9:39 PM
Date: December 2, 2011
Music: 마지막 선물 (Last Gift) (In My Room-Prelude) by SHINee (The SHINee World)
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So I’ve spent the last 20 minutes or so reading a blog by a young woman who speaks about cultural appropriation often.
And she talks about white supremacy.
And ignorant white people.
A lot.
And she’s not racist, no, please, don’t take it that way.
But I’m trying to understand.
Desperately.
She keeps talking about white privilege and white privilege and white privilege and I just…
I’m trying to understand.
Really.
She calls people out on it often, and I just can’t help but think that most people just don’t know it.
If I am so privileged as white person, then I sure as hell didn’t know it; I wasn’t necessarily conscious of it.
Which is the problem they have with me, and people like me, I guess.
It’s not like I go around making/wearing headdresses and desacralizing their culture.
But I think very few people know that it’s such an insult.
Congrats, society. Another thing you fucked up.
I just hope that the people who speak out regarding cultural appropriation know that most people aren’t aware that they’re offending other people.
Which, of course, isn’t good.
But before people get into the nitty-gritty of it and start saying ‘oh look another privileged white person’ I hope they can take it with a bit more understanding that the majority of the white people don’t know they’re offending others.
Which should change.
But calling someone out on their “white supremacist bullshit” might not be the best way.
Yes they should be called out.
Yes what they did was wrong.
But did they know it was wrong?
I don’t know.
I bet people will read this and say “oh, see, she’s a stupid privileged white girl spouting all this shit about why she’s not racist when she, as a white person in America, is the least qualified to judge what is racist and what isn’t…”
And I get it.
I can somewhat understand why people would say that.
But at the same time
I just
It hurts, okay?
It’s not all that great to hear people say that I’m immediately untrustworthy when it comes to race issues.
Because I’m white.
I’m German, I’m Polish, some Irish thrown in to the mix with Norwegian roots somewhere…
I’m pretty much completely European.
And completely white.
Scandinavian looks.
A Blondie.
Blue-eyed.
Which kind of makes me the whitest of the whites.
And hearing other people talk about how goddamn privileged I am makes me want to scream.
Because I don’t want to be so ignorant and naïve and stupid.
But they seem to all assume I am.
Though I’m sure they all don’t.
And one of the bloggers could look at this
And call me out on a bunch of shit
And call me out as a privileged white girl.
And then I’d feel even worse.
It’d be nice to know when something was appropriate or not
But, please brace yourselves for a moment of privileged-ness, sometimes it makes me hate that I’m white.
I’m sorry.
I’m sorry I’m so ignorant.
I’m sorry I’m so clueless.
I’m sorry I guess I think I’m so privileged.
But I have a lot to learn.
And please help me learn it
Or at least help me understand it
Instead of continuously slandering me as a privileged white girl, even if I am one.
