talking with two people in tinychat into the wee hours of the morning got me thinking about something.
i know plenty of people have said it before, but i’m going to say it from my own seat.
any time i see a call for donations by a person of colour i automatically cringe. i cringe inside not only because i’m working a free fucking internship and i have no money to give them myself, but because i know somewhere down the line in the litany of reblogs somebody is going to pop into the conversation questioning the desperation of the person of colour who made the post in the first place. somebody is going to come out of pocket with their racist, classist bullshit doubting whether that person is truly worthy and spouting their epically less than helpful “words of wisdom” that basically amount to “if you’re financially struggling. why don’t you get off your ass {or your blog} and get a damn job”. and nine times out of ten, the person calling a POCs financial desperation into question is usually a white person.
and no matter how many other POCs reblog that post saying “well if you don’t believe that person, don’t reblog the post” or even giving well reasoned explanations on how the lives of many POCS are not an endless cash flow, it never seems to make a difference. it never seems to work
and honestly, that shit blows me
it blows me because how many examples exist out there of white people attempting to change things because many are in dire financial straits?
it blows me because what is Occupy Wallstreet? a white person’s revolution hoping to change the economic and political infrastructure that subsequently influences economic policy in this country
its blows me because what are socialism, communism, anarchism, and other leftist movements in this country? attempts by white people to change the socio-economic status quo by way of redistributing the wealth and giving the proletariat, a phrase which places its origins in the working class struggle of white Europeans, a better standard of living and living wage at that. {along with changing the political infrastructures that allow wealth to be concentrated in a minority of the population}
most importantly, it blows me because do you know how difficult it is to put yourself out on front street as a person of colour who is admitting to the world that they need help?
do you know how difficult it is, how it feels as a POC {specifically a black woman} to stare down the stereotype of the welfare queen knowing hey without welfare some people of colour may not even be alive or able to get by?
do you know how it feels to basically be told you don’t deserve the help you’re so desperately asking for? to be made a rhetorical problem by white politicians {of all stripes really, its not limited to republicans} seeking to solidify their political power through promising they will get rid of people abusing welfare? and the people abusing welfare is most often thought to be you regardless of how true that is
its basically being told that sorry, because you didn’t work hard enough by our standards and now find yourself struggling, you don’t deserve to be helped because how can we really trust you brown person when you say that you’re actually financially struggling. for all we know you might be pulling the wool over our eyes.
its being told, sorry, you don’t have a right to a liveable holistic standard of living unless you’re willing to burn yourself out attempting to accomplish what, for many, is the impossible. and we, the harbringers of white supremacy, get to deny you the right to not run yourself into the ground trying to survive on the petty basis that we’re not willing to believe you’re actually struggling.
or the bar is set so high that only a few POC would be able to obtain it. and such a bar is predicated in notions of the good, worthy deserving brown person who meets all of white supremacy’s criteria.
i’m so epically sick of of the “forever suspicious” shitting on people of colour who are asking for help from their loved ones on tumblr
and i’m so sick of white folks not checking each other on the inherently racist rhetoric that comes with “suspecting” that a person of colour is lying about being in dire straits and openly expressing it time and time again.
especially those who claim to be anti racist
especially those who claim to be about the class struggle and quote from the book of “white male revolutionaries talking about class struggle”
come collect your people
and start educating yourselves on how POCs are constantly accused of jacking jobs
jacking resources
in a system they didn’t create
barely benefit from
and struggle to access successfully
without shame or fear
