I personally couldn't be in a friend group where I'm the only black person. Our conversations would have to be so trivial in order for that to work that I would just lose interest and/or develop closer friendships with people who better understand me.
Discussing racism with non blacks
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and extremely exhausting because you waste energy formulating arguments, then spend part of it getting irritated by their stupidity.
TELL ME YA CHEESIN FAM?
I walk around a little edgy already
211 posts in 5 years
this.
shyt is a waste of time and why the fukk do we have to explain what human beings are and that we happen to be humans as well.
The fact that there even has to be a need to explain racism should let you know that these motherfukkas are playing dumb. The real truth is they (and the world at large) love having its foot on our necks and without racism, that can’t be achieved. Racism is so fukking important to them that they don’t even have to discuss it among themselves. It is protocol.
"As a black man who has dealt with inequalities..."
The D-List Vet
Being in a recommendation system.
Fix that for you breh
Its not just cacs.
I don’t usually have to do this with non-blks I consider friends b/c if I rock with them like that, they already know how I am. Unapologetically. Straight no chaser. People have unfriended and blocked me on social media over some of the shyt I’ve said.
But I have had conversations with white and non-Blk colleagues in academia, mainly because I haven’t mastered the art of letting dumb shyt go yet, and b/c I’m a petty bytch and like to see them squirm.
My approach is to be cheerfully raw. I dig very deeply into psychoanalyzing white insecurities and lies they’ve been told about us and the harmful consequences. I always have a running list of research articles, studies and stats in my head, as well as laws and legislation to back up my claims. There is no denial. You can’t run from me. I don’t allow deflection. So once the facts are presented, they usually don’t want to go any deeper into how they are cowards or insecure.
But before you even go there, If you feel anxiety about broaching race with them, can u even call them ur friends? What I can honestly say about non-blks in my circle is that they tell the truth. I’ve gotten articles from Indian friends on how they feel like Indians and Asians need to address racism in their own perspective countries while they chanting BLM. I’ve gotten protest tips. Baking soda and water helps with tear gas. I’ve gotten money. Some have just said it’s been hard b/c they are the ones having the hard talks with their family. Some have lived in war-torn countries so they stay ready.
But I’ve never had a friend of any race that I was nervous to say shyt to. If that’s the case, you not a friend. But all that aside, be positive, be firm, be factual and be real. And have ur shyt together so you can cut through bullshyt if they try it.
But I have had conversations with white and non-Blk colleagues in academia, mainly because I haven’t mastered the art of letting dumb shyt go yet, and b/c I’m a petty bytch and like to see them squirm.
My approach is to be cheerfully raw. I dig very deeply into psychoanalyzing white insecurities and lies they’ve been told about us and the harmful consequences. I always have a running list of research articles, studies and stats in my head, as well as laws and legislation to back up my claims. There is no denial. You can’t run from me. I don’t allow deflection. So once the facts are presented, they usually don’t want to go any deeper into how they are cowards or insecure.
But before you even go there, If you feel anxiety about broaching race with them, can u even call them ur friends? What I can honestly say about non-blks in my circle is that they tell the truth. I’ve gotten articles from Indian friends on how they feel like Indians and Asians need to address racism in their own perspective countries while they chanting BLM. I’ve gotten protest tips. Baking soda and water helps with tear gas. I’ve gotten money. Some have just said it’s been hard b/c they are the ones having the hard talks with their family. Some have lived in war-torn countries so they stay ready.
But I’ve never had a friend of any race that I was nervous to say shyt to. If that’s the case, you not a friend. But all that aside, be positive, be firm, be factual and be real. And have ur shyt together so you can cut through bullshyt if they try it.
Reality
Make your own luck.
I avoid the discussion with American CACs who aren't liberal / progressives...like in 2020 if I'm having a discussion about the basics with you and you're an American cac, you're probably too far gone.
European CACs tend to show humility. So while they may not fully understand or understand the history - they're more likely to listen without the constant deflection and whataboutism and minimization of the history.
I've had a really binary experience w/ Latinos (excluding Cubans)...either they get enough of it and are down & really good allies actually or they're completely on some cactino shyt feeling empowered to talk as experts on blackness because they're brown. I've managed to build a pretty good circle of the former.
I've known some pretty down Asians who know what they don't know
South Asians - never really met any who are really woke vs. 2 above groups, but if they fukk with you on a personal level, they'll listen. They get colorism and have a good reference for the caste system, but oddly enough this can make them more
about racism like it's something to be taken for granted.
European CACs tend to show humility. So while they may not fully understand or understand the history - they're more likely to listen without the constant deflection and whataboutism and minimization of the history.
I've had a really binary experience w/ Latinos (excluding Cubans)...either they get enough of it and are down & really good allies actually or they're completely on some cactino shyt feeling empowered to talk as experts on blackness because they're brown. I've managed to build a pretty good circle of the former.
I've known some pretty down Asians who know what they don't know
South Asians - never really met any who are really woke vs. 2 above groups, but if they fukk with you on a personal level, they'll listen. They get colorism and have a good reference for the caste system, but oddly enough this can make them more
about racism like it's something to be taken for granted.
I am a non-black person (Indian) and I would say no because if this was going to be a productive conversation where your insights would be valued and respected then it would have happened a long time ago. It wouldn't have had to wait until a national crisis erupted. It would have happened naturally, like you'd be having a regular conversation and race comes up as an impromptu topic. Nobody would plan it out in advance and say "let's meet up on this day to talk about race."
I'll give an example, I was kicking it with my friends from Ghana and Botswana, we were talking about football after catching a World Cup game on the big screen at uni. And out of nowhere, I can't remember who it was that brought it up, but suddenly all three of us were talking about white women, how none of us felt them like that, and how the media narrative and western cultural bias is responsible for their depiction as the most desirable and attractive race of women. See what I'm saying, it was a normal conversation where we expressed our views on a racial issue freely and frankly, and it came up randomly after we had met up to watch football. Now because we have that history any time in the future that we have a conversation about race we do so with complete freedom and trust and honesty.
The scenario you have described is totally different and I can't see it ending well
I'll give an example, I was kicking it with my friends from Ghana and Botswana, we were talking about football after catching a World Cup game on the big screen at uni. And out of nowhere, I can't remember who it was that brought it up, but suddenly all three of us were talking about white women, how none of us felt them like that, and how the media narrative and western cultural bias is responsible for their depiction as the most desirable and attractive race of women. See what I'm saying, it was a normal conversation where we expressed our views on a racial issue freely and frankly, and it came up randomly after we had met up to watch football. Now because we have that history any time in the future that we have a conversation about race we do so with complete freedom and trust and honesty.
The scenario you have described is totally different and I can't see it ending well
You should do a thread and teach those who need to know how to do this ... like a manual to confront racists intelligently.
Another thing I've noticed when I talk to my "woke" cac friends at university is they constantly cop pleas to downplay or minimize their whiteness 
talking about "my grandfather was Anglo-Indian, so that makes me 1/16th same as you, plus my dad used to get shyt for it from my mum's family," or "I'm Greek-Lebanese, am I really white?"
talking about "my grandfather was Anglo-Indian, so that makes me 1/16th same as you, plus my dad used to get shyt for it from my mum's family," or "I'm Greek-Lebanese, am I really white?"
$cam-U-Well_Jack$on
Superstar
I absolutely refuse.
ThrobbingHood
Take from the b*tch, give to the whores.
Yeah, a lot of these “spicy” CACs try to make their lineage more ethnic, in order to absolve themselves from any guilt.Another thing I've noticed when I talk to my "woke" cac friends at university is they constantly cop pleas to downplay or minimize their whiteness
“Don’t call me a racist PAL! My great great grandfather was Cherokee. Can’t you tell by how my blonde hair sits on my high cheekbones?”
For me in the context of Australia where I'm from the question of whiteness is simple. Could you or your ancestors have legally immigrated to this country between 1901 when Australia gained independence from Britain, to 1972 before the White Australia immigration law, which was deliberately designed to make it near impossible for Africans and Asians to move to this country, was repealed? If the answer is yes - and for all these Greek, Italian, Serbian, 1/16th Indian types I meet at uni, the answer is yes - then you're fukking white