Welcome to Silver and Shadow

"Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds." -L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

This is a blog I will be using for topics other than food. Politics, religion, spirituality, humor, green living, anything that I want to talk about that doesn't fall under the food/cooking category.



Monday, September 11, 2023

Antiracism 101: So, You Just Found Out You're Racist-Day 11

 Why Karen and other names for white people are not slurs

I know, nobody likes to be called names. It’s hurtful and mean. So when you are called a Karen/honky/cracker/mayo sapien, etc., it makes you feel bad about yourself. When Black people are called the N-word, it must make them feel bad about themselves too, right? So, these words are definitely on equal footing.

Please re-read what I just wrote. When you read and wrote the names above, do you way and spell the full words for white people but use “the N-word” abbreviation? Then that answers your question about if it’s on equal footing or not.

white people have not been threatened or had negative consequences from being called these names, unless they actually did racist stuff, were called out, and had consequences for their actions. Black people have had centuries of consequences for being called the N-word. It’s not even comparable.

Remember the discussion earlier about prejudice vs. racism? This is part of that. white people being called names has no systemic power behind it, but white people using the N-word against Black people, does. It’s insulting to compare the two.

Also, this connects back to equality vs. equity. Equality would be treating those names as the same. Equity means sometimes we just have to deal with hurt feelings, and get over it.

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