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Just got into an argument with someone who wanted to say that "all racism is bad, and calling a white cop a 'white bastard' is racism".
Context is that Sam Kerr, golden girl of Aussie football, is being brought up by the UK police on charges of racial vilification. Except that the initial announcement didn't say what the racial vilification was, so a lot of people were pretty anxious, not least because Kerr has Indian ancestry and knows all about being rather less 'whiter than white' in western countries, and areas that aren't racially diverse.
As described above, it turned out she called a white cop a 'white bastard' during an altercation where the cop was called in on a situation.
Nobody is saying that it's a nice, polite, or even good thing to call someone a bastard with their skin colour as a prefix; but also: calling a white person 'white [insult]' is not racism. It can be prejudice or bigotry or but it can't be racism. Depending on what the insult is, it could be sexist (ie. "cunt"), or it could be ableist (ie. "r----d"), but it isn't racist.
Anyway, my response to a (very left-wing) commentator's post about discovering the actual epithet used was "Wait, this is the cause of a criminal case?" Theirs was, "oh, so you think it's okay for [inciting incident] to happen?" I pointed out [inciting incident] was the inciting incident and not the reason the case is bring brought up. They then started in on the "so you don't think racial vilification is bad?" angle. "Yeah, racism is bad, but this not racism." "So you think it's okay to call a black man a black bastard?"
At which point, I suggested that if black people had enslaved white people, described pale skin as 'slimy larvae colour', made laws around what black people could own, do, who they could marry and where they could live, etc., and used the term 'uptight whiteys' as commonly and historically negatively about white people, then perhaps, yes, we might find that white people collectively had as much hurt and pain around being called 'white bastards' as black people do around being called 'black bastards', but we did not live in that world and so it doesn't track.
They came back with the "so you think people should pay for their sins forever?" angle, cited Africans selling Africans and Mongols taking over the world, and I think there might have been something about the Holocaust in there, and the gist was basically whataboutism. But I was done at that point. Oh, and it looked like there was an attempt at negging in there. "You, an intelligent Christian woman, somehow don't believe in..." Yeah, mate, nah. That one ain't gonna work on me.
I answered that this was sealioning and I had other things to do; Bye, Felicia!
They denied it, of course, and accused me of bowing out just because they argued something that didn't fit my narrative. I mean, that is actually how sealioning goes, isn't it? Tie up all resources arguing a point, shifting the goalposts, refusing to self-educate on the other person's view, not even knowing what 'my narrative' was...?
Not to mention, he (it's highly likely to be a him) is on an extremely left-wing, feminist, progressive podcaster/social media personality's instagram account...why? To 're-educate' the sick and sad woke feminist masses who don't realise that you can be racist against white people, too?
Anyway, that was my day. I'm kind of dreading getting off my workspace and getting onto my phone. That's a new experience for sure.
Context is that Sam Kerr, golden girl of Aussie football, is being brought up by the UK police on charges of racial vilification. Except that the initial announcement didn't say what the racial vilification was, so a lot of people were pretty anxious, not least because Kerr has Indian ancestry and knows all about being rather less 'whiter than white' in western countries, and areas that aren't racially diverse.
As described above, it turned out she called a white cop a 'white bastard' during an altercation where the cop was called in on a situation.
Nobody is saying that it's a nice, polite, or even good thing to call someone a bastard with their skin colour as a prefix; but also: calling a white person 'white [insult]' is not racism. It can be prejudice or bigotry or but it can't be racism. Depending on what the insult is, it could be sexist (ie. "cunt"), or it could be ableist (ie. "r----d"), but it isn't racist.
Anyway, my response to a (very left-wing) commentator's post about discovering the actual epithet used was "Wait, this is the cause of a criminal case?" Theirs was, "oh, so you think it's okay for [inciting incident] to happen?" I pointed out [inciting incident] was the inciting incident and not the reason the case is bring brought up. They then started in on the "so you don't think racial vilification is bad?" angle. "Yeah, racism is bad, but this not racism." "So you think it's okay to call a black man a black bastard?"
At which point, I suggested that if black people had enslaved white people, described pale skin as 'slimy larvae colour', made laws around what black people could own, do, who they could marry and where they could live, etc., and used the term 'uptight whiteys' as commonly and historically negatively about white people, then perhaps, yes, we might find that white people collectively had as much hurt and pain around being called 'white bastards' as black people do around being called 'black bastards', but we did not live in that world and so it doesn't track.
They came back with the "so you think people should pay for their sins forever?" angle, cited Africans selling Africans and Mongols taking over the world, and I think there might have been something about the Holocaust in there, and the gist was basically whataboutism. But I was done at that point. Oh, and it looked like there was an attempt at negging in there. "You, an intelligent Christian woman, somehow don't believe in..." Yeah, mate, nah. That one ain't gonna work on me.
I answered that this was sealioning and I had other things to do; Bye, Felicia!
They denied it, of course, and accused me of bowing out just because they argued something that didn't fit my narrative. I mean, that is actually how sealioning goes, isn't it? Tie up all resources arguing a point, shifting the goalposts, refusing to self-educate on the other person's view, not even knowing what 'my narrative' was...?
Not to mention, he (it's highly likely to be a him) is on an extremely left-wing, feminist, progressive podcaster/social media personality's instagram account...why? To 're-educate' the sick and sad woke feminist masses who don't realise that you can be racist against white people, too?
Anyway, that was my day. I'm kind of dreading getting off my workspace and getting onto my phone. That's a new experience for sure.
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People are always looking to drag people into fights these days. The world has become very sad.
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So if someone insults a white person in a country where white people have most or all of the power in the education system, the legal system, and government, that can't be racist.
(Also, thank you for this post about Sam Kerr. When I saw the headline on https://www.abc.net.au/news/justin I was pretty sure it was a fit up, but I was too worried to read the news articles. I don't follow sport at all, but I've become very fond of Sam Kerr - I love her passion and her exuberance, and I was sad she got injured recently.)
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Says the white person who would like to stop the white bastard cop's nuts.