Newly reported White People (ally/accomplice) BUG

Two blue-toned butterflies close up on a leaf.

I figure since this is a tech/geek blog, it will be useful to report these issues as bugs and hope that White People (their own developers/support) think to make it a priority to fix. Note this means I don’t have to fix it for ya’ll, just notify you of the problem.

Subject: Violent ideation/fantasy for people of color to carry out

Now, I get that white allies and accomplices are on our side. That’s cool. I’m glad you’re working for us and have our best interests at heart. That said, keep your violent fantasies to yourself. The oft-repeated trope where a white person fancies (fant’sies) that people of color harbor violent revenge impulses (that might lead to violent revolution, e.g.) is not helpful. I know you say it out of helpless rage. I get that you say it out of support. But it’s not helpful.

Because People of Color (and other minorities), we’ve had that impulse beaten out of us by your cops. We, in general (note, we’re not monolithic, but I have talked about this topic with a number of folks who are in minority groups – confirmation bias: they’re not violent revolutionaries in general) don’t want to kill whitey. Certainly there are times when the impulse rises (when one of your kind is particularly troublesome or threatening). But generally, like most white people, we just want to be left alone to live our lives in a just system, with a fair chance at achieving a happy ending.

Would we like to live in a just system that your problematic friends and relatives keep saying we’ve already achieved? Absolutely. Would we settle for your kind to stop claiming an equality that doesn’t exist? Many of us would. Do we want violent revolution where the most likely penalty is violent, painful death? Nope.

Your fantasies about it promote an unhealthy vein of conversation. They set up your police to tend to assume that any possible, imagined reason to shoot us is totally justified. They set up your juries to find us guilty for carrying a pack of skittles, guilty of complaining that we can’t breathe when in placed in a chokehold, or guilty of carrying plumbing. For which the penalty is already death.

I think, on balance, one way you could help is by not “empathizing” or sympathizing with this imagined violent us. We aren’t violent. We just want a fair chance to live.

Anyway, there’s your bug report. Now go ahead and fix yourselves and issue a patch for other white folks to use.

, ,