Entry tags:

another reason to hate people, colorblindness, fandom is fucking stupid, oh for god's sake

RaceFail
Someone posts this secret at fandomsecrets:

Most commenters call out the stupid...

Then one Anon starts to rant:

I get you, OP. I get you. No matter what a white person does (or doesn't do), as Racefail points out, white people cannot be sensitive or non-racist or okay. Like you, I ask myself sometimes: what's the point in trying? It's not that you're racist; it's just that whatever you do (or don't do), you feel you'll be perceived as one by somebody somewhere, I bet. I know I feel that way.

Last night on South Park they showed the "Nigger Guy" episode, and at the end Kyle finally goes up to Token and says "I don't get it" and Token is happy at last. Now, this is white people's perception of black people and that's probably one of the first places that the Racefail Police would pounce on this argument, but yeah. I *don't* get it and you *can't* get it 100% and in the end, I think, a lot of people just want you to crawl off and feel like shit because it's impossible *to* get it. And you know, there are people from ALL races who want others to feel that way.

Maybe that's the only way it's possible for some people to pretend they are okay and not racist-- by making other people look and/or feel worse than THEY do inside.

I'm also reminded of an old Bloom County cartoon with a bunch of people on a park bench screaming about "Those gays offend my manhood!" "Well those scantily clad girls offend my womanhood!" "Ya know what offends me? Sex on TV!" and at last someone realizes "OH MY GOD, LIFE IS OFFENSIVE!" and they all run off screaming in horror.

Yeah, life is offensive, and we all act insensitively or offensively to one another sometimes. It doesn't have to mean we're racist or sexist or ageist or whatever; we just DON'T GET IT because we AREN'T THAT OTHER PERSON, and the people on the other end need to take an honest effort to try to be sensitive and work in good faith to improve communication, rather than attacking or martyring or fingerpointing at how bad everyone else is.

As Jesus is supposed to have said,

LET HE WHO IS WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE.

And furthermore, for those who think it's impossible for a minority to be prejudiced or racist by definition and that behavior identical to "white racist" behavior is okay for black people or other minorities-- and I'm talking about gender minorities, or appearance minorities like fat people, or ANY OTHER type of minority showing prejudiced, intolerant behavior toward another because of a generalization..... well, that is one hell of a fallacy, and unfortunately, my experience has shown that reasoning with, appealing to, or arguing with people who can't see that doesn't do one damn bit of good.

But that's a whole 'nother rant.

Chin up, be as good as you can to people, learn how to be better as life lets you-- and if it they want to condemn you and try to make you feel bad for trying to be good and learn, it's THEIR damn problem, not yours. No matter WHAT color they are.

Its not long before someone brings up.... REVERSE RACISM *facepalm*

wank_reportbrings all the boys to the yard.

(Post a new comment)

sheep
2009-05-01 02:25 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, that left me a bit o.O

There has been loads of Avatar race wank lately as well.

In the same post as this, some one comments how they found the race wank funny at first, but now they are just bored and wish every one would shut up. This was in reply to a secret from an Asian who said they left fandom because of the racism of the fans and being told to shut-up about it. Classy.

Still, no where near the levels of wank from some of the previous posts. I'll see if I have time to dig them up.

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	sheep 2009-05-01 03:39 pm UTC (link)
	I've tried to find them but I can't D: (Reply to this)(Parent)

	willywanka 2009-05-01 08:36 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, what the hell is up with wolfofzion? I've run into them saying something along the lines of the anon comment posted above more than once in relation to the avatar movie. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	hallidae 2009-05-02 12:23 am UTC (link)
	Try every single time the topic gets brought up. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	anonyrat 2009-05-02 05:11 pm UTC (link)
	Oh, jesus. She posts something like that every single goddamn time everyone so much as mentions the movie. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	vzg 2009-05-01 04:03 pm UTC (link)
	Forgive me, I'm going to go get some stones. I'm not Christian, but I'm sure I can find someone who deserves to throw rocks at these folks. (Reply to this)

	esclaramonde 2009-05-01 04:04 pm UTC (link)
	I think I'm doing a good thing by not clicking on the cut tags at F!S lately. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	bigbigtruck 2009-05-01 04:46 pm UTC (link)
	Are any of the secrets funny or fun anymore? I left after the umpteenth artist-bashing. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

esclaramonde
2009-05-01 05:22 pm UTC (link)

A few are, but from what I can tell it's mainly:

* "I ship this character and this character and my flist would hate me if I knew"-type boringness
* Supernatural unentertaining wankery
* Avatar ship issues (occasionally entertaining)
and
* roleplay boringness.

So no, not really. Occasionally one comes along that's worth responding to, but it seems like a lot of defensiveness about a minority (sometimes perceived minority) fannish opinion or rage against a majority one.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sharps 2009-05-01 06:52 pm UTC (link)
	Oooh, oooh, don't forget the "You're the x to my y!" secrets! (Michiru to Haruka, Doctor to Rose, etc.) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	esclaramonde 2009-05-01 07:52 pm UTC (link)
	Can't believe I missed that one! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	dreamer_marie 2009-05-01 05:23 pm UTC (link)
	Last night on South Park they showed the "Nigger Guy" episode, and at the end Kyle finally goes up to Token and says "I don't get it" and Token is happy at last. I'm quite sure it was actually Stan. (Reply to this)

	lexingmouse3 2009-05-01 06:28 pm UTC (link)
	Fandomsecrets is such a complete troll comm I'm not sure why anyone reads it. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	harrylovesron 2009-05-01 07:52 pm UTC (link)
	Trainwreck syndrome? That's why I read it, anyway. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	esclaramonde 2009-05-01 07:54 pm UTC (link)
	The only times I let myself read it are when I want to get into a fight, or when I'm bored and plan just to look at the secrets and not the comments. (NB: This does not work.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	blue_penguin 2009-05-01 08:34 pm UTC (link)
	Because the trollishness is entertaining when it relates to fandom and other such non-serious-business things. Unfortunately, it also gets a lot of wank about racism, sexism, and homophobia, which aren't so much fun. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	bigbigtruck 2009-05-01 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	There used to be some gems :( (my favorite was "I'm a crime lab tech and sometimes when nobody's looking I play "Who Are You" and dance around to it") (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cazrolime 2009-05-03 06:10 pm UTC (link)
	...That secret? Is brilliant. giggling ridiculously (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kuromitsu 2009-05-02 12:19 am UTC (link)
	I read it for procrastination. "I really need to get to work... oh, but look, there are all these secrets, I'll just read them, it won't take long... maybe comment on some... oh hey, someone replied to my comment..." (Reply to this)(Parent)

	anonyrat 2009-05-02 05:12 pm UTC (link)
	I used to read it as sort of a recruitment station for obscure fandoms, but no longer : / (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ariadne484 2009-05-01 06:33 pm UTC (link)
	This is a bit reminiscent of the post on... fandom_lounge, was it? About the Fight Derailing community. Well, not the announcement, of course, but the responses to it. (Reply to this)

	sarajayechan 2009-05-02 12:21 am UTC (link)
	THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS REVERSE RACISM IF YOUR RACE IS THE PRIVELEGED ONE AAAAAAAARGH. Hating on people for being white isn't as common as people think. If white people are hated on it's for secondary reasons (appearance, weight, social status, sexuality) and their being white doesn't even come into the equation. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	lysana 2009-05-04 09:53 pm UTC (link)
	It's bigotry, however, is it not? Or are you honestly claiming that it's impossible for someone to hate white people simply because they are white? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sarajayechan 2009-05-04 09:58 pm UTC (link)
	That's exactly what it is-bigotry, even prejudice. NOT "reverse racism". Oh, it's not impossible. But I've been studying post-reconstruction history and all the shit the African-Americans, Japanese, Chinese, and Latin-Americans had to go through so my head's kinda been there, lol. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	yoritomo_reiko 2009-05-02 01:47 am UTC (link)
	I have to say that, with all the race fail going on? It's nice to see a little bit of win going on. Especially when that win just makes me love Neil Gaiman more. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	yoritomo_reiko 2009-05-02 01:58 am UTC (link)
	The win, of course, being in Gaiman pulling the rights to Anansi Boys from production because Hollywood is made up of a bunch of complete and utter morons. Not because of the actual secret. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bienegold 2009-05-02 02:17 am UTC (link)
	Props to Gaiman, but...holy crap at some of the commenters. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lady_ganesh 2009-05-02 03:17 am UTC (link)
	How fucking stupid do you have to be to read the whole book and not get that it's important that Spider and Charlie be black? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	squeakytoy 2009-05-02 03:58 am UTC (link)
	About as stupid as the people who think that race doesn't matter and that the world is now perfectly fair and not biased in any way regarding race. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2009-05-02 04:01 am UTC (link)
	Good point. (Reply to this)(Parent)

yoritomo_reiko
2009-05-02 10:56 am UTC (link)

Well, I was going to say that the OP does make a point of the fact that they aren't American and they don't know the Anansi story anyway. Which, unfortunately, you can get through high school in the States without necessarily knowing because schools concentrate on the Greek and Roman myths. It may be different in more ethnically diverse areas, but it's long been a complaint regarding the school systems.

I don't know. I can almost understand it. I think it's dumb, but almost.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2009-05-02 02:02 pm UTC (link)
	But...the whole book! It's not just the Anansi bits, it's the cultural references and the...AAAAGH. I think it would be harder for someone not American, though. I live in fucking VERMONT and I learned those stories in elementary school. WTH, my country. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	yoritomo_reiko 2009-05-02 02:35 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, it's the latter bit that keeps me from headdesking too badly. It can be hard to pick up on cultural references if you don't have the same frame of reference. I'm from Vegas. We only got myths other than the usual when the teachers brought them in from outside our text books. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2009-05-02 03:15 pm UTC (link)
	We didn't even have much for textbooks in elementary school. I forget how fortunate I was to have hippy teachers. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	mary_mac 2009-05-03 12:20 am UTC (link)
	I dunno. I think I made it about three pages before Charlie started sounding like Adrian Lester in my head (he's probably too old to play Charlie, woes). Although I suppose it helps to have a passing familiarity with London and the speech patterns thereof, even before you get to the Islands stuff. At which point it is blindingly obvious. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	guillemette 2009-05-05 03:16 pm UTC (link)
	Eh...embarrassed cough Don`t exactly want to point out my stupidity, but, um, you just have to live in what is a basically single-race country? I don`t think I even realized that Spider and Charlie were black when I read the book for the first time. I don`t think I had ever seen a non-white person IRL then. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2009-05-05 03:27 pm UTC (link)
	I'll admit that would help! What did you think of Charlie's culture, though, if you don't mind my asking? Were you just picturing a rural American subculture? (Reply to this)(Parent)

	damien 2009-05-02 02:22 pm UTC (link)
	Gaiman, you rock. Thanks for not being a sell-out. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	herongale 2009-05-02 07:14 pm UTC (link)
	RACEFAIL MADE ME RACIST AGAINST RACISTS (Reply to this)