him. He is Japanese, Cherokee, and German. What do you think he looks like? Here's an image.

Do you think that people harass him in the streets for being a brown person? Probably not. He passes for white. Is he white? Clearly not, as stated above.

What about Olivia Rodrigo? She's Filipino, but she looks very white.

This is a dilemma many mixed-race people such as myself face. People don't believe us when we say we are brown, because we look white. But when people find out we are brown, we aren't white anymore. When people find out, we can be harassed, or be victims of racist attacks.

You are probably thinking: but you aren't brown, you're Jewish! You are probably a goy. Jewish people are native to the Middle East. This is a fact, that has been proven over and over again by genetic testing. If you think that Jews are white, or Judaism isn't an ethnicity, think about how Jewish people were murdered in the holocaust for not being white. Secular Jews, and Christian Jews, were murdered in the holocaust because they were ethnically Jewish. Do you want to say Jews are white or we aren't an ethnicity? Have fun in your holocaust denial. Here are images of Jews.

Go on. Tell me those people are white. I dare you. Now remember these people, and think of all the different colors of brown people you have seen. Think of Lin Manuel Miranda. He's brown, isn't he? He could also pass for white.

Whiteness is a social construct that is fundamentally flawed. White passing privilege is not the same as white privilege. Ethnicity as a concept is flawed. Everyone will look different, no matter their ethnicity. We can acknowledge that people have an easier time with lighter skin and not shame brown people for having lighter skin. Watch the Black-ish episode on colorism. I watched it when I was young.

[fatphobiabusters]

It's pretty fucked up and also very telling that out of all the times I have ever seen media tackle the theme of "You don't have to starve to [be beautiful/meet beauty standards/be loved/get the guy/etc.]," it has only ever been about thin people. I cannot tell you a single instance where media portrayed the person starving themself due to diet culture or anorexia or what have you as fat. It's only ever a thin person, and usually a thin girl specifically. With how fatphobic this world is, how much cruel oppression us fat people are forced to endure, it's disgusting that the people being told they don't need to starve to have worth are not the people affected most by that fatphobic ideology. No, only thin people are allowed the grace of not having to starve, but us fatties can keep at it until our bodies deteriorate from the physical abuse. What a shocker that fat people are turned away from eating disorder recovery resources when what we grow up watching tells us that only the conventionally "beautiful" are pure enough to deserve the fulfillment of a basic human survival need.

-Mod Worthy

[uncanny-tranny]

The obsession with "natural = good" isn't truly rooted in what is "natural" but is rooted in complex politics based on what is deemed "natural" by others - those in power. The whole "natural is pure, is right, is morally just" has not historically applied to the marginalized because of our supposed proximity to the "unnatural." Our bodies, our behaviour, our lives and souls will continuously be defined as "unnatural" so long as "natural" remains seen as pure and godly, so long as "natural" is equal to power.

[magpiemagica]

I am so normal about Cats: The Jellicle Ball 😀 (lying)

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

Okay I'm a little afraid to post this because of how ridiculous the discourse is right now, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

I am NOT looking to discuss politics or current events on this post.

Can anyone recommend to me reputable, fact-based resources (ideally books, articles, or websites) that can help me learn more about Palestinian history and culture? Pretty much everything I have ever learned about the Palestinian people has been in the context of the conflict with Jews and with Israel, and I would really love to know what is unique to their culture and who they are separate and apart from the conflict. When I've gone looking for this myself I've found: (1) lots of materials that define them as one half of a conflict and only discussing them in those terms, (2) lots of materials that function as Zionist propaganda that erases their history, connection to the land, and unique culture, and (3) lots of materials that function as Anti-Zionist propaganda that demonize Israelis and/or totally erase Jewish history and delegitimize Jewish connections to the land.

I just want to know more about, idk, if they have a specific dialect of Arabic, or the history of their beautiful textile art, their naming culture, music trends, or their olive orchard cultivation. Idk, anything that doesn't involve explosives and bloodshed.

I refuse to accept a political narrative that erases the humanity of Palestinians or their neighbors, but I don't know enough about Palestinians as people and want to fix that.

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

An aspect of Hilda the series that I feel isn’t talked about enough is the colonizer’s guilt and how it affects the main character.

What made me write this was watching the third episode of the new season, but honestly, it’s something we see throughout the whole series. Starting out with the elves in the northern counties, and moving on to trolls and now giants. Every season that came out gave us a chance to see Hilda deal with the feelings that arise from living in a society she knows is built on the occupation of another people’s native land and the oppression of those inhabitants.

She knows it’s not her fault, she knows she’s not the colonizer, but she’s well aware that she’s in the privileged side of her society. Seeing her grapple with the fact that her very existence in these spaces is only possible because someone else is getting the short end of the stick, to me at least, makes her that much more interesting of a character.

Because it’s not a matter of fixing what she’s done, but the privilege is still there and not even well hidden when she sees the day to day life of the people whose land has been occupied by humans/trolbergians. So whenever we see her rush to aid them, her borderline desperation to fix what’s been broken, it’s even more captivating because it’s not just the usual “I love helping people and having adventures” gist, there’s always this undertone of guilt for something she hasn’t personally done but still knows has to be held accountable for.

Hilda knows the type of oppression that people like her get away with. And she wants no part in it.

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

this is what I've learned about the practice of politics over the past 8 years:

the time for talking about abstract political ideals is during the primary.

after the primary, the die has been cast, and your two choices are there whether you like them or not. your practical political responsibility still exists. any choice that seems to lie outside the two candidates is an illusion. to cast a vote for a third party or to not vote at all is still, practically speaking, a choice for one of the two main candidates.

furthermore, you are not voting for the candidates as people, you are voting for them as policy. voting for a person is a luxury most countries don't have anymore. you think Canadian Christian voters ever get a truly Christian ticket on either side? Norwegian Christians? Japanese Christians? America might still be able to vote for people in the primaries, but we don't have that luxury in the general election. the general election is about policy, and the candidates are only pieces in a larger game of chess.

the only thing that would persuade me NOT to vote for Trump this time around is if he had the exact same policy platform as Kamala Harris. if Trump ran on all of Harris' policies except for immigration, I would still vote for Trump, because it's materially worse for my family, friends, and neighbors to allow illegal immigration than to stop it. and as a voter, I have the power to stop it.