Why do I lack the ability to trust white people who claim to be progressive or leftist?
Why do I lack the ability to trust white people who claim to be progressive or leftist?
When a person of color, especially if they're black like me, affirms their support for causes such as queer liberation, feminism, animal rights, or socialism, I immediately feel that I can believe, with minimal doubt, that they're truly convicted and principled in what they're advocating for.
However, when a white person claims to support leftism, until my skepticism is proven wrong, I immediately assume they're a dishonest and performative libshit. I then proceed to interact with them with hefty amounts of caution. If my assumptions are proven true, I'm never shocked.
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like in an org or online? Also, do you find someone who is more bold in their stance i.e. outright identifies whether they are a marxist or anarchist to be more trustworthy?
Compared to libshits who say stuff like "I'm a socialist!" when they actually mean they want Bernie Sanders type social democracy, it does open the door a little, but I know that they could still be very much prone to hard-to-excuse shortcomings. There are also people who identify with labels like "Marxist", "anarchist", or "communist" without a lot of conviction, believe it or not. They might bring it up if they are asked about it, but they'll never mention it in their life beyond that point, at least not enough to really understand why their whiteness could make them unaware of the holes they may have in how they view the matters of things like oppression and racial activism.
There are also people who identify with labels like “Marxist”, “anarchist”, or “communist” without a lot of conviction, believe it or not
of course, didn't mean to imply otherwise sorry. i dont think there's anything "wrong" with it, it's quite rational to not trust white people (i am white, tbc), in that as you've said growing up as a white person can blind you to a lot, and if (pulling number out of my ass) 50+% of white leftists have this problem it would make less sense to not have some guard up. However, I do think it can be a mistake to go too far the other way and overtly trust someone for being a POC (not saying you are!), there are plenty of informants, compradors, etc, and even beyond that being genuine doesnt prevent someone from being completely misguided anyways. hopefully im making sense
Ultimately, I view this as a failing of american orgs in not properly combating white supremacist tendencies in their membership.
Honestly, I second the point about being skeptical of some POC too.
Funnily enough, despite what you read in my original post, I am actually bouncing back from what was a very long episode of internalized racism. I used to practically worship white people, and here I am now, doing what seems to be the opposite.
A lot of my internalized racism definitely stemmed from people within my own family, culture, and ethnicity treating me poorly throughout my life, especially in the context of me being queer. While I never grew to love those who personally wronged me, I stopped directing the blame toward my own race and more at what I see to be a more pressing matter: the blood that European imperialism and oppression has on its hands.
It now goes without saying that, if it weren’t for this violent history of white colonizers trying to dominate every other group of people on Earth, I feel like there’d be far more peace than what amounted today.
there are plenty of informants, compradors, etc,
"Skinfolk ain't always kinfolk" is the first lesson we should learn. (Ironically, I learned it from a family that couldn't decide if it wanted to be assimilationist(one side trying to groom me for a military career that would serve as a catapult to high-salary corporate life) or radical(getting huffy with me any time I brought home a white or a Latiné instead of a Black boy or girl), and ended up pulling the ladders up behind them in the first place)
sorry you've had to deal with that comrade