“Shit White Girls Say to Black Girls” – Racism or Critical Cultural Commentary?
There is a meme sensation sweeping the internet!! It all started with “Shit Girls Say.” The concept is that someone (often those who are not a member of the group who is being mocked) mocks the things that a group of people stereotypically say. Simple enough . . . and sometimes HILARIOUS.
We’ve got Shit Yogis Say, Shit Girls Say to Gay Guys, Shit Rednecks Say (“Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!”), Shit White Feminists Say, and Shit Guys Don’t Say (or guys not named Jamie Utt). The meme has had the power to do some great mocking and cultural commentary and to point out some important realities. For instance, Shit Everybody Says to Rape Victims and Part II (WARNING, CAN BE TRIGGERING TO SURVIVORS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE) does a fantastic job of highlighting the ways that survivors of sexual violence are often blamed, shamed, and ignored when they seek help after their trauma.
One of the most popular of these videos is Shit White Girls Say . . . To Black Girls:
This particular take on the meme caused the internet (and particularly the Twitterverse) to EXPLODE. Charges of racism were thrown at the video’s creator, comedian and blogger Franchesca Ramsey. In response, people tried to explain how this is not racism but in fact is trying to highlight the type of racism that Black Women must deal with every day coming from White Women.
Gift Giving and Gender Socialization
One thing I will never understand is how completely wed so many of us are to traditional gender norms, particularly in the way we raise children. Even progressive folks who would never say “a woman’s place is in the kitchen” freak out when a little boy is in a pink outfit or when a little girl is given a GI Joe instead of a Barbie.
This is never more frustrating to me than during the holidays. My nieces and nephew (on another note, is there a gender-neutral term for my sibling’s children?) are awesome but slightly spoiled. Each and every family member showers them in gifts to the point that they can’t decide what to play with . . . there are too many options. Some of these gifts are awesomely-gender-neutral like the shopping carts that the kids (boys and girls alike) loved to fill with toys and push around the house. Others were as gendered as you can get (also note their outfits):
Aiden on His "Cat" Car
Abbie on Her "Princess" Car
At one point, Aiden climbed onto the “Princess” car, and one person in the family exclaimed, “Aiden! You can’t ride that car! That one’s for girls!” Then his older sisters (5 and 3) started echoing the sentiment.
Guest Blog – Confronting My Own Racism
I’m always looking for interesting new formats and approaches to the blog, partially as a way to challenge myself as an author and partially to keep my readers interested. This week I thought it would be fun to publish a piece by a friend and ally, and throughout the piece, I would pose the questions and thoughts that came up for me as I read it the first time. Below you will find Josh Friedberg’s piece and my reflections in text boxes. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on the piece in the comments section below!
Josh Friedberg is an emerging essayist, music historian, and singer-songwriter. A recent graduate of Earlham College, he looks forward to attending graduate school and publishing an essay on racism in narratives of rock music history. You can check out Josh’s blog by visiting Stuff Joshua D. Friedberg Does.
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It’s funny how much things can change in a few years. I don’t know if a person can go from being racist to not being racist anymore, but I hope I have. God knows what I used to believe about black people, about affirmative action, about what some call “ebonics”–my beliefs were racist as hell. And I have, I hope, sufficiently questioned those beliefs to uproot them permanently. I just hope I never go back to believing what I used to believe, in bitterness over anything. I really hope I’ve changed for good, for real, forever.
I can’t help but wonder if it is ever possible for White people to find a place where we are “not being racist anymore.” Is it possible to completely uproot our racist tendencies that have been so deeply ingrained? Part of me hopes that we can, but part of me wonders if that is simply an aspect of the weight we bear from our history and current reality.
Let Gay Men Donate Blood
To allow bigotry to contribute to a public health crisis leaves the realm of hurtful and enters the realm of absurdity, but that is exactly what is happening in the United States today.
Around the country, the American Red Cross is calling for donors to step up to donate blood in the face of severe blood reserve shortages in almost every state. In the context of this reality, blood donation centers are encouraging anyone eligible under federal guidelines to step forward and donate. But that meas that if you have had a tattoo in the least year or have visited a country where malaria is present in the last year, you’ve gotta wait a little.
Oh, and if you’re a man and have had sexual contact with a man since 1977, you can never donate blood. Not once. Never.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking: “WHAT!? That can’t be right! That is blatant homophobic discrimination!” Well, while it may be blatant homophobic discrimination, it is also federal law.
What’s worse is that you don’t need to be actually gay. Because of the law, screeners have turned away folks like Aaron Pace, a Straight Indiana man who was turned away from a donation center for appearing gay.
Now maybe you’re thinking, “Well, isn’t this just some sort of antiquated crap that just needs to be done away with?” Well, while it is antiquated poo that needs to be disposed of, it was upheld by the Congressional Health and Human Services Committee last summer.
Those in Congress and around the country who support the ban on Gay men donating blood point to the fact that half of new HIV infections in 2005 were among Gay men, but they ignore the fact that the fastest growing rates of HIV are among young women, African American women, and Hispanic women. Would the federal government consider banning African American women from donating? No! That’s absurd. Such a policy would not even be considered, and if it were enacted, public outcry against the racism and sexism would be loud.
After all, blood banks are now required to screen all blood with advanced screening processes to ensure that it is safe for transmission to those who need it. Thus, there is no need for supposed “lifestyle questions” that blatantly discriminate against Gay men. So what explanation is there for discriminating?
Privilege and Housing Discrimination
In what seems like a second full-time job, I have spent much of the last few weeks house hunting in the Denver area. Holy cow has it been a pain in the butt. Denver has one of the highest occupancy rates in the U.S., with less than 5% of housing available for purchase or rent at any given time. For me, that has meant that with most places I called to visit or fill out a housing application, there seem to be 10-15 other people competing for the same space. Thus, I have spent tons of time chasing down dead-ends, all the while getting more and more frustrated and worried that I wouldn’t be able to find something I like before moving out of my apartment in less than two weeks.
Fortunately, though, my housemates and I think we’ve found a place that we can love. Though it will take some TLC, we should be able to comfortably live in a space with a garden and a back yard for the pup to run around. Whew.
As I toasted my housemates last night in celebration of finding a place (though I should cross my fingers as credit checks still have to go through and the lease must be signed), I couldn’t help but say, “As difficult as that process was, we really had it easy! Think of how much harder that would have been if my skin was brown!”
We, three white dudes with college educations and stable jobs, then started rattling off all of the aspects of identity that would have made finding housing so much more difficult: race, ability, education, employment, credit history, immigration status, ability to speak English fluently, sexual orientation (or perceived sexual orientation), religion. All of these and more can affect one’s ability to find housing.
