Stampeding Elephants

lebanesepoppyseed:

I stumbled upon this when I masochistically looked up “Shit White Girls Say…” on Youtube and was pleasantly surprised.

What he’s saying in general about how negative/restrictive caricatures, stereotypes, and generalizations don’t exist for white folk and can’t harm them but do exist for black folk and do harm them is right on. How black & white folk are seen and racialized in the world is completely different, so “Shit White People Say” videos are not negative or harmful in the least. He explains this rather accurately & poignantly.

That said, I disagree with him on the point of “White people shouldn’t be upset because it’s a joke/stereotypes don’t harm you”. “Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls” isn’t stereotyping-a shit ton of white girls honestly say that to a shit ton of black girls. White people shouldn’t be upset because it is true.

Why would you be upset by someone merely presenting her experience? You should be upset that the ignorance and racism showed in the video is widespread enough for it to be appropriately called “SHIT WHITE GIRLS SAY TO BLACK GIRLS” as opposed to “Shit One White Girl Once Said To One Black Girl”. If that video didn’t resonate and show the experiences of tons of people, it wouldn’t have gone viral and cause the ruckus it did.

The sad fact is this is the reality of our racist society, which is not the fault of the people oppressed by it or pointing it out, but those who are privileged by it and oppressing. As always, there is a social and cultural context and history that cannot be ignored. Get upset and offended by micro-aggressions, not at the people who face them and point them out.

I look forward to see more videos from this guy.

good video. and for the most part i agree with your commentary. but i cant really get behind the blunt, unqualified use of the word “true.” i think that, for POC, who identify more with the POC character in the video, they are more likely to think of the POC as one person and the white woman as many. but for white people watching the video, theyre probably more likely to see the white woman character as one person, and the POC as many. in that case, a collection of some the more “outrageous” things white people do all put into one character is not the truth.

that being said, the way the media and pop culture etc. tend to portray POC is actually and intentionally putting all the “outrageous” things together into one character. so yes, “shit white girls say…” is more truthful. but anyway, i still agree with every other word you said.

*not entirely sure what i mean by outrageous here. it can take different forms i guess depending on the character/situation. generally meaning unable to be understood by the person creating the character perhaps

(via zorascreation)