So like, this is something that bothers me.
Why hide behind a more academic definition of “racism” when someone calls a white person an “Anglo devil” or something similar? I think it is pretty inarguably bigoted and dehumanizing along racial lines, y’know, the colloquial definition of racist?
White supremacy is a thing, absolutely, but why would we want to automatically side with the jerk insulting people based on their race?
Calling all Russians Nazis is obviously wrong, too, not siding with that person either. But why is a race-based insult somehow “justified”? Can’t they both just be being shitty?
I don’t give a shit about civility politics, but this attitude is just weird to me. Bringing systemic level critique (which is valid don’t get it twisted) to justify one side of a small interpersonal scuffle is bonkers.
If you zoom in to the specific one-on-one interaction then yes a white person being called an Anglo Devil or cracka is having their feelings hurt along racial lines.
However, why should we disregard all the context and background of a global system of white supremacy that keeps the vast majority of POC peoples poor, subservient, and voiceless? Why focus on a white individual being made to feel momentarily uncomfortable when the system of white supremacy perpetrated by white people does not give POC the option of being treated as individuals with feelings and needs?
If a Polish person in occupied Warsaw tells a German on the street to “fuck off to Germany, you Nazi”, the possibility of that German not being a Nazi and having their feelings hurt is completely inconsequential to whatever the Pole is going through.
I was not ‘hiding behind a more academic definition of “racism”’, I was noting that ‘reverse racism’ is not real. Yes, white people can experience racial prejudice, but that is worlds apart from racism as one has all the social, legal, and overall systemic backing of generations of hatred, and the other is someone being called a ‘bleach demon’ online.
Distinctions like that matter.
