Mosaic-Briar

No one ever asks the racists in question to clarify themselves, it's always just assumed that they "had good intentions" and that I must have "misunderstood".

But EYE got to approach with a "nice tone" and "prove myself" in order to be heard, because the accusation is seen as worse than the action itself.

Where there's just this constant double standard on tone policing and assertion of tone policing where like Ice referenced in her second paragraph: even though people will come to conversations and bow out with ignorance saying "oh, I didn't know that" which means they did not have the ethos to join the conversation about race in the first place they will still be seen as good and until they demonstrably go out of their way to say that they're they're hateful. And the reverse is that anything that a Black person does is put under scrutiny. And this has been on my mind over fandom accounts and day bloggers who are harassed but the obvious disproportion of labor given versus expectation for coming in for what Ice offers is beyond the pale.

I was lucky in college to find one Black female professor to enjoy a Harlem Renaissance class in (she was the only woman and only Black person in the department ) and because when it comes to to Black literature the fiction that Black people have written about themselves is the closest you're going to get to their history or as what they have set aside as significant to remember these resources are invaluable. I couldn't learn these things unless I had the insane privilege of higher education to start with. I had other Black literature classes taught by a white man and he directly said there are limitations because you need to engage with Black history, art, and literature with the voices of people who share that experience to fully get what is being expressed. (Alice Walker's Every Day Use is a perfect example of how something is debated within exclusive Black spaces and that means only people within that group will see that nuance). There is an unquestionable discrepancy here where it's like if somebody was doing a social justice blog or a queer focused social justice blog or worked to address important things like this ( and 9/10 times these queer spaces avoid Blackness so much that they teach racism without knowing it) they are lauded! They are treated as people doing good, hard work that we all benefit from but when Black people use those same intersections to talk about race in art they are treated like trouble makers.

The tone is questioning as if the only reason people bring up racism is to make others feel bad - it's insane. And I have watched not just this account but dozens have this exact experience. I remember one person was talking about the Goat movie and I watched within five minutes as that the post was then marked mature. I see posts every day addressing that trans people are harassed on this website (never stop bringing it up), but I cannot spend ten minutes scrolling on this website without seeing Blackness being censored and or the conversation of racism being censored! Everybody is allowed to talk about social justice in the art space except for Black people talking about the way that race engages with art. Everybody treats this as it is inherently antagonistic, and that is an inherent racist belief to have towards this conversation. This account is offering things I used to dream existed and people act like the person doing the work to fix the problem is the problem because they are so privileged that they only see the problem when someone complains about suffering from it. It creates a cycle that keeps tall conversations about race as taboo and it stagnates it to death.

To get back on topic, I specifically wanted to talk about tone policing and I have a sort of question. What is the opinion on white people and non-Black people making a point to name it every time / call out tone policing and other microaggressions every time? (The instant issue is that not everyone will want comments or this kind of thing on all their posts and some ppl will be clumsy about it as it grows into whatever it will be and I don't want to suggest people be annoying but I think it might be a possible step). I constantly see this sort of phenomenon where a Black blogger gets a constant barrage of fake questions, misleading questions, things that are baits in combination with tone police ( so that the reader passing by is more likely to see this person as innocent when they know for a fact that they're being antagonistic). Like, there's all these games that are going on - that racist and hateful white people are actively playing. I feel like myself, and plenty of other non-Black people or mixed people, see this and it's an extension of how white people talk when they think Black people aren't around in the sense that I firmly feel that other white people see is just like I do and know when another white person is being sneaky. I've seen this with blogs I don't know well and I feel that I should say hey that person is full of shit but I don't because the Black person knows this better than me. I don't want to make Black bloggers deal with more redundancy but I think white racists get away with it too easily if someone white doesn't call their bullshit.

And I feel like because of the phenomenon that Ice is bringing up with this pattern of constantly already dealing with the respectability politics, I am of the opinion that white people need to be annoying about it every time and name it by its name each time. So, I also truly wonder if the role of white or non people on this website needs to be to consistently say that's: "tone policing, that's baiting, the average white person knows that that question is bullshit, this debate has been had for decades," and so on. If not the conversation is allowed to derail and stagnate on false ignorance and the racist is allowed to assert that there is a culture of ignorance so they are innocent. Since the Black blogger is already bound by respectability politics and treated like their inquiries are mean spirited, the racist is always allowed to keep all their advantages and risk nothing while still making the entire conversation about how this makes them upset.

This has been on my mind for so long so I apologize for how long this is, but I talk into my mic and I edit it because I never shut the up but I also don't want to think quickly and regret later. Therefore, I wanted to also present my rationalization for why I think commenting whenever these benign but ever-present microaggressions and acts of racism are being done and why I think that needs to be the necessary step ( for people who aren't already taking it - plenty of people reading this don't need this particular advice but I am speaking to those who let their fear keep them from engaging). There's a really amazing post going around maybe you've see it that is basically making the argument that sometimes it is better to call something wrong and incorrect instead of saying it's transphobic. And it has literally been a mind bender because it's true across the whole highway of intersection. A lot of people will chime in or jump on a moment when someone else has been exposed as racists but they couldn't actually call it out on their own which is the problem. They have the right idea, but they actually need to say what's wrong about it.That is tone policing. That is a double standard. Calling it out as what it is stops people from being able to act like there's a culture around it where we don't all see it.

My other rationale for why I think this is that white people do not have the right to assume people should take them in a good light. And the reason they don't have that right is because the Klan is active. There are active organizations and government institutions that are demonstrably anti Black, and racist and do hurt Black people physically, psychologically, as much as possible. And so long as we are white, and around white people who operate in systems like this, it is white people's obligation - bare minimum -to demonstrate that they are the safe white person so that the Black person can operate. Only white people can destroy systems made by other white people when it comes to things like the Klan.

Like, I know I don't need to explain this to the people that already know, but I feel like so much of conversations around racism is lost because people think racism is just one moment and it has to do with systems. I can be racist minding my own business in a racism system, anyone can. I've always lived in Black neighborhoods and I've always been an un-melanated mixed person and one day as I was leaving my house and some kiddos, teenagers, I hadn't seen before were walking past my house. Unrelated to them I dropped my eyes and had to do a little awkward door lock shuffle and as I went to my car I heard one of the kiddos say I was racists and I knew I had let those kids down. As the adult, I know the history and the systems in place and I can list a thousand reasons why a Black teenager might think I locked my door when I saw them specifically and the correct answer in this case was that I should have waved. Even if they ignored me (cause they are teens) or think I am a dork (= safe adult) what is important is that I actively see and work against the gaps in the system I am in. I hate when people share racist event stories so forgive me but I wanted to share this little one for the white people who keep getting stuck on this "but I'm not racist" thing because I consider myself in the wrong in this event and I am the only one with the ability to make the work safer for those children. It has to do with systems. For an example in media, within Arcane Jinx is a terrorist but Caitlin's ability to gas the civilian below her should have never been a power she had access to should she one day have a personal vengeance against someone down there - the moment she uses the system she is racist or speciesist or whatever fantasy variation of real life racism it's being called but it's the system that gives individuals power over others that is to blame for all the extra work white people have to do now. It's white people's fault you have to prove you aren't evil and it's white people's fault that you were put in a system where if you reaction with your emotions blindly you can do more harm than can be done to you.

Lastly, because conversations about race are still treated like they are taboo I think naming it works to unlearn that as well. Whatever needs to happen to make sure that white people are actively checking other white people so that Black people are not stagnating in the same patterns. When I say taboo I mean the way people call racism discourse but I also mean the way that people treat Blackness itself as taboo and are fearful or giving it its rightful ownership to things. When we talk about African American English and we talk about linguistics and we talk about slang, a lot of linguistics suggest that you can't make slang if you're the dominant culture, that it always comes from the subculture. It will atrophy over time once its been co-oped but because the spreading of language is a pretty hard thing to stop the act of denying where it came from is truly violent. In this example, getting people to name it at all is the entire battle.

if you would like to spite the really mean people even more today, consider donating to raices con voz. they're a student-led organization in los angeles, who deliver food and essential supplies to immigrant families who can't leave their homes due to the ICE raids. More information about them here

in keeping with tradition, here is a link to unicef's fund for emergency health supplies and services for survivors of the venezuela earthquakes.

here is another link for manos in action, an organization that delivers supplies, such as food and childcare items, to latin american immigrants in central florida. I've participated in one of their local food drives; they're great. if you're not local to central florida, you can always donate money.

The factory: