On issues of race, a letter to other Whitey McCrackers

[brigid]

Originally published at brigidkeely.com/wordpress. You can comment here or there.

Shut up.

Shut the fuck up.

Seriously.

When someone says something like “I’m disturbed by the fact that IN TEH FUTURE women of color are still portrayed with caucasion-looking hair” or “How can you write an AU book about the discovery of America and not have indigenous people wtf” or “why are non-caucasion characters portrayed as “exotic” or “dangerous” or over sexualized” or “that thing you just said is offensive” or “why are non-white characters turned white when translated from one medium to another” the proper response is not to argue or to turn the conversation onto yourself and what YOU think and what YOU feel and what YOUR experiences are.

The proper response is to shut the fuck up and listen. Pay attention. Put your preconceptions and your self aside and listen to what other people are saying.

I’m getting really tired of people falling all over themselves declaring that stuff that is racist really isn’t! No! You just don’t understand! See, there’s this whole big song and dance explanation and… no. Shut up. Listen to what people are telling you. Then act with respect.

It really shouldn’t be that hard.

Listen.

Act with respect.

Can we at least take two steps forward without a commensurate step back?