amazighprincex:

I keep getting questions about this, so I wrote up some basic guidelines as to how white people should interact with race issues on tumblr imo (and you can extend this to irl conversations too, with a little imagination)

do:

• reblog our rebloggable posts / PSAs about racism (when in doubt, ask the OP if something is okay to be reblogged)
• try to educate other white people with information you’ve gotten from people of colour, preferably linked or otherwise sourced. basically just collect your trash
• while you’re at it, be blunt. don’t say things like “ignorance” or “mistreatment,” say things like “racism” and “white supremacy”
• take on the burden of examining how your actions speak on your own. don’t expect us to tirelessly work to educate you or morally guide you or keep you in check
• however, listen when someone does decide to call you out
• look up what you can easily look up (e.g. word definitions, what acronyms stand for, etc). don’t use us dictionaries or encyclopaedias, we’re people
• make sure that you note that you’re white somewhere on your page, especially if you run an sj kind of blog

do NOT:

• make your own rebloggable posts / PSAs on anything relating to racism (I guarantee you a person of colour has already said it better, and you’d just be speaking over us and taking credit for it)
• reblog intracommunity posts or posts solely directed at other people of colour. a good guideline is that if reblogging that post would make anyone who doesn’t know your race assume that you’re anything other than white, don’t touch it
• reblog, make, or otherwise participate in white people jokes or insults against white people
• interact with posts that are tagged with something like “white people don’t touch” (obviously)
• expect that we will perform emotional labour for you simply because you demand it (e.g., ask us questions that we have indicated that we’re not open to, get upset if we don’t respond to you, etc.)
• reblog Orientalist, exotifying, or otherwise othering / voyeuristic photographs (e.g. pictures of brown kids with light eyes that were taken by white photographers, likely without permission or compensation, etc) because that’s really sketchy
• tag pictures of brown + Black bodies “aesthetic” if you don’t do the same with white bodies, because that’s also really sketchy
• tag pictures of Latin American / Asian / African countries with “travel” if you don’t do the same with literally every other place picture you reblog because, again, that’s really sketchy
• forget that, no matter how nice of a person you think you are, you still unavoidably benefit from our oppression for as long as the system of white supremacy is in place. don’t try to distance yourself from that

feel free to ask for clarification on any of this, I’ll answer if I feel like it. there’s more information of this kind in my notes for white people tag. also iaopoc can feel free to add to this list.