Commonly expressed but boring responses to various posts. If you use a version of one of these responses, the administrators at resist racism may tag you with the number. Or we might just mock you.
1. I am not a racist.
variant a. But I’m not like those others!
variant b. But not all white people are like that!
2. I have a black friend.
variant a. I have an Asian child
variant b. I have a non-white boyfriend/girlfriend
3. You’re the real racists.
4. You’re bitter/angry/oversensitive/whatever.
5. Ventriloquy (“I have a black friend who says …”)
6. I lived in [fill-in-the-blank-country] for [length of time].
7. What about all those black men who rape white women?
8. That’s just political correctness.
9. What about all the racism in [insert name of predominantly brown country here] against whites?
10. Why aren’t you worried about child abuse/world hunger/something else that’s important?
11. Do you have to be so aggressive when you talk about racism? Can’t you frame your message in a nicer way?
12. I’m not like those other people.
13. According to you we can’t do anything right, so why bother trying?
14. I’m a person of color myself and …
variant a. I’m white, but I’m a member of a minority group and have faced discrimination …
15. It wasn’t racist; you just don’t understand the context/are misinterpreting it/it was meant to be a compliment.
16. That happens to white people too. It has nothing to do with racism.
17. Everyone is racist.
18. It’s satire/humor/don’t you get the joke?
19. The Dictionary Defense™, otherwise known as The Last Bastion of Idiots™.
variant a. It’s the rule! And if the rule applies to everybody, that’s fair.
variant b. I don’t think you understand the concept of …
20. General random stupidity, evidencing a lack of reason and critical thought.
18 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 24, 2008 at 9:42 pm
ok yall…a lil piece on white feminists « revolution of the lilies
[...] we heard it before [...]
September 5, 2008 at 1:01 pm
CH
But make no effort to refute you, I assume?
February 10, 2009 at 10:34 am
df
EVERYONE is racist. White, black, pink or purple.
February 10, 2009 at 4:01 pm
resistance
Thanks df, I’ll add that.
February 26, 2009 at 2:27 am
foxjacket
#18. “If everyone just married outside of their race/had interracial relationships and had kids, that would end racism!” Don’t know if that’s come up on your blog, but I’ve heard that one many times before.
February 26, 2009 at 4:56 am
Kathy
Here’s a few I have heard:
I have studied racism for a long time.
I have read a lot of books on racism.
March 7, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Psychobabbler
May I suggest a #19?
I don’t benefit from white privilege since I’m discriminated against because I’m ____________ (fill in the blank with any number of things…LGBT, Jewish, Muslim, differently-abled, an immigrant, etc.).
March 12, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Jennifer
Don’t forget #20, “What about homophobia in the black community?”
May 17, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Br00ke
I am hosting a carnival addressing white privilege amongst the Muslims, could I please cross post this on my blog?
May 18, 2009 at 10:11 pm
resistance
Hi Br00ke, we’d love a link to your carnival. But we prefer not to be cross-posted. Thank you.
May 18, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Br00ke
Thanks resistance, your work is much appreciated.
May 18, 2009 at 10:18 pm
resistance
The link! Where’s the link?!
May 18, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Br00ke
I dunno! I’m not very techy! I think it takes a minute, eh? Lemmie go see…
July 16, 2009 at 5:32 am
Well
“We heard it before” would be a prime addition to the list… ;)
August 17, 2009 at 7:29 pm
wiggles
Oh, shit. I’ve pulled a number 17 fairly recently. *shame*
September 15, 2009 at 4:23 pm
CJsDaddy
I was just re-reading this list and realized that I’m pretty darn guilty of #11.
Recently, I’ve experiences a variant or perhaps a merging of #1 and #7. “I’m not racist against all black people, just the ones that ____[insert racist stereotype here]____.”
September 21, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Thom
What would be super helpful would be a rebuttal for each of these points. This would be helpful both for me, as I try to better detect my white lens, but even more so for my discussions with friends. When they pull one of these out in a discussion, it’s not really helpful for me to respond with “Heard It All Before #17.” I need to say something like, “Sure, lots of people have racial biases. That doesn’t change the fact that . . . .” No one here has an obligation to give me these, of course (cf. Racism 101), but it would help me to have framework on which to hang my further education.
September 22, 2009 at 1:30 am
Br00ke
Thom
I was thinking the same thing last week when a discussion about the film “Qallunaat: Why White People are Funny” turned into a “those drunk natives are reverse racists” discussion. It was excruciatingly upsetting to not have the words on hand to explain their faulty racist thinking. So, I did some googling over the weekend and learned lots of beneficial stuffs that won’t exactly arm me with canned rebuttals, but hopefully will enable me to better address the issues next time. You can do this too. Start with “reverse racism” and maybe some Kamau Bell Curve on youtube for some starters.