Reading A Thread on Twitter
Just to be clear: no, Black people
*cannot* be racist.
-Jenn M. Jackson, PhD-
Black people do not (materially
and in the aggregate) benefit from anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and
systemic racism. Black people also do not benefit from discrimination against
other racial groups because other racial groups are also marginalized due to
white supremacy.
While individual Black people may
exhibit anti-Black ideas or behaviors, they cannot perform racism.
Think about it this way: disabled
folx cannot be able because they don't benefit from systems that support
able-bodied people. While they may participate in behaviors and acts that are
harmful to disabled people, they don't have the power to improve their station
from ableism.
We can all participate in systems
that make our lives and the lives of others harder. But, we don't all benefit
from participation in the same ways. That is why power + prejudice = racism. It
requires the unearned benefit of whiteness. What is often overlooked in the
conversation about racism (and why everyone can't be racist) is the fact that
race-making happens in a number of ways that has nothing to do with skin color.
Criminalization of poor people
has a racial component rooted in white supremacy and fear of the other. * All *
white people benefit from the logic of criminality which center whiteness as
good and all else as bad.
This is why (on average) Black
people with college degrees still face economic conditions that match (or fall
below) white Americans with a high school diploma. Participation in anti-blackness
greatly benefits white people on the whole. Whether they are opt-in or not.
Using the word "racism"
is not an issue of semantics. And, even though the term is overused, it * does
* refer to actions and ideas that systematically disperses non-white people.
Why? Because we live in a world that was largely colonized by white
imperialists. The efforts to avoid the terms "racist" and
"racism" seem to me to be more about absolving white people than
identifying the root issues Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, and other folx at
the margins of racial identity face today.
What we are not going to do
though is turn the discussion on racism into a "who dunnit?"
scavenger hunt. It's 2020 and I'm tired. We already know who made racism and
who benefits from it. We figured that out already. If y'all don't stop. Also, let's
be clear here: the only time people are like "wait, can Black people be
racist, too?" is when they already have to be held accountable for some
regular exactly the definition of racism
racism. Let's stay focused.
......................................................................................................................................................................
After reading
"just to be clear: no, Black people cannot be rasist" thread, I would
like to give you two questions to find out how far you catch the contents of
the thread through reading.
Question 1
What is the main idea of the
thread?
Question 2.
According to the thread, why
can't the black people be racist?