I'll be a real monster this Halloween

[yeloson]

What if this Halloween, I dressed up to be a white person?

Not a celebrity, politician, or anyone with a name.
Not a police officer, a cowboy, a doctor or a profession or role.

A white person.

That alone, would mark me as different, strange, "dressed up". A costume for your amusement and enjoyment.

I wouldn't even dress up as a real white person as you see day to day. I'd dress up as a caricature of a white person, one which every white person would get to hear inflicted upon them day after day, for the rest of their lives to let them know some horrible, fucked up weird fetish person from shitty movies, pornos, and sites dedicated to hating and using white people, THAT fake person is what everyone thinks of when they think of white person.

That's what their kids would get to face too, not just this holiday, but everyday, for the rest of their lives. Coming home crying, because their real skin, their real lives, wasn't "authentic enough" for other people.

That horrible fake person would be me, dressed up like that, for fun.

Trick or Treat.

Comments

[willow]

Seeing several posts about this has helped me figure out why I've always reacted so violently to the whole 'Red, yellow, green hat with fake dreads'. I'd mostly focused on 'These people don't even know what dreads mean'.

But the concept of rastas as fantastical people? Of the Caribbean as a fantastical place? Now I also understand why the Pirates of the Caribbean movies sent me to a 'scratch your eyes out' place. I just thought I had a fannish (anti Disney) issue there.

[yeloson]

And this is also why the genocide, slavery, etc. are also fantastical- it's like dragons and giants- something that if it did actually happen, it's so far away and unreal it doesn't matter to them.

Just as much as our feelings about their behavior, are also unreal.

Not people.

[spiralsheep]

♥

[dhobikikutti]

A-yep.

[ardhra]

You make really good points, and they're totally spot-on, but I don't think the analogy holds very well because stereotypes of white people aren't used by poc in a systemic way to control, demean, and inflict violence on white people.

Bringing up the prospect of poc committing violence against white people makes it seem like there's an equivalence there, which can play into the 'reverse racism' moral panic, and can reinforce the conception that the suffering of poc is lesser than the feelings of white people. If a hypothetical white person's feelings are taken more seriously than thousands of actual poc's feelings, doesn't it kind of reinforce the dehumanisation you're trying to unpack?

[yeloson]

That's exactly why it's a hypothetical. White people do not live in a culture where their bodies are shamed.

Who said anything about violence?

[ardhra]

Well, the behaviour you described in the OP is abusive & violent.

[yeloson]

Somehow I doubt the stereotypes of physical violence which they attribute to us are triggered in the same way when talking about the psychological violence they so clearly rationalize to themselves.

And such a white person who can swing it both ways wouldn't hear the message anyway, right?

So are you worried that somehow I'm "turning away" some portion of theoretical white people who would make that connection, and that, I should change my tone lest I offend them?

Seriously, do you have anything beyond concern trolling here?

[ardhra]

I'm saying that trying to get white people to sympathise with the experiences of poc, which is what you seem to be trying, by invoking a threat that doesn't exist (i.e. abuse, emotional and psychological violence) won't necessarily work. And I've seen white people dismiss your post for exactly that reason. Stereotypes don't affect them the way they affect poc.

I said the content of the post is problematic, not the tone.

Do you have any response to my arguments that don't attribute non-existent passive-aggressive behaviour to me?

[yeloson]

Um, no. I'm not even trying to get the sympathy of white folks. Sympathy is not the same as understanding. And yes, I'm well aware stereotypes don't work the same way as I've mentioned repeatedly.

[ardhra]

You're nitpicking.

[yeloson]

So YOU say. Fascinating.

[lucullean]

why would you sort of viciously attack another person of color for her reaction to what you posted here? do you feel like her overall point (that white people wouldn't necessarily get the message you want them to get and that she has an abusive history with this stuff) is not valid?

[yeloson]

This is not the first encounter we've had, though it's clearly along the exact same formulas as previous times: projection, selective reading, evading points, under the guise of "politeness".

I find it fascinating that she would track down my blog, a year and a half later, to repeat the same behavior.

So, do you, personally have anything on the post, or are you simply here to speak on her behalf?

[lucullean]

I don't personally have anything on the post, but honestly? That doesn't sound like her and I find it curious that you are not responding to what I actually said, then accusing someone else of "evading points" and "projeciton."

[yeloson]

I explained why I've interacted with her as such. And as far as her points, you can read what's already here.

Since you don't have anything to say, and you also are telling me that I'm saying nothing as well, I guess we're done here.

[ardhra]

And I'm also saying, as a person of colour, that equating the violence (actual physical assault as well as emotional abuse) that has been done to me through stereotyping with stereotypes about white people is offensive to me personally. No white person I've ever known has suffered to any extent because of stereotypes of whiteness.

[yeloson]

And you read my post as not a hypothetical situation but as an actual suggestion?

And you expect me to believe you?

You're trolling.

If you honestly think I'm that unaware of power dynamics, you'd be talking to someone who there'd be no point in having that kind of conversation.

And since apparently you believe that, I'll end our conversation here, for your sake and mine.