Are you offended by whites making racist comments about whites?

[Joe Republic]

^^^ Someone did a (pretty good but not perfect) Blubb of you over the past couple of days by registering/posting under your name.

Pretty good?  Really?

[TDAS04]

Nope.

[Torie]

No, it is more of a LOL matter really. Granted in some instances, based on one's personal experiences, such racism might be understandable, if not justifiable. In that case it saddens me that the person in question has had such unpleasant experience with persons lacking color.

[Хahar 🤔]

No, but I'm not white.

Please explain.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Yes, I am.  It cheapens actual racism into something "ironic" and ultimately leads to white people pretty much being desensitized to their own racism.

[SWE]

No, but I'm not white.

Please explain.

No offense, but do you think they happen to be the only minority here?

Yes, I doubt Xahar is capable of imagining someone who isn't white joining atlas.

[TNF]

Not really, but the kind of person who typically engages in this kind of behavior probably has a huge guilt/self-hate complex that tends to be really annoying as a general rule

[ElectionsGuy]

No, but I'd be concerned by racist comments usually. And usually, they're annoying liberal whites, so it would be good to ignore them.

[PJ]

I don't have a positive opinion of it, but there are bigger fish to fry.

[Badger]

I'd be WAY more offended by a metalhead making fun of my music or South Park making fun of liberals than if some black guy called me a "stupid cracker" or whatever.

Get help if those things offend you.

[Gustaf]

No, but I'm not white. However, there is one phrase I definitely object to: calling white working-class people "white trash", which is something I heard quite often from liberal friends who don't like the way white working-class people tend to vote. I will always voice my opposition on that. People, regardless of color, are not "trash", period.

Oh, there are tons of people that are trash.

I've heard people oppose it on the grounds that white trash kind of implies that there is something remarkable about white people being poor or misbehaved, so that there is a subtle racism in it.

I think there is something to that, but on the other hand the term has a specific meaning by now that I think is independent from that aspect.

[DemPGH]

No, mainly because I don't know of any true instances of white-on-white racism. It's always the dominant criticizing the dominant. I do not consider, for instance, redneck jokes to be racist, or rebel flag jokes to be racist. It's like a few years ago when I drove by a very dilapidated, ramshackle house with junk out on the front porch and an old guy sitting on a swing in the front yard which featured a Romney sign. That's self-deprecation, IMO. He was unquestionably one of the forty-seven percent.

[TNF]

'White-on-white racism' isn't really a thing, but there are a certain group of white people who live in suburban or urban areas, work as professionals or in some kind of 'post-industrial' (and not service sector, either) job, and hold liberal or 'progressive' political views that absolutely hate other white people who have the misfortune of not being able to pronounce quinoa, going to brunch, or alternatively watching NASCAR or professional wrestling. It's not 'racism', but its very obviously class hate on the part of a particularly impotent segment of the white population that fears/finds the working class white person disgusting. This, of course, is all fine and good, because in America, class is treated as something that doesn't really exist, or is alternatively a set of stereotypical attitudes and behaviors that apply only to certain kinds of working class people (i.e. white men).

And, of course, that petty bourgeois segment of the white population can always defend itself against accusations of bigotry by going into how much they love blacks and Latinos. Of course, this is only because they don't live anywhere near those populations, and have a conceptions of those groups of people that fit in neatly with their own guilt-wracked conscience. The closer they come into contact with those groups, the more obvious their racism toward them, as is currently the case in Seattle where the mayor is cracking down on Hookah bars, or in New York City, where Democratic Party politicians made entire careers out of being 'tough of crime' (Ed Koch comes to mind), which in American political parlance has always been about arresting and incarcerating young black men.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Again what's the golden rule? You can get away with nearly anything in speech as long as it's funny

Unfortunately whites making anti-white comments almost never fall into that category.

[DavidB.]

'White-on-white racism' isn't really a thing, but there are a certain group of white people who live in suburban or urban areas, work as professionals or in some kind of 'post-industrial' (and not service sector, either) job, and hold liberal or 'progressive' political views that absolutely hate other white people who have the misfortune of not being able to pronounce quinoa, going to brunch, or alternatively watching NASCAR or professional wrestling. It's not 'racism', but its very obviously class hate on the part of a particularly impotent segment of the white population that fears/finds the working class white person disgusting. This, of course, is all fine and good, because in America the Netherlands, class is treated as something that doesn't really exist, or is alternatively a set of stereotypical attitudes and behaviors that apply only to certain kinds of working class people (i.e. white men).

And, of course, that petty bourgeois segment of the white population can always defend itself against accusations of bigotry by going into how much they love blacks and LatinosMuslim immigrants. Of course, this is only because they don't live anywhere near those populations, and have a conceptions of those groups of people that fit in neatly with their own guilt-wracked conscience. The closer they come into contact with those groups, the more obvious their racism toward them.

I actually happen to entirely agree with this. Nowadays, European "progressives" don't seem to be interested in "lifting up the working class" because they assume minorities will make sure they'll end up in elected office anyway: they think they don't need the working class anymore, forgetting the fact that their whole political existence used to be / should be based on helping these people. So now, European "progressives" like to mock and to stamp on the (white) working class for its political views and its alleged racism. Sure, some of them are racist, but it's not as if progressives aren't as bigoted - their bigotry is just a different kind of bigotry, influenced by the fact that latte liberals are not the ones who live in deprived neighborhoods. And progressives never addressed working-class racism as a problem when they still voted Labour anyway.

The newest progressive trend of implementing minority quotas will hurt white working-class people even more.

[Bigby]

Not offended, but I disapprove. I kind of agree with TNF that the snooty, high-income left-wing whites hate on whites such as myself (Southerner here) and that their love for minorities is superficial and a sham at best. White on white racism is a thing, as there are several oikophobic whites, which said snooty hipsters are included in that category.

[RFayette]

Not offended, but I disapprove. I kind of agree with TNF that the snooty, high-income left-wing whites hate on whites such as myself (Southerner here) and that their love for minorities is superficial and a sham at best. White on white racism is a thing, as there are several oikophobic whites, which said snooty hipsters are included in that category.

If you're familiar with the Update, this is very true.  Whites in Oklahoma (with Bushie and his family being considered "normal" for Oklahoma ) are derided for anti-intellectualism, lousy health habits and eating choices, etc. when similar insults could be levied at inner-city blacks.  Of course, the Updaters would be far less likely to say the things they say about Bushie when discussing inner-city issues.

 Granted, given the troubled history of the latter group, I think it's reasonable not to be too hard on them, but this contradiction does indeed exist when discussing cultural mores.

[All Along The Watchtower]

All I can add to this conversation is that white people tend to see racism as something that other (white) people are responsible for, not themselves (or other people like them, in their neighborhood/town/city/etc.) Thus, it's no surprise that educated middle-class white people in urban/suburban areas who like to think of themselves as being "tolerant" and who abhor (openly) racist sentiment externalize racism onto other white people who are not like them (rural, less-educated, working-class, downscale....etc.)

It was TNF (IIRC) who astutely pointed out that seeing racism primarily as something that individuals do to other individuals (as opposed to racism being part of a broader system of power and dominance) is the liberal way of seeing racism. Considering that liberals tend to be educated and middle-class, and that the middle-class is more "individualistic" in its culture than the working-class and the poor, that also makes sense.

As far as politics is concerned....look at the 60s, 70s, and 80s. George Wallace may have been popular among some segments of working class white voters (North and South), but it was the likes of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan  - with their less crass, more elitist and sanitized version of right-wing campaigning and governance - who could easily appeal to more upscale, educated, and suburbanized white voters while simultaneously capitalizing on popular white opposition to the expansion of civil rights.