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[Mia] Hello. I'm Mia McKenzie,
founder of Black Girl Dangerous.
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[Janani] And I'm Janani,
Assistant Editor of Black Girl Dangerous.
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[Mia] And this is, QTPOC Chat.
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This is our series where we chat about stuff
that is interesting to us
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and perhaps to other queer and trans people of color.
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Today, we're gonna be talking about reverse-racism.
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[Janani] Or, really, why reverse-racism
is not actually a thing.
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[Mia] It's not a thing. It definitely isn't.
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But I find... i feel like this is the thing that is
maybe the most contested of all the things.
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You know, I feel like whenever I post anything
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about white folks, about separatism, white privilege,
white superiority, anything,
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ten million motherfuckers are like *"you're being reverse-racist!"*
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Like, it's every schmo motherfucker who doesn't know anything about anything,
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it's their go-to, their first thing is reverse-racism.
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So, I felt like it was important to try to talk a little bit about why that is not a thing
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and then I can just send the people the link.
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[Janani] Yeah, to the video.
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[Mia] Yeah, to the video, and this is why it's not.
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So, let's talk about why it's not a thing.
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[Janani] So, I think the fact that people are able to clam that reverse racism is a thing
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speaks to the way that somehow we've re-conceived racism
as something that's interpersonal,
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like, you make racist speech acts towards me and
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you said something racist to me/
you did something racist to me.
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Which is true. Like, those things can happen.
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But I think much more, racism is a systemic thing
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that is contained within our institutions, our prisons, our schools, our hospitals, like, our government,
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in legacies and histories of enslavement and colonialism.
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So, it would literally take, I don't know, white folks living in US America and the West
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being then re-colonized, enslaved,
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whatever you know, systemic injustices have taken place against all sorts of people of color,
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happening to them
for there to be a system of reverse-racism in place.
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[Mia] Exactly. So, you know... I wrote a blog post a while back
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called How to Be A Reverse Racist (with co-writer AD Song)
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and the point of that post is, you know, it sort of lists all the ways in which people of color experience oppression,
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all the ways that colonialism has, you know
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just the whole system that exists and why,
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because white people are not the victims of that system,
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white people aren't the victims of racism.
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And that's not to say that white people can't be
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you know, that you can't be prejudiced against white people,
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that you can't have feelings about white people that are just because theyre white.
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You can.
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It's not to say that you can't discriminate or make all kinds of decisions based on someone being white.
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But it is to say that even in doing that, you're not contributing to a system that is oppressive to white people,
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because there isn't a system that is oppressive to white people.
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[Janani] Not on the basis of their being white.
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[Mia] Right. Not on the basis of their being white. Exactly.
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[Janani] Oddly enough, some of this white allyship discourse has actually contributed to the possibility for claims of reverse racism. Right?
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Because again, saying that white people can be allies, or that ally is an identity that you can have,
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makes racism often into a personal thing
or an interpersonal thing.
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Yes, white people can participate in the struggle for dismantling systemic racism,
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but ally is not an identity you can have
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because by being a white person you are caught up in that system of white supremacy.
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And I think allyship tends to sort of center
the doing of racism on people:
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*"other white people are racist
and I'm learning how not to be a racist."*
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As opposed to, *"white supremacy exists and I'm going to dismantle the systems by which it is enacted and perpetuated."*
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[Mia] When there's something on Black Girl Dangerous and people start to cry reverse-racism
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I have a really smart friend, my friend Alex Ross,
who's a white cis male,
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and his answer to those people when they accuse me of being reverse-racist towards them is like,
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*"What did she say that contributed to white people not being able to be employed?"* You know?
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Like, *"What did she say that contributed to white people being incarcerated at exorbitant rates compared to everyone else?"*
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You can't call something racism that doesn't feed into a racist system, thats not a part of a racist system.
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You know, if I say something you don't like, something that makes you feel like I don't like you
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well, that's... say that.
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Say, *"what you said makes me feel like you don't like me."*
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But don't call it racism or reverse-racism
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when it's not in any way, shape or form,
now, then or ever going to feed into a system
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that's going to keep you from having access to education,
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from not being the victim of police brutality,
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being incarcerated, not having access to safe food or housing.
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Like, none of those things is happening
when someone doesn't like a white person.
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None of that is feeding into a system
that's built up to oppress white folks.
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So, people you just need to change your language.
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I mean, I think what it is at its core is that people don't really understand what racism is,
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like you said, people think either racism is some sort of interpersonal thing or
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I mean, some people don't even understand... some people's definitions of racism are just so shockingly simple:
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You know, it's not liking people because of their race.
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No. That's not racism.
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You guys need to read and you need to you know,
there's Google.
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There's this thing, there's Google, did you ever heard of it?!
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Do some research. Go to the library.
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That is not a definition of racism, that's not what racism is.
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Go get caught up on what racism is and how it operates,
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because if you don't even understand that
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then you're not going to be able to have a conversation about racism and how it operates at all.
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[Janani] So, if you want to continue the conversation with us over facebook, feel free,
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and if you have any other thoughts, feel free to send them our way also,
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whether by video or blog post or whatever you got. Until next time.
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[Mia] Bye.
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[Janani] Bye.