Scarlet the Fox

People that don't believe in institutional racism should be forced to go through our messed up system so they can appreciate it in its fullest.

First, get fired from a job due to your boss saying that you were "not a team player" when you were the only black person there in an organization of 300 people. Next, it turns out that the unemployment system is broken in your state so no benefits for you. Next, discover the healthcare system has collapsed as well. Good luck with no healthcare. Next, your credit score collapses because you have no income to pay your bills.

It's a chain reaction that began with an act of simple hate, but it ends with the grinding machinery of bureaucracy destroying lives.

That's just one facet of institutional racism. However, it's a good example of how it starts with hate and it ends with paperwork, lawsuits, and poverty. One thing to consider - the same machine that grinds up black folks grinds up other oppressed minorities as well. It is honed to perfection by destroying black lives, but it comes for everyone that doesn't "fit in" eventually.

#BlackMastodon #BlackFriday

Jan 13, 2023 at 10:28pmWeb
Show threadJDN6 ⓋJan 14, 2023

@scarlet @Edme

No lies detected

Show threadEdmenonymousJan 14, 2023
@JDN5IX @scarlet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ-UuXzqN6I&t=38s
The Prodigy - Firestarter (HD) LIVE @ Rock am Ring 2009

YouTube
Show threadnonlinearJan 14, 2023

@scarlet thing is, white people may have experienced 1st and 2nd level racism, internal and interpersonal. But they never experienced 3rd and 4th levels (institutional, systemic).

Frankly they don't even believe it exists, and fantasize it as YA dystopian fiction. And that's by design.

I'm a Brazilian watching the debate in US, and when people talk racism, black people mean 3, 4 and white people mean 1, 2. They don't even use the same concepts.

Show threadaxel.Jan 16, 2023
@nonlinear @scarlet Thank you for that insight. That is probably the fundamental concept missing, also here on Germany.
Show threadnonlinearFeb 3, 2023

@axeln @scarlet you're welcome.

i guess when people when people say racism, we should ask "which level?"

I mean, not to black people because damn. but certainly when white people talk about it.

i also wish we generalize it as oppression, because it works similarly with women or queer people, for instance.

racism is oppression but it's not the only one there is.

Show threadFessupJan 15, 2023
@scarlet I hear “well look at so-and-so (during black history month). They made it.” As if the “talented tenth” (another myth) excuses the entire system from the need to be humane.