We Need To Talk About Racism

The discussion of race and colour has become ever present during the past year due to the shootings in Ferguson and the institutional racism across police forces in America. 

Racism is never acceptable, and should be stopped before it even has a chance to grow.

HOWEVER: Not everything to do with race or colour is racist.

I recently read a ludicrous article which stated that it is never ok for a white person to cosplay as a person of colour (POC). Personally, this is racist itself - saying that an act which is not racist is off limits to one race is racist. If white people want to accurately portray a character of colour, this is NOT blackface or racism towards whichever race they choose to portray.

For example,  Colton Hanes, star of Arrow, Teen Wolf, and much more, has been vilified on social media for dressing up as Kanye West and Ghandi (as if it is somehow racist to represent a black person as black) . Now, bearing in mind that Hanes is white, and that it was Halloween, what does this tell us? It shows that the world, especially the so-called 'online community', has become ultra PC, so much so, that it has become impossible to dress up as a fictional character with a different skin colour to you.

Another popular opinion which I hear repeated quite often is that it is not possible to be racist against white people. I also heard a speech by a black professor in America who says the same. For someone so interested in, and invested in racism, this is a remarkably arrogant and ignorant thing to say.

Racism is defined as baseless prejudice against a race or ethnic group. So much that I see on the internet is 'anti-white'; that white girls are basic, posts using 'white people be like...'. Take a moment to imagine the hashtag 'black people be like'. I wince even imagining the backlash from minorities. It never fails to amaze me how dense people can be when it comes to race, as if having less melanin and the shape of your eyes somehow means that you are immune to racism. It is also wrong to say that being white = being privileged, as if money comes out of the womb with you, and the shade of your skin determines how much. This is not to say that overall white people in the West are better off than minorities, but it is a gross generalisation to say that being white means that you have money.

Also, being white does not mean that you cannot be a minority - Most, if not all, of the victims of the French Kosher supermarket (the same shootings as Charlie Hebdo) shootings were whiteas well as Jewish, a definite minority.

We need to stop talking about white people as though they are responsible for every single terrible thing that has ever happened, and making fun of them for things that everyone does (how is liking Starbucks and Instagram a specifically white thing?)

You're not funny, you're racist, now stop.