I’m prefacing this with I AM A STRAIGHT CRACKER MALE SO CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG but!
To my understanding, yes. Since racism (the definition typically accepted by Marxists like ourselves at least) is that racism is material and systemic oppression, apartheid-esque realities like the US, South Africa, Israel, etc., and not just “being mean to someone because of their skin color” then it would follow that white people are fundamentally not capable of experiencing racism in any meaningful manner. Sure, you can get called a cracker and be hated by a few people, but that’s literally nothing but a reaction to your “superiority” and child’s play compared to actual oppression. Obviously you can just be an asshole about it and that’s racist but it’s really not the same as a whole system operating intentionally to benefit one and fuck another.
I think it’s also important to break down the concept of what being white is, too, because honestly you can’t really define it. It’s very similar to terrorism, where it’s constantly changing and evolving and always just so happens to be targeted to benefit the status quo. I’m sure you’ve heard of how the Irish were treated prior to like the mid-20th century, they were looked at as animals and similar to how many pigs view anyone browner than them now. But now all of a sudden anyone from the European area is white. Russians were white, now they aren’t with their whole Ukraine conflict. They’re orcs, animals, blah blah blah.
So like others have said before, whiteness is built entirely for the purpose of exclusion and honestly, so is the entire idea of race. I mean, think about it, what purpose is there of breaking down “races” within the human species if there truly is no intent to treat people differently based on it, or if they aren’t already. It’s entirely a social construct.
It’s also honestly harmful to class consciousness in my opinion. Many white people view themselves as privileged and have liberal guilt about it; but because they hold this relative privilege over more oppressed members of the working class, they forget they are oppressed themselves! Yes, it’s important to recognize you’re on the top of this class unfairly, but this class is still oppressed. Many of them would look at a bourgeois white man and a homeless black man and see more similarities to the former than the latter, which is just fundamentally untrue, cope, and also kind of stems from a racist view of the world. It’s a whole thing.
I’d appreciate any advice if I’m wrong on any of this; I’m obviously not an authority, these are just my thoughts based on what I’ve read and heard from other POC working class members.
I’m prefacing this with I AM A STRAIGHT CRACKER MALE SO CORRECT ME IF I’M WRONG but!
To my understanding, yes. Since racism (the definition typically accepted by Marxists like ourselves at least) is that racism is material and systemic oppression, apartheid-esque realities like the US, South Africa, Israel, etc., and not just “being mean to someone because of their skin color” then it would follow that white people are fundamentally not capable of experiencing racism in any meaningful manner. Sure, you can get called a cracker and be hated by a few people, but that’s literally nothing but a reaction to your “superiority” and child’s play compared to actual oppression. Obviously you can just be an asshole about it and that’s racist but it’s really not the same as a whole system operating intentionally to benefit one and fuck another.
I think it’s also important to break down the concept of what being white is, too, because honestly you can’t really define it. It’s very similar to terrorism, where it’s constantly changing and evolving and always just so happens to be targeted to benefit the status quo. I’m sure you’ve heard of how the Irish were treated prior to like the mid-20th century, they were looked at as animals and similar to how many pigs view anyone browner than them now. But now all of a sudden anyone from the European area is white. Russians were white, now they aren’t with their whole Ukraine conflict. They’re orcs, animals, blah blah blah.
So like others have said before, whiteness is built entirely for the purpose of exclusion and honestly, so is the entire idea of race. I mean, think about it, what purpose is there of breaking down “races” within the human species if there truly is no intent to treat people differently based on it, or if they aren’t already. It’s entirely a social construct.
It’s also honestly harmful to class consciousness in my opinion. Many white people view themselves as privileged and have liberal guilt about it; but because they hold this relative privilege over more oppressed members of the working class, they forget they are oppressed themselves! Yes, it’s important to recognize you’re on the top of this class unfairly, but this class is still oppressed. Many of them would look at a bourgeois white man and a homeless black man and see more similarities to the former than the latter, which is just fundamentally untrue, cope, and also kind of stems from a racist view of the world. It’s a whole thing.
I’d appreciate any advice if I’m wrong on any of this; I’m obviously not an authority, these are just my thoughts based on what I’ve read and heard from other POC working class members.