But they don’t win, those people. I can be a police officer now because people like Rosa Parks fought that battle for me. For us. And in fifty-three years, they’ll have a black president as leader. Who knows where they’ll be fifty years after that, but that’s proper change. What? Were you born this positive? Guess so. Must be my Mexican blood.
Honestly? I kind of liked that the bad dude was racist too. It’s showing that yes, racism is still there, even in the future. Just because things change doesn’t mean it ever goes completly away.
Leading Lady Parts (2018) Dir. Jessica Swale
I only had to see the first four gifs to be sufficiently intrigued to immediately scroll down and click on the link to the full video and let me tELL YOU SOMETHING I WAS THUS NOT PREPARED FOR THE ENDING
Definitely worth a watch.
I just realized that the specific reason the 80s and 90s anti-racism preaching in the media failed is because it was entirely focused on emotions and bullying and self esteem, and now everyone thinks the only thing that racism affects is people’s feelings.
but in reality, personal emotions about one’s self are the FINAL, smallest, most individual, personal step in what racism does. it ALSO does so much astronomically more than that, and anyone who’s experienced it knows that on some level. it’s institutional; it’s woven inextricably into the fabric of not only our country, but our global system, too. and people are utterly blind to that.
popular culture still suggests that racism is wrong JUST because saying racist stuff hurts people’s feelings, and not because it’s a cultural attitude that informs every level of how our society operates; there is little awareness that racism is about ACTIONS, actions with no conscious intent behind them, not beliefs, which are intangible.
and now that the alt-right has popularized the idea that feelings are objectively stupid, there’s no longer ANY reason not to say racist things. because who cares about hurting other people’s FEELINGS? that’s the very last, smallest, most individual, personal thing you can possibly care about! 🙄
that’s why people are convinced nowadays that a public figure with wide-reaching influence can say racist things unapologetically without “being” racist. because to them, “being racist” isn’t the same as ACTING RACIST. It’s some internal belief—some character flaw—that only crazy people have, and if you’re ironic enough about it, there’s suddenly no harm in being openly racist for laughs.
when the truth is, ACTIONS MEAN MORE THAN BELIEFS. virulent racists are created and enabled by an almost unfathomably massive system of laws and conventions and tradition and lies that people tell themselves and each other. on a global scale.
people think racism is a thing people believe but somehow NOT a thing people DO.
