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mehreenkasana:

Note: As a person of color, I have no responsiblity to be “nice” to you if I see you being racist about my culture, my people, my history. If I find you using your white privilege on me or a POC issue, I will speak up. I will not engage in “respectful discourse” and I will not use “polite”…

Anger feeds angers. Racism feeds another form of racism. Sometimes, there isn’t any way to condone or condemn a statement, and that’s just the case here in my opinion. Of course racism shouldn’t be treated cordially, but then again, considering the whole “white” lot is a bunch of privileged racists unless they sob in repentence for their ancestors’ bullshitness won’t get anyone really far either. 

There is no denying the white privilege. Like the great philosopher Louis C.K. once said, sign me up for that shit over and over again, it’s so much easier. And it sucks that things have ended up that way, all “thanks” to industrialism, liberalism and a bunch of white middle-aged men with a bottomless pit of love for themselves.

But what’s left of that in your everyday white dude? A sense of entitlement, true, but I’m not sure it comes from the color of their skin as much as it comes from the society they live in. Thanks again, Adam Smith. And in some, there’s this crawling feeling that this black man with the same processed coffee takeway sitting in front of them in the tube as had to fight a bit more for that privilege, because he’s black. So it’s been harder on him. Some will shrug it off: that’s bullshit, everyone’s the same and society doesn’t work like that anymore. That is naïve, but that’s what we’ve been taught (fed?) since we were kids. I don’t know if it’s destructive or pacificating. 

But there’s also those who won’t shrug that feeling off and consider the issue as it is. Yes, when you’re white you don’t have to think about it. At all. The overwhelming sense of privilege that comes from that simple understanding should be more than enough to process how and why Mehreen here reacts the way she does. And yet, when you’ve spent your whole life in a society that pretends not to care about skin color, when you’ve never seen a PoC and considered them as one - I mean, that guy’s just a guy with a cup of coffee - it’s dissmisive as hell to be put in the same bag as the oppressor, the racist, the one you’ve been taught to hate since birth. And you can’t help but think that if you’ve only been judged from the color of your colourless skin, it’s because of that other kind of racism. 

In the end, the question is quite simple. Are you ready to aknowledge your privilege as a white person, even as a part of a Western society? Are you able to see how you being white and part of said Western World puts you, however inderectly in a position of privelege and relative opression compared to PoCs in and out of your direct social scope? If you are, then Mehreen’s approach of race-related issues isn’t really new to you. You may not agree on her style, you’ll agree with her on the suject. If you’re not, there’s a good chance you’ll dismiss her as another raving racist. And the possibility that some might have this conclusion is where I disagree with Mehreen’s latest methods. 

That is all I have to say on the subject.

mehreenkasana:

Do you remember the BNP candidate Michael Green who threatened to blow an office up in Central London? Most of us don’t even remember this happening. Reason? It’s a white non-Muslim being a complete psychopath. Now let’s give this scenario a reversal: Imagine a brown Muslim threatening to use…