Against White People

I'm going to get into a sticky topic here. 

There is so much hate going around to everyone. Racism still exists, but practiced by more people than you think. You see, racism against black people is evident but also a little iffy. See, because of history, black people get a privilege that white people don't.

My White Privilege

As you know, I am white. 150,000 times white. I am not a decedent of anyone who is black withing the last two centuries. I have some privilege because of the color of my skin. Key word being some. I didn't get a free pass in life because I am white. I worked hard in school. I am even struggling to find scholarships that I can apply to because there are a lot out their for Native American, Latino, Black, mixed etc. etc. Both of my parents when to college so I am not a first generation, I am 100% white, and I have no physical or mental disabilities. But I'm still fairly poor. My parents tried to apply for food stamps but my father made $40 too much. Forty dollars when they have 5 kids, one in college, one in high school, one in middle school, and two in elementary school. Not to mention one kid has physical and mental problems which cost a lot of time and money. I wasn't huge into sports, I am not gay or transgender. I got one scholarship that was from my religion ($200) and the Pel-grant. I applied for other scholarships but I was limited because I was never discriminated against or skilled enough.

Just because I don't have to worry about not getting a job because of skin color doesn't mean I don't have to worry about not getting a job. I'm broke, I lack job skills, and I'm in college. Hooray for me.

But, just how there is white privilege there is also black privilege.

I already mentioned the scholarships, but lets talk about Hollywood. Big things with that topic is that people are angry that Hollywood white washes everything. That is true. But when you think about the lack of non white people in Hollywood, its a good thing for those who are, or are trying to get into that business. When there is a roll Hollywood is trying to cast for Hispanic or black, they are limited on their choices. If you are a minority in Hollywood, when casting directors are looking for your ethnicity, you don't have to fight as many people because everyone who is not that ethnicity is out. Less competition.

There is also the fact that is my main topic. If you are a minority, mainly black, you can shout racism and people believe you, even if the event isn't racist at all. There is a "crying wolf" epidemic going around. There is so much real racism and fake racism that it is hard to tell the difference and everyone is shouting it all the time. But lately racism is only given to (mainly) the blacks. Even the definition is all screwed around for other benefits. In the movie "Dear White People" (I will get to the name in a second) a black girl was called racist because her radio show titled Dear White People talks about all the stupid things white people do. She tells the principal who called her racists (and he is black himself) that black people cannot be racist because "racism describes a system of disadvantage  based on race. Black people cannot be racist since we don't stand to benefit from such a system." While other definitions are saying that if you hate on someone based on their racist and believe your race is superior. With so many contradicting definitions it is hard to understand it all. Especially for someone who has ever experienced discrimination at school or work because of the color of my skin.    

There are so many videos all over Youtube that talk about these sort of topics, cultural appropriations, racism, etc. What is the bad part. They are directed toward white people. And people call some of them out saying things along the lines of "They hate white people. They are saying screw white people." Those Youtubers then try to argue saying "I have never said I hated white people."

No they didn't. But a lot of people think that certain directors are racist and hate black people because one of their movies are entirely cast of white people. The director never said they hate black people, so where is this message coming from?

In between the lines.  

People assume or infer something based on the fact and situations around it. If someone you were once friends with stop talking to you and blatantly ignores you to your face, one can infer that they are angry with you. They never said it or yelled at you, but their silent message came through.

So when a video talks about cultural appropriation and the picture examples are all of white people dressed or "appropriating" a MINORITY race (*Big on minority because if a white person who is 99% German dresses like a stereotypical Frenchman, both predominantly white races, and they have no close relation to French, it is not appropriation according to the media) people infer that they think that only white people commit cultural appropriation.

Now her is my biggest issue I want to get very serious with. I'm not here to talk about cultural appropriation. That was an example of reading between the lines. What I am here to talk about is the racism against white people, and here is where the black (or minority) privilege come into play. That video I explained was one example. Another big example is the countless videos about white people pronouncing words, specifically names. There are videos titled "American Pronounce Latino Names" (Americans meaning white)  or "Dear Teacher: learn how to pronounce ethnic students names" (the thumbnail says "Dear White Teacher") and "Vlog 5: Dear White People: Y U Can't Pronounce Foreign Names?! // Joon Lee."

I'm going to answer that last video's question. 

I grew up learning things like this.

J makes this sound.

H makes this sound.

X makes this sound.

Q is always followed by U and makes this sound.

CH makes this sound.

So on and so on an so on.

English is a weird language. The comedian Brain Reagan perfectly demonstration  this.

He explains the I before E rule (with tons of sarcasm).

I before E except after C and when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh, and on weekends and holidays and all throughout May, and you'll always be wrong no matter what you say.

Here is where the trouble comes in. In general the "Dear white people" is directed towards stupid white Americans. When we are told all our lives that J makes a hard sound, then we meet someone names Jose where the J is basically non existent (makes a sound) then we are going to pronounce it wrong on our first try (in some cases 2-5 tries). But most kids learn Juan and Jose. But what about names like Nian, Saoirse, Quvenzhane, Aguirregaray, Harikiran, Acel, Tea, Teasha, Xing, Akihito, Agoston, Agnieska, or Hadassah. Read them with English phonetics, they will be wrong almost 100% of the time. Different languages pronounce the sounds of letters differently, have their own letters, or ad symbols over and around the words that differentiate the sounds like in Pena (Carlos Pena) and Peña (Peña Nieto). Now people from other countries may not have this problem because they grew up learning their native tongue and English so they have learned the differences. But lately there are so many names that are spelled one way in English (and it is a white American with that name) but you must pronounce it differently. One of the best (yet very sad) examples is the name Female. Now most of you read that as the gender. But there was a story about a woman who names her daughter Female because it was already on the basket that the nurse brought her in. The name is pronounces Fuh-mall-ee, which isn't a bad name, but it really should be spelled more like Femily, like Emily but with an F at the beginning.

See, you don't know how to pronounce something unless someone tells you how. That is the basics to learning how to speak in any language, learning to speak in general. With teacher, I have had some be able to pronounce names that I often heard in class pronounced wrong, but most of the time, the student had to correct them. In elementary school the kids were annoyed by this because their family members all pronounced their names right (this isn't just with first names, one that was often said wrong was Dalrumple). But in high school, it was a normal thing for teachers to get names wrong and kids correct them. With substitutes some didn't even bother correcting them, they just said "here"
when the teacher said a name that was often how other teachers have mispronounced them. The mispronunciation of their name was just part of life, like those who lose their arms learn to live with that and it's extra challenges. Teacher were often nice and would give a disclaimer before hand saying, "I am terrible with names, so I apologize if I butcher it. Just correct me" and when the student did, they wrote the phonetics in the margins. Teachers in high school have over 200 names to memorize so sometimes it took about a week to put names to faces and remember how to say names that are foreign to teacher. 

By foreign I don't always mean names from other countries. Names that are English sounding names but spelled very weird. Sometimes teacher once knew a Quvenzhane, but had never seen nor heard the name Xing before. It just depends on their name background and education. 

So why do people not know how to pronounce your name? Because it is not spelled phonetically in their language and they have never been told how to spell it. 

And lets stop hating white people. Mainly American white people. Every ethnicity can be jerks and every ethnicity can be racist. But racism is wrong. No one has control over their natural skin tone, where they were born, or who they were raised by. We should judge people by their choices, because that is what they do have control over, and it is what shows us who they truly are. Not their different pigmented skin.