Do you feel any talks are successful?

In class today we were talking about all of these cases of race-infused violence in the south during the Civil Rights Movement, and Emmett Till came up. And of course we talked about how brutal his murder was - he was beaten, shot in the head, drowned, one of his eyes was gouged out. There was a quiet in the room as we all took in the sheer amount of superfluous physical violence put upon him and everyone from the black kids to the brown kids to the white kids could feel it.

So of course this white guy has to say that those murderers must have been “psychopaths” and “crazy,” because obviously only mentally deficient people would be so cruel as to beat a black kid to death over allegedly flirting with a white woman. And then a few of the other white people in the room were like, “Yeah, they must have been crazy, like serial killers are,” and suddenly an invisible white angel had appeared in the room to bask the white people in a beautiful white glow of non-white-guilt as they sighed a sigh of relief and the painful things that happened to Emmett Till or Medgar Evans or James Chaney suddenly became less painful because the white guys who did it must have just been crazy. God-forbid they were actually perfectly sane and were just hellbent on exerting the racial hierarchy and upholding a racist status quo.

Yo, for real, calling people who engage in violent acts of white supremacy or any kind of oppressive dominance are not akin to people who would be classified as “crazy.” People are drawn to think things like that because it allows any white person to separate themselves from their role in white supremacy and just make racism into something that is only perpetuated by individuals and not toxic and oppressive culture.

We all know the trope: The person(s) of color (overwhelmingly the black guy) gets killed off first, especially in a horror film. Well here is a brief list of such films, many of which not only feature the person of color dying first, but feature the main white characters ultimately saving the day:

• X-Men: First Class
• King Kong
• Scream 2
• Predator (1 & 2)
• Serenity
• State of Play
• Deep Rising
• Kill Bill: Volume I
• Jaws: The Revenge
• House of Wax
• Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem
• Stargare
• Aliens
• The Shining
• Leviathan
• Terminator (1 & 2)
• Red Dawn
• Jurassic Park
• Gremlins
• Hollow Man
• Hulk
• Predators
• United 93
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
• Super 8
• Cursed
• Killjoy
• Queen of the Damned
• Transformers (Not a complete fit in the trope since it’s not human-based. The only autobot to die in the film is Jazz, the jive-talking autobot voiced by a black actor)
• 300
• Resident Evil
• The Mummy (1 & 2)

And believe me, I could probably find many more if I looked a little harder. (Feel free to correct me on any films, as I have not seen a few of these films).

So, what is the point of this list? Well, it’s to illustrate that even if at first glance, a film may show potential of diversity, people of color are still, in many respects, disposable in films. It’s just enough time to introduce the idea that these films are inclusive by introducing some racial diversity, yet allows them not to have to explore the nuances of these characters of color by killing them off, to focus on the true protagonists - the white folks.

Now, let me make it clear: the individual films listed are not necessarily racist because the feature this trope, and the reasoning for killing of the character of color might not be a conscious choice. Rather, the focus is how the overall trope itself is racist, as it is evident in several films that even if there are people of color in films, they are likely to be killed off or rid of early on, further illustrating Hollywood’s penchant for not telling stories of people of color in any meaningful way and only actively engaging a white-centered audience.

lookdeeperseebetter:

When black people insult white people - and I’m assuming you mean based on race - yeah, that sucks and those hypothetical black people are total douches, but it doesn’t have the same history nor connotations and impact that white people have when just “talking” about black folks. Just because two groups insult each other or talk about each other doesn’t mean it will have the same impact on each other, cause you’re dealing with issues of power and oppression that allow some groups (in this case white people) to make decisions, speak for, and oppress other groups (in this case people of color) cause they have a lot more power.

I’m really trying hard to avoid being an “issue” playwright in my playwriting class, as it’s hard to humanize an idea but I have cool ideas for my final project in which we have to write a short play.

• A heteromantic asexual man and his journey of trying to find his way to reconcile his sexuality with wanting to please his sexual girlfriend.
• Interpersonal racism between friends, one white, one person of color (probably Asian), and how race has shaped their relationship. That one will be more difficult though.
• I need a third idea, so I’m thinking of one that isn’t so issue-minded, but I do have a character that some of my friends consider to be a little political that I might shape

My teacher says that plays stemming from an issue are difficult to be very good plays, but I think I can make some characters that can really shape the issues in engaging ways. Wish me luck!

I hear this from people all the time when it comes to all forms of oppression, but particularly racism. When discussing the past atrocities committed by white folks onto people of color, someone, almost always a white person tries to excuse the white people in the past by suggesting that they just didn’t know what they were doing was racist.

Slavery? Native American genocide? Banning racial minorities from immigrating to the US? The Zoot Suit riots? Internment of Japanese Americans? Etc.?

“Yeah, that was bad, but they didn’t know that what they were doing was racist/knew what racism was/didn’t think about race!”

I think what people neglect to think about is that the people of color who were the victims of these racist acts definitely knew what racism was. They could see that the way they were treated was predicated upon their race. They lived every day seeing it and having to take it and normalize it as if that was how life was supposed to be. So when I hear, “But they didn’t know about racism back then!” to me, it suggests that the mindset of “they” meaning “white people” is somehow more important than the suffering of the people of color they oppressed. And to me, it’s just another example of how white people control how we see US history.

Plus, the fact that they happened happened in the past does not negate the fact that these acts were heinous and racist, the consequences of which still affect racial inequality today, and I don’t believe that we should just give the white people of the past a free pass and treat them as children by saying, “They didn’t know better.” No, it’s far worse: They knew exactly what they were doing; they just didn’t care that people of color were suffering.

From elementary school through high school, nearly all of my friends in school were white. When I started doing theatre in DC, I suddenly had a very diverse group of friends, most of whom were black. I hung out with my black DC friends more than I hung out with my white school friends, but it always baffled me how outstandingly different either group was treated.

I would go to a mall with my white friends and nothing would really happen. If I went with a diverse group of friends, usually, nothing would happen. But then I go to a mall or a restaurant with a group of my black friends and suddenly store owners are following us around, police officers are asking what were up to, clerks are asking us to leave for no reason. It’s absolutely ridiculous. Suddenly, we’re too loud, too shady, we’re troublemakers. As someone who can confidentially say that she has a diverse pool of friends, it’s clear to me that there is a distinct contrast between the way that my friends are treated because depending on their race.

I think people often don’t notice the differences in how they’re treated because we usually stick to groups of friends that are of the same race, but perhaps if we spent more time with different groups and more time noticing our surroundings, the contrast would become clearer.

oriolesoaring:

Oh my goodness, I just want to slap anyone that utilizes race or their skin color as an excuse to call me racist for denying them something, especially people online. They are one of the main reasons racism is still alive and well. 

I studied race and ethnicity in American sociology, I know all of the cards, and after having a “white guilt-trip”, why the fuck would I be racist?

I just want to go punch a wall or something.

Here’s the thing: A lot of black people have had to live their lives wondering whether or not their race has anything to do with the way they are treated. That’s a part of racism: It’s not just about how it affects people of color systematically, but a lot of the times it becomes so pervasive that suddenly every situation could have possibly been negatively impacted by that person of color’s race. They’re not playing a card; they’re trying to figure out if they’re being treated fairly, and they want white people to keep themselves in check.

It’s a privilege that white people usually don’t have to wonder every day whether or not the way you are treated is determined by your whiteness. In fact, it’s an even greater privilege to be able to dismiss people of color when they suggest that their race affects the way they are treated. After all, white people are usually the ones in control of situations in which a person of color feels discriminated against, so white people can just easily say that people of color are actually “playing a card” rather than checking in with themselves on whether or not race was a factor in their words or judgment.

If a black person, or any person of color, accuses me of being racist, which I shouldn’t be angry about because again, they as people of color have probably lived their whole lives having to walk out of situations wondering if their race is a negative factor, then I have to give them and myself amnesty to take a step back to wonder if, even subconsciously, I made a racist judgment or action.

It’s not a “card,” it’s how they live their lives.

Also, there is a difference between saying or doing something racist and actually being racist. Many white people, even the most anti-racist ones, can slip up and do the former; it doesn’t make them bad people, it’s just a process of learning.

(Source: howlcoyotecody)