An open letter to white nationalists on tumblr.
You know Iād have zero problems with white pride or white nationalism if all it was was celebrating heritage.
Everybody has a cultural identity. And thereās absolutely nothing wrong with finding your features beautiful and taking an interest in your family history. You should celebrate where you come from and the things that make you unique.Ā
Iād be fine with a White History Month.
Iād be fine with aĀ āWhite Prideā event or parade or whatever.
Iād be fine with people sayingĀ āwhite girls are beautiful!ā orĀ āI only wanna date inside my own raceā.Ā
Because someone else expressing love for themselves or living their life Ā to a certain set of beliefs doesnāt diminish how I feel about myself. I can sayĀ āGood for youā with complete sincerity.Ā
The problem is, you guys donāt just leave it at this.
White things are always done as aĀ āRetaliationā or aĀ ātake THAT!ā to other movements.Ā
When I see and participate in things centered around black people, 99% of the time people of other races donāt even come up. Weāre not trash-talking white people. Weāre not using racial slurs against white people. Weāre not putting white people down to make blackness seem special or superior. Weāre just talking about ourselves, doing our own thing, and having fun.
When was the last time the Black Panthers burned a cross in somebodyās yard? Never. The answer is never. It did not happen.Ā
We donāt dress up like white people to make fun of you. We donāt create entire websites centered around hating you where me and my friends can have a good olā cackle and feel superior for 10 minutes on the internet. We donātĀ lord the accomplishments of people we have zero connection to other than skin color over the heads of other ethnic groups just to goĀ āhaw haw!āĀ
If anything, the only time you enter into the discussion at all is if weāre sharing experiences of how we are violently mistreated in a country that would not exist without us. Whether you recognize the contributions black americans have made to building this nation or not is irrelevant. Ignoring this fact does not make it unture.Ā
You did not want aĀ āwhiteoutā until we had blackout.
You never mention White history month any other time except when February creeps up.
You didnāt shoutĀ āAllLivesMatterā until we shoutedĀ āBlackLivesMatterā
Now the internet is a big place. I cannot speak for every single individual person who identifies as a white nationalist, I can only judge by what Iāve seen and heard and read by other people who call themselves such. And most of the time what I see is the pattern Iāve mentioned above.
Black people do something for black people. White people take offense to this and decide to do something else in retaliation. But thereās nothing to retaliate against. And if its not a retaliation, its an opposition.
A prime example is thisĀ ādindu nuffinā meme. An unarmed child is killed by the police, you find humor in our outrage and in the way we protest. Similarly, there are no memes or caricatures or general culture of hatred that circulate whenever a white child is murdered. I have yet to find oneĀ āCaylee Anthonyā meme. Yet I can find several of Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, and many others
We do not treat you the way you treat us.Ā
Iāll use this presidential campaign as an example. Donald Trump has the support of many self-proclaimed white nationalists. One of the most prominent supporters was a man who starred in a documentary calledĀ āWhite Student Union.āĀ
This man and one other violently assaulted a black woman who was involved at a peaceful protest at this rally. Freedom of speech declares that this woman and the other protesters were within their right to be there. Yet if you go on google, thereās numerous stories of black people being assaulted at these rallies. When checking white nationalist websites, videos, and postings; Iāve found that Trump has a lot of support in the white nationalist community.Ā
From an outsiderās perspective, white nationalism is painted as movement whoās only purpose is to curb the waning self-esteem of white people who donāt feel special anymore because they know theyāre not better than anybody else. Much like those southern racists whoāll hem and haw about the good olā days where you didnāt have to treat all people like people.
If this is false, then here are some suggestions from a black man to help you with your image.
1. Lose the racially charged symbolism. Pick something besides the confederate flag or Odinās Cross to flail around. Stop trying to evoke the imagery of groups that have literally tortured murdered people for not being white. There are plenty of great images in European history to choose from. Or you could choose an animal. How about a polar bear?Ā
2. Keep us out your mouths. Go on theĀ āblackoutā tag and what do you see. Pictures of black people, and people explaining the need for blackout right? And thatās all. You are nowhere to be seen. There is no one going on about how blacks are superior and blah blah blah. If you want to be proud of your heritage then be proud of it. But if youāre only proud of it because you think its better than somebody elseās- that speaks volumes about your true intentions.
Go on theĀ ānatural hairā tag. How many black women do you see talking trash about white peopleās hair? How many comics and memes can you find? None.Ā
The only time black people trash talk you is when someone else brings it on themselves by saying something ignorant about us first.Ā āBut Jj two wrongs donāt make a right!ā And when someone is a victim of something they want to stop happening and nobody else does anything about it- theyāre going to retaliate. this is the real world, not kindergarden.Ā
If you want to be proud of being white: be proud. But if youāre ONLY proud because you think being white makes you better than other people, then youāre just looking for an excuse to justify your own unwarranted sense of superiority and I pity you.Ā
Finally: Educate yourselves. Do you know what Iāve come to realize just by lurking and my brief stint debating on white nationalist forums? A lot of you immediately swallow anything that already coincides with your worldview and when something challenges that- you refuse to think critically. Granted, everyone is guilty of this to some degree. But see, if youāre going to be a nationalist then you need to have a core understanding of the real issues that affect your people and why you are treated the way you are.Ā
A prime example: black-on-black crime is a myth. It is a term used to demonize the black population and should have no bearings in any serious discussion on race relations. Why? Because it is isolated. There is noĀ āwhite-on-whiteā crime mentioned, despite people who identify as white making up a majority of the american population. there is noĀ āasian-on-asianā crime. OrĀ ālatino on latino crime.ā Yet somehow black people are painted as more criminally inclined than anyone else despite being only 13% of the overall population.Ā
That is mathematically impossible. And socially irresponsible to believe.
People who live near eachother are going to commit crime among themselves. A thief who lives in white neighborhoods is going to steal from white people and white businesses. It is mathematically impossible for 13% of the country to commit more crime than any of the other 87%. But many of you keep using this phraseĀ āblack on black crimeā like it has any sort of credence.Ā
Ā You use it to devalue and discredit a race. Yet in the same breath you will claim white nationalism is not about racial superiority.Ā
This kind of cognitive dissonance is an insult to my intelligence and only serves to make your movement look shallow, racist, and foolish.
It is the same when you bring up IQ scores. I see numerous threads saying the average IQ for a black person isĀ ā70ā³.Ā
Let us say for the sake of argument that this is true.
The trans atlantic slave trade began in 1619 when the first West Africans were brought to Jamestown. West Africans who did not speak or read any English and were forbidden from learning to read or write in this new language. Who were forced to work from sun up until sundown over many generations in an environment where access to education was denied to them. Slavery officially ended in 1865 when the 13th amendment to the United States constitution was ratified. That is over 350 years of non-education and learning English only by ear.
After 1865 America entered into what was known as the Reconstruction Period. Blacks wereĀ āfreeā in the sense that they could no longer be kept as slaves, but white leaders implemented laws designed to keep blacks both disenfranchised and dependent on the structure slavery had built. This was done through Sharecropping. Blacks worked the land owned by someone else and gave the land-owner a share of the crops.This was one of the few and only ways blacks could earn a living in a nation where they had no education.Ā
This was further extended into the Jim Crow Era, whereĀ āSeparate but Equalā was enforced until 1965 when Brown vs The Board of Education first served to dismantle it.Ā
Blacks could not vote. This was enforced through theĀ āgrandfather clauseā which stated that someone could only vote if their grandfather had the right to vote. And since blacks were descended from freedmen who came from slaves, this was coded language used to target them specifically.
Blacks could not use the same facilities whites had access to, and when they could, they were often mistreated. This meant that schools were taught by people who had to teach themselves, who were previously farmers, who were previously slaves with no education and no formal understanding of the English language itself beyond what they could pick up.Ā
This period also marked the return of the KKK through D.W. GriffithāsĀ āBirth of a Nation.ā Black towns and businesses, most notably Black Wall-Street were destroyed by angry whites who were upset at the progress blacks were making. So they used violence and fear to knock them back down. Supported by a government who also shared these same ideals, they were of course largely successful.
And this continued until 1965.
Do you know how long ago that was? 51 years ago.Ā
My father Ā was born in 1936. My mother was born in 1954.Ā
My sister was born in 1975 and she was the first person in our immediate family to receive what could be considered a cohesive education. I was burn in 1991.
We have had one generation, as a family, to get our shit together . And the only reason we even had that launchpad, was because my father was light enough to haveĀ āWhiteā listed on his military ID. So he had access to things other black people did not have, including my mother.
My mother did not go to an integrated school until she was in 8th grade. That means she had 9th, 10, 11th, 12thā 4 years. 4 years of aĀ āqualityā education and was somehow expected to make a life for herself in a place that didnāt even want her using the same bus.
ThoseĀ āghettoāsā are the remnants of segregation. Those black children who struggle in school are the product of centuries of exclusion, violence, and discrimination and a country that still thinks of and treats them as lesser beings.
I will say it again: It is an INSULT to my intelligence when white nationalists will spout these numbers and figures without any context, ignorant of the history and the conditions that bring these results. My IQ is 127 132 Ā [just took a test to write this post actually]. But that is not because Iām some special snowflake black. It is because I had the environment and the access to things and people that allowed me to develop this way. There are many black people who do and many who do not.Ā
If you are going to be a nationalist, then deal in facts. Deal in reality. Understand history, understand issuesĀ in their context, before you open your mouth to say some ignorant ass shit just to shake your head and lament on the sad state of nonwhites around you. BE INTELLIGENT. Think beyond the narrow view of the racist propaganda thatās shoved in your face just because it makes you feel good youāreĀ ānot like that.ā
If you stopped trying to feel better than everyone else and did a little research , you would see and understand where a lot of these issues that plague many different communities come from. But most of you that Iāve seen have no interest in that. Most of you will just grab the first link off some backwater website that confirms whatever prejudice you already hold and drop it into a thread like youāve just said something profound while everyone else applauds and nods in approval. And the second someone pops in to criticize it, youāre rarinā to go with more propaganda.Ā
Human beings are unique. Weāre all alarmingly similar and different at the same time. Iām not going to pretend like the black community is without flaws, I call black peopleĀ out on their shit too, but this issue just really irked me so I had to write a post about it.
Every race has beautiful and unique things about them. Every people has a history and a culture that goes deeper than a picture or a statistic, and its by educating ourselves and working to understand as much as possible that our knowledge grows. I could not in good conscience participate in a discussion that did nothing but slam white people. Iāve made some petty posts in the past in retaliation to some of the racist and entitled things some white people have said, and a part of me regrets them, but I cannot believe with any amount of sincerity that pro-black has to be anti-white. Ā So why cant the opposite be true?
Why is everything pro-white rooted in anti-blackness?Ā
Why do you have to feel better than me in order to feel good about yourself?
I can love my skin and yours at the same time. Ā
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