That which does not affect you, you often do not see or understand

In other words, if you are White, 99% of the time Racism doesn't affect you. Therefore, you may not see nor understand Racism when it happens.

If you are a Man, 99% of the time Sexism doesn't affect you. Therefore, you may not grok Sexist behavior when it occurs nor will you always see Sexism when it is plain to others.

This goes for any -ist or -ism or -phobia you can think of. This goes for you, even if you're a minority, when it concerns people who are not like you.

What does not affect you personally often will not impact on your consciousness unless you've trained yourself to see and understand.

Therefore, the next time you feel yourself declaring something "not racist" or "not sexist" or "not offensive", think about whether you feel that way because you're not the one on the receiving end of racist, sexist, or offensive behavior/words/actions/images.

If you are not here to talk about both race and pop culture, you should not be here.

If you are not here to share and learn from people of different backgrounds, you should not be here.

Stop playing the Oppression Olympics.

Don't steer the conversation off-topic.

Use sources when discussing controversial claims.

Beware of ventriloquy.

Check your own privilege.

Ultimately, we want this space to be for people who want to discuss race, not argue for the status quo, or argue for the sake of arguing.

Racism 101 An ever-expanding list of common understandings we share as anti-racists.

1. White privilege exists.

(snip)

3. Flipping the actors does not lend clarity to an issue, nor does it mean that you have created equivalent analogies. See entry under Fallacious Flip.

4. People must own their feelings and expressions. Ventriloquy is not helpful in discussions of racism.

5. Seeking the empowerment of people of color is not the same as disenfranchising white people.

6. Racism is more than individual acts of meanness

(snip)

8. Defensive responses to issues voiced by people of color are invocations of privilege.

9. A claim to anti-racism cannot be made based on any variation of the "black friend defense" (Mexican boyfriend, Asian wife, children of color, etc.).

(snip)

12. Celebrations of “multiculturalism” do not address racism

13. People of color are not responsible for the education of white people

14. It’s not all about you.

15. An experience you have as a white person that you think is similar to an experience related by a person of color is not a valid proof that racism doesn’t exist.

A Guide to Racism 101 for Clueless White People, Written by a Slightly Less Clueless White Person People of Color (PoC) encounter this on a regular basis: they're online or in real life and suddenly a white person, who barely understands privilege or racism, is demanding that they educate them regarding the topic. The white person says, in essence, "Hi! What can I do to help fix racism?" or "Hi! Can you explain racism to me?" or "Hi! What's this 'privilege' stuff?"

Understandably, the PoC says, "Google. You know how to use it." They say this because they're real people, who have real lives and commitments and other things they need to do, and they weren't born to go around educating white people who want to sit on their ass and have an education handed to them on a silver platter.

And then the white person gets butt-hurt because all they want to do is learn and they're trying to educate themselves and that PoC is being so mean to them! And then they sulk about it and often post about how they're trying to learn and become better people but damn it, PoC are so hostile, all that does is teach whites to shut up and sit down! And the white person fails to understand that the PoC wasn't saying, "You're a moron, shut up and sit down," they were saying, "Look, I don't have time to teach you. It's not my responsibility to give you Racism 101. Go educate yourself, the resources are out there."

(snip)

This seems an appropriate time to bring up "colorblindness". The concept behind being "colorblind" is that we shouldn't see or acknowledge race - that it shouldn't be important to us. Being colorblind is often held up as a positive thing, and is extolled to other white people - that we should all be colorblind, and if we notice or pay attention to race, then we're being racist. The problem with colorblindness though is that being colorblind is a luxury that usually only white people have - you can only choose to "not notice" race if it doesn't negatively impact your life on a daily basis. Your race isn't going to work against you, therefore you don't have to pay any attention to it or anyone else's race. Saying that "race doesn't matter" denies the very real effects race has on our society and PoC.

(snip)

Accept that you will make mistakes and you will show your privileged ass and people will get upset at you about it. It doesn't feel good to have people upset at us; we're social animals and we don't like it when we hurt people and people get angry. But don't get defensive; relax, take a deep breath, and know that however upset you're feeling about being jumped on, the people on the other side of the exchange are probably even more upset about what you said.