ext_2569: text: "a straight account is difficult, so let me define seven wishes" image: man on steps. (study)

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posted by [identity profile] labellementeuse.livejournal.com at 11:07am on 02/08/2009
I think in a lot of ways, political correctness has actually exacerbated problems for me. Political correctness takes care of superficial, surface attitudes and behaviors, but doesn't really allow people to experience the profound fuckedupedness of their internalized racism and prejudice, because everyone's just being SO NICE and not saying what's in their hearts.

Whereas I totally clicked "post comment" to go into an extended rant how apparently "reverse racism" was becoming the next PC. "political correctness" and "reverse racism" are phrases that - to my perception - have origin stories so similar it's like RR was caught in the same freak chemical accident as PC and gave them the same superpower (problematising behaviour that is not problematic). They are both terms invented by right wing assholes to stop people from calling them on their racist, sexist, classist bullshit because if you do it they have this magical stick to beat you with - OMG YOU REVERSE RACIST. Or you say "hey, maybe we should be thinking about some of the thing we're saying about beneficiaries in this press release" - OMG YOU'RE SO PC. Neither of these sticks are valid sticks, because the behaviour of calling someone on their racist behaviours, just like the behaviour of trying to NOT use your language to oppress people, are behaviours that should be rewarded, not problematised.

Anyway, that was my rant, sorry to dump it on you as a stranger.
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posted by [identity profile] onelittlesleep.livejournal.com at 02:36pm on 02/08/2009
They are both terms invented by right wing assholes to stop people from calling them on their racist, sexist, classist bullshit because if you do it they have this magical stick to beat you with - OMG YOU REVERSE RACIST.

YES. And I was reading this article linked from [livejournal.com profile] ibarw's delicious and the writer said something interesting, lemme link: Getting people to think of racism solely as a diagnostic tool for ranking the goodness, rightness, and therefore authority/prestige, of white people, rather than as a system of violent oppression of people of colour: that must count as one of the biggest victories for the anti-civil-rights backlash.

I think this is relevant to what you're saying, because if acknowledging racism degrades into this "You're a racist!" "NO, YOU are the REVERSE racist!" name-calling back-forth, it becomes just a judgment of a person's goodness and rightness, which centers then on the abuser and not the abused, and diffuses and undermines the impact of the discussion and the confrontation of racism where it's found. WHICH IS SO F'ED UP, YOU KNOW? I GUESS?

From here: http://nowandrome.blogspot.com/2009/07/there-were-people-of-colour-in-past-too.html
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