When a person of color, especially if they're black like me, affirms their support for causes such as queer liberation, feminism, animal rights, or socialism, I immediately feel that I can believe, with minimal doubt, that they're truly convicted and principled in what they're advocating for.

However, when a white person claims to support leftism, until my skepticism is proven wrong, I immediately assume they're a dishonest and performative libshit. I then proceed to interact with them with hefty amounts of caution. If my assumptions are proven true, I'm never shocked.

  • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
    ·
    7 months ago

    We're not talking about keeping wreckers out, we're at "I don't trust a white person unless they have a biracial kid, and even then maybe not." There has never been a sizable leftist movement in the U.S. with that kind of thinking. I don't see any realistic path to one with that approach, either. I don't know of any AES state (Cuba is probably the most relevant example to the U.S.) that has addressed racism and discrimination in a similar fashion.

    I don't know how we can read Gerald Horne and have 100 threads about how racial categories were invented to keep poor people at each other's throats and then just do exactly that. I don't know how we can nod along to Engles on pre-patriarchical family structures or Graeber on pre-capitalist economies then think whatever we're doing in this thread is revolutionary.

    • Amerikan Pharaoh@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      7 months ago

      If White people collectively want trust, they can show and prove that they deserve it. Til then, the very idea that a lasting accord can be found in the plantation empire is honestly kinda laughable to me; and informs my research into valid presentations of Black Nationalism (we don't do that Black Hebrew or NFAC shit here). There is still a bill 400 years long that hasn't even started to be paid back yet, and frankly, I've lost the faith that it even will be paid back without organized and disciplined formation.

      • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]
        ·
        7 months ago

        I think people (myself included tbf im not going to act all high and mighty about this) are insecure about the idea that they’re ontologically evil because they’re white. Idk

        Edit: it does seem like a toxic and silly thing to be insecure about. No one owes us trust.

        • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
          ·
          7 months ago

          I would hope people are uncomfortable with being labeled ontologically evil purely on the basis of their skin color; that's a ridiculous notion that is not remotely leftist.

          • EelBolshevikism [none/use name]
            ·
            7 months ago

            Well, the thing is that no one is saying we’re ontologically evil. It’s just something people ASSUME they’re saying because they say they don’t trust us. It’s understandable to feel hurt but it doesn’t mean you’re ontologically evil if someone can’t afford to trust you