The Pitters' Place

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8UTj8lQJhY

I haven't watched the video (because it's potentially triggering); so I might be wrong in what it's about. But based on the summary and discussion around it it's an Asian woman being silenced for relating her experience of being racially harassed by a black man, saying black people can be racist too. She was told that she was wrong because racism requires power.

When I was in NYC, the two instances I had people shouting racial slurs at me while walking down the street were both from black people. I'd previously considered that just racism, but then that contradicts my agreement that racism requires power (which is why POC can't be racist towards white people, just prejudiced). Yet this doesn't feel comparable to that, just like how it also seems to be racism when non-black POC express anti-black sentiments. Is it racism in those cases because it appropriates power, or is it just prejudice because the perpetrators themselves don't have power?

EDIT: I guess this also extends to things like whether it's sexism when women are misogynist. I'm inclined to think yes, because there is power involved, even if the power is not theirs.

Some helpful things to think about(things I'm sure you're aware of)...

1) Prejudice can go in any direction, but racism has a specific historical path and purpose

2) It's possible for black individuals to support white supremacy against Asians

3) Black people being "racist" against Asians is not black supremacy(since that doesn't exist); but, again, an expression of white supremacy

4) Supporting white supremacy against Asians does not benefit black people collectively(aside from certain individuals with power who are trying to ingratiate themselves with power; which anyone in any position can and has done); and in fact backfires since anti-blackness is the historical core/crux of white supremacy(Because anti-blackness is the fulcrum of white supremacy, any expression of white supremacy in inherently anti-black at it's core).

5) And because of this fulcrum and the historical dynamics of race, and the unique position Asians take within the "hierarchy" Asians have historically/collectively benefited from anti-blackness while still being harmed by white supremacy(like how poor whites might benefit from white supremacy but are also harmed by it because of the link between race and class). But blacks have not and cannot collectively benefit from anti-Asian sentiments. So, it's a bit rich for an Asian person to be complaining about how "racist" black people can be.

6) The desire to blame black people for white supremacy(or to obfuscate the issue and pretend black supremacy is a thing, or that there isn't a specific historical dynamic at play) is a classic expression of anti-blackness. And Asians do this notoriously. So, I am very suspicious of this woman's intentions. And if you ever watch the video and read the comments, you'll notice the sheer amount of racist/anti-black support she is getting for this. Not an accident or innocent coincidence.

7) People that attempt to dilute/obfuscate critical conversations/movements about race with simplistic, bullshit kumbaya talk about prejudice/hurt feelings are annoying, whiny assholes who know what they are doing on some level.

Thanks for breaking it down like this.

I agree with your points - 2 and 3 probably cover it, while I hadn't thought about 4 and how it can backfire.

I read a couple comments and stopped, because YouTube comments are vile that way.

I'd wondered about all this previously - the reason why anti-Asian comments from black people (and other POC) hurt wasn't because I thought they had any power over me or that there was any black supremacy, but because it recalled similar sentiments from white people, which did have that power, and brought back that same pain. So in that sense it was invoking power while still punching up, and didn't fit nicely into either the racism or prejudice boxes. This helped me disentangle my thoughts, thanks.

An example of this dynamic(apparently Aziz Ansari made an ignorant comment somewhere recently; not sure if it was in his show or real life):

DEAREST AZIZ

When you're making commentary about racism and proclaim that, “no one cares about racism unless it happens to blacks or gays", keep in mind that this is the highest police murder rate towards black people since 1923, that's right… Jim Crow south.

However police murders and overall crime has decreased significantly in the last 20 years. Keep in mind that a police officer raped 13 black women, and there are countless white people donating to Holtzclaw's defense found.

Keep in mind that, black people make up less than 3% of the Israeli population, but account for almost half of the deaths by law enforcement. Keep in mind that Black people born and raised in France and Italy still have to apply for citizenship at the age of 18, in spite of the fact that many countries in North Africa took in European refugees during WWI and WWII.

Keep in mind that black women are some of the largest populations sold into sex trafficking. Keep in mind that though black women have the highest rates of college graduation, they still have the lowest rates of employment in their field of study, and are least likely to be hired for more than a minimum wage job.

Keep in mind that when talking about racism towards Asians, that there were shops in Japan and China that wouldn't let in black people, because of “ebola", but sought to still trade with they were having an outbreak of avian flu. Keep in mind that a Asian family adopted an African child to harvest her for organs.

Keep in mind that we are not welcome into your families, but it's a lovely joke to you.

Keep these things in mind when you covet AAVE for laughs and cultural flare, but step on our necks because you expect us to cry for you, when in many Asian countries, the reject black people as citizens.

- Sincerely MGMT.

P.S. eat a dick

I might be wrong here, but I thought that in the US the term 'Asian' is commonly used to mean East Asian specifically, and often excludes Indians? (vs how in the UK it primarily refers to Indians.) The Asian American communities I was exposed to in the US were all East and Southeast Asians.

While I agree with the larger point of the letter and the first half is all good, in many East Asian countries including here there is a lot of racism against Indians, particularly dark-skinned ones, such that it doesn't seem fair to use the China/Japan example since most of them would have just as quickly discriminated against Indians like Aziz. I see it all the time in my daily life. The majority of racism here is targetted against Indians, so identifying Aziz with an ethnicity that continues to oppress his doesn't sit right with me. I wish they could have used better examples.

EDIT: I looked up the adoption organ harvesting case, and it's again an East Asian family. It seems they were also later found innocent, while the organ harvesting thing was unsubstantiated speculation that took on a life of its own: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/matthew-gra ... -in-qatar/

This is a good one:

http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2015/ ... -of-color/

Regarding anti-blackness and white supremacy.

http://www.racefiles.com/2012/05/04/bla ... e-fulcrum/

Thanks! I like the fulcrum illustration.