#like idk when ‘my’ parents are ethnic and ‘yours’ are white racists it’s so weird to spin that for an edit
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starlooove · 3 months ago
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Ppl will proudly say Jack and Janet are abusive enough to use your best American girl for TIM DRAKE (enough.) but turn around and go ‘canon my detested for bad dad bruce’ and it’s funny bc the idea that Jack and Janet suck do nothing for tims actual character unless it’s fandom characterization. The most I can see is him being more secretive and lying to protect ppl he cares about but that’s a given anyways - pretending that tim is like heavily neglected and hurt to justify shit u make up is so weird when u can’t even stomach that the way everyone else acts is a result of Bruce being a bad parent? Even if like casual physical abuse is ooc why they hell is everyone else so paranoid and competitive for what they perceive as limited affection? NOOOW it’s just Bruce can’t communicate and it’s not his fault a conversation therapy from his coworker and sillay moments will fix it - but Jack and Janet should rot what the fuck 😭
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aajjks · 2 years ago
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baby i’m 17 and indian and muslim as well. don’t worry bby! i don’t claim being indian because to me (even though both my parents are indian - my dad was born and raised in india and my mum was born in england and i’ve lived in england and things happen and my dad isn’t my life and i just refuse to accept being indian as me) idk if that makes sense. i feel like people use words like ‘I am so and so…’ to make themselves feel better but you’re not, your parents are. People use ethnicity as a badge of pride because you’re exotic or whatever compared to ‘white people’ (that’s non-derogatory on my side) and it makes saying things like ‘I’m Indian sound terrible because why should ethnicity matter? In my experience (not trying to be rude), Indian people have no sense of boundary and are just very intrusive. They gossip way too much (especially the fact they are Muslims) and it kinda infuriates me. My Mum had an argument with my sister and she started talking about what happened to another one of their sisters (she has five) and was going about how she would have a talk with her about it but like?? u did not have to bring the second auntie into it, you could’ve just called the first auntie straight away. am i being weird? i apologise. Indians also tend to be very desperate (the ones who live in India). Like especially in comment sections, they’re the ones who put random emojis rather than actual comments under posts and it’s like as a writer, you want people to reblogged to interact rather than comment and they just don’t do rhat. they just want to be the first at everything. first to comment, first to say i loved bts first. (my judgement may be skewed but so be it)
I’m not trying to be controversial but I also hate it when black people bring up the old whipping jokes and act like they’re the ones who are currently getting whipped if you get me. like when they say my people were slaves, and it’s the same people who get offended if you class people by colour like isn’t that what you’re doing when you say MY people. also, some of you have got to stop living in the past, i don’t understand everyone’s obsession with talking about the past that has nothing to do with them. like were you a slave? i doubt it. it’s real life not a joke. stop treating it like it’s just a funny story to pass off to your peers or anyone that will listen.
i also don’t agree with the n word. i’m sorry - the fact people tried gatekeeping it especially when niga means ‘we’ i believe in korean is ridiculous. i don’t get why black people get to call other black people such a bad word. if it’s such a bad word, no one should be able to say it. end of. black people can be racist to black people and what then? you going to let that run because they’re black. if a black person said it to another in a menacing way, no one would bat their eyes, but if a white person were to say it (even if it’s the supposed friendly way - let’s say they ARE black but just not physically. people would be like ‘oh my god, cancelled!’
like how does that even work. everything is always about intentions.
It’s not even about colour cus my complexion is very light, so people assume of me as white or European, I don’t know anything about Indians tbh cuz I have no connection to india or Indian Muslims.
And as for black people, I have absolutely no right to say anything, they have been very nice people to me, I really respect them!!!
I have to say that I am very little educated on races. So I try to not discuss races, not even mine haha cus you never know what you might say that could be considered offensive!
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normal-thoughts-official · 4 years ago
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Fandom racism anon here and yeah absolutely (I didn't realise I had anon on lol)
Because while LOTR has problems within its themes (ie the orcs can be seen as to be coded as people of colour, especially since they ride elephants) the explicit message of the book is evil bad
Because the only people who work for sauron are evil. There are no morally grey people, they aren't misguided or tricked they just are evil and want to take over the world
And yeah I totally agree that this is more of a literal take on like empirical war (is that the word) and that makes total sense considering Tolkiens history
Whereas I would say that the allegories in shaowhunters is way more based on racial conflict within a country itself especially slavery, I can't remember if this is show Canon but is it that they have the warlock tropheys? I remember that in the books magnus talks about shadowhunters hanging warlock marks on their walls? (sorry to bring the books up)
Idk it's very hollow to me, unlike with LOTR though it's a different allegory it's totally irritating to show many of these supremecists as morally misled. LOTR says bad guys are bad guys, shadowhunters says well yeah they did follow a guy which thinks that downworlders are subhuman and should be eradicated but they just made a mistake
I want to compare this to tfatws which while it isn't really fantasy I just feel like it shows how the priorities of the writer can impact the message of the show so powerfully (I know u aren't up to date so I'm gonna be pretty vague)
There's a scene in tfatws where the new white perfect captain America does something bad and doesn't pay for the consequences - done to comment on white privelege and how America condones white supremacy and how Sam is in comparison to that
Mayrse and Robert revealed to be part of the circle! And paid no consequences Shock horror my parents were the bad guys (even rho they were either implicitly or explicitly extremely racist the entire time) also I haven't finished the seires but do the lightwoods ever try to get their parents to face the consequences?)
Only one actual really critiques the situation and the reality behind it whereas the other one is just to centre the white characters once again and present them in a further sympathetic light
AND ANOTHER THING! I was mostly talking about show Canon here and I'm sorry to bring up the books but I literally can't believe I hadn't picked up in this before.
So like downworlders = people of colour, Simon is a vampire so is coded as a person of colour. However in the books in the last one he stops being a vampire and becomes a shadowhunters instead, coincidentally that's also when he starts dating Izzy HOW IS THIS ABLE TO HAPPEN!!????
I mean I know cassandra clare is lazy right? The original seires is by far the worst of all her writings but come ON!!!!! By the allegory has he become the white man!????? These books made no fuckin sense when I read them at 15 and they make no sense now I'm digressing anyways
I don't know man I wrote this ask because I was trying to find some fantasy book recommendations on booktube and SO MANY of them were about slavery or general ly extrême préjudice with à White protagonist to save this 'poor souls'.
Also I was watching guardians of the galexy the other day and realised nearly every movie set in space is just bigger stakes imperialism - planets instead of countries. Literally star wars, star trek, guardians of the galexy 2, avengers infinity war - all are facing genocidal imperialistic villains without actually paying much, if any attention to those effected
Just writing this ask made me exhausted I'm so tired of lazy writing and exploiting other people's struggle. I'm white and I'm trying to be more critical about the movies, shows and books I watch and read but let me know if I said something off here❤️❤️ you gotta get up to date with tfatws man, Sambucky nation is THRIVING!!!!
i'm not sure i agree that the whole "the evil people are evil" thing is a good thing, because i feel like more often than not making the bad characters just like... unidimensionally evil just means that the reader will be like "lol i could NEVER be that guy" and when it comes to racism that is a dangerous road to take because white people already believe that racism is something that Only The Most Evil People, Ergo, Not Me, Can Do, which makes discussions of stuff like subconscious racial bias and active antiracist work become more difficult because people don't believe they CAN be racist unless they're like, Lord Voldemort
which is not to say that racism should be treated as morally ambiguous, just that the workings of racism should be represented as something that is not done only by the Most Hardcore And Evil, but rather as a part of a system of oppression that affects the way everyone sees the world and interacts with it and lives in it
yes the warlock trophies are mentioned in the show, albeit very quickly (there is a circle member who tells magnus that his cat eyes will make "a nice addition to his collection" and then it's never mentioned again because this is sh and we love using racism for shock value but then not actually treating it as a serious plot point or something that affects oppressed ppl). and you are absolutely right, shadowhunters (and hp, and most fantasy books) has genocide as its core conflict and treats it, like you said, in a very hollow way, treating racism as both not a big deal and not something that is part of a system of oppression, but really the actions of a few Very Bad People. it's almost impressive how they manage to do both at the same time tbh
i think you hit the nail right on the head with this comment, actually. for most of these works, racism is SHOCK VALUE. it's just like "lol isn't it bad that this bad guy wants to kill a gazillion people just because they are muggles? now that is fucked up" but it's not actually an issue. in fact, when this guy is defeated, the whole problem is over! racism is not something that is embedded into that world, it's not a systemic issue, it's not even actually part of what drives the plot. the things that led to this person not only existing but rising to power and gathering enough followers to be a real threat to the whole world are never mentioned. it's like racists are born out of thin air, which is dangerously close to implying that racism is just a natural part of life, tbh
anyway my point is, it is never supposed to be questioned, it is never part of a deeper plot or story, its implications are barely addressed except for a few fleeting comments them and there; so, it's not a critique, it's shock value, even though it is frequently disguised as a critique (which is always empty and shallow anyway. like what is the REAL critique in works like hp or sh/tsc other than "genocide is bad"? wow such a groundbreaking take evelyn)
about simon and the book thing: i actually knew about this and the weird thing about this is that, like... simon is jewish, and he's implied to be ashkenazi (calls his grandma bubbe which is yiddish, which is a language spoken by the ashkenazi ppl), and it seems like cc is always toeing the line between him being accepted by shadowhunters and then not accepted by them, which sounds a lot like antisemitic tropes and history of swinging between (ashkenazi) jewish ppl being seen as the model minority myth and thus used as an example by white christians, and being hated and persecuted. i'm not super qualified to talk about this since i'm not jewish and i'm still learning about/unlearning antisemitism and its tropes, and i don't really have a fully formed thought on that, tbh; it just reminds me of the whole "model minority" swinging, where one second simon is part of the majority, the other he's not, but always he is supposed to give up a part of himself and his identity in other to be "assimilated" by shadowhunter culture. this article (link) covers a book on jewish people and assimilationism into USan culture, this article (link) covers british jews' relationship with being considered an ethnic group, and this article (link) talks a bit about the model minority myth from the perspective of an asian jewish woman
it just really calls to my attention that cc chose to make her ashkenazi jewish character start off as a downworlder and then become a shadowhunter. i don't think she made that decision as a conscious nod to this history, because it would require being informed on antisemitism lol but it's incredible how you can always see bigoted stereotypes shining through her narrative choices completely by accident. it just really shows how ingrained it is in our collective minds and culture
and anyway, making a character go from the oppressed group to just suddenly become the oppressor is just. wtf. not how oppression works, but most of all, really disrespectful, especially because she clearly treats it as an "upgrade"/"glowup" that earns him the Love Of His Life
also, out of curiosity, are you french? it seems like your autocorrect changed a few words and i'm pretty sure extrême and préjudice are the french versions of these words, and since u said ur white, that's where my money would be lol
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waraupiero · 7 years ago
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under the cut because there’s some culturally sensitive stuff in here
mmm, there’s someone whom i’m in a mutual discord server with, and she’s of chinese and korean descent. it’s well-known in the discord that i’m ethnically chinese but my cultural background is rather culturally japanese, and i do like japanese culture
she dm’d me and was like, ‘is it bad that i drag weaboos?’ and i was like ??? ‘cringe culture is not great but like, we all self-drag anyway lmao so idk’ and she goes on this entire talk about how she can’t think of japanese culture as something worth ‘worshipping’ and how she can’t ever appreciate japanese culture because she’s salty about japanese treatment of chinese and korean people in the 20th century
and at this point i’m like? kind of weirded out lmao because i think it’s kind of unfair? i’m in no way defensive about japanese history, especially for this time period, because my family is ethnically chinese. both my parents are chinese and my grandparents lived through this time period in history. also i’m a historian, and i don’t fuck around with erasure lmao
but at the same time i do have a japanese background. ish. my parents lived in hiroshima for a decade, and at home we’ve always eaten japanese food, listened to japanese music, watched japanese films/tv shows/anime, read japanese stories, were raised with really japanese manners ... the sports teams we support are even the local sports teams of hiroshima ... GO CARP
(though my relationship with my ‘japanese-ness’ is very complicated, because my parents never taught us to refer to ourselves as japanese -- we were americans, and my parents also never taught us japanese, i learnt it by myself at age 10 -- though my father confesses that he is confused about whether he’s really american, chinese, or japanese. my mom feels firmly chinese and my brother american. only my dad and i are confused lmao)
ok, so i explain to her reasons why i think westerners like japanese culture. but in turn she gets really defensive about chinese culture? and i’m like, ‘it’s not like i’m saying that chinese culture doesn’t also have these traits, but people think of these traits in relation to japan more than with china, i think, for the most part’. it’s not as if i’m not familiar with chinese culture either lmfao my name may be japanese but it's a reference to a chinese poem, and i lived in china for 6 long and terrible years
and she says she doesn’t understand why people can like japan and guesses that she just doesn’t like it because she’s biased (true). she says that she doesn’t like that her grandma is too embarrassed to even speak about wwii. which then kind of baffles me because i was never the kind of person to derive my own opinions from my grandparents. maybe i’m a bad descendant but i never blindly believe what my elders believe. lmao my father’s mother hates japan with a burning passion and thinks mao ze dong is the greatest man on earth. obviously i don’t subscribe to that kind of stuff
at this point i’m telling her that i can understand where she’s coming from. a lot of young people i know are really caught up in a lot of emotion when it comes to their historical background. i’ve never been nationalistic or emotionally connected to any country, so i can’t say i empathise. i do tell her that i think all cultures are beautiful and worth understanding and appreciating, but it is important to keep historical context in mind because one should never see a country or culture as ‘faultless’ (which is why i hate yellow fever and people idolising asian culture in the first place. you can admire and appreciate but you should also be aware and critical). yet at the same time it’s not fair to hold this one historical event against an entire culture
but all she does is tell me how much she dislikes japan and thinks they’re despicable. she’s upset that in american schools they don’t teach about this stuff. lmao as a history professional i am fucking aware and i say that it really is unfortunate but nations use the history as a nationalistic, propagandistic tool. also, teachers only have one year to teach SO MUCH HISTORY. they’re going to cut off what is ‘irrelevant’ to most americans
though, on the other hand, chinese national curriculum on the sino-japanese war is very, very much problematic. not to say that china’s grievances aren’t legitimate or valid, but the chinese government has been mining this historical event for years for nationalism by consistently portraying chinese people as a righteous people but always victim. taking on the role of a victim is a very quick way for a country to rouse nationalism. when i went to school in china, in 2003-2010, my textbooks on CHINESE LANGUAGE (not history!!!) included phrases like ‘日本鬼子’ (japan demons), which is the chinese phrase for ‘jap’. i was in primary and secondary school. i wasn’t even a fucking teenager yet. they were already brainwashing kids by this age (all textbooks are government-written and issued). we didn’t cover this in school because there were chinese-japanese kids in my school, but they could have easily read it. thinking back, i’m terrified by this
while i think it’s necessary to know your history, i don’t think history should be so sensationalised and so emotional. history is ... in many ways like a science. it requires objectivity and perspective. i also see it necessary to consider all sides of a historical event. i have read terrible things when i was in university. i have read mein kampf and i absolutely hated it, but i am glad i read it, because it was an invaluable resource and perspective. i think it’s cowardly to not want to understand someone or something just because you see one another as enemies or whatever. maybe that makes me insensitive, but i see that as my advantage
i think that in a way hypernationalism is contributing to this continued tension in east asia. japan is unwilling to apologise to china and korea (which is wrong ... @ abe shinzo bitch apologise!!), and as a result china and korea continue to mine the emotional trauma of this time, and continue to bewail and accuse japan as monsters while acting rudely towards japanese people in public ... and as a result japanese people think chinese and korean people are rude and ignorant, and their preexisting racist attitudes towards chinese and korean people are confirmed ... all sides are justified and valid in what they’re thinking but i think an unwillingness to move on is causing this cycle. and i don’t know if there’s a good way to break it
but the fact that?? there’s a younger generation who is also so vitriolic about this?? really disturbs me. how is this not also similar to young american conservatives who believe everything their grandparents say about guns, race in america, and whatever? (you could argue that white americans are not victimised and i would wholeheartedly fucking agree with you there, but the issue is that THEY believe that THEY ARE victimised because they don’t know their history, fools) how could you be so narrow-minded and reject an entire culture just because you’re angry about? history?
while history is not all past and gone, sometimes the memory aspect of history really disturbs me as a historian. it’s hard to grasp and understand, because all those emotions are valid, but at the same time they can be destructive forces in the recounting of history and engage in counterproductive ways with the present. maybe i feel this way because i don’t like emotions and i don’t have any. i’m not sure.
this was a really strange conversation to have. i don’t know why she wanted to talk to me about it, because she clearly wasn’t trying to make me feel bad about ?? my japanese background and liking stuff like anime and whatnot?? and i’m really, really ashamed for japan for what they did, but as a historian i have no emotion towards it besides an objective judgment that it was bad, and as someone with chinese and american background i don’t hold anything against japan either, despite what they did to both these countries.
i guess i’m just really disappointed that people just can’t move past things like this. even though i’m a historian and i deal with the past, i feel like it’s counterproductive and foolish to let the past stop you from enjoying something or experiencing something. her emotions were valid i’m sure and she probably couldn’t control it, but this conversation just frustrated me so much. i believe that the world is made better through mutual understanding, awareness, and a level of appreciation. if you spend your entire life hating everything about a certain country or culture, that’s really miserable and cannot enrich yourself.
furthermore, our conversation devolved into another tangent about how not enough stuff about ‘non western’ stuff is taught in america. which i agree, is true. as a multicultural state america should do this. but she talked about how we should teach LESS about certain figures in western history, and i disagreed so much. god, just because you think there are important events in asian history doesn’t diminish the importance of western history to a WESTERN COUNTRY. all history is important and worthy!! even though i don’t like it either there’s a reason why we spend so much time on the french revolution and less on, say, the opium wars! christ!
i don’t blame her at all, but i needed to put this somewhere because this conversation pissed me off on so many levels. it was too black and white when history and historical education is decidedly not. i’m just frustrated that people can’t move on, and try to argue with me about it when i clearly don’t want to argue. i just want to offer an explanation or historian’s standpoint. why is it so hard for people to understand? and am i weird for not feeling anything? who knows.
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driftwooddragons · 8 years ago
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Re: that post you reblogged about racism in Europe: Coming from Europe I have been taught my whole life that the definition of racism is ‘treating people as if different races are a thing and theirs is inferior’. And in most of Europe, last time the word ‘race’ was considered acceptable it was used by the Nazis in the biological sense, and people who look very white like the Polish, Sami etc. were seen as inferior races. I’m not trying to pick a fight or excuse racism in any form here, 1/2
I guess I just don’t understand how treating people as if they’re a different RACE is not racism, or why it’s seen as a problem that it can ALSO include white people. (Also I’m not from an English-speaking country, so maybe this is an Anglophone-non-Anglophone cultural way of seeing things, IDK.) Anyway I love your blog, hope you’re having a nice day! 2/2
(Your last anon here again) I realized my last asks maybe came across as racism-apologist, and I’m sorry! I’m just trying to understand, because having always been told that anyone can be racist to anyone else who is not part of their ethnic group, it’s very confusing and a little disturbing to encounter this idea that you can’t be racist to white people. It feels like it’s making light of the struggles some people here have faced and still face, and leaves a bad taste in my mouth… IDK
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Yeah, so I don’t think I’m qualified to speak to this either. 
But let’s think through it together - but if someone more qualified comes along, then we’ll listen to them instead of my ramblings….
I think what it comes down to is different cultures/languages have different definitions of racism.
So, for instance, in my mind, you can’t be racist against white people because they’re the dominate/oppressive group. Now, this isn’t to say that white people never experience being a hated group - but that hatred would be called xenophobia or prejudice.
Like, racism packs with it an idea of superiority/inferiority and systematic oppression. 
Of course, this then gets into the problem of culture… like, Hitler DID see Slavic people as inferior to those of German and Scandinavian decent… and he attempted to oppress them because of that. That’s racism - because he did see them as a different race. So… how does that work? Is it only racism if your beliefs are THAT extreme?
I guess the real question is are MODERN prejudices against white people of certain nationalities called racism or are they called xenophobia? I think that’s the argument that the post I reblogged was making - that maybe it was racism in the past (when people not only believed race was a thing, but also had really extreme ideas about what the “races” were), but these days it’s not racism - it’s just cultural xenophobia.
Like, does a random British person look down on the Greeks because they think they’re a separate race of people who are inherently/genetically inferior… or is it because Greek culture is foreign to British culture and they don’t understand it, so they dislike the people? 
I think the argument is that it’s the latter… so, modern “racism against white people” in Europe is actually xenophobia. Whereas, historically, Hitler WAS a huge racist, because he saw everyone who wasn’t “aryan” as an inferior race.
So, it’s exactly as you say - people who think race is a thing and act to oppress are racists, people who just dislike others because they are different are xenophobic.  
THEN we get into systematic racism…. where modern culture/society is still recovering from many many years of extreme racism towards people of colour… And as a result, our culture/society (whether you’re in north america or europe) is STILL really racist towards people of colour. So, the society itself, the way it’s set up, the way it subconsciously educates us, is very dependent on skin colour…
And I think this is where you don’t want to use the same word for the prejudice that a white Polish person in Britain might encounter to the systematic racism that… let’s say a dark-skinned Algerian in Paris might encounter. The racism in America/Canada can be seen WAY more starkly in living conditions of various minorities… and I can’t speak to what it’s like in Europe… but I do know that you have similar problems in the Paris area with housing projects and such.  And on that note, this also gets into colonization/decolonization arguments… and yeah, I’m REALLY not able to speak to that.
So, what have my blatherings brought us… that modern day, I think all people know that race isn’t actually a thing, therefore, when they’re hating on particular groups of white people, it’s because they’re xenophobic. HOWEVER, modern day society is built on hundred of years of extreme racism towards people of colour and it’s still reflected in our society and we’re still influenced by it (think about representation in media, children’s books, toys, etc) and as a result, when someone is hating on a person of colour, it’s more than likely either consciously or unconsciously fueled by racism, rather than xenophobia. 
For instance, think of that dude saying that Idris Elba was not “English enough” to play Bond, when Bond was played by a Scotsman and Irishman in the past…. what makes Idris less English than an Irish person? Is it because his parents were from Africa? Irdis was born and raised in England. How many generations do you have to live in England before you’re “English enough?” If Idris’ parents were white Polish people, would we be even having this conversation?  So, you sort of see the difference in the xenophobic prejudice that someone from Eastern Europe might face and the racist prejudice that anyone non-white might face.
Like, we’re all still racist whether we want to be or not. Because of the legacy of racism, we have to work really hard to NOT be racist. If you’re not consciously not being racist, then you’re probably being racist. The irony is that consciously not being racist makes you feel like a racist, because you want to live in a perfect world where you don’t need to have the thought “am I being racist right now?” But we ALWAYS have to have that thought.
Anyway, my point is, I apologize if I am racist. And I’m not claiming I’m right about any of this… this is me, just trying to work through language and terminology and how it relates to society and cultural differences.
I’m also coming at this from a largely North American perspective - although I have lived in Europe, it was very briefly. I’ve also studied European history A LOT, but that doesn’t tell me that much about what today is like - and today is kind of a cesspit with this weird resurgence of nationalism and xenophobia. 
(Though, that does remind me that when I went to an anti-nazi rally in Germany when I lived there, they did use the German word for xenophobia rather than racism, when they described the nazi’s beliefs…. not sure if that matters. It was over 10 years ago now.)
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anonymoustalks · 4 years ago
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idk if lenins polcy of bruning churches was good but you have to have soem kind of athiest government
(6-20-20) You both like politics.
You: hi
Stranger: hi
Stranger: ideology?
You: moderate left
You: you?
Stranger: far left
Stranger: uk
You: ahh kay
You: why do you like omegle?
Stranger: er dunno just fun to chat without consequences i guess
You: mhm that's fair
You: I like to hear about what other ppl think
Stranger: yh and argueing
You: haha I don't really argue that much
Stranger: some people arnt worth ur time
You: mhm maybe
You: where are you from?
Stranger: uk^^
You: I'm from the us
Stranger: noice
You: and I'm totally ignorant of british politics lol
Stranger: i know a little bit about america
You: how does your government work?
Stranger: cos its the centre of the world
You: sorry if this is a really dull question
Stranger: its fine ill asnwer w my limited understanding
You: I just ran into someone who was praising the monarchy
Stranger: pfft
Stranger: haha
Stranger: so basically above everyone we have a queen who approves certain stuff and has the ability to interjec tin products but msotly doesn then you have the unlected house of lords which is aristocrats recommended by other rich ppl and below that the ppl elected
Stranger: we have a prime minister so he doesnt have the same powers as president
Stranger: but hes more powerful than other pm's
You: mhm
You: the house of lords...
Stranger: yep
You: is the aristocracy still a big thing in the uk?
Stranger: its just like the senate in the usa except not elected and idk probaably
You: how does someone get recommended to the house of lords?
Stranger: be rich adn good at something or know someone whos rich
You: ahh I think it's weird that it's so closely tied to wealth
Stranger: not really the uk ruling class make it prtty obvious to us peasnts that its a ruling class fake democracy
Stranger: unlike the usa where everybody is supposed classless
You: right
You: I guess that's a fair statement
Stranger: but yeah fuck the queen
Stranger: how was the guy defedning monarchy?
You: oh he sounded kind of weird
You: like how god and the monarchy is essential for uk's stability and being
Stranger: pfft
You: he didn't really explain much
Stranger: both are irelevant nowadays
You: just pointed out that france and us are chaotic, according to him because there is no monarchy
Stranger: oh yeah thats totally
Stranger: why
You: yeah lol
Stranger: if only they had a monarchy then there owuld be no class and racial conflict
You: so how far left are you?
Stranger: very far
You: anarchist?
Stranger: nope left communist
Stranger: basically anti stalinist communist
You: what does your ideal government look like?
Stranger: well until you have a relatively stateless socialism you have a dictatorship of the proleterait
Stranger: and that has an armed population as the army and has direct democracy and a representive democracy who are payed wages simualr to that of a workmans
Stranger: in brief
You: mhm and membership has a criteria that you must be working class?
Stranger: membership of the democratic process yep
Stranger: a worker
You: mhm
Stranger: not necearily poor
You: what is the exact definition of working class btw?
Stranger: sombody who doesnt own and live off capitlist property
Stranger: or is a cpatilsit in other respects
Stranger: like an investor
Stranger: businessmen landlords and bankers
You: hmm I feel like it's hard for me to draw parallels
You: I know a pharmacist friend
You: who rents his place
You: for extra cash
Stranger: well when we have the revolution i doubt he'll be locked up or anything but youknow
Stranger: hes just a small landlord i guess
Stranger: supplemetning work income
You: so would people just discouraged from doing that kind of stuff?
Stranger: well hosuing will be nationalised as an early step
Stranger: so you wont have to
You: mhm
Stranger: making rent equal to bills
You: my parents also have investments
You: for like retirement
You: and just in general
Stranger: sure
You: was curious what would happen to those
Stranger: well i mean by investor sombody who is rich and does it for a job
You: ah kay
Stranger: the socialsit pension ting will be good anyhow
You: mhm
You: do you think that's it necessary for the world to follow this model? Or do you think that it can still work with just a communist state on it's own?
Stranger: nah for a lot of reasons you cant have it in one or a few states surrounded by cpaitlsit ones
Stranger: for one a DOTP surrounded by cpatilist states is forced to act like one to compete
Stranger: and therefore exploit other countries and its own labourers to the max
You: right, I was curious about that actually
Stranger: that was trotsky's argument
You: mhm
Stranger: he said u cant have 'socialsism in one country' because you have to first have international DOTP
You: dotp stands for?
Stranger: or you just become a state cpaitlist state like stalin
You: dictatorship of the prol.?
Stranger: dictatorship of the proletariat
Stranger: yep
You: mhm, that makes a lot of sense
Stranger: yep
Stranger: DOTP being when workers hold the state but not the economy
Stranger: the economy is still in private hands
You: right
You: I think I mix up all the varieties of socialism and communism
Stranger: yh DOTP isnt so much a variety but a transition
Stranger: from cpaitlism to socialism/com
You: mhm
You: I feel like I think about human nature cynically
Stranger: oh go on
You: as in, I'm skeptical of being satisfied with equality
You: *ppl being
Stranger: well tehy certainly arnt satified by inequality so how bad can it really get?
You: mhm true
Stranger: we dont mean absolute equality
Stranger: just equality of opporutunity to realise ur best self
You: idk if this is school bias or anything, but when we learn about communism, it's often framed that the party just ends up with all the wealth
You: or power
Stranger: theres a reason that idea of so called communism is taught rlly
Stranger: mainly cos of porpaganda but theres some truth
Stranger: under lenin the state was definitely a semi deictatorship of a few workers parties
Stranger: but with a democratic mechanism and worker councils to elect them
You: hm
You: *mhm
Stranger: with the intention of educating a largely illitarate peasant russia into a democratic socialsit society
Stranger: but after the vicotry of stalin after lenins death, whatever redistribution of power was dropped and centrlasing power in the party and in stalin was the priority
You: right
Stranger: so there is a history to it
You: I feel like I was thought that there was a component of ideological purity -- like, if you expressed greater loyalty to the party, you could get more stuff
You: like better food tickets or cars or stuff
You: *taught
Stranger: sure teh soviet union during and after stalin was definitely a class society
You: mhm, how do you avoid class from rearising?
Stranger: you dont centralise power in bureacracy
Stranger: and make it mroe acoutnable
Stranger: you arm the popualtion
Stranger: make durable directly democratic mechanisms
Stranger: accountability at all level
You: so you're saying like enshrining freedom of speech / freedom of arms in the system?
Stranger: im not a freedom of speech absolutist but sure
Stranger: its very important
You: wasn't China kinda of freedom of speech until tianmensquare, were they?
Stranger: ha no
Stranger: you got tortured if you spoke out
You: ah kay
Stranger: same as soviet union really
Stranger: mao wasnt masively different
You: I'm just thinking of the blm protests in the US
Stranger: yh
You: when ppl feel like change isn't happening
You: then they can get violent
Stranger: yep
You: was just curious how your government would handle that
Stranger: well the governmetn and the people are intrinsically merged
Stranger: but it depends like waht the situation would be
You: mhm I mean technically there's universal suffrage in the US but not everyone votes
Stranger: yep
Stranger: electoral college too
You: and I think minority parties can sometimes be the loudest and most opinionated
Stranger: yh
You: so even with a proletariat government I think there might still be disagreement
Stranger: yh
Stranger: for sure
Stranger: and debate
Stranger: whats ur point
You: mhm idk
Stranger: aight sitl idk the answers
You: yeah it's interesting
Stranger: what are u taught abotu socialism in schools
You: mhm, I guess just the things I said?
You: I think we studied east germany and the ussr
Stranger: ah k
Stranger: yep
You: what life was like
You: to live there
Stranger: sure and if you trying and feed everyone this is waht happens type shite
Stranger: you cant be nice with the economy
You: mhm I don't think my teachers tried to make extremely biased conclusions or anything
You: but the curriculum itself could be biased I think
Stranger: k yeah same
Stranger: yeah fr
Stranger: we dont learn at all about the british empire
You: yup
Stranger: like not once
Stranger: or really any british history beyond knights and castles
You: actually in world history class my teacher commented that I was beginning to sound "anti-american" lol
Stranger: haha good
Stranger: anti american what a word
Stranger: being anti imperialist and anti racist is being anti british too
You: lol
Stranger: tells u what they think about britishness
Stranger: its not culture but power
Stranger: which is a load of bs
You: mhm
Stranger: what did you say to teacher
You: idk I'm not very nationalist
You: I didn't say anything, I'm not really the kind of person to argue
Stranger: neither but i like uk just not enough to block refugees to preserve it
Stranger: like some wacko patriots are
You: mhm
Stranger: they act like the uks not been 15% non white since like 1940
You: mhm
You: what do you think of their opinion that a country should have a right to control their own culture/ethnicities?
Stranger: erm
Stranger: well thats tough
Stranger: i think the ideal of direct dmeocracy and a reactioanry population is contradictory
Stranger: and therefore maybe u need more centralised leadership there
You: I think I heard a scenario of belgium or something wanting to block the construction of mosques in like a historical district or something
You: to preserve their national culture/history
Stranger: yep idk
You: yeah idk either
Stranger: but like how would direct democrayc work in somalia
Stranger: or saudi arabia
Stranger: thats a tough question
Stranger: would men use it to repress women
You: mhm yup
You: or well, there are several states that have a democracy
Stranger: its like india was basically a dicatroship for its first 20 years
You: and they voted to impose state religion
You: state religious laws
You: that kind of thing
Stranger: basically cos it would be a bloodbath
Stranger: of relgion and caste
Stranger: so the governmetn had to go against the people to do whats the long term good
You: I think it's sometimes hard to have foresight about what the "long term good" is though
You: like everybody things they are doing things for long term good
You: *thinks
Stranger: well in indias caste removing caste racism and relgious bigotry was a big thing
Stranger: and many people died due to it
You: mhm
You: I think it's really hard for me to know what is "right"
Stranger: and i think general equality is a good thing impose against a population
Stranger: if they dont want it
Stranger: thats the only way change has ever come
You: mhm although I think indoctrination is always possible
Stranger: eh
You: I mean, this is kind of a hot take, but Western values are indoctrinated
Stranger: yeahthey are
You: similarly speaking you could indoctrinate capitalistic values or communist values
Stranger: some are right some are wrong
Stranger: not succesfully
You: and I think the ppl who grow up with whatever they are indoctrinated with are generally happy
You: and support the views they grow up with
Stranger: yeah true
You: although I think it's sad for whoever gets left out of the system
Stranger: like anti deisicimination laws are passed despite a population
Stranger: for a long term good
You: mhm
You: yeah idk governments are hard haha
Stranger: haha yes
Stranger: thats why were still talking about it
You: mhm
You: I don't really know what to think about ppl who support religious states
You: like indonesia has that problem
Stranger: theyre idiots
You: like they want their state to become religious
Stranger: ik snd prolly will
You: but if I imagine myself in their shoes
You: I think they just want to be closer to their religion
You: which is like a personal value
You: like I'm secular, so things like freedom and equality mean a lot to me
Stranger: truw
You: but I can also imagine a different world were idk god and faith matter a lot to me
You: we have pretty significant freedom of religion battles in the us
Stranger: same]
Stranger: if i didnt grow up in suhc an athiest school and get bullied for it id be hardcore jesus
You: oh your family is religious?
Stranger: yep
You: mhm I was reading about the us lgbt anti-discrimination ruling earlier
Stranger: yeah
You: the religious schools here are worried about being affected
You: like they don't want to hire gay teachers
Stranger: good
You: bc they're a religious school
Stranger: get w the program schools
Stranger: idk if lenins polcy of bruning churches was good but you have to have soem kind of athiest government
You: mhm I think anti-discrimination is good, but I feel like I can understand their resistance of feeling like they can't teach their religion the way they want
Stranger: sure yeah
You: idk most things I don't know what to think lol
Stranger: but think about if they dont get agy teachers
Stranger: anti discimination laws dont work
You: hm?
Stranger: cos u can jsut say u didnt disciminate and taht it
You: ohh no it still matters
You: like imagine you are a religious school
You: and a pastor applies and says they are a gay priest
You: and you don't want to hire them
You: they can sue bc discrimination
Stranger: maybe but its a relgious school why u even applying
You: mhm some ppl kind of want to change christianity I think
You: like there are pastors who are much more sympathetic to lgbt
Stranger: eh still
Stranger: lictus and that
Stranger: levictus
You: yeah idk
You: most of the churches in my area are pro-lgbt
Stranger: pretty sure my preist is closeted
You: aww
Stranger: hes very camp
You: camp ?
Stranger: and went to cambridge
Stranger: femenine
You: ahh
Stranger: yep
You: yeah religion is an odd place in politics for me
You: like it's often at the root of weird stuff
Stranger: oh yeah
Stranger: are u relgious
You: that runs counter to like modern science common sense
You: no
You: well, I'm like 20% spiritual I guess
You: but I'm not religious
Stranger: yep
Stranger: never got the difference
You: between spiritual and religious?
Stranger: yep
You: oh, for me, religious is like adhering to a religion, or denomination, or religious practice
You: spiritual is like vaguely believe in something
You: *belieiving
You: without doing anything about it
You have disconnected.
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maghrebim · 7 years ago
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i dont talk about it much because its hard for a lot of people to get and its hard to articulate but just.........the weird relationship that arises when you have two parents from entirely different cultures, religions, ethnicities, and one of them is white, and in a prominently white country, and the..gross prejudice that takes root in the relationship between the two of them and between you and them, is just really messed up and borderline traumatizing 
my father? he absolutely fucking hated that his kids were jewish and half moroccan. i was told by my paternal grandparents repeatedly growing up that i was “lucky” to have inherited my father’s looks and not my mother. they told me i was an ugly child because of my dark curly hair and i looked much better “now”, at age 14, when i was so stressed out and terrified for my life that my hair got thin and started literally greying and my skin became even paler. just............when half of your family looks down on the other half it results in a really intense and complex sort of self-hatred and shame and i spent a lot of years hiding my heritage because my toxic paternal family convinced me that jews and moroccans were dirty and greedy and barbaric and ugly and it didnt help that i got bullied throughout my entire childhood by white gentile kids on top of it; cruel kids who told me i was lucky to have blue eyes because at least then id have had a shot at tricking the nazis, and they’d laugh.
my mother’s ex-husband and the father of three of my siblings was the one who made my mother stop going to temple when she could, to stop celebrating chanukah, or any other of our holidays for that matter, to stop keeping kosher and to hate that part of herself, because she was 16 and vulnerable when she met him and he was a manipulative fucking racist, antisemitic asshole. and then on to her next relationship with another white antisemitic man, who hated his offspring because he thought SHE had “tainted us”, and now, that my mother is almost 52, she still doesnt celebrate, because now shes living with yet another white man, a german who thinks our culture is ridiculous and who wont let her engage with it either.
i have a complicated relationship to her but when i was younger she’d sometimes confess things to me, casually letting slip the horrible things my stepfather’d said to her that she didnt even register as bad and toxic. years after my grandmother died, she confessed she missed celebrating chanukah. she missed the girls she took bat mitzvah lessons with in the capital. she missed the songs and the fasts and the food. and then she immediately laughed it off, and never mentioned it again, and spent her days trying to forget that she was a jew.
in my earliest memories of her, she had blonde hair, with her dark roots grown out almost past her ears. one time my brother, now dead, told me she only dyed it once, in her entire life, towards the end of her relationship with my father, because it was falling apart and she wanted to fit more in with his family and have them accept her just a little more, and to seem more western, more white. he told me my father took one look at her when she came home from the hairdresser and laughed and asked her who she thought she was fooling; “with that skin and that big nose youre not very convincing.”
ive long since outgrown both of my parents, and i dont keep in touch with them for various reasons, but my childhood and my identity were warped for years and it still fuckin haunts me and its just.......horrible the way that that insidious self-hatred gets installed in you. that internalized prejudice that makes you look at yourself in the mirror and think your nose looks too big or your features too much like the “wrong” parent and you catch yourself thinking “fucking kike” as almost a reflex, and realizing youre still echoing the words the people who were supposed to be your FAMILY said to you. like.. regardless of the abuse ive endured from my family and my father especially, its such a cruel way to raise your children even on its own.
like
interracial relationships dont work if (the white) half of it hates the other half. fetishizing an ethnicity just makes you disgusting, especially if youre gonna wind up despising and shaming your own children for being part of that ethnicity because your partner is. idk its just fucked up and im having a lot of thoughts about it
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mixedfeelingsproject · 7 years ago
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Anonymous
Where are you from? TX
How would you describe your race/ethnicity? white/hispanic, respectively
Do you identify with one particular aspect of your ethnicity more than another? Have you ever felt pressure to choose between parts of your identity? i identify as latina/x, or hispanic, but i generally say i'm mixed (with white) because i'm white passing. i feel pressure to choose every day, multiple times a day.
Did your parents encounter any difficulties from being in an interracial relationship? yes. my maternal grandmother used to refer to my father as "the puerto rican" even though he's ecuadorian. or pool boy. because he's brown. they have a good relationship now, 40 years later but yes, it was a problem.
How has your mixed background impacted your sense of identity and belonging? ha. this could be a huge long answer but i'll try to be reasonably concise. i am always drawn to brown/latinx/mexican/hispanic people in groups; i gravitate towards latinos because i feel that's where i best fit in. white people are okay superficially but i find it's hard to establish close friendships with whites. though i feel most "at home" with other poc, i feel snubbed sometimes bc i am not "brown enough" (usually activist spaces). then i end up feeling like a poseur. my ex father in law was apparently racist and didn't approve of my marriage to his son; he is part of the reason we got divorced (good riddance tbh).
Have you been asked questions like "What are you?" or "Where are you from?" by strangers? If so, how do you typically respond? yes. "um... my dad is ecuadorian, my mom is white but idk what kind of white"
Have you experienced people making comments about you based on your appearance? occasionally
Have you ever been mistaken for another ethnicity? idk about mistaken but when people guess i get arab and/or jewish
Have you ever felt the need to change your behavior due to how you believe others will perceive you? In what way? yes
What positive benefits have you experienced by being mixed? i guess passing privilege? being able to navigate many spaces as "white" is a privilege but not one i like to take purposely take advantage of, unless i am doing it to benefit poc. in fact, it feels gross just to cite passing privilege as a positive benefit. another positive benefit from my brown side would be the sense of community/belonging with other latinx people.
Have you changed the way you identify yourself over the years? yes and no. i've always claimed my brown side but since my dad doesn't really talk about his heritage i don't know very much about it. out of quickness i would *occasionally* identify as white but i always felt weird and guilty about that
Are you proud to be mixed? Yes
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