Yesterday, I noted some of the nasty transphobia that had shown up in a recent /gg/ thread on 8chan, undercutting somewhat the claims to respectability we’ve been hearing a lot of from GamerGaters recently. Well, 8channers noticed my post, and weren’t exactly pleased about it.
But their responses to my post, well, they didn’t exactly suggest that the transphobia I saw in the earlier thread was some sort of fluke.
Oh, sure, some of the commenters complained, as my critics often do, that I had “quote mined” the earlier thread.
Sitting cheek by jowl next to these comments were comments of a rather different sort. Trigger Warning for threats, transphobia, homophobia, etc.
So, yeah, there’s really no need to posit vast conspiracies sending paid shills to shitpost on 8chan when it’s pretty clear a sizeable portion of their userbase is happy to post crap like this for free.
And there’s no need to mine for quotes like these when there are so many of them just sitting right there on the surface.
I’m a believer that “racism of ignorance” is still racism. There’s really no way to think that, for instance, black people are more likely to be poor because they choose to be poor, and not trace that back to an underlying base of racism. Even if someone has no idea what the causes of poverty are (and really there are many contenders for causes and no certainties) there’s no way to think that black people are differentially affected because of some inherent trait in a way that isn’t racist.
My parents have a lot of racism of ignorance going. They think they have the answers even though they actually have no facts, and their answers just happen to be racist ones, and that makes them racists.
@weirwoodtreehugger:
Blech. Gross. I got a similar thing with my mom when my sister started dating a black dude. She didn’t quite go all out against it, it was more like “her boyfriend is, you know, black *knowing look*”.
@Policy of Madness:
Yeah, pretty much. There’s this thing where people are super interested in figuring out if a person is “racist” and letting that decide if an action or belief is therefore “racist,” when that’s really not how it works.
Man, this is dredging up all kinds of bad memories.
My cousin, in high school, was dating a black guy. This was held as evidence of her low self esteem.
My dad once made an anti-Semitic joke about how Jewish Hospital here in town charges high prices because: Jewish. He didn’t mean it in a mean way, and Jewish Hospital had literally just saved his life, but (here’s one for Mackey if zie is still hanging about) nobody makes a joke like that who isn’t racist somewhere inside. Non-racist people just don’t think to make jokes where Jews or any other racial group is the butt of it. Just like people who aren’t ableist don’t make “lighthearted” comments at the expense of the mad. That shit isn’t funny.
My mom was once watching one of those shows where Andrew Zimmerman goes to strange furrin countries and eats their strange furriner food. He was in Australia, and my mom made a comment that was so shockingly racist that I won’t repeat it here.
My family, ladies and gentlemen!
Oh, right, before I forget. If anyone hasn’t seen this article on Dorian Johnson’s testemony in the Michael Brown case, I’ve found it extremely worthwhile. I’d wager the article approaches the truth of what happened, and why.
Kim:
MUAHAHAHAHAHA!
Fear not, I just binned his last three comments in a round of poke-the-troll. The insect spray is for when cassandra flees winter to brave our stinkin’ rotten summer. 😛
kirby – hugs accepted (cos friends’ hugs are nice) but it’s fine, I was laid off in April and apart from cash being a bit tight, I’m not that bothered. After all look at all the modding time I’m getting! 😛
thebewilderness –
QFT
@Policy of Madness:
Sorry. That sounds like it’d be more fun than a literal barrel full of monkeys. Not very.
The funny thing is, I don’t think it would phase him one bit if I had a black boyfriend now. He’s had two serious girlfriends who were black and my brother’s roommate is black. He usually likes pretty much everyone unless they’re a complete asshole. It was such an out of character thing for him to say.
Sad thing: my sister briefly had an Aboriginal boyfriend when she was in her teens. Our racist father was totally pissed off about it. Forty years later … my sister’s a racist, long married to an even bigger racist. 🙁
Worst. Flounce. Ever.
Hey, at least zir worst flouncing abilities gives me a chance to reaquaint myself with some classic songs.
Here’s one that totally matches the vibe in my head every time he puts fingers to post!
The word is about, there’s something evolving,
whatever may come, the world keeps revolving
They say the next big thing is here,
that the revolution’s near,
but to me it seems quite clear
that it’s all just a little bit of history repeating
.. and I’ve seen it before
.. and I’ll see it again
.. yes I’ve seen it before
.. just little bits of history repeating
If he fails the flounce again:
and the joke is rather sad,
that its all just a little bit of history repeating
Or this lesser known but really song
You’re the new newest thing; we’ve seen it all before.
In fact I’ve seen it many times and I’ll see it many more.
You know it won’t last; you know it never does –
But better be a has been than to be a never was.
You can get out quick and clean or prolong the agony:
Whichever you prefer – it’s all the same to me.
Fuck off, Mackey. All you’re achieving is demonstrating you’ve no respect for boundaries. Yeah, I’ve deleted another of your comments, aren’t I nasty?
Wait, Mackey is *still* posting? Woody may have some competition after all.
kittehserf ~
I can’t stand people who do that kind of thing. Not that I have any love for people who hate safety nets in general, but when you make special exceptions for “the right” people it becomes painfully obvious you’re just a racist shithead.
I’ve been on food stamps , which some of my coworkers know. They will be complaining about people on food stamps “screwing the system” and then remember that I (their boss) uses food stamps and spit out “Oh, but not like you! You actually need it!”. Riiight, because you know nothing about my finances OR any of these other people, you dumb racist shit.
Yuck, yes, booburry, that sort of thing stinks.
This is why I stick to /tg/.