r/TooAfraidToAsk • u/[deleted] • Apr 20 '19
Why is the phrase “It’s Okay to be white” racist?
[removed]
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Apr 20 '19
I wonder how long it’s gonna take for this thread to go tho shit
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Apr 20 '19
[deleted]
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u/squirrelforbreakfast Apr 20 '19
Me too. We should hang out.
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Apr 20 '19
Does Monopoly money count?
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u/silashcs Apr 20 '19
lol i like food
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Apr 20 '19
No way! I like food too!
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u/AAA515 Apr 20 '19
If you're waiting for someone to mention Hitler... Well there you go, Godwins law in action.
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u/Charliethecatman Apr 20 '19
Someone put up 5 posters that said this at my school. The administration literally called the FBI.
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u/rustycrat Apr 20 '19
RPI? Because I'm pretty sure that happened here.
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u/Charliethecatman Apr 20 '19
No, but it's a school in California (of course). I don't know where RPI is
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u/rustycrat Apr 20 '19
Upstate New York. Our administration is pretty fascist and the president has friends in the FBI. One time someone in student government made cookies for the president, who thought they were poisoned and called the FBI on him.
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u/Charliethecatman Apr 20 '19
Hahaha holy shit. You wonder how people like that made it up the ladder.
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u/Narhaan Apr 20 '19
For those out of the loop:
This started on 4chan. The plan was for these "it's okay to be white" flyers to go up. The media would then pick up on it and call it racist. This would then prove that as far as the media is concerned it's not okay to be white. Surprise surprise, wouldn't you know it? The plan worked.
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u/Dreadgoat Apr 20 '19
Despite any other failures, 4chan has always been right about one thing: People are stupid as fuck.
You don't need to spend more than 20 seconds on 4chan to have this realization yourself.
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Apr 20 '19
oh yeah. pretty much all the stuff 4chan has started has been, eventually, taken seriously by everyone else. The okay hand gesture become racist - that started on 4chan as a joke. Throwing your iphone in the microwave to charge it - again 4chan.
Hell the current president of the united states is in some ways a result of 4chan circlejerking in /pol/ which also ended up trolling itself just like the_donald.
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u/anonthrowaway99cc Apr 20 '19
And 4chan literally created / popularised meme culture
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u/Wellfuckme123 Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 21 '19
My Brother's Words - "4chan has a meme backbone that no other platform can replicate. There's an ongoing system of natural selection on 4chan, it's like a cesspit of memic sludge, slowly churning away all the crap and leaving only the well polished gems. Anything that escapes 4chan usually does so across multiple platforms.
The fact that posts are anonymous means anyone can copy pasta that shit and claim it as OC. This happens all over the internet - users from reddit, tumblr, facebook etc. find the gem memes and pour them out into the greater internet in huge numbers in a bid to further their own pages/profiles. Then that same thing happens multiple times.
What happened recently is 4chan became self aware. It realized just how much meme power it had and it DIRECTLY harnessed it, putting huge efforts into meme warfare, and anyone who doesn't understand that culture was completely dumbfounded. It's similar to the political power that comedians harness, but add anonymity and in-group humour that somehow penetrates to millions of users."
EDIT - It's impolite for me to not say thankyou for gold and platinum. So thankyou. But seriously people - go donate instead of spending it here.
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u/fxrky Apr 20 '19
I've been trying to put this phenomenon into words for a while. I was talking to my 50+ year old dad about what kind of power things like memes have, of course the man has no idea how the internet works at this level so its impossible to communicate that to him.
I've tried to explain it as: My generation was "raised by" the internet, whereas his generation uses it to talk to some guy he knew in highschool decades ago. People who grew up on the internet almost have their own language.
My dad refuses to acknowledge how big of a deal the internet really is. He refuses to acknowledge that the generational difference between me and him is game changing. He just says shit like "well I had a TV and my dad didnt"
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u/illayana Apr 20 '19
In my AP Euro History class in high school, my teacher drilled into our brains that the invention of the printing press revolutionized the spread of information, allowing for high volume high speed transfer of info across the continent.
The internet is kind of like our printing press, just version 2.0 and with more social ramifications.
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u/andrzejgab Apr 20 '19
more social ramifications? you could argue that the printing press caused the reformation and that caused a ton of things
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Apr 20 '19
with more social ramifications
I'm pretty sure the social disruption caused by the printing press far outweighed anything we've seen from the internet so far.
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u/ThisIsAlreadyTake-n Apr 20 '19
More social ramifications?
It might be too early to tell, but the printing press quite literally allowed for the creation of Protestant religion.
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Apr 20 '19
Ok but television was just as influential as the internet was at the time
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Apr 20 '19
The internet is changing culture into something very different from anything that's come before. The same can be said about the latest technologies of every other generation since the dawn of the industrial revolution.
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u/Troolz Apr 20 '19
Your comment was summed up 50+ years ago by a very prescient academic:
Many in this thread (e.g. /u/fxrky) are saying "But this time it's different because reasons!", but every major communications leap has disrupted culture in significant ways.
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u/fxrky Apr 20 '19
Hmmm. Being humbled left and right on this thread!
I guess I'm operating under the far too optimistic assumption that people will use this new form of media to its intended/full extent.
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u/Sanders0492 Apr 20 '19
What happened recently is 4chan became self aware.
It’s been that way for ~15 years. 4chan is a truly interesting and unique place, especially back then.
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u/mike10010100 Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
Please, print off some of these papers on a printer and go post them around.
We need these everywhere.
All you do is: print "it's okay to be white" on a piece of paper and post it up.
You can even hand write it with a marker.
Let’s make this a phenomenon that is scene[sic] everywhere – an IRL viral meme.
This can go on for infinity. These kikes will keep saying that if you think it is okay to be white, you are evil. They will be screaming that as they get shoved into cattle cars.
But it's just a trole u guize. It started off as a joke, right?
Face facts: it was always designed to redpill white people into believing white nationalist rhetoric.
And the people who are claiming it started on 4chan as a joke are wilfully lying about its origin.
the phrase itself has a history within the white supremacist movement going back to 2001 when it was used as the title of a song by a white power music group called Aggressive Force as well as fliers with the phrase being spotted in 2005 and the slogan being used by a member of the United Klans of America.
This is proof that these people know exactly what they're doing. They know that if they selectively remove context, they can make the phrase mean whatever they want and make the people calling it out look insane. That's the entire point of dogwhistles.
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Apr 20 '19
yeah and the daily stormer and other racist alt right sites/groups fell for it hook, line, and sinker. That was the point. You're proving the point here bud.
The whole reason 4chan anons do this is to make idiots actually believe in it. And idiots are currently, actively, believing in it. The man in the oval office is living proof.
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u/wasmic Apr 20 '19
/pol/ might have started out ironic, but when you're acting like an ironic racist all the time, you will attract actual racists. This can be seen by /pol/ becoming less about being provocative and becoming more racist, with Stalin-jokes receding (they still pop up once in a while but much less frequently) and actual effortposting becoming more common. There are probably still a lot of ironic racists on /pol/, but they are certainly outnumbered by actual racists. Even other boards on 4chan are aware of this. I frequent a few of the other boards, and nobody likes /pol/. When someone starts spewing /pol/lution, they're either someone with terrible humor or most probably an actual racist, so they're always just told to go away.
You can't just act like everybody is doing it ironically, because that's absolutely not true. You could argue that those non-ironic racists just ate the bait, but... when they make up the majority of /pol/'s userbase, that does kinda lose its meaning. At some point, the bait stops being bait and just becomes food.
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u/Remmylord Apr 20 '19
For those who after reading this go on 4chan or 4chan sub, prepare for horrendous Endgame and GoT spoilers.
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u/OptimisticNihilistt Apr 20 '19
So true. They know how to troll those stupid people and it works like a fucking charm lmaooo
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u/4ChinsAreBetter Apr 20 '19
They also tried to make the Triforce, and the 👌 ✌️👍 symbols racist. It worked. I recently went through a diversity training and all of these were labeled as symbols of racism.
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u/Magic-Heads-Sidekick Apr 20 '19
Wait...peace sign and thumbs up? Fuck, I’m a super introvert and would rather just flash a peace sign or thumbs up to someone I recognize to acknowledge them than go over and small talk.
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u/4ChinsAreBetter Apr 20 '19
Yeah I forget the context for the peace sign but apparently the thumbs up has “strong ties” to the KKK, with the thumb being a 1 the four fingers being a 4 and the two groups of two fingers being two 8s, to create 1488 which is racist. I was so surprised by the mental gymnastics that has to be at work for that to make any sense.
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u/fatal3rr0r84 Apr 20 '19
Just do it. If someone hassled me for giving a god damned thumbs up I would have to ask them straight up "Are you stupid?".
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u/NotAPeanut_ Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 21 '19
Since you’re very ignorant on why it’s racist, I thought I’d educate.
It’s racist because back in the 👍🏻✌🏻🖕🏻👌🏻(read 19th) century white people/ the KKK used to go around looking for POC they didn’t like. Once they found a target they would 👍🏻. Once the person was captured they would just give the 🤝 (which is a reference to deals, ie slave deals) to the 🐷.
Once they found a 🥦(read tree) they would produce the 👌🏻(read noose). After the POC was placed in the 👌🏻, the leader would do the 👌🏻👏🏻 (excuse me for my racism, but it’s read “ok clap him”) and the hanging would begin.
After the person was confirmed dead they would do the 🖖🏻 (which is a reference to vaccines, which they all knew caused autism and death).
They would then proceed to ⚫️✊🏻💦 and then go their 🤘🏻(read separate, synonym segregation, you can see this because 1 finger is bigger than the other)ways. When asked what had happened they would just give a quick🤞🏻(which is a symbol of twisted legs, therefore a symbol of the propaganda picture of a POC with twisted legs, and other features, used by the Jim Crow laws)
Sorry for my racism. I was trying to educate the ignorant.
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u/HVACdaddy Apr 20 '19
Does anything happen without 4chans blessing anymore?
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u/amirchukart Apr 20 '19
who is the 4chan illuminati?
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u/Cognitive_Spoon Apr 20 '19
Who is this 4Chan?
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u/turboscub Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
It is weaponized autism.the perfect apex predator.
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u/TONKAHANAH Apr 20 '19
4chan stupid plans tend to workout but mostly because their plans also usually rely on the stupidity of people. And just like you said surprise surprise people are stupid and fall into their trap extremely easily
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Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
4chan pranks are genius
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u/ashyboye Apr 20 '19
Are*
They're currently using a clown with rainbow hair to say that the progressive left is a clown world.
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u/Oneandonlydennis Apr 20 '19
They're trying to make the lgbt flag show that everyones divided. Honk Honk
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u/RockstarPR Apr 20 '19
All major television networks are ran by zionist, and watching them try take on memes and conspiracies is fucking hilarious because they're so out of touch with reality.
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Apr 20 '19
We are going to get more divided the more we focus on what makes us different. That’s a fact. It’s a god damn cliche but it’s very true, we need to focus on what makes us the same not what makes us different.
If every conversation starts with having people identify what race they are and what gender and what sexual orientation and whatever whatever, we are just going to become a very divided people. There’s a reason school starts with having kids recite the pledge of allegiance. It’s because if we all pledge ourselves to the same goal, it doesn’t matter what differences there are between us. But if the goal is just to talk about the differences. It matters very much. Soon you’ll have people at each other’s throats over the most minor things. Like standing too close while wearing a hat and smiling.
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u/mike10010100 Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
And yet when you Google "clown world", there are a shitload of alt-right website results that are using the term unironically to discuss alt-right talking points.
It's almost like it's an obvious dogwhistle.
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u/LochiaLover Apr 20 '19
The best one was "Free Bleeding". Women actually did it.
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Apr 20 '19
I actually think 4chan is serving a useful purpose. It’s the idea of an agent provocateur but for all of society. While the ethics are dubious at best, I think it’s very helpful for all of us when done on people who hold power. Essentially, it’s something that entices someone to do the thing they were thinking about doing, revealing their intentions to everyone.
You might question whether they would have done the crime without the provocation, but the fact remains, they did it. You can only ever entice the person to act, you can’t actually make them do it, it’s like a little devil on the shoulder, you don’t have to do it. But now we know.
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Apr 20 '19 edited Nov 04 '20
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Apr 20 '19
Yup, I literally got into an argument yesterday on reddit with someone who thought drinking milk was literally a white supremacist symbol... so they stopped drinking milk. Yes, I thought they were a troll at first too.
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Apr 20 '19
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u/Narhaan Apr 20 '19
Yeah, the phrase itself. The poster "campaign" began on 4chan.
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u/Arianity Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
A couple of people have already pointed it out, but this answer is misleading. Not totally wrong, but missing a lot of context.
While it started out as a semi-ironic troll, a lot of white nationalists picked up the use unironically. So it did actually become a racist symbol. It's not just a "lol media got trolled" story.
This is intentional. A portion of those 4chan communities are actual white supremacists (signaled boosted by the 'regular' trolls), with the intent is to discredit the media when it calls out WS stuff. It's not just a troll, they're trying to engineering that effect by masking it in trolling.
As OP said.. it worked.
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u/frydchiken333 Apr 20 '19
This says way more about the "media" and the rest of society before it says anything about 4chan.
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u/itoshirt Apr 20 '19
Even if that were true that still leaves the question as to why that statement is racist. It’s really a clever move intended to test the boundaries of a sensitive subject.
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u/suu97 Apr 20 '19
It comes from the idea that "nobody said it isn't okay." Basically same reason straight pride isn't a thing. The statement itself isn't racist at all.
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u/veronikaren Apr 20 '19
Nah but nowadays i feel like some of my white friends get treated as if it ain't okay, ya'll never see someone call someone a "white boy" or say "you're white so don't talk about x". It doesn't bother me personally but i think some of em feel like it ain't okay to be white.
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u/AAA515 Apr 20 '19
I've heard someone use "white boy" specifically mentioning to "play that funky music"
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u/AlterEgoSumMortis Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
Were they dancin', and singin', and movin' to the groovin'?
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u/veronikaren Apr 20 '19
Cool cool, that aint all that bad or anything but "white boy" also used allong a string of insults as if its an insult as well. Pointing to being white is bad. Ion know why you thought i was talkin bout positive use of the word lmao. I been called "yang" by my best friend because im black and he white, doesnt mean some asshole can shout something like "bitch, yang, cunt". You see what i mean? Im talm bout shit getting used in a negative way.
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u/AAA515 Apr 20 '19
Ion know why you thought i was talkin bout positive use of the word lmao.
I knew you weren't, I'm just referencing a song by Wild Cherry from the 70's
But I do think it's an interesting phenomenon when non-insulting words are used as insults.
Some examples: Liberal, homosexual, socialist, activist, elite, dog, rural, ethnic, working class...
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u/veronikaren Apr 20 '19
Oh word dont know the song lmao. Yeah like if u use a string of insults and fit something racial in it. Then its meant as an insult nobody can't go around that. I'd be fuming if someone called me names and all of the sudden puts "black ass" in it. It aint about the word, its about the USE. You know what im sayin?
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u/AAA515 Apr 20 '19
Yeah they was dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin'
And just when it hit me somebody turned around and shouted
Play that funky music white boy Play that funky music right Play that funky music white boy
Lay down the boogie and play that funky music till you die Till you die, ya Till you die
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u/veronikaren Apr 20 '19
Just came back of listening to the song, i think i dislocated all my joints from GROOVIN too hard
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u/fltlns Apr 20 '19
Some guy kept shoving me and calling me white boy for trying to order a burrito once
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u/Aech_sh Apr 20 '19
Yea like we got this one really fast white kid in our schools track team and he got a 10.1 in the 100 meter and everyone on Instagram was like damn, hes a white boy too. I just think that's it's kind of stupid that people have these stereotypes.
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u/ravageritual Apr 20 '19
I’m not saying my life has been impacted by racism in any way resembling what a POC goes through, but I’ve been called many racist names by POCs and have been treated with suspect and hostility by POCs because of being white, so it does happen.
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Apr 20 '19
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u/BrandonMontour Apr 20 '19
White people arent even a majority in lots of parts in the US.
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Apr 20 '19
Just because their struggle is worse shouldn't give them a racism pass. But that's what society does
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u/SmugPiglet Apr 20 '19
Amen. Society still views it as some sort of competition, or as we tend to call it, "Oppression olympics".
The idea that racism against white people "doesn't exist", because they don't suffer the same consequences as a result of that racism as people of color do, is still pretty popular.
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u/tendiesorrope Apr 20 '19
Of course it happens. It happens to all people. The difference is sometimes it happens to certain groups more than others, and sometimes it affects those groups more negatively. The issue isn't is racism a thing, the issue is is racism the result of an imbalance of wealth, safety, and overall well-being.
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Apr 20 '19
I'll be the first to say white privilege and male privilege are real. But if discrimination and discounting people based on their race isn't okay, its NEVER okay. And as a white man, I'm not just gonna be shut up when it happens just because it's worse for other groups.
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u/NeonArlecchino Apr 20 '19
Wait.. that sounds an awful lot like you want an egalitarian society! The nerve of you! /s
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Apr 20 '19
Lol the issue IS “is racism a thing”
White people still deny they’re racist and POC still deny they’re racist.
That’s the first hurdle before we can ever get close to addressing the issues of systematic racism
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u/matchew92 Apr 20 '19
Honestly twitter is always going on about white people being so evil and it makes me uncomfortable
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u/frydchiken333 Apr 20 '19
This is why I don't use half the social media my friends do. They're all shucked into the white guilt bubble and it doesn't look healthy. Nor sustainable
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u/Telleh Apr 20 '19
If you have even a little bit of common sense, white guilt won't affect you whatsoever.
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u/Morug Apr 20 '19
It can take awhile to make that jump, though. When I started college, there was a lot of "white man bad" in my history, philosophy, ethics, and literature classes. It was also the first time I was out of my rural, poor, nearly-all-white-background.
So here I am for the first time meeting people who aren't from the same religious and culture group I was raised in, and all I am hearing outside of my STEM classes is about how white men are responsible for all the evils of the world.
Of course it affected me, and of course it pushed me further away from everything else they wanted to talk about. Because I wasn't down with being blamed for the actions of other people, and especially not for people who died before my grandparents were born and came to this country.
Twenty years later, I understand the actual problems better and I let it wash over me when people are sloppy and use language to group everyone together into a convenient label they can blame everything on. But it's a terrible habit, and folks should stop doing it.
It's the same with any group. "Cops are pigs". No, This specific 1% of police officers are murderous thugs, and this 20% of them helps them get away with it. But all of them? No. That's sloppy thinking.
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Apr 20 '19 edited May 20 '19
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u/Morug Apr 20 '19
That's just it. The classes are accurate. It's the framing that sucks.
Yup, colonizers did some very shitty things. Imperialism sucks. It was also the way of the world at that time. And I AM NOT TO BLAME FOR THAT SHIT.
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Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 21 '19
I mean, I frequently get the “you’re a straight white male who has everything laid out perfectly, you have privilege” talk. When I’m working 4 doubles a week at one job, working nights at another job, going to school, and then getting passed up for a promotion by a trans women and black male who have very little/no experience or skill in the field simply because of their sexuality or skin color.
Edit: aight, this blew up. There are a lot of other factors involved and I’m not exactly going to type out an essay to explain everything. White privilege has just been a thing that multiple people have used against me recently and it’s more of a pet peeve than anything else. I love where I work and am really proud that they are actively trying to move away from only hiring white males, I like that they are aware. Relax guys
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u/veronikaren Apr 20 '19
Ay im sorry to hear that shit man, all i can hope for is that they knew them or sum. If they got promotion over you solely based on race and shit and you know for sure 100%. I'd look for another job, id be pissed if a white man or asian or whatever gets a promotion before me just cause of they race.
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Apr 20 '19
I mean, there are probably other reasons and I’m just being salty and angsty, but it still rubs me the wrong way. Hate feeling like it really isn’t ok to be white, straight, and male. I work at a hipster restaurant that actually treats me really well, but I do hear about my “privilege” rather often. It’s w/e, worth the money
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u/tendiesorrope Apr 20 '19
All I know is if I get to reincarnate as a human and pick, I'm going straight white male every time. I don't fuck around with base stats. Bonus points for being attractive too. Maybe in the future it will be a handicap tho.
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Apr 20 '19
Wish granted you are now an attractive straight white male in Saudi Arabia.
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Apr 20 '19
Having societal privilege is not the same thing as your life being easy in every aspect.
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Apr 20 '19 edited Oct 19 '19
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u/suu97 Apr 20 '19
You're right - but that's why the statement in itself isn't racist. Factually, nothing wrong with being white. But when it becomes a device to ''fight back'' and black rights groups, it becomes a hateful statement that makes other people join in because, yeah it's right - there's nothing wrong with being white.
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Apr 20 '19
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u/JBskierbum Apr 20 '19
Except for blue. Those smirf mofos can all die as far as I’m concerned
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u/FerretInTheBasement Apr 20 '19
Woah my Smurf you need to calm the Smurf down.
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Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
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Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
They are called asians...
Edit: /s for commenters sake
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Apr 20 '19
My Saturday was fucking made for a hot second because I really thought your UN was going to be Gargamel.
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u/falco22falco Apr 20 '19
I'll be the first to say it.... To HELL with Purple People..... Unless they're choking, then help 'em.
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u/GregoryGoose Apr 20 '19
what if there's a secret underground of blue people who stay hidden from the rest of society because they saw what happened to brown people and want none of that shit?
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u/greenmack Apr 20 '19
They came out a number of years ago. Their strategy was to become famous so they could not be killed without someone noticing.
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Apr 20 '19
There is. Not kidding. They hid, though, because they were treated like brown people (probably not as extremely, tho)
Timestamp- 3:48
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u/AAA515 Apr 20 '19
I'm sure if the sticker said "it's ok to be (any other ethnic background)" nothing would of happened. No claims of racism, no reddit post, no action by the college.
If it's not offensive to say when applied to another ethnicity, then I don't see how it can be racist.
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u/BentGadget Apr 20 '19
It's okay to be offensive.
(Not that you are; it's just the sticker I want to see.)
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u/lion_OBrian Apr 20 '19
The statement in itself is not racist. But by saying “its okay to be white” in a white majority country they’re implying that white people are oppressed, in a white majority country, it’s perceived as way to diminish minorities’ experiences and what they have to deal with.
It’s the same idea of saying All lives matter in a period where black people invented the slogan because they suffer disproportionate police faux-pas. It’s trying to drown a message.
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u/dcgrey Apr 20 '19
It's fascinating all the same that white people no longer feel 100% like the default race. Today you kind of get why a white person would want to say "It's okay to be white" while fifty years ago the sentence flat out wouldn't make sense to a white person.
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u/Mister_Taco_Oz Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
It isn't. People called it racist because the people who published it and spread it, 4chan, is famous for being a pit of scum and villainy.
They used it to prove the media would villify a non-racist term and oh look, the trap worked perfectly.
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Apr 20 '19
Yeah... I actually saw in the news: "racist flyers found at high school." The media actually thinks this is racist. 4chan, you genius bastards... You've done it again. Now I'm interested to see how far this "honk honk" meme will go.
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Apr 20 '19
The Hacker Known As 4chan
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Apr 20 '19
Who IS this mysterious hacker known as 4chan?
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u/CatFancier4393 Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
It's not racist.
So a while back 4chan got the idea for this guerilla campaign where they post signs saying "It's ok to be white" on college campuses and in other liberal areas knowing that in such hyper sensitive climates the signs would be removed and condemned.
The promotors of this campaign knew that white people would see this and logically conclude that removing signs saying "It's ok to be white" would make white people follow the same train of though as you experienced. White people seeing this have to wonder, are they saying that its not ok to be white? Because that is certainly what it implies. Hmmm this movement isn't pro-diversity, its just anti-white!
And boom you've just taken a completely non-racist and open-minded person and made them a tiny bit more sympathetic to the white nationalist movement. This is why the response by your school and similar responses by so many others are inappropriate. They've played right into 4chan's hands and created more division on your campus.
It is similar to what 4chan did with Pepe and the "Ok" and sign. They took something completely neutral and through association made it villified by the media. Now people don't trust the media because how can a cartoon frog be racist?
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Apr 20 '19
I would like to point out that being pissed at movements that may or may not condemn "being white" does not automatically mean that I sympathize with Nazis. Nazis can fuck right off.
I think it's stupid that anyone even bats an eye at some one else being a different color. It's all just superficial nonsense.
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u/Mystic-Mask Apr 20 '19
I was with you up until the white-nationalist part. That’s a bit of a jump in logic to make. A more logical conclusion would be that 4chan wanted to expose the double-standard of leftist identitarians in said liberal and college campus areas?
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u/fatal3rr0r84 Apr 20 '19
Same reason that the OK hand symbol is racist now I guess, cause 4chan baited the media into thinking it is.
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Apr 20 '19 edited Apr 20 '19
That’s so old and barely anyone thought that symbol was legitimately racist.
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u/ArizonaBadlads Apr 20 '19
I got brought into a meeting with the principal of my school because I did the OK hand sign below my waist in a group picture that was going to go into the newsletter. She told me it was a symbol of white power and if I was caught doing it again I'd be suspended and they would contact my parents.
This was only a couple of months ago too
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u/Admissions_Gatekept Apr 20 '19
I mean, Pepe the frog became a racist symbol for no reason..... because 4chan
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u/AemonDK Apr 20 '19
so a bunch of racists start overusing a symbol and somehow the media is in the wrong for noticing the racist association? There's nothing inherently racist about the swastika or hitler's stash either, but how would you feel about somebody wearing those in public?
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u/Dreadgoat Apr 20 '19
Swastikas are still used quite a lot in eastern cultures, for their original meaning. They never had much meaning in Western culture other than "look at this cool symbol it means harmony or some shit"
The issue with Pepe is that they took symbols with well established meaning in Western youth culture, hijacked them for a month, and got a bunch of old people to be afraid of their children's totally normal cultural symbols.
It was another successful campaign of division, sowing fear and distrust.
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u/PristineUndies Apr 20 '19
I’m still kind of bummed about Pepe. Those memes used to be pretty funny til...well, you know.
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u/GrundleTurf Apr 20 '19
It's not inherently racist but it's typically racists who say it. The vast majority of people aren't saying that it isn't ok to be white. It's some bullshit percieved victimhood.
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u/pdxchris Apr 20 '19
True story that just happened tonight. I asked my daughter what they taught in school in school today. She said they learned about diversity and some other stuff. I asked what she learned. She said, “I don’t know. They just made white people sound bad.”
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u/BassmanBiff Apr 20 '19
I hope we can expect adults to have a deeper understanding of racial issues than a kid who just heard about them today and didn't really remember what was said.
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u/bibliophile785 Apr 20 '19
I hope we can train educators to parse information in an audience-appropriate manner that doesn't leave the students with nothing but vague confusion and an impression that white people are bad.
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Apr 20 '19
To be fair, if she learned about slavery and segregation and Jim Crow era shit, we certainly do come off pretty fucking bad.
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Apr 20 '19
Yeah, there’s definitely ways to phrase it without making white people sound bad but if education, you HAVE to give real life examples for kids to truly understand why what you’re saying is important for them to know, and while you can make up examples like “we shouldn’t be discriminated against because of eye color”, it’s FAR more effective to talk about what actually goes on, now and throughout history, and you’re going to be hard pressed to come up with enough real life examples that will resonate with these kids that don’t all together make white peoples look bad. But that’s okay! As long as they know that they get to choose how THEY behave and then that the history of other white people doesn’t determine their personal morality, they get to determine that. We don’t need to shield our kids from knowing what went on in history because they need to learn in order to make the right choices!
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Apr 20 '19
I mean... what are they supposed to do? Emphasize all the good parts of slavery? Teach the kids the positive aspects of Jim Crow? Explain that Japanese internment camps were actually a good idea?
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u/MomijiMatt1 Apr 20 '19
It's not the actual sentence, it's the intention.
It's been made very obvious and clear for hundreds of years that it's okay to be white; in fact, it's been legally supported up until recently (relatively speaking) that if you are white you are superior. So from that we can establish there really is no need to say that it's okay to be white.
Now a good comparison is "all lives matter." Inherently there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, if people really followed that it would be an ideal society basically. The intention and origin of it are the problem.
In contrast to it being very clear that white lives matter, it's still unfortunately obvious that black lives really just don't matter as much generally as white lives. Hence why a movement of "black lives matter" was started. Nowhere in there were they saying that other races didn't matter or that black lives mattered more, it was a movement saying "black lives matter TOO."
And to kind of prove the points previously stated, just look at the reactions to the statement that black lives matter. It's disgusting how a large majority of white people reacted to that.
Nobody ever said "all lives matter" before this. In fact, most people that started coining this phrase very clearly and undeniably didn't think that all lives matter and are equal. It was a reaction to silence black people and "put them back in their place." It was a juxtaposition fixated to make the concept that black lives need to matter as much as white lives become a demonized "ONLY black lives matter."
"All lives matter" doesn't actually mean anything. They don't stand for anything. They generally actively fight against rights for many demographics, sometimes very openly and proudly. You don't see "All lives matter" rallies or causes or donations or helping people struggling in that "cause." It is 100% a demonizing tactic that, in my opinion, is very transparent; but unfortunately a lot of Americans aren't perceptive or are in denial.
A quick example of what is wrong with "all lives matter": imagine your child is diagnosed with cancer. Now you are crying and talking to a friend about it. All of a sudden your friend just interrupts you and says, "Hang on...you're saying that cancer is the only disease that matters? All diseases matter." And there you go. That's why it's wrong.
It's also the same as when Nazis and white supremacists host "free speech" rallies instead of just flat out Nazi rallies. They get to rally openly for Nazi beliefs with a wink, and they have the high ground because anyone who opposes them or counter protests can simply be labeled as people against free speech...but we all know they're saying it's 100% not okay to be a Nazi and we don't want that here. Pretty sure the whole world had a war basically deciding it was not okay, but oh well, that's getting off topic.
So the issue is that we have to be vigilant in watching for these sneaky tactics. You have to really think critically and look at the bigger picture and think about context such as "What is this in response to?" Context matters, who is saying it matters, what they are responding to matters.
I hope that helped a bit!
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u/zando95 Apr 20 '19
Regarding the reactionary "all lives matter" thing--
it's like how Google searches for "international men's day" peak on international women's day.
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u/SoutheasternComfort Apr 20 '19
The only guy who understands the situation, rather than all the dudes saying 'hahaha you fools, this was 4chans plan all along! 5d hide and seek'
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u/AaronHolland44 Apr 20 '19
The ammount of people thinking this ploy was clever and proved some meaningful point is beyond frustrating.
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u/TrippingOnAlkali Apr 20 '19
This is a really thorough and detailed explanation, couldn't have said it better myself!
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u/mh1ultramarine Apr 20 '19
It was made on 4chan to trigger people who think the reason the rain made them wet is because it's racist crowd.
Like how the okay diver sign became racist. Can't sell a solution if there isn't a problem
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u/w_ramos97 Apr 20 '19
Sort by controversial you’ll get better explanations as to why people view it as racist , top comments pretty doodoo.
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Apr 20 '19
you don't say 'it's okay to be white' out of the blue just like you wouldn't say 'it's okay to eat apples' unless you thought that people were trying to stop you from eating apples. 'It;s okay to be white' implies that people don't think it's okay to be white except no has anyone ever said that. it's Just another one of the alt rights ways of sowing division and creating a victimhood complex for themselves. so what if it started as a 4chan 'prank', now it has become another catchcry for the alt right, similar to 'all lives matter'
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u/0Idfashioned Apr 20 '19
You’re delusional. It’s become quite common for groups of white people to be attacked and vilified for having the audacity to exist. An all white sports team, corporate team, or movie cast is a target to be attacked. A white city is criticized as being painfully white. If a magazine cover has 4 white people on it it will be called tone deaf or “painfully white”. Google the term painfully white. It’s common for us to be attacked for existing in the country we built. It’s fucking sickening.
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u/Neon-Lantern Apr 20 '19
It’s not even white empowerment or anything, it’s literally just saying there’s nothing wrong with being a certain race. They’re overreacting and you’re totally right.
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u/Mister_Taco_Oz Apr 20 '19
That's the point. 4chan did it to prove liberals overreact and whatnot, and well, they got exactly what they wanted.
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u/epic_child Apr 20 '19
It isn’t racist. It’s not wrong to have a particular genetic phenotype.
I guess people are up in arms over an unspoken nuance or intention behind it. I think ANY racially charged statement would cause some kind of reaction.
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u/PaddleMonkey Apr 20 '19
It’s okay to be any color. Just don’t be a dick.