“I’m not racist because I’m an ignorant fool.”

Today I was forwarded this really disgusting email, and I just felt the need to post a reply on why this supposedly “non-racist” post is in fact really really racist. The email is in quotations, and my responses are not.

“You call me "Cracker", "Honkey", "Whitey", "Gringo" and you think it's OK.”

First of all, the very use of “you” as though the author can speak about anyone, of whatever ethnic/racial background as a giant conglomeration operating as a unit not only proves that the author of this text is racist (because it’s a racist move to make these generalizations), but it also proves the author's complete inability to recognize how racism operates. It’s not just about the terms a person uses (and I’m not condoning the use of racial slurs against “white” people either); it’s about a system of thinking that sees people as stereotypes instead of individual people. Then that system, in order to be truly racist, requires power. And whatever the author of this might think, “white” people are pretty much in charge, i.e. the people with the power to perpetrate racist violence tend to be "white" (though I admit this is not always true). Condoleeza Rice may be Secretary of State, but the people in charge are still pretty much “white” men as far as I can tell

“....But when I call you Kike, sand nigger, rag head, Towelhead, WOP, Camel Jockey, Gook, nigger, slant eyes or Chink you call me a racist.”

‘Cause “you” are. Oh, and by the way, according to the US Census, Jews and Middle-Eastern Americans are “white.”

“-You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?”

Two things here – uh, the history of the USA and European colonialism would bear out that most violence across dynamics of power and crossed ethnic/racial lines was perpetrated by “whites.” This violence was then embodied in a system of slavery and after that a socio-economic system that made it very difficult for the descendants of enslaved Africans to live anywhere other than the ghettos. And by the way, some “white” people do live in the ghettos. So, dear author, may I recommend that you move to a neighborhood that government services have pretty much abandoned and tell me how happy you are to be there.

“-You have the United Negro College Fund."

And when the systemic imbalance has been corrected and definitively made it just as possible for African Americans (specifically the descendants of the USA's enslaved Africans, who by the way are not being well represented in the USA's universities) to succeed in the USA and to get a good college education, then maybe there would be no need for such a college fund.

“-You have Martin Luther King Day.”

Martin Luther King belongs to the history of the world and the history of everyone in the USA. Dear author, is there something you don't like about the end of segregation? Why don't you see Martin Luther King Day as your day too? Do you, dear author, seriously believe that Martin Luther King and his work are not worth honoring? Why on earth do we celebrate President's Day either? Maybe we should get rid of Memorial Day, Labor Day, the 4^th of July, Veterans Day, and Christmas as national holidays. And of course, what about Columbus Day? That one seems not to disappear no matter how many people demand Leif Ericson Day instead!

“-You have Black History Month.”

What month of the year isn’t “white”-American history month? That’s the main history taught in schools and remembered on the History Channel. It’s good for people to know that there are other histories out there worth knowing because those histories are also part of everyone’s history. No one group of people has a lock on “history.”

“-You have Cesar Chavez Day.”

Well, given dominant USA culture’s disdain for the hard-working labor of the United Farm Workers, maybe we should just ditch this day too? Again, dear author, as with Martin Luther King, why is it that you don't see Cesar Chavez Day as your day as well? I suspect it's either racism or classism or both, but what do you say?

“-You have Yom Hashoah”

Do we all celebrate this broadly? Is not any community welcome to have a day in which they focus on losses that are not even a century old, and yes, were motivated by racism? We should all be forced to spend time thinking about the horrors of genocides that have plagued Homo sapiens for as long as recorded history can recount. Maybe then we would be less inclined to let them happen again.

“-You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi”

I could be wrong here, but doesn’t the celebration of Muhammad’s birthday predate the existence of the USA? And again, dear author, it only proves your racism that you continue to lump all non-“white” Christians of the world in as one unit completely alien to yourself. This is especially significant here as I am pretty sure there are “white” Muslims who celebrate the prophet’s birthday!

“-You have the NAACP.”

See my point about the Negro College Fund above. Plenty of legal groups have been active advocating for rights for "white" people (and often for all people in general - thank you ACLU!). If their legal activities still leave you, dear author, feeling disempowered, you may recall that “white” people have a terrorist organization known as the KKK they can join. And because it's a free country, everyone is allowed freedom of speech, even the KKK; they only get into trouble when they try to hurt people and/or property.

“-You have BET.”

And dominant culture (or your average “white” American) has FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, etc. I have lived in New York. The fact that shows like Friends and How I Met Your Mother can have only “white” people running in circles of all-“white” friends (oh, wait, some of those Friends’ characters were Jewish, and I guess you don’t think that Ross Gellar is “white”!) is a statistical improbability. Yet these shows exist on major networks because most non-"whites" are not seen as a primary audience to pursue. BET exists in part because of the wisdom of capitalism. Find an untapped market and become a channel that an untapped market can turn to.

“-If we had WET(white entertainment television) ...we'd be racist.”

Just because the author doesn’t call certain television programming WET doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. More importantly, such a name would be unnecessary, because, as pointed out above, WET already had a lot of channels competing for market share.

“-If we had a White Pride Day... you would call us racist.”

I have no argument with this. Dear author, I would call you racist. There are lots of days when people of different ethnic backgrounds share pride in their heritage together. For instance, the Rose Parade has a diversity of people celebrating a diversity of things with a lot of pride. Is that not good enough for you? But, if I'm not mistaken, the allusion is really to "Gay Pride Day" so I'm guessing, dear author, that you are a wee-bit homophobic as well and you assume that being “white” not only includes being Christian and from the USA but also being heterosexual. Amazing how those unexamined views can sneak up on a person.

“-If we had white history month... we'd be racist.”

I already addressed this when I talked about “Black History Month.”

“-If we had an organization for only whites to "advance" our lives... we'd be racist.”

Well, as some of the slamming of Harold Ford, Jr. in Tennessee’s 2006 Senate race proved, there are still parts of the USA where racist “white” people can run the Republican party, so, dear author, I suggest you move there and work with them.

“-In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights...you would call us racist.”

I believe the KKK does still have rallies if you want to join them. This just isn’t worth rebutting a third time, but I will do my best. When equality really is available to everyone regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, class, country of origin, gender, sexual orientation, or belief, then stuff like this won’t be needed. And dear author, have you heard recently of how Barack Obama has been slandered because of his father’s Muslim heritage (and slyly because of his mother’s atheist heritage)? Does it sound like the injustices that redress is being sought for have stopped?

“-Did you know that some high school students decided to make a club for only the white students because the other ethnicities had them... they all got sent to court for being racist but the african-american, Latino, and Asia clubs were not even questioned.
-You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange,”

Uh – who are the “orange” people? The old racist term for the indigenous peoples of the Americas was “red.” And a lot of people from different ethnic groups don’t like sporting terms of "color."

“and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.”

And yeah, some different people are proud of their ethnic heritage, but so are “white” people who have Irish heritage on St. Patrick’s Day.

”I am white.”

How do you know? I have pretty fair skin myself, and I compared it to a “white” table. Not really close in color. Besides, statistically, most "white" people in the USA are part African and part indigenous American, so you may want to think about what "white" even means.

“I am proud.”

Of what, exactly?

“But, you call me a racist.”

I covered this point already. Dear author, the challenge that lies before us in taking down racism is for people to realize that racism is more than just people in the KKK burning crosses on lawns. It's a complex system in which we all participate, and we all have to work to change it if we want to live in a more just world. Though, based on this message, I am not certain that a more just world is something you, dear author, are really interested in.

“Why is it that only whites can be racists?”

Well, not only “whites” can be racist. The issue is about power, and a homeless person of any ethnic background just doesn’t have the same power over you, dear author, that you have over him or her.

“Now watch, I'll be a racist for posting this”

Admission is the first step. But I don’t think dear author that you are past denial yet.

“So what? no one will re post this for fear of being called racist”

Well if my half Mexican-American friend can get this in an email forward and send it to me (because she was equally disgusted and angry), it appears not to be the case that some “white” people fear being called racist.

“if you think its true re-post it saying "im not RACIST but its true”

Well, as I said, you, dear author, are RACIST (and so is anyone really nodding in agreement with your email), and that's TRUE!