@mekkaokereke Oh fuck yeah there's racist white women out there, and lots of 'em.

Both in the US and down here.

Often, the bigots are hiding in plain sight.

As in, there's a stereotype of what a racist looks like. The shaved head, the MAGA hat, the fascist tatts, the white robe...

Yet many racists are perfectly pleasant to other white people. They're normal looking, everyday white people.

They're quite reasonable in white company, as long as no-one mentions race.

They often genuinely don't think of themselves as racist.

They even mouth the right platitudes at the right times.

It's just (and these are actual examples I've come across)...

The woman from Columbia is the most qualified candidate, but they have concerns about hiring her because of her accent.

They're celebrating International Women's Day, and every single woman in the video is white.

They couldn't find any non-white women to speak at their charity fundraising event.

They pull aside a South Asian woman, and tell her they had an Indian colleague at work who complained about racism in Australia, "and I told her if you don't like it, leave".

Someone mentions the Jews, and they start sharing what they really think.

Or they get angry at someone who's not white, and they morph from Bruce Banner into the Incredible Hulking White Supremacist. (1/2)

@mekkaokereke

the most depressing feature on mastodon:

yelling at black people to fix problems white people gave us

i'm a white dude

i have anger at where our country is

and i'm going to yell at the white ignorant indecent bigots who got us here about that (often off mastodon)

i'm not going to condescend and patronize black folk here and lecture them how to fix problems... that a bunch of white racists gave us

if you do this and you're white: please check yourself

@mekkaokereke

Is this not what the race-class narrative is all about?

People, mostly white, but far from entirely, believe all manner of things about Black and brown people that are not true because they've heard them repeated over and over again, the decades of dog-whistles that the current bat-shit crazy version of the GOP and the regressive-right media ecosystem that sustains it have turned into blaring sirens.

Race-class narrative stories and messages cut through the false beliefs and ...

@mekkaokereke I probably keep to myself more than I ought to? I don't engage strangers, open minded or otherwise, so *everything* passes under my radar unless it's super blatant.

I'm also pretty well convinced that here in SW MO I'm surrounded by violent fascists waiting to be triggered. The Gadsden flags and "2AMom" license plates are just too prevalent to ever feel properly safe.

@mekkaokereke Americans really need to unhitch this conceit stereotype that racists are froth-mouthed, southern, conservative, and not in their own house. Most of my racist experiences come from mid-Atlantic liberals oblivious to their harm.

Just like we all have to kill the cop in our heads, white people have to kill the racist in theirs.

@mekkaokereke this somewhat checks out with my experience as a white trans women with transphobia. queer or feminist spaces that are white af tend to not be so safe. and I equally worry about men and women. men are more directly dangerous, because they're physically stronger. but women can throw me out of saver spaces

it's maybe a bit more directly to "protect white women" when it's transphobia than racism, but still hard to get this across

so no idea 😔

@mekkaokereke
It's not that evidence doesn't convince.

It's that "women are morally superior to men" is dogma to most progressive folks. And even if they don't believe it, they wouldn't be caught dead saying it.

I think the mark of being truly open is accepting anyone, from any category can have the full range of human characteristics, from good to terrible.

At least, that's what I believe, and I'm frequently lonely.

@mekkaokereke well, I'm white and all of those Karen videos convinced (and disgusted) me.

I think men's behavior often (to me) being more overt combined with my own obliviousness to hide ww's racism from me for most of my life.

But I'm also not one to speak up and have conversations about race with other white folk, and as people are suggesting, maybe that's an effective way of flushing the racists out of their hiding behaviors.

Which reinforces the notion that if you don't actively do something about it, it (whatever it is) is gonna continue.

@mekkaokereke Persuasion is social, then?

Perhaps there is no substitute for being in community with people who attest to this fact from their lived experience.

@mekkaokereke

Well to be honest: I'm inclined to take you as a reliable source for who is being racist towards you. Seems like the sort of thing you would know!

I see more men pushing back on these local threads, (or perhaps I assume men(?)) But I don't think Mastodon is very representative of the gen pop.

I guess seeing that it's 50% of white women voting Trump on the regular feels pretty persuasive, but they're a bit quieter about their anti-Blackness online.

@mekkaokereke I read an article the other day about a woman who was anti-choice until a friend of hers needed an abortion.

I think the answer is in there: most people can't empathize with something they've never personally experienced unless it happens to someone close to them. (And sometimes not even then.)