Monday, November 21, 2005

Tip: If you're white, here's a style guide to when you might want to shut the hell up.

Now, as a black person, our culture has a concept we call shutting the hell up. This is if you're going to say something stupid, you avoid saying it. Sometimes, cultural appropiation can be a good thing.

1)If you're about to utter a sentence that has the words 'reverse racism' in them, and you're not making fun of the stupid. There are many good books that explain what the word 'racism' means, and what racism is. Read them.

2)If you're about to call blacks or anyone else 'racist'. Read a book, and remember- whites do not have a special anti criticism clause, not to mention, why don't you change your own damn behavior before talking about shit you don't know about?

3)If you're about to talk about how white men can't get a break in this society, shut up and read a book. Also, try to appropiate the concept of 'reality'. You know, stuff that's actually happening?

4)If you're going to talk about how the fact that you ate ramen noodles for a week because you were in between parental handouts means that you triumphed over poverty, and so everyone should be able to do this. (Ok, this is actually pan racial.)

5)If you are going to talk about black culture, shut the hell up. Rap videos are part of black culture like rock videos are part of white culture(although whites tend to control the production of rap more than blacks control the production of rock). It's a very small part. Also, making shit up based on racist notions from 1840 is just plain dumb.

6)If you're going to talk about how blacks do X, because you once saw one black do X, shut the hell up. I mean there are documented cases(i.e. not made up) of white people eating human flesh, but I am sure this is not typical behavior. Yea, I'm sorry that the black kids in your school beat you up. Maybe it was because you were an asshole.

7)If you want to talk about how you're not attracted to black people, shut the hell up. No one cares that you're a racist asshole who can't tell millions of people who look completely different apart. And don't talk about your weird Asian fetish- it's a bit creepy.

8)Don't talk about Africa at all unless you actually know something about it. You should hopefully have a masters before you open your mouth. And on Africa- fool.

9)Don't talk about how famous blacks would be for a whites only America. If you can read this, you can read their work, fool.

10)Don't talk about how black people are lying about racism. There's tons of books on the existence of racism, dumbass. Reality- it's a good idea.

11)Basically, if you don't know shit, have an inflated sense of entitlement or are just being a dumbass, shut the hell up. Ok, that's pan racial, but the system of white supremacy allows whites to show that they are douchebags a whole lot. Maybe a good start in not being a douche would be reading the online articles of Tim Wise.

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