toasted-pearls:

Okay. There’s something that has been bothering me for a long time and today I’m gonna try to articulate it. Here I go:

If you are white, you do not get to distance yourself from your whiteness by saying “white people suck” to a person of color. Believe me, they know.

If you are straight, you do not get to distance yourself from your straightness by saying “straight people suck” to a non-straight person. Believe me, we know.

If you are cis, you do not get to distance yourself from your cis-ness by saying “cis people suck” to a trans and/or nonbinary person. Believe me, they know.

I’m white and I caught myself doing this shit the other day while I was working on a race theory essay. I was writing about how white people try to infantilize black people in ads and media and I wrote “they” instead of “we” to refer to white people. Once I’d realized what I’d done—how I’d subconsciously tried to other myself from an oppressive group simply because I was criticizing it—I corrected it to “we.” Because, as a white person, I know that I am part of the problem.

You don’t get to decide that you are one of the “good ones” just because you think racism/homophobia/transphobia/etc. is bad. You’re still a member of the oppressive majority. You still perpetuate racism/homophobia/transphobia/etc.… regardless of whether you’re aware of it or not.

TL; DR: Please spend more time actually listening to minorities and less time assuring them that you’re not like those other bad white/straight/cis people.