N. K. Jemisin speaks out…

Read this post from fantasy author N. K. Jemisin about how her race affects her role as a writer:

But this does not in any way mean I talk about race and gender because I enjoy doing so. I don't. It sucks up energy I desperately need to stay afloat while I've got two demanding fulltime jobs. And nobody really listens, anyway — for every one person I reach, five more declare me a PC Nazi and run off to lament the passing of the Good Old Days when they could be assholes with impunity.

This is a lament I'm familiar with, though in a slightly different refrain. I could talk about this from "my angle" and cover how hard it is to be taken seriously as a trans advocate when no one thinks I'm justified in being mad. But instead I want to keep this strictly a race issue and allow you folks to appreciate this problem without me trying to attach my shit to it.

Long after we fought a civil war and went through segregation and the civil rights fights, there is still a visible taint of racism in America. It is seen in white washed covers, in recent movies that purport to be about "empowerment", in the blatantly vile social attitudes toward rap and hip hop, in dropped backhand compliments of being well spoke or a fine example of one's people. It was seen nationally when a black college football player proposed to his white cheerleader girlfriend on television and caused outrage instead of "Aaaaw."

Yes, America, in addition to all your other troubling problems, you're still not done with racism. Don't point to having a token black president as proof that you aren't because I can show you a toilet with a sign above it pointing down that says "Free Obama Dolls." I can show you effigies of Obama in a noose. You may have voted for him. But a lot of other people think he's a Muslim (He's Christian and using that as an excuse to oppress gays, so he's not much better) or that he's not "really from here."

You can say "but he's half black, and that shows the changing face of America." Nuh-uh, because America still believes quietly in the one drop rule. One drop of negro, and you're all black. Period. Doesn't matter if you pass for white. To some backwards morons, you're not, because you have teh blackness in your soul.

And all of this is just as ridiculous now as it was before the internet was invented. But the fact is, we have a global method of communication, and of informing each other of our separate concerns about equality. So if someone in this day and age is spouting privileged, racist bullshit, it's because they cannot be bothered to use Google and educate their ignorant asses.

The kind of people who stomp off at statements like mine are pathetic, because there's nothing to turn around those kinds of willfully ignorant motherfuckers. They wouldn't listen if I said they were racist nicely, and they wouldn't listen if I found some other word besides racist that was perhaps less truthful and "divisive." But the person walking away uneducated is still a racist even if they don't believe it.

Look at media coverage, even on so-called liberal feeds. A black person in a flooded area is tugging food and diapers out of a store, and he's "a looter taking supplies," while a white person with the same items is labeled simply as "a man foraging for supplies for his family." (Happened on Yahoo during Katrina, and similar examples occurred on CNN. It happened on Fox too, but there, you expect racism.)

I'm going to open up a very ugly can of worms too: white mistreatment of blacks has led to white stereotypes forming, and this gives some idiot whites the validation to declare "reverse racism." Right because hostility in response to ignorance and racism is also racism…oh wait, no, it's a healthy reaction to being oppressed.

Let me tell you about this, because in the projects, I had to deal with white stereotypes and resentment. According to these stereotypes explained by my bullies, all white people are rich. The ones who are poor are just hiding their money to avoid paying taxes. That me and my brother owned nothing was beside the point. We were white, so we had money.

But is this reverse racism? No, not really. This is a reaction to hundreds of years of mistreatment, and that still hasn't ended. Colored schools in inner cities have to deal with metal detectors that white predominant schools don't, even if the safety level of the schools is the same. People of color can count on higher profiling with police and security guards, and on open suspicions doing normal activities that no one would notice a white person doing. And should they keep their cool about all of this bullshit, they can count on some white friend to take them aside and thank them for not being "like those other people."

In fucking 2011. This was material for a fucking laugh track on Archie Bunker. How in the fuck did we get back around to this being our social reality?

And, to remind you, you can still find white adults telling black kids not to "dirty up the swimming pool." But they're not racist, just helping the little people to understand their place in the world.

When these things happen, a very few white people see this and react. The rest are indifferent. "Hey, I'm not really a racist," they complain to charges that they are. "If the black people want to live their rap culture lifestyle, I'm diggity down with that, for shizzle, yo."

But, just like all your other declarations of support, white peoples' alliance with people of color only amounts to lip service when pressed by one of your affected "friends." It does not now, nor has it involved actual work on your part for a long, long time.

To close, let's talk about the modern white concept of friends. This is a shallow term that doesn't mean you're invested in anyone emotionally. If a modern friend displeases you with an inconvenient truth about yourself, well fuck them, they must not be a very good friend. Unfriend them and walk on. Because very good friends are the ones who tell you how great you are, and who make excuses for your mistakes.

Oh, wait, those are fake friends. Real friends are the people telling you the truth. The truth is, we're still racists, and we still need to address this. Not as a whites only support group where y'all "feel cleansed for feeling bad" but go right back to the same status quo bullshit. Y'all have got to get off your lily white asses and start caring about racism. And then you need to deal with the racists directly. Yes, you really need to fight. That's why it's called the "civil rights fight," not the "civil rights discourse."

The racists are doing a great job making social advances by taking advantage of "discourse" and steering the conversation only to questions like "why do blacks have to be so negative?" and "why don't blacks stop black culture if they know white people don't like it?" Which gets this fight entirely away from the real issue, "Why are white people still treating black people like second class citizens?"

In some cases, the people doing the worst kinds of oppression get away with it because white people on the left say, "We wouldn't want to seem unreasonable." That's expressing your privileged right to ignore racism and its effect on your allies. Yes, you do need to be unreasonable to racists. Yes, you do need to get ugly when they do. Otherwise, you're not an ally or even a sympathizer. You're one of the oppressors, and just won't admit it.