Since it is relevant, I am 40 years old and black. I have a very large extended family and pretty much all of my cousins have drunk the "racism is everywhere" kool-aid and especially this past year. I have gotten into plenty of arguments with them and I finally realized it was just pointless. As well as with some friends. I think I have gone over police statistics, actual crime stats, and the world history of slavery so many times that I talk about it in my sleep but it is pointless. One of my cousins was talking about reparations and got mad when I asked him if he was going to hold the African leaders who sold our ancestors to the Europeans accountable or if he is so anti-slavery why doesn't he donate to organizations who fight modern day slavery instead of obsessing over slavery that ended over 150 years ago.
A white friend of mine has turned super woke since George Floyd and he got really pissed when I told him that he was so brave to condemn racism and thanked him because I didn't realize I was oppressed until I read his facebook posts. He then told me that he couldn't believe I would work so hard against my own people. I had a good laugh about that one, although being called a white supremacist was the best laugh, followed by when my relatives and I did our DNA/Ancestry test. I am about 20% European and also have a little Native American and Asian. One of my more militant cousins told me that i may have brown skin, but I inherited a "white personality" from my white ancestors.
Sadly in my early teens I went through a brief "everything is racism" period so I can understand how that sucks you in, plus I think it is human nature to a degree to want to be a victim about something. I remember complaining to my mom about my school not having any black history lessons and she told me that I was free to pick up a book and read on my own. My mother was big on reading and my parents taught me to learn about your culture/history and then learn about other cultures. That was eye opening because it was then I learned that every race/ethnic group has been oppressed or has been oppressors and that land conquest was as old as time along with slavery. Another thing was the fact that my grandfather never had any sort of grudge along with my other elderly relatives so I felt stupid and realized that if you look for racism everywhere you will find it.
Honestly if I had billions of dollars my reparation plan would be to buy land in any non-white majority country of their choosing and ship everyone of any race who can't shut up about how evil America and the west are. America is not a perfect country but to act like zero progress has been made (I actually heard a lady say that very little in regards to race relations has changed since 1776) really pisses me off. A little research will show anyone that if you are born in a western country you are in the world privilege group.
Sorry for the long post, but I decided from now on I can't talk to people who have that victim mindset or can't shut up about racism.
Victim mindsets had lead to massive culture regression historically. How Japan, Israel, and multiple other countries throughout history have handled oppression/ genocide/ war, lead to them taking a superior position in the area. When a culture is based off victim hood they lose any sense of progress.
Agreed. What boggles my mind is that America has a lot of successful and wealthy black people who insist they are oppressed. But it seems that being oppressed is very fashionable these days.
Being "oppressed" gives someone power and prestige. It's the exact opposite of being actually oppressed.
A common theme in left-wing identity politics is the weaponization of victimhood. They use it to get advantages or tell others what they are allowed to say, think or do. One might argue that makes them the oppressor because they gain power over others.
I honestly wish these college and high school students could be forced to live in some third world hell hole for a few weeks.
One of the biggest arguments that is never mentioned because “racism” is that black Americans and Europeans had far more economic and social mobility compared to any other black across the globe. Yes discrimination can be bad, but it is not nor ever has been an issue in a vacuum. This idea that anything racist is solely motivated by race is also insane. We have seen larger ethnic genocides and slavery than racial, and seen massive clashes between different ethnicities of the same race.
Or work on a farm in the US for a couple of months.
Nothing teaches you more than getting up at 4:30 AM for first milking and other chores. Or spending 50 hours a week chopping weeds out of oats. Or putting out grass fires due drivers tossing their butts out of their cars.
Exactly. It's a tool, a weapon.
The mayor of the largest non-costal city is black and she's dealing with racism every day, so much so that she'll only answer the failings of her city to people who look like her. The wife of the formerly most powerful man on the planet supposidly had racial slurs thrown at her on the daily but there's no proof of that. One of the most wealthy americans, with multiple movie deals and his face across the globe, can openly make a threat against a government worker but then give a simple "Whoops I didn't realize this wouldn't be a popular stance" and it's all good.
When you actually type it out it really highlights the absurdity
It’s just as absurd as how every race is now treated based on different ethnicities that have suffered persecution over time. These broad, sweeping generalizations leave African blacks recently migrated on the same discrimination as blacks whose ancestry traces to the slave ships. These same broad generalizations place Irish, Slavic, English, Scottish, French, etc in the same oppressor category despite the massive inter-ethnic discrimination that existed side by side with the longevity of racial discrimination.
It’s to keep them off the shit list of the left, Oprah Winfrey saying anyone is more privileged than her is her way of lowering her intersectional status.