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Originally Posted by Vanilla
Why do people think that because you're white and middle class you're not allowed to have opinions about things that may not affect you? Or opinions about racism and minorities? There is such a thing as having a factual, well researched argument not dependent on your background.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Trollheart
Well I went at it with Roxy over this and basically I got told "You're not black so your opinions don't count", or some variant of that. I let it go in the end because our friendship was starting to come under threat, but it still doesn't seem right to me.
This was, in fairness, in response to my thread about that woman getting arrested and then "hanging herself" in prison a little while back, and I understand feelings may have been a bit raw, but still, I don't see any reason why I, you or any other white or non-black person should not be allowed to express our outrage over the crimes and injustices perpetrated against those who are not our own race... not that I will stop doing that of course.
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I don't know, I think there are definitely situations in which I as a well-off white guy have to take a step back and refrain from discussing certain issues. I don't really think this is one of those situations, but in general I'm pretty sympathetic to arguments like that - and I don't know that it's up to me, when discussing more fraught situations like the policy brutality thing you mention, to decide when I have to bow out of a discussion because I'm offending someone or because I'm coopting a narrative that should belong to poor people/people of color/women/whatever. Basically: if my support for equality or for marginalized groups of people is ever making people who belong to those groups leave a discussion because I'm talking about them in a way that's dehumanizing or offensive, I'm not really supporting equality or those people.
But yeah, I sort of don't think that applies here - whether the studies I cite and the arguments I make are accurate doesn't really depend on my class. But if I'm talking about the experiences of others, I absolutely want to know if the way I'm talking about those experiences is a problem.