Hi everyone,
I want to tread very carefully and gently here. Please respect that I am asking an honest question.
Is it possible to be insensitive to white people?
It seems like this is hardly ever acknowledged because the prevailing sentiment is that "the majority [white people] have oppressed the minority [everyone else]." Therefore, it's as if it's not acknowledged that the opposite could be partly true.
Of course I acknowledge that white people have historically had the upper hand. Let's make sure that's clear.
Though, I find that people tend to lump all "white" people into one huge group regardless of origin.
I guess I'm asking because I once had an experience where someone did that to me and I found it discomforting.
I'm from San Diego, CA; a pretty diverse place. My high school had a large and diverse population. One day I was in English class when some students near me started a discussion about race. It was an honest discussion and very interesting. The classmate sitting next to me was a young black woman. She was passionately trying to convey how she felt regarding perceived injustices committed against her because of her race.
Basically, she said that she placed the blame squarely on "white people." I asked her to specify what she meant and she insisted that white people were the ones who kept slaves and therefore it's their fault. I asked her what she thought about the idea that slavery was abolished many years ago and that society is trying it's best to make a positive move forward towards complete equality.
She said that it didn't matter. White people started it back then and so *all* white people today are responsible. That comment really surprised me. I asked her if she would include me, a 16 year old white girl from San Diego into that group. She emphatically retorted, "Yes, YOU are white therefore YOU are responsible."
I then asked her what she thought about the idea of white people being oppressed as well. She didn't go for that concept at all as she didn't think that was possible for white people.
I then explained to her that my family came to the United States from Poland. My family is 100% Polish on both sides and I still have relatives in Poland. I shared with her the story about how the Nazis marched into my grandfather's village during WWII and went about their business of terrifying people, taking belongings and sending people off to die.
My family, which is Roman Catholic, had the best farm in the area. The Nazis decided that they wanted our house for officer's barracks. My poor probabcia (great-grandmother) had to hide her children so that they wouldn't be killed, raped, or conscripted into the German army. My grandfather remembers her being able to convince the Nazis that they were strong and they could work the farm. My grandfather, who was born in the US and grew up in Poland, was sent back to the US by the family against his wishes. He was the only one with a US birth certificate and they wanted him to leave for the US so that he wouldn't die. Eventually, my family was spared when the Russians advanced from the other side and the Nazis fled.
I told my classmate, "My great-grandmother cried and begged the Nazi officers not to kill them or take her son (my grandad's brother) into the army. So, instead they took the house, the farm and made slaves of my family who were lucky to even be spared a trip to the death camps. Do you still maintain that, my family being 'white' could never understand oppression? Am I, as a 'white' girl, still included on your list of people who are responsible for colonial American slavery?"
Everyone fell silent.
She stammered, "Well you're an exception then" and went back to her work.
My post is NOT meant to say that people from racial or ethnic minorities have no case. My classmate had valid feelings and, for the most part, expressed them in an appropriate way. Granted, we were just teenagers then, but that's not the only time in my life I've had that type of conversation, just the best example of one such occassion.
I just wanted to express that I object to all white people being lumped into the category of "the man" who has been keeping everyone down. Some groups of white people have experienced hatred as well.
To this day, it breaks my heart to see my grandfather cry when he thinks back to the days when the Nazis came to town and how badly he was treated by others when he came to America. I was lucky to not have to have experienced that. Though, believe it or not, I still get rude racist remarks about "dumb Pollacks".
It isn't fair for anyone to have to experience racism and hatred. I do feel for groups who admittedly have larger hills to climb; but some people you may not had thought of before had to climb hills too.
Thank you for allowing me to share.
.....Kelly