I will not overthink this

dopehero:

drabo:

dopehero:

It’s okay to call all white people privileged and say they’re dumb, in denial, or just ignorant when their opinions differ from someone who isn’t white

because all white people are the same right? we’re all from the colonial period and our ancestors have lived here and raped and enslaved…

My sentiments exactly. There are a lot of black racists on Tumblr who hate white people with a deep passion. If you dare stand up against them or disagree with them they’ll insult you and when they cannot win the argument, they’ll block you. This is not a big deal anyway. Since “white devils” are the only people that can be racist, and black people are NEVER racist and ALWAYS the victim… tell that to the Afrikaner victims of the Plaasmoorde in South-Africa or the white victims of Mugabe in Zimbabwe. Everyone can be racist. And no race is safe from it entirely. Whenever white people or a group of white people are a minority somewhere, they are just as vulnerable as non-white people are to racism. Because, for one, not all white people are rich. Or powerful. Or strong. Or influential. And anyone who disagrees and dares call him or herself an “anti-racist” is just a bloody hypocrite.

^ this

Hi, dopehero, your post re: race and Avatar the Last Airbender was reblogged on my dash, and I found this post to be relevant— in that it gives me some context— as I’m not sure if you were being sarcastic— in the original post, at least, as it was fairly obvious that your subsequent replies were sarcastic— or had the misfortune of getting a momentary lapse in better judgment and word choice put under public scrutiny.

I agree that white people can be targets of racism as well. While “anti-white racism” probably has a relatively insignificant impact—  take for example the fact that while blondes are stereotyped as being dumb, studies have shown that, barring all other factors of comparison like performance or education, blondes tend to earn up to 15% more than brunettes, and this trend is true of other traits associated with being caucasian, like males 6 feet or taller earning more than their shorter colleagues— I cannot discount the fact that anti-white racism does exist. That’s coming from a first-generation Asian immigrant to the US.

As well, I can understand how you may feel that race is a non-issue in a cartoon like AtLa. Had you phrased your sentiment better, I might have agreed with you completely, and it’s unfortunately ironic that your manner of presenting your statement and your subsequent replies to criticism served to propagate the (angry) ignorant white girl stereotype.

A person’s understanding is limited by his or her context. Understand that your being white limits your understanding of why some ethnicities might make a big deal of race in AtLA. (Just as being Asian limits my understanding, say, of the need to say “bless you” when someone sneezes when we no longer live in Plague-era Europe etc.)

Being a white person, you grew up seeing white characters on TV and media. Some ethnicities are not as widely represented as whites are so they celebrate the times that they are represented in media. You might say, “well, this is America, what do you expect to see on TV?” I’d reply, “Americans, who are of different ethnicities, and businesses would be wise to at least try to include all those colors in their target demographic.”

To be honest, going by free-market capitalism, businesses— like media and government, even— ought to accomodate Asians more since Asians have the highest overall median income in the US, compared to Whites, Blacks and Hispanics, but that’s touching model minority territory, which is a whole other monster.

From what I’ve read, (from articles written by a white guy, no less!) race was a big deal in the casting of the live-action movie as well. Some people viewed it as a matter of faithfulness— or lack thereof— to the source material. Others viewed it as taking away a rare opportunity for Asian actors to play principal roles in a big-budget, mainstream movie and giving the opportunity to white actors who have no shortage of principal roles they can fit the peg of. To add insult to injury, again from what I’ve read, these white actors proved completely inept at their jobs.