FWIW, I think piepiepie gets that the racism in my (now deleted) post was unintentional, and a result of stupidity and terribly thoughtless phrasing rather than hate. But just because the offensiveness was unintentional doesn’t let me off the hook, and I’ve no right to expect piepiepie to just move on with a proverbial shrug. Given how appalling my initial post was, she doesn’t owe me anything, no matter how unintentional my offence or how awful I feel about it now that it’s been pointed out. Also, just because I realised a fraction too late that using the c-word was way over the line, doesn’t change the fact that I used it. She certainly isn’t wrong to be offended, she’s certainly not wrong to be in any way reluctant to accept my apology, and if she does it’ll show a great deal more understanding than I did when I blundered in with my clown shoes and fucked up the thread.
For what little it may be worth, this ugly incident really has hammered home the importance of taking a minute to think before I post. It’s not a lesson I’m going to forget, either online or anywhere else.
I see that happening with more recent racial symbols. It’s a sign of progress when people don’t know that something was racist. It means they aren’t learning the racism. And that also means they aren’t to blame for not knowing about it. We should celebrate, not punish them for it.
No, racism and sexism are over! Everyone’s opinion on every subject is equal, regardless of experiences. Women obviously don’t know any more about misogyny then men, and black people obviously don’t know any more about anti-black racism then white people. And why must they complain so much? Don’t they know that these smart white men are just trying to explain to them how the real world works?
I’m a straight white guy, no religion or disability. In general I know far, far less about anti-black racism then black people, and far, far less about misogyny then women, and far, far less about homophobia than gay people…
Well, there is the N-word, now the M-word. I’m pretty sure the B and C words are offensive. Not the mention the D, F, G, I, K, P, R, S, T, W, X and Z words.
For my serious opinion on the meme of “whitesplaining” and “mansplaining”, it’s pretty simple: if you’re white, you probably don’t understand anti-black racism within an order of magnitude as much as any random black person. Necessarily, you will have much less (and likely infinitely less) personal experience with anti-black racism as any random black person – even someone famous or wealthy. So, as a rule, don’t try to explain something related to anti-black racism to a black person. Same goes for women and misogyny and related concepts.
Then why start this off in the pit? Obviously we can all start our threads anywhere we choose and as you said, this doesn’t seem to have been a big deal to anyone (of any race, or at least not that the article mentioned). The OP is addressing white people; yelling at them, actually. I’m not even saying I disagree with everything she’s saying, but you pick a fight with people you have to expect them to fight back. Unless one is simply looking to have their opinion validated, which is fine. We call that preaching to the choir and again I ask, why put it in the pit?
)