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The race card.
Racism exists, and it's terrible. Even today there are people with racist ideals, and there's no denying that minority groups are underprivileged even in our progressive society.
That said, I've discovered a new pet peeve in the form of people whose knee-jerk reaction to virtually everything is to accuse others of racism. These are the people who will call you an asshole for cosplaying as a dark-skinned character if you are a white person, and who accuse animators and fanartists of whitewashing if they use a pale color palette on a dark character for even the most justifiable reason (like intense lighting, for God's sake). The ones who insist on being nasty and vitriolic to anyone who disagrees with them, only to fall back on their status as the victim of the situation in order to free themselves of blame and criticism.
I see racism as a serious issue but the amount of people who use it as an excuse to demonize others for merely existing has astounded me over the last few weeks.
[/threads one makes after becoming hooked on Tumblr]
Comments
tl;dr: Tumblr activi--
well yeah
While I entirely agree with the notion that keyboard warriors do more harm than good, I do have to point out that the whitewashing thing is indeed bad and reacting to it is not the issue, it's the way people reacted to it.
If I may, the bad thing about this sort of extremism is that it often drowns out the voices of more reasonable heads.
On the other side of the spectrum, while I don't much care for Anita Sarkeesian's kickstarter project and doubt her skill at handling the issue, the vile things that have been said to her, done to her wikipedia page, and the game encouraging violence to her and uncalled for and unquestionably evil acts.
So now, because I disagree with Miss Sarkeesian I am obviously one of these people who supports those terrible people and their activities.
Basically this kind of asinine action only serves to make people dig their feet in the ground, refuse to listen to any genuine criticism by lumping it with the knee-jerk assholes, and gives them license to go 'See? I told you!'
But yeah, tumblr social justice is pretty much the worst. It gets even worse when people you're fond of get hooked to that sort of logic. >_>
Yeah, until tumblr I thought I was really far to the left too. Oh wait, I still am. I just don't advocate violence against people who disagree with me.
^This is true, but the initial instance of what Xavier is talking is not actually whitewashing per se. Unless you want to say any white person doing anime cosplay is whitewashing. (Not that I haven't heard that)
Err, yeah, that's what I meant
(go get some sleep fool)
After this episode of Avengers WHICH TOTALLY LACKS ANY STRONG WOMEN OF COLOR SO IS COMPLETE GARBAGE.
...too soon?
I was referring to the fanart bit, not the cosplay part. Sorry for not clarifying
Clearly the show needs Storm.
oh man now i want storm in it
and now i realize that we'll never have her because it's cancelled
why must you hurt me like so, brain
The other annoying issue is that it seems like our dear slacktivists are playing it so safe for themselves. Just apply a social justice lens to a work you already know, or one that is widely available. Instead of doing actual research on local/ government/ institutional policies and effects on social justice.
I ACTIVATE MY RACE CARD
That said, if people actually cared for social justice, they would be marching instead of typing.
They probably do both, I'd wager. E-slacktivism is wonderful, since it actually has the potential to educate, what with studies being available on the web and blogrolls that go into excruciating detail on why something is problematic.
Tumblrs I've seen focus mostly on doing easymodo analyses of problematic content and waging flame wars with concern trolls. Some of that may be babby's first social justice awareness, but they're stating what has being said before in less effective ways. Most of the more vitriolic femblogs have a message of "lurk moar, we're not here to educate you" disclaimer attached to it: these activists should do precisely that so they can at least linkdrop instead of making hyperbolic analogues.
And the final point: confusing ignorance with malice is a surefire way to alienate your potential audience. Yes, it's not your jerb to educate them, but calling them a horrible human being won't upset them half as much as deconstructing their worldview. And even then, focus on why a viewpoint is problematic and not on whether the person in question is racist/sexist or not, since this makes it about them rather than the message(there was a great video that elaborated this point, but I can't find it for the life of me).
Kraken,
That said, if people actually cared for social justice, they would be marching instead of typing.
I do not necessarily mean to bash social justice, but is marching actually that effective either? While it clearly does work sometimes, I guess I feel like it often can be too easily ignored to make an impact, especially if we are talking about more subtle stuff connected to race and sex. That being said, I would be glad to hear some counterexamples if anyone has some handy.
InsanityAddict,
And even then, focus on why a viewpoint is problematic and not on whether the person in question is racist/sexist or not, since this makes it about them rather than the message (there was a great video that elaborated this point, but I can't find it for the life of me).
Definitely, if you want to change people's minds, putting them in a defensive position might not be such a good idea, even if it requires a lot of tact to focus on the message instead of the person. Feel free to tell me if I am going off on a tangent, but I think that is part of the reason why it can be pretty tough to talk about stuff like privilege or slavery's legacy without upsetting a bunch of people.
While marching can easily and is often ignored, it's definetly much better than berating and insulting ome random ignorant on the internet instead of teaching them.
Yeah, I hate the NASCAR TCG too.
Anyway, it was kind of funny reading the Assassin's Creed tag yesterday. Half the posts were "OH MY GOD ASSASSIN'S CREED MOVIE" and "OH MY GOD MICHAEL FASSBENDER YES" and "OH MY GOD MICHAEL FASSBENDER IN AN ASSASSIN'S CREED MOVIE EEEEEEE" and the other half were "I HAVE NEVER BEEN MORE OFFENDED" and "HOLLYWOOD WHITEWASHING IM GOING TO VOMIT" and such.
itt: tone policing
are you being sarcastic
i want to be sure if i have to slap you
I think the problem with Tumblr SJWs is that a lot of the louder ones aren't concerned with actually getting anything done, as opposed to feeling better about themselves or finding a righteous outlet for their anger. I know I've been there, and it's gone nowhere good.
I've always found it hard to see arguing against excessive vitriol as a derail: a diatribe is written to vent, not to convince people of your cause, and it has little place in a discussion. One of the tenets hammered on within social justice is that a privileged person will never fully comprehend the experience of the underprivileged, and hoping to do so is severely presumptous. As such, one should not read the tone argument as 'I deny your experience, substitute it with something that's digestible for me', but 'I can in no way acknowledge your experience in a way that does justice to it, so can we move on to a terrain that I can grasp'. Otherwise it again makes it about the individual in the same way that calling someone rather than something racist is a derail.
As for 'bullying' people to compliance with your agenda, it's much more effective to do that through legislation and social programs than it is to do through swearing at someone over the internet.
>itt: tone policing
Using buzz words as an excuse to not actually think about the tactics of activism.
And christ don't fucking get me started on the people who list off about a billion different trigger warnings (without any true understanding of a trigger) then go out and angrily curse someone out and tell them to kill themselves. Yeah, that won't trigger anybody.
>I think the problem with Tumblr SJWs is that a lot of the louder ones aren't concerned with actually getting anything done, as opposed to feeling better about themselves or finding a righteous outlet for their anger. I know I've been there, and it's gone nowhere good.
Pretty much. It's why they say shit like 'it's not my job to educate you' and while that's certainly true, it's not like white people have been doing a great job of that so far. There's also the fact that so many of them miss the forest for the trees, bitching out people who make uneducated statements or silly things but tend to ignore much more serious racism that still happens. But I guess the argument over whether humanified Twilight Sparkle is black or not is important to the struggle of the oppressed too.
This is an amazing time to rant about Tumblr SJ, because guess what they just did?
Attempt to harass a woman off the internet for using the word "tranny" once three years ago! In surprisingly similar fashion to the trolls who attempted to harass Anita Sarkeesian off the internet!
Wut. Seriously?
Do these people not realize that they are in-fucking-sane?
Please do not use words such as "insane", it's ableist and insensitive AND I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU
Even worse, post-script: I just saw someone on Tumblr defend the harassment because she said the word "tranny" in her apology. (Unfortunately, I've already lost the link because I navigated off the page and forgot how I got there.)
WHAT THE FUCK. SERIOUSLY, WHAT. THE. FUCK.
I consider myself privileged to have a degree of self-awareness and a smidgen of intelligence.
These people are children. I've heard arguments defending them that painted them in a decent light and I was willing to give them a shot, since it's a well-intentioned concept if nothing else. But this is just stupid. Where on Earth is it at all acceptable to threaten someone and tell them to kill themselves over something they said three years ago--and then apologized for?
If you answered "fuckin' nowhere", congratulations, you have a brain. But I suppose I'm being insensitive to people who've had lobotomies now.
I'm glad the only part of tumblr I'm ever on is the "make fanart" part. These people aren't just insufferable, what they're doing is basically harassment, and is very illegal. They're like Anonymous' somehow more annoying counterpart.
I hope whoever's leading the charge here is thrown in jail, and that that woman (who I should note I've never heard of before today) continues making her blogs without fear of a bunch of idiots on the internet.
This is seriously the stupidest thing. If you have the resources to do this and are so commited to quote-unquote "social justice", why not take down any of the racist dipshits that populate Youtube, instead of someone who said something several years ago that was mildly offensive?
As far as the whole movement being at all credible. This is the equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot with a rocket launcher.
I was called a privileged white man on Tumblr a couple weeks ago even though I'm dark as the night.
I'm as white as snow.
Yet, somehow, despite not being a victim of it, racism, sexism, homophobia et. al. somehow manage to still bother me. Because I have a sense of empathy.
What this whole thing is, is assuming that there is some kind of conspiracy behind everything anyone who is in anyway "privileged" says. The outrage at random media just proves that. Yes, subtle sexism, racism, yadda yadda can and does exist in media. That is a fact. It is also a fact that not everything is subtly sexist or racist. I am not saying that such things don't need to be discussed. They do. But discussing them in an accusatory manner where you're just trying to make the other guy feel bad gets jack shit done.
And of course, if you're not one of "the underprivileged", you can not ever be upset by anything anyone says about you or your loved ones. No, because I totally love having my family's history dug up and pissed on. It's not okay for me to be angry when people imply that because a lot of my ancestors were raging dickfaces--and trust me, some of them certainly were--that I am somehow "tainted" by that, and am incapable of forming any meaningful bonds--personal or otherwise--with anyone who is somehow "less privileged" than I.
Perhaps I overstep my bounds in saying this, but it seems to me that the opinion of quite a lot of these people is that "the privileged" and "the underprivileged" should stay apart and not interact on friendly terms. Ever. Now to me, that sounds quite a bit like a convenient cover for all sorts of "isms". Under the guise of trying to 'help' these 'underprivileged' people.
It's almost like these bloggers think that non-white, non-cisgendered, non-male persons can't do anything for themselves.
Now I should probably add here that the SJs have dug up a few slightly worse things than saying "tranny" once three years ago and then taking it down. But still nothing I personally find convincing: she's got a video up where she calls Islam misogynistic (not to defend the Fox News kind of Islamphobic asshole, but it kind of is) and there's also some weird complaint about fat shaming which is particularly weird since Laci has a whole playlist about body positivity.)
And of course even if she was an outright unapologetic bigot that still wouldn't justify death threats and digging up her address I mean SHIT MAN WTF.