Remember Malcolm X said the rich white liberal was the most dangerous type of racist. NOT the typical poor Southerner exaggerated in the media. I always thought that was interesting... Now one thing I'll say is I'm a constitutionalist white man in US South, but like to expand my history after majoring it in college. More perspectives like this need to be standard in school as history just repeats itself when the masses forget. Anyways, great video man.
This is my lived experienced, I grew up around poor white people that were supposed to be the racist ones. Yet they were just like me, poor and trying to make it. I noticed as an adult what brother X said was right since it was always those rich white kids that was cussing me out for not "obeying" them.
@@DibbzTV Marx used the word 'depreciation' 35 times in the first two volumes of his major work. He wrote about the depreciation of machinery, the depreciation of money and moral depreciation. But he died in 1883. The first gasoline automobile appeared in 1885. Try finding an economist talking about what Americans lose on the depreciation of automobiles every year. How about every year since Sputnik? Then this brings up the issue of planned obsolescence. Adam Smith and Karl Marx never saw a Planned Obsolescence Consumer Economy. The Left and the Right seem out of date because of technology to me and then ni@@as act like there is something wrong with learning about it. Look at what is happening to the automobile market now. Honkys spent decades going into debt for junk designed to become obsolete while auto companies made useless variations while jacking up prices. People paying interest on depreciation! But Marx did not predict worker/consumers buying this kind of junk to depreciate. Some prophet!
This was very interesting and informative! I am mixed, black mom, white dad, but I look white. Blue eyes, pale skin, wavy hair. Mom and I talk politics almost daily, and during Bernie’s run for president, we were watching him talk about racial issues, to which he did poorly and brought up the fact that he was a part of the March on Washington as like his validation for understanding racial issues. My mom said something to the effect of like ‘I knew this was coming’. I asked what she meant, and said while she agreed with like him on economic issues, the problem is that people on the left think that if these economic issues are solved, then racism will be solved, and it’s just another way of like not looking at the racial issues, but the lefts versions. I had never thought of it that way until she broke it down, and now I see it a lot on the left. That same feeling I had talking to her of like “oh shit!” (but in a good way) is the same feeling I had listening to this.
I lived in Bernie's state for two months several years ago. He was the US Representative at the time. His state is relatively liberal but as far as black people are concerned in Vermont that is a strange phenomenon. People from Vermont were clueless when it came on to black people. Expecting more from Bernie was going to be a pipe dream.
Hmm. I never picked up on that. Bernie never made it sound like solving economic issues would solve racism 😂. And him marching on Washington is dope as fck, especially for the time. Y’all sway way too easy man
@@dwrighte1 I'll take it that most white people don't get what it's like to experience the kind of racism black people experience. If I have ever said things that appear class reductionist, it's usually in response to what I perceive as class omissionist narratives coming from the media, the corporate world, or white liberals. I feel that greater economic equality is *necessary* for reducing racism, but that's not really the same thing as saying it is *sufficient*. Giving people healthcare isn't going to solve racism, but neither is continuing neoliberal economic policy while merely having HR departments give "racial sensitivity training" to employees. The truth is racism is intertwined with economics. When racist policy makes it harder for an entire group of people to own anything, the effects of that will carry on for generations, even when the racist laws that caused it are no longer officially on the book. Most of the time I hear horribly racist reasoning, it's from right wingers who do this make-believe that everyone is born with the same opportunities when that's 100% blatantly false. Belief in economic meritocracy fuels their racism. Maybe a lot are already racist, but believing in economic meritocracy and other just world fallacy myths certainly entrenches it. I don't see liberals pushing back against these bullshit narratives as hard as the economic left does, regardless of race. Instead I see liberals spreading really insidious bad-faith claims, like claiming black people caused Bernie to lose the primaries. The truth is old people in the south voted for Biden. Some of these Biden primary voters were black, but most of them were actually white. Why does the media spread such BS if not to create division in the left? I mean, criticize Bernie wherever criticism is due, but to pretend Biden, of all people, is better on race is just ludicrous.
As a white person who considers himself left leaning, the problem I have always had with white leftists is they talk about liberating oppressed people almost entirely without consideration for the self determination of those being oppressed, as if they are speaking about children. Its the same sort of demeaning mentality that allowed for the oppression to happen to begin with. It would seem that they are not truly interested in the betterment of people, but only interested in the admiration they might receive for being "progressive" while not actually being "progressive"
It sounds like you haven't learned enough to know what the problems and challenges with the left are. This thing that you say is happening...well, it isn't *not* a thing that happens but - Really, bro? Your whole reason for not trying to change society for the better is that doing so seems like an insincere posture?? You do realize that when we say "leftists" we mean people who identify as socialists, anarchists, communists...some kind of anti-capitalist. Are you operating under the idea that white people are not harmed and exploited by capitalism? 48 isn't a lot of likes, but it's enough that I took the time to respond. Please do some clicking around and learn a thing or two, left-leaning casual scrollers. Any accidental praise or attention you might receive for being "progressive" will be worth it for the capacity you'll gain to interact meaningfully with the world. Promise.
Loved this video. Very frustrating trying to get through to these people, which is why I stopped. What ive learned is these people really just dont know any black folks
@@KatBlaque By using the fact that you’re trans as like a distraction to the homophobia. “I’m srry I’m str8 lol” So it’s funny to you that you are able to move in the world as a hetero woman and people critique you reasonably? Like the cognitive dissonance is amazing. We trust your experience as a trans person and ally for you, that’s our job as cis queers, and you’ve got the same job in reverse. It’s LGBT and it always will be because it’s a community. But you’d rather ride the fence of passing and being hetero to belittle people from your platform. It’s just creepy vibes; it’s giving toned down Blair white. I don’t get why you think you’re exempt from criticism. That’s all I can say I support all trans people even the wrong ones honey.
@@drstevej2527 For a second, I thought you were saying that the OP was still displaying white fragility / saviourism / whatever. I can see now you're just one of the people Bill is talking about.
@@drstevej2527 your response to someone laughing at your apparent obsession with credentials - from *white supremacist* organisations, somehow necessary to spread thoughts and ideas on leftism - is to recommend they improve their grammar? Dude just scroll, you don't have to respond 💀
An excellent and much-needed video. If I'm being honest, this is a lot of history that I've been ignorant of as a white creator that this honestly helped direct me in where I need to learn more about.
So nice to see people from all parts of left-tube finally recognizing and addressing this issue as of recent. We've got a long way to go, I'll be the first to say I never really truly understood the extent of white supremacy until a few years ago, but having raw videos like this is very refreshing.
Ayyyy JessieGender1 it's nice to see you here. I'm always glad to see the Progressive Content Creators that I watch interact with eachother even in small ways like this. It helps reinforce the idea that we ALL have to stand together in solidarity and fight back against Oppression, Regressionism, Racism and Bigotry in general and helps show that you are being genuine.(whicu helps me feel more confident in sharing your Videos to Friends&Family of mine and even mentioning you as one of my sources)
@porter9494 In other words, you don't actually care about other people, you just want free stuff. Why would anyone want someone like you on their side? I'd rather stay away from anyone with the mentality you demonstrate here. It's going to ruin anything you touch
I am a leftist, who’s mostly white. I live in a town in the south that’s named after a confederate general. During the beginning of the George Floyd protests I suggested we rename the town publicly. It seemed like a no-brainer, Robert E Lee was a slaver, we should rename the town. This went horribly, eventually getting the news called on me as well as the sheriff’s office. I lost my job, my ability to find a job locally and to this day have to defend myself from upset “historians”. None of my online “leftist” friends did anything besides pat me on the back. I could have succeeded with support and other people shaming the town. Instead I’m left as a “betrayer” of my “heritage” and got Jack shit done. I too am sick of toothless trendy leftists.
This is the only video on anything ever that ever said anything about slavic anything. I've heard nothing about my beautiful slavicness from anywhere else and even hearing the mention of my slavic identity brings me immense joy. Slavic racial history is so interesting but I feel like the only people that talk about it are either white nationalists claiming they're minorities because they can't pronounce they're own last name, or people making fun of russians.
I am from slavic country too. Many people here talk and debate of topics about where we are from. But most my country has only but 2 races . We don’t have much mixed other races like that of US. Leftism for us might show it self maybe different to what is being told in video. We are fighting authoritarian power with our voices being silence. I like video but I am unsure how to take it into practice as there are no black people here to listen in to and hear how we can do better. Our material conditions here seem so far from what is being sad as well as my English make it hard to undestand this video. Can you explain commenter what you mean by people who cannot pronounce their last name? I don’t undestand?
@@khris461 What they are talking about is the relationship of ethnically white Americans to their “true” ethnicity. White Americans will often attach their identity to the ethnic backgrounds of their ancestors, as to distance themselves from the connotations of benefiting from white nationalism that being white in America does, and to give them a sense of identity and cultural pride they could not otherwise possess without the aforementioned connotations of racism. The joke that OP is making is that these white Americans are suggesting that they are ethnic minorities BECAUSE they cannot pronounce their own surname, when that is obviously not the case when observing this country and its institutions.
As a Mexican/Native, I always think it's a little humorous watching white and black folks in a metaphorical cage match for power, but then I realized I'm not a spectator and that I am also in the cage and Im in the fight all the same and I should probably start throwing hands because it ain't all cash for me either.
Especially nowadays when very powerful people like trump are actively looking for ways to get Latin people out of America with project 2025, We all have to fight, and the common enemy is always white supremacy.
Appreciate the video, so many white people on the left want to operate from this colorblind perspective and commonly lean on the fact that they had limited opportunities or were never handed anything not recognizing that just being white is something in the context of white supremacy. Even LBJ recognized it when he said " If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." Whiteness is a currency even if you don't perceive yourself to be cashing in on it, you are. Therefore it has to be acknowledged and addressed as a separate issue.
you have nothing to complain about. if you are living in a white country than thats on you. you should expect to be identified as "other". White supremacy isnt a thing. But im glad that you tacitly admitted that multi-racialism and "diversity" doesn't work and isn't sustainable.
Yuuup. I know too many people in positions like mine (well off parents, own homes, had free choice in education, was able to always have a stay at home parent, had support pursuing whatever niche interests) who don't even acknowledge how goddamn loaded the dice were in our favor from the very beginning, all while acting like they are fucking self made and criticizing folks who weren't as if we are all starting on a level playing field. No, it's just extremely demonstrably false, and I don't trust anyone who isn't very open about every advantage they had along the way. Folks like to act like where they ended up is more important than the opportunities they started with (I wasted so many opportunities because I was a spoiled, ungrateful, egotistical little shit growing up) so it feels like people are projecting their problems on everyone but themselves. Also internalized racism is just a thing, I still have to constantly check myself from whatever weird internalized shit I have built in from my upbringing - turns out having progressive beliefs doesn't make your inner world just change overnight.
One issue I'm repeatedly having is the lack of respect many black people have for white poverty, as if that or rural poverty isn't widespread as well. These comments about r/breadtube are interesting because I actually got banned from this very same thread for the crime of making an argument that someone starting a statement with "well white people should" by saying "hey maybe don't, you're literally doing the thing". If we're going to keep centering race as incredibly important and to not say racist shit or do microaggressions or make assumptions based on these types of classes, and call out when others do that, when I basically never see people identifying as black telling others to not so that, how exactly is that not incredibly hypocritical? If asking equal treatment from a black person as a white person is "engaging in reverse racist rhetoric"... How do I discuss things without being forced into benevolent racism and holding double standards? Do I get to ask someone to stop being racist towards an Asian American on the bus without first letting you know what race the aggressor is? If so, uh... Why are you wanting me to treat people better exclusively based on their race?
Thaaank you for this. As a black leftist, trying to have this conversation with white leftists over the last decade has been enraging, demoralizing and made me question my own sanity and experiences. Feels like gaslighting. Also, been saying for years that the dogmatic treatment of Marx’s words is a huge problem. He didn’t live in a 21st century, multicultural society, there are things his analysis simply couldn’t have accounted for. The work of so many black leftist scholars, especially Crenshaw, serve as helpful expansions and additions to his theories, but broadens them beyond just the economic.
I feel like I see more dogmatic stuff when ti comes to Lenin, which I don't reconcile with because I have never, ever found Lenin to be worthwhile. I feel it is hard to escape Marx though as so much of leftist theory after his publications had some derivative of Marx. Crenshaw you mentioned, who along with people like Du Bois, Sojourn Truth, was also heavily influenced by Gramsci who was directly a product of Marx writings and an expansion of. I mean Marx writing a major if not the main influence on people like Willina Boroughs, Cyrill Briggs, Claudia Jones, Cedric Robinson. The list is so long. Of course they are all branches and unique visions and theories, but they all have the same springboard. I personally really like Roberto Unger and his theories of False Necessity which argues that we fail to understand the plasticity of the institutions we create and everything is much more malleable than we have convinced ourselves as a whole. It tries to rid the notions of dogmatism and move beyond a "ism" so to say, because as you spot on said, Marx lived in a totally different era, and he was formulating a lot of new thought based on the earlier stages of industrialization, we are way past that now.
Aren't you demoralized by the fact Marx was white and that black culture doesn't have much chance of producing anyone on Marx's scale in any foreseeable future? (and I'm not a Marxist so it's not like Marx is god or something for me - just a very influential social philosopher).
@@AntonMochalin Lol, Huey Newton was seen as an icon for millions of people internationally, including millions in the US, black and white alike. You should also take note that "black culture" is heavily rooted in poor southern white culture, aka cracker culture. In essence, black culture is not really any different than the culture of poor people all throughout the world and of history. The point is that Marx was an armchair revolutionary in the fact that he knew the working class he was writing to was going to start the revolution, not himself. If anything, black culture will take the _lead_ in any sort of revolution within America, and I think that's very apparent considering recent developments.
As a Black person, I recognise that "left vs right" is not my battle. It is not my monkey nor my circus. If you want to liberate your people, you should start by refraining from identifying with, or assimilating to, other people's delusions.
I'm so happy Cornbread Tube has become its own thing because it's pushed me to be conscious of grassroots efforts and community building that's happening outside of Twitter.
Something I repeatedly find in the social work field is performative solidarity, they'll post their nice lil infographics on social media and wipe their hands clean. There's a severe emotional disconnect and unless it's a community theyre passionate to work in theyll throw out blanket statements/'solutions' while ignoring the complexity/nuance of individual people. The truest folks I've met are the ones from my local community action groups who don't try to give answers or solutions and just take the time to listen to people
So I personally am white, and I have ADHD, am probably autistic, and I have been working with social workers and psychologists. It seems to me that this entire structure of helping people is very hierarchical and I just can't help to draw the connection to white saviourism after hearing how in some communities in non-western countires they are employing community care as support for people with mental health issues. I personally find this sort of creating for oneself and others together healing in comparison to the hierarchical helper and helpee structure, but I really don't know how to implement it looking at what things are available.
Social work schools often inherently benefit rich kids becoming social workers. They have strict, large demands on internship/practicum hours, with most insisting that they are unpaid. Despite being all bark about self-care, they expect you to either A) burn yourself out by simultaneously working an internship, completing classwork, working a job (and possibly raising kids depending on your situation), or B) be rich and have mommy and daddy pay for all of your expenses so you can study.
@@toni2309 White guilt is a VERY nasty mental poison to where a lot of "allies and advocates" have a hair-trigger from saying a slur the moment you refuse their means of "helping". Other people simply are solving problems over here in the west they're making more problems because there's profit and clout keeping issues alive.
No bells, no whistles. Just a man talking into a microphone with the occasional visual slide, and still pound for pound one of the best video essayists on youtube.
For quite a while I was doomer af because it seemed like there wasn't a braincell shared among the "online left" but after finding this channel it's clear I just wasn't searching hard enough. Your videos have given me quite a lot to think about and I could likely write a whole paragraph now but I think I'd rather think on things a bit before I try to "come to any conclusions" so to speak
Gotta be honest how did this video change your mind? Wow this was a messy lack of logic. So he says whites aren’t technically any group except for a racial construct but blacks and Asians are?! What’s worse is he argues that Asians are all the same due to coming from the same geographical area when whites occupy a far smaller geographic space. Then he argues that black people are considered one race due to a shared history of oppression; which is incoherent as it assumes all people who are black share this which is not the case. If he wants to argue that all races are nothing more than social constructs or that all races are a real tangible thing then that can work, but arguing arbitrarily that whites aren’t a race due to your own personal biases is just fallacious.
I am a mentally disabled white woman, I didnt grow up near litterally anyone I just grew up in the mountians so I didnt get to talk to much of anyone aside from Older White people. I recently decided I am gonna educate myself on the world and found your videos and you always make such well articulated points I feel like I get to learn so much about a life I will never live. Rewatched Moonlight because of your video on it and understood it way better. I dont know if it's like weird to say this but these also are helping me while im in the hospital doing PHP for other mental issues. I write down every historical figure or book you mention and am forming a little reading list. Thanks for just doing you even if I'm not the intended audience!
I learned about this years ago. Progressive movements from 1st wave feminism, to the LGBT movement, to JK Rowling trying to get brownie points until she decided to make exceptions. Have been prolifically white. Susan B Anthony, a champion for women's rights who was the subject in a Powerpuff girls episode about feminism, I later learned in recent years that when it came to the idea of including black women well, she took exception to that, I recall her quote on the matter absolutely not good to say the least. But yes white people do need to learn that being leftist, progressive, and sticking up for minorities requires you to not make things about yourself. Also our weakness is we have to acknowledge that white people as much as they can educate themselves, it's important to acknowledge we're not gonna understand what they go through cause their lived experience is different. It's like how we know a rich guy can't understand the plights of the poor even if he reads books on the realities of abject poverty, because he's never been poor.
If the whole thing is supposed to be a kind of small self-help group, that's ok. If we're talking about a political movement, it's not going to work that way. Humans are not angels. Of course, they must also see a benefit for themselves. The left defines itself precisely by the fact that it doesn't just press on the moral tear gland. So originally seen. It's already clear to me that the left now actually defines itself as a kind of self-help group.
I’ve definitely been someone who has said “no war but the class war” without realizing that I was bypassing racially based struggles. My intent was unity, but my application was exclusionary.
@@GilboPaints That's really just a government psyop to distract you from the government's and corporations evil they all want us fighting each other so we don't pay attention to those on top
In a span of less than a month this channel has become one of my favorites. The last segment struck a cord with me, we must all strive to have empathy and take action to be better if we wish to attain any meaning changes within our society. Thank you Billiam, enjoy your vacation.
thank you for this video. i am a black queer person who's been raised in a predominantly white are of the south. i never got to learn about any of these people in school and am just learning. i've sadly only been able to access leftism through a white lense bc of it and it never really sat right with me
Blacks dont care about politics its mostly a white thing Your topics is like getting pussy sneakers basketball and gangbaning thats why its hard to find topics
Thank you as a white Trans leftist I needed this. Though while I'm Australian it's a hard truth to realise that what you said can easily be applied to our First Nation's people. Especially when a lot of white Australians see their history as 'invaded their land, forced them into missions and slavery, took away their children, only saw them as flora and fauna until the late 20th century but it's all okay cause our prime minister said sorry in 2008' and a good amount of white leftist would leave it at that despite the fact that our First Nations people are still horrifically oppressed. The Uluru statement from the Heart is still mostly ignored and they're still one of the most oppressed communities. Sorry this had reminded me that I need to get off my behind, listen and actually be a better ally
Hey Ashley, right with you there. I'm taking a subject at uni at the moment (co-ordinate by a First Nations professor luckily) that's teaching me a lot about this stuff and it feels like every week is a new 'oh shit' moment. What I'm still finding strange though is learning all of this stuff in theory but not actually knowing pretty much any indigenous people. It's a tricky spot, because you want to be empathetic and a good (actual) ally, but without actually being in direct contact with First Nations people as friends or peers or anything, I worry how that might affect my perspective
I'm glad to see this. I would love to see more people in leftist spaces discuss Black Power and self determination in Australia. International scrutiny is as important as it was in the '72 Tent Embassy. Rudd's apology was an apology to the Stolen Generations; those families effected by forced removal, not to the aboriginal people as a whole. The 'Flora and Fauna Act' is an urban myth from the '70s which still lingers in public conscious, and at present the current referendum on the Voice to Parliament is pulling away from original demands for a Treaty - of which has never been negotiated in the history of Australia! Treaty would form a pathway to land rights and sovereign governance for First Nations who do not identify with Australian constitutional recognition.
I was feeling some heat as a Marxist but I'm so glad I watched this video because it really gets to some critiques that heavily needed to be spelled out. I was aware of harmful history of white socialist movements in USA from the book "Settlers, the Myth of the White Proletariat" by J. Sakai, but the connections you made to contemporary white leftism were incredible. Here's to a future of better solidarity!
I felt his criticism of Marxism was largely unfair. Marx himself laid the groundwork for it, but it does and should go beyond him. With concepts like Dialectical Materialism we can analyze history scientifically and critique our own conceptions. Because of this we see a tradition of Marxist writers critiquing Marx for his blind spots. Writers that Lil Bill even mentions. This is why book worship of even Capital itself is anti-Marxist.
@@DeadLoon I do agree with this also. I liked the video's critique of certain trends within modern white leftist groups, like the belief that being a leftist somehow allows us to shed our privilege (I am sure I've been guilty of that). However, I struggled to see how some of the critiques of Marxism really made sense considering the way Marxism has been used and developed specifically by Black revolutionaries. Huey P. Newton is mentioned in the video but of course there's also Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, and especially Walter Rodney who's "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" is vital for any Marxist to read, especially white/European Marxist who benefit from the exploitation of Africa. I am pretty sure there's also a speech Walter Rodney on the importance of Marxism in the modern age to colonized peoples.
Unfortunately, Sakai's book is riddled with factual errors. He isn't wrong that settler colonialism has deeply shaped U.S. capitalism. Whereas in Europe the peasantry was dispossessed in the enclosure movement, in the U.S. the Indigenous people was genocidally expropriated, Africans brutally enslaved, whereas "free" wage workers were largely European colonial settlers and later naturalized immigrants before the Civil War. Since then there has always been racist stratification WITHIN the working class between the descendants of European settlers, of enslaved Africans, and of dispossessed Indigenous people and Mexicans. But where Sakai goes wrong is that he falsely jumps from the accurate view that "whites" had privileges over ALL people of color under the law (and still do de facto, despite civil rights legislation) to the exaggerated claim that all European settlers were petit bourgeois. In reality, many of them were European peasants only recently dispossessed in enclosures, vagabonds sold into indentured servitude in the conquest of Ireland, etc., and many remained dirt poor and illiterate (including many white tenant farmers and sharecroppers, coal miners, factory workers, etc.) well into the 20th century. His book is more a polemic than a serious work of scholarship, and while he gets some important things right, he also gets some things wrong and it should be taken with a big grain of salt. The truth is, the most conservative, white chauvinist elements of the labor movement always had the backing of the state and big capital (see: Samuel Gompers' AFL). The radical socialist, anarchist, communist etc. labor activists who organized across racial lines in U.S. history have generally been crushed by the state and big capital, from the Knights of Labor gunned down in the Thibodaux Massacre of 1887 to the IWW crushed in the First Red Scare (1917-1921) to the Communist Party USA crushed in the Second Red Scare (1947-1952) to Fred Hampton's Rainbow Coalition crushed by COINTELPRO (1969-1971). It wasn't just the racism of white workers, in each of those cases it was massive violence deployed by the state that destroyed interracial class-based solidarity.
@porter9494 hey? NO ONE GIVES A FUCK ❤️ If you refuse to see the roots of the issues that these programs are attempting to "fix", you're just gonna address the symptom and not the actual problem.
Damn. The bit at the end about white leftists intrinsically seeking the full birthright of their white privilege was a spike in the brain. I've had qualms about this, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Thank you for putting it so succinctly. This is an awesome and necessary video, sir. As a baby leftist, I've been struggling a bit with how these various priorities line up and how we can actually achieve solidarity and solutions. This point hit me hard.
Thank you so much for the work you put into this. Being a white trans woman puts me at a very particular intersection of marginalization and privilege, and it's astonishing how universally my fellow white queers (and i'll be honest, even white trans folk specifically) have a blindspot for the privilege part of that. Your critique here is spot-on, and i'll absolutely be coming back to this vid's history section to trawl for topics of research in the future, cuz you bring up a lotta shit i've never heard of that i really need to learn about if i ever want to do anything of real value with myself. Cheers.
Love from a cis straight black man to you and the trans community. Stay strong and walk on. I know you're all having some problems right now. I'll stand with you whenever I can.
As another white trans woman I second this, the way that transnes and white transnes lays in the middle of many social conditions in our society is a unique one, however we are still of a privileged status and can’t necessarily see the whole picture on our own. This video was very informative 👏👏💕❤️💕👏👏
Thank you for this, Bill(iam). I’ve watched it three times. I’ve found myself stepping away from online leftist discourse since re-engaging with the liberation theology of my youth, for a lot of the reasons you’ve laid out here. I was on trajectory of being the very kind of white leftist-aesthetic dude you describe, wanting to use leftism to access privileges otherwise not currently available to me. And I felt awful about it, without really knowing why until I watched videos like yours. I plan to share this one around to as many discord servers as I can.
Amazing video. So so so good. I’m a white gay guy, I’ve experienced hate directed at me in real life. This gave me a perceived undeserved confidence in talking about the struggles of all marginalized people, but i didnt really know what I was talking about. And some of the most racist shit I’ve ever heard irl came from white gay men. Over the past couple years I’ve grown a lot in understanding whiteness as a whole and intersectionality. Stuff like this is gold for me cause frankly I’m pretty stupid. I’m not a theory nerd, and bad at reading, so videos like this were everything is laid out in a fun and interesting way is so appreciated. I didnt find this video hard to watch as a white person, honestly I thought felt good to hear whiteness explained the way you explained it and solidified my concept of it.
Honestly, there's a massive problem with gay men where they allow their sexual racism to manifest in general racism. And then they cover it up under "racial preferences". There's a serious undercurrent of anti-Black hate in White gay men.
@porter9494 So you chose ignorance. Closing off your ears and tryna belittle people you don't know with titles such as "alphabet people." You feel good about yourself like that? You sleep soundly after acting like a 5 year old putting fingers in your ears and think you're smart? You want this and that for no one but yourself but fail to realize that change starts by wanting to help others. Go ahead and continue being proud of your self-centered hostile approach to politics, see where life takes you
I'm so glad I came across your channel. Your critique of leftism, white leftism and it's white supremacist proclivities on particular, are so refreshing and necessary. As a black man who used to identify as a leftist until I realized how anti black it is was I became completely turned off by the racism I was seeing and experiencing in these circles. I noticed overtime that white leftist never really cared about black people or our issues only insofar as black people could be an asset to the white leftist class reductionist agenda. They don't care about the racism we continue to face, the poverty we still endure. They don't support reparations because the white left like the conservative right believe that reparations is ridiculous because in their minds black people don't really have it that bad even though we have been at the same wealth level since 1865 and white wealth has soared astronomically since then. They don't believe that black peoples opinions are valid or relevant unless it completely lines up with their own political views. I cant feel apart of a space that shows me time and time again that I don't really belong there.
You should read "Anarchism and the Black Revolution" by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, a black anarchist activist and former Black Panther. Anarchism being the negation of all hierarchy, including any racist hierarchy, doesn't fall prey to class reductivism as the mainstream left often does. You can find it for free online
@@KorakBrosepf Im calling out the left in particular because the left pretends like it's in solidarity with black people while the right and centrists make it clear they aren't on our side. I understand where black people and centrists/rights stand. It's the left whose playing games.
With all due respect, I think expecting white people to care about black issues as much as black people do, was your first mistake. And please don't take this wrong. I'm white but I'm in complete solidarity with you, insofar as I can be. But.... white people will never understand nor care about black issues the way black people will. Just like men will never understand and care about womens issues like women will. Indeed, you shouldn't want white people to lead the way on black liberation. That should be done by black leaders.
Thanks for this Bill, white brit who grew up predominantly in a largely Black neighbourhood in london, theres a lot of stuff about the Black struggle in the states that i didn't know about, lot of stuff about the states i don't know too. Will continue to listen and do my best not only for my Black countrymen but Black people as a whole. Big love from normal island
Thank you for making this, it’s super important and I hate how people default to being defensive instead of just taking criticism and trying to be a better person, if people are so fickle that being asked to not do or say something makes them lash out how do they expect to build a community never mind a revolutionary movement?
@@Skulls69 Yeah, it’s that “perfectionism” thing a lot of people (especially white ppl, and I’ve been guilty of this) get caught up in. Are you a “perfect” leftist? Do you never ever cause any harm ever? Impossible standard that makes it very easy for white ppl to back out of dealing with their own racism. Keep learning, keep moving, take the step forward and apologize + learn if you mess up, keep moving forward.
@@Skulls69 bickering about Marx being racist is at least one step backwards considering we have intersectionality to build upon. Don't even get me started on the alliance between Marxist Leninists and the far right.
Something I took way too long to learn is like, WHY certain things make me feel defensive, and it's because those are the truths that I didn't want to acknowledge because that would mean I have to accept that I'm imperfect, and I think I am awesome! Looking inwards is one of the hardest things in the world, but also the most important.
@@gipit33 Off-base about what? That white people have failed Black people at literally every opportunity throughout history? That the historical examples he uses are inaccurate? That his analysis of those historical examples of white leftism are erroneous? Granted, I'm not an historian - more of a history hobbiest - but it doesn't take a PhD to recognize that white people drag our deeply-ingrained racism into every forum, so why not Leftism? That's a fact. So, how can I as a white person do better? What is he off-base about? I don't even know why I'm baiting this; I guess I have time tonight.
I try to push empathy and compassion. I fell in love with intersectionality, buddhism, and later anarchism, after years of living in a post-racial fallacy in a drunken stupor. I'm white and trans, and I'd really like to get out of the house and involve myself in direct action. I agree wholeheartedly. Leftism in the US has been absolutely stunted by doing the exact thing they accuse "identity politics" or more accurately, politicisation of marginalised groups actually does. It's enraging as well as alienating. Thanks for the video. This is motivating, and I appreciate the continuing education.
Being a good leftist is hard but it's still worth it even when we're internally fragile. Great lecture! Just subbed to your channel. Wishing you the best!
being a "good" leftists in your society is just dancing for neo nazis. he sell his identity to white supremacists use it as they see fit. you are all terroristst and criminals
As a person who watches those debate bro streams, I thought this was an amazing critique and tbh this is mandatory viewing for all debate bro fans. Great video
@@grandsome1 don't worry, they know that, they are just trolling because they're salty their favs got called out. Look at their comments in this video.
hi i came to this through your mentioning it in other videos. i'm as white as an overbite during a kickass bass solo. you've clearly been in the trenches and spent a lot of time considering the ramifications. i grew up as a traumatized child of some white supremacists who would do fun things like call me "race traitor" for being into michael jackson's "remember the time." so i obviously also really appreciate and enjoy everything you're saying. really good essays. deep listening, no filler. you mentioned a lot of familiar stuff, but even more bits of curiosity. keep going.👏🏻💪🏻
Yup. You'd think having empathy for disadvantaged peoples (be they Palestinians, indigenous peoples, enslaved, etc.) is a normal human thing. But seems that whiteness is a powerful drug.
Palestine IS whiteness manifest: Rome burnt down Judea and didn't want the Jews to come back, so they named it Palestine. Palestine is an Imperialist name to put a bow on their ethnic cleansing.
@@ambatuBUHSURK Probably because America has a direct relationship with these 3 groups of people. America had a direct affect on the Palestinians, Indigenous and American enslaved people. America also gives aid/ asylum to the Rohingyas, Romani and Dalits.
I fangirled a little inside soon as you mentioned Du Bois and Baldwin. I've been a fan of Baldwin for a few years and wanted to learn more about what Du Bois actually theorizes. I just recently got copies of a few of Baldwin's writings and Du Bois's book The Souls of Black Folk. Halfway through The Souls of Black Folk and I cannot recommend it enough for leftists, it lays the groundwork for learning the reality of black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Du Bois is such a magnificent figure that I was so misled about in public school.
Really appreciate the Wilmington Race Riot mention. I’ve lived in NC my whole life and went to supposedly good schools, yet somehow the only successful coup in US history that forever changed the demographics of what was then the largest city in the state never came up. More people need to know about it, I had to learn about it from a goddamn Reddit post
I came from the Twitter threads by FD/Foreign about white culture where I saw you in the QTs. Good video, no regrets. I am a white leftist (and from the Deep South, no less!) so I've had to do a lot of reflection and difficult, uncomfortable work dismantling my own whiteness. I think the best piece of advice I ever got surrounding that was, if you feel uncomfortable learning about this shit, _good._ Because it is uncomfortable. Racism is uncomfortable. Whiteness is uncomfortable. And feeling uncomfortable means you're actually on the way to making progress. Embrace that discomfort, and get over it. That's the only way to grow. If white leftists want to do better (like we so often say we do), then we need to be willing to at least be a little uncomfortable. For all the incredibly difficult, uncomfortable work non-white leftists have had to endure simply for being who y'all are, we owe y'all that at least. Again, good video. I appreciated your thoughts.
Great post. I had a similar realization as a straight man who took gender studies. I don’t think I’m some expert on feminism, but I came out of that class knowing I just don’t know a lot of the experience of women.
Growing up is uncomfortable, which is why the irony of conservatives fighting against "CRT" as they refer to it (aka reality) and similar topics kills me. Somehow we are the snowflakes tho. I mean I PERSONALLY am one, breaking down at every own from the right into a fetal position sobbing mess, but not everyone is! Now excuse me while I hide in my safe space 😂
Oh man, your reasons why whiteness exist are a big part of what I write about in my scholarship. I called whiteness a pyramid scheme/multilevel marketing scam. Keep up the great work, man.
After getting to the end of this video, I appreciate the irony of me typing this out. I’m white, trans and on the verge of my 20s. When Brianna was murdered, it really affected me. I’m still stealth in day to day life and seeing someone my junior but further in transition get killed by teens was a real wake up call to the mounting danger for just existing whilst being trans. When the hashtag went around I vaguely remembered it being used for someone killed by US police in the past, to be honest as an Australian it seems like the US has a new police murder every week. and I think part of me had hoped the use of those same words was some show of solidarity rather than a co-opting of it. The section on being aware of your appearance really struck me, I can relate to that, albeit in a different way. I spent a lot of time being angry at the world because I’d internalised that being happy was something other people got to enjoy. I’ve tried to put that behind me, be a better human, less bitter, and I’d hoped my politics had contributed to that. To be honest a lot of me find this very disheartening. That it’ll never be enough, that I’ll always be defined by my failures as a person. I suppose everyone is on some level. To be honest I’m lost as to where to go from here, I guess I just have to be ok with that.
How about getting out and mobilizing? Anything. I'm not trying to be an asshole, but your making this about yourself and moping online does not help us. There's plenty your white privileged could be leveraged for, otherwise it's just noise
Invoking The Black Panthers while also ignoring their words and positions on race is honestly the same thing white leftists do all the time so it’s a little disappointing to see that happen here as well, in the words of Chairman Fred Hampton himself, “First of all, we say primarily that the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx, and Lenin, and Che Guevara end Mao Tse-Tung and anybody else that has ever said or knew or practiced anything about revolution, always said that revolution is a class struggle. It was one class--the oppressed--those other class--the oppressor. And it's got to be a universal fact. Those that don't admit to that are those that don't want to get involved in a revolution, because they know that as long as they're dealing with a race thing, they'll never be involved in a revolution. They can talk about numbers; they can hang you up in many, many ways, but as soon as you start talking about class, then you got to start talking about some guns. And that's what the Party had to do.”
The problem with Marx and them they ALL came from upper classes, they exploited people just so they can profit. "Revolution" is just somebody's payday. Revolution comes at a price of blood and people being smart would realizing killing somebody over how they live is a gross irony. Since it can comeback to hurt everything they know.
Let's not pretend like every member of the black panther party (or even Fred Hampton himself) meant for the class struggle supercede the black struggle. Them niggas were still black in the 60s and 70s. White socialists/marxists were not showing up in significant numbers to collaborate with or contribute to the Panthers efforts to make day to day life better for black people living in mostly black neighborhoods. Ideology and life are two different things friend.
There were plenty of things I’d known I was guilty of that I’ve been working on but there were also plenty of not realized and it hurt to hear them. Thank you for the work involved in bringing attention to these issues so I can avoid them in the future.
The poorer one is, if white, one’s whiteness becomes experienced as the only privilege left. The privilege of whiteness becomes something desperately held onto, whether we are aware of it or not. Growing up poor in Alabama I witnessed this all the time. If people are kept poor their privilege gets connected to notions of their survival…. and it is connected because privilege makes all the difference in someone’s chance of survival. Even though poor people helping each other would ultimately be better for everyone, including white poor people, this would require generational changes over large amounts of time. No one thinks this far ahead when they are worried about their electricity, water, and food. Since the middle class continues to shrink there will be more poor white people and many of them are going to hold to white privilege with everything they have to do so. The less power some one has the less likely they are willing to give up the power they have left.
I beg you, please don't use the term "middle class" or bemoan how it's shrinking. For anyone who is a leftist those words should never come out of one's mouth. The "middle class" is not our friend. They are the source of everything that's wrong in this world.
invalid framing. its clear you fell for the psyop as a means to not make certain people angry. there is no more privileged race than black people in white countries. remember: the true mark of privilege is being rewarded for doing and being bad. NOT being rewarded for being good. literally all of "white privilege" comes from 1) good behavior and being non-oppressive 2) living in their OWN countries. you really cant be "privileged" in your own countries. At the very least its not a privilege to villainize or weaponize.
Thank you for putting in the work to help people like myself see what is in their blind spots. Keep up the good work. Your videos are incredibly informative, and you have a great sense of humor even as you talk about very serious topics.
11:50 that actually kind of explains why basically everyone in leftist spaces calls me a larper when I talk about my desire for legitimate action to be taken..
I'm not gonna keep responding to every individual comment that says this, but it's important to get the story straight so listen up. Re: SayHerName. The phrase Say Her Name was NOT co-opted from indigenous folks. You all are thinking of the phrase Say THEIR Names meant to draw attention to murdered and missing indigenous women. This phrase started gaining widespread use right around the time the #SayHerName movement was created in direct response to the death of Sandra Bland. At some point during the timeline, the two phrases just kinda melded into each other however the #SayTheirNames movement is specifically organized to bring light to missing indigenous women. I'm just gonna give y'all the benefit of doubt and assume that y'all are basing the "Black people took it from indigenous folks" from the 2021 doc "Say Her Name" that covers the missing indigenous girls from Big Horn County Montana, but to answer the question, #SayHerName as a movement was organized specifically to address black women. It's pedantic I know, but so is using the phrasing origin to deflect from the point of the controversy so there you have it
Bump. Also I took a while to watch this video because I didn't know what you were going to say about Breanna Ghey and as I'm from the UK their death really hit me hard. But to be honest for the little vigil that we organised among finally saying a lot of things that we felt scared to say under the UK climate of anti-trans sentiment it did feel consciously aware of the presence of Whiteness in that space. It seemed inevitable that we would think of her namesake, but I think I might have been the only one who talked about how this hate crime was part of the same White supremacist system that killed Breanna Taylor at the vigil. I ended up talking to someone who I have just clicked with at the vigil (subsequently becoming very close friends), and what they said really impacted on me. They are Black British-Ghanaian and they had the immediate thought that if either of the suspects or the victim had been Black, it would have been immediately put into the journalistic angle of knife crime, which is associated with Black people in the UK media landscape. In truth the way they are made into a symbol feels complicated, because on the one hand the UK political class and media largely does not acknowledge that transphobic systems kill kids so there is a reason why they were amplified in this conversation in this country. But also there is a deep lost opportunity in the White Western Anglophone alphabet people community for amplifying the marginalised instead of centering the most powerful, and stochastic terror movements like LGB drop the T are just this neocolonialism beginning at home, like happened with the Welsh. I feel honestly awkward being Christian still in that White Western Anglophone alphabet people community, but the biggest reason I'm still in the Jesus fandom, as I call it now in a semi serious way, is that that community still doesn't have anything to address the needs and cries for change that Stormzy, Guvna B, Wretch 32, Kendrick Lamar, Desmond Tutu, John Sentamu and Martin Luther King Jr which radicalised me long before I ever cared about Marx. They are the reason I came out, via Kat Blaque. Cos although I was transphobic towards myself, I couldn't accept people telling me that who participated in racism. Anyway, you don't need to read this, I just thought I'd say that you are doing good work and that the conversation which didn't happen with the conversation around the Closer (like you mentioned in your video I'm tired of defending Black men) is happening because of this video. Much love from a Cheshire trans person.
Great video. Watched it with a friend. Paused it a lot to discuss and look up stuff. Learned lots. Definitely sharing with others. Thanks for the book recs, pop snark, and sarcasm.
It's a lack of self reflection that comes from the need to be right. When people identify with a moral movement, they do so because they want to absolve themselves of their moral shortcomings, and the recognition that identity might not be strong enough to do that is tough to get over. And when you're jaded and internet poisoned like me, that's just one more barrier to empathetic engagement.
As someone who's frequently argued with communists and socialists about often surface level understandings of race, anti racism, and it's intersection with capitalism and western society, I can't thank you enough for making this video. Legitimately had a hallelujah moment
@porter9494 talking about race does not divide the proletariat. Racism does. Talking about homophobia does not divide the proletariat. Homophobia does.
I'm trans and white, thank you so much for talking directly about Keffals. She's clever and good at dodging criticisms, but so much of her clout is derived from truly toxic followers
This statement is not meant to absolve any trans people who are actually part of her stanbase (love that phrase btw) but the trans people who I look up all absolutely despise Keffals.
Lol the only reason I know who keffles is because she made up a whole bunch of random shit about bad empanada, admitted it, and then tried to apologize about it and some weird a backhanded way, and then went back to making stuff up
Thank you for this. The history is essential, and there was so much here I didn't know... But so is the self reflection and the empathy. If we can't reflect on pur mistakes, if we put up our "shields", we don't learn, and you see that all the time with social media; people doubling down on bad takes under criticism because their ego won't allow them to do anything else, sometimes becoming almost their entire personality: casting the "critics" as enemies they can't back down from, and the reason they have to keep going. And instead, we have to reflect and empathise. We have to listen to voices like yours and we have to do better. Great video. So much to think about and mull over.
There is no real hope for equality or safety without intersectionality. So long as any group is marginalized all are at risk because marginalization requires making the judgment that a group is 'lesser' due to some chosen criteria. Allowing anyone the power to make that judgment against one group sets the precedent that someone *has* that power which opens the door for that judgment to be applied to any group that they choose. They can change the criteria any time they want. I keep trying to get people to realize that the 'slippery slope' is only a logical fallacy if you say A MUST lead to B. Understanding that A CAN lead to B and that's dangerous is just common sense. Acknowledging that A OFTEN leads to B and that's not a chance worth taking is basic observation. (Not sure I got that out coherently, I hope I made some sense)
Treating people with dignity and respect is a slippery slope. If we stay on that path, we might have to give up our beloved traditional sports team names.
When it comes to race and Marx, there are things even most Marxists miss the significance of for example the first person to call himself a Marxist Paul Lafrague was a Cuban who self identified as "proudest of his negro extraction", he was also Marxs son in law, in turn Marx himself was nicknamed by his friends and family "The Moor", to the point that when Marx died the letter Engels recieved called him "Moor".
I love how Blacks believe these Jewish lies that Marx was a friend of blacks😂 Uuh remember Marcus Garvey remember how the communists wanted him dead? Remember Karl Marx his letter to Engels?
Fuck man, this video encapsulating a lot of the things I've been frustrated with for a while but haven't been able to put my finger on. I see all these people online talking about how identity politics "divide the left" but what really divides the left is trying to use a specific viewpoint to enforce some universal code of action, or more likely inaction, that in reality is just based on their experiences rather than anything universal. And the line about just being a good person was the perfect end to this. It seems a few people don't realize that genuine compassion and empathy are WAY more important than endless arguments and oppression disguised in equality.
Solid video man, you seem like a very grounded and realistic person. Your passion has been tempered by experience and wisdom, instead of being dulled by it. I feel like you're the sort of person who would be willing to have a discussion instead of hosting a presentation.
i didn’t understand a lot in this video, terminology and certain figures or groups, but i think that’s a good thing. it gives me an opportunity to learn and points me in the right directions to do so. great video :)
I definitely learned alot about how white apathy to black oppression hurt the ability of labor movements in the 20th century to build a strong mass movement. Definitely got to reflect on some emotional things thatll help me be in better community with black folks and poc. I appreciate this video alot! A few thoughts. Cornell West I think put it well when he wrote (shout out to T1J's video on me knowing this) racism existed before capitalism. "Solidarity goes both ways." Is such a good motto ill be carrying with me. Awesome video!
I'm only one quarter of the video in and already feel this is one of my favourite video essays that I've seen in long time. Love your pace, love the "in your face" stile of exposing all the subjects and love the 'not serious' takes. But above all love the subject and how you delivered and explained it. I'm instantly subscribing. Ps. As a white anarchist myself I won't say I deeply understand everything or have the experience based knowledge needed to do so, still I'm appreciate every second of it and I'll do my best to try to interiorize the ideas (without appropriating and decontextualizing them). Ps2. I'm not native English speaker so sorry if my writing isn't the best.
As a white anarchist myself I wanted to say Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub Yo da dub dub Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub Yo da dub dub (I'm the Scatman) Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub Yo da dub dub Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub Yo da dub dub Ba-da-ba-da-ba-be bop bop bodda bope Bop ba bodda bope Be bop ba bodda bope Bop ba bodda Ba-da-ba-da-ba-be bop ba bodda bope Bop ba bodda bope Be bop ba bodda bope Bop ba bodda bope I'm so grateful for this video, I'm white and anarchist reddit love and support and white and that's it
@@MindMistressCS as a black person can you explain the inherent harm in using the sayhername hashtag for Brianna Ghey to begin with? I've heard people say that it somehow takes away from black women. But Imo not only should it be used for Brianna Ghey but doing so will spread the hashtag around more leading to more people seeing it, learning about it, and therefore learning more about victimized black women too. Isn't that what we want?
I'm usually on the fence with you dawg. Before this vid I never really understood if you were flirting with some Hotep shit or not. But, I think I understand you more now. This was excellent. Oh and uh... Silence ya phone, homie.
@@lilbilliam Nah not really bruh... Like surface level you have a type of sarcastic bitterness that they often exhibit, and that initially set off alarms. But, your language is totally different. You straight, bruh.
1st gen Filipino, I have nearly zero connection to Filipino culture other than my family. It’s colonialism, which works to make the colonized hate themselves and their culture and instead to embrace the colonizer ways (White Americans). Nearly 80% of Filipino kids in the US cannot speak their native language despite it being their first language in the Philippines, cuz the parents want them to adopt English, American ways, American education all cuz it’s better, to find ‘success’ in America, and cuz learning Filipino ways will just get in the way. Oh, and the education system and the culture in the Philippines is white American anyway, it’s not the parents’ fault they think like this. I disagree that all ‘Asians’ can be lumped into 1 group. We’re like the biggest group in the world and are way too diverse to be called 1 group. Asia is the most bombed place in the world, but some places are disproportionately more bombed than other. More colonized than others.
Thank you! As a mixed blood lgbt person I would be either a special kinda stupid or willfully ignorant if I couldn't admit I owe most my rights (the queer ones anyway) to a pissed off Black Transwoman with a brick. And why wouldn't I want to admit that anyway? That is like one of the most badass moments of queer history and I will forever Stan that woman ❤ oh and ya got everything else right on the head. I gotta admit being white passing has got me stuck in some hella awkward racist AF conversations where I have to decide education or evacuate?
@@Joshvs3 mixed bloodlines/ethnic heritage. Got an odd blend of Ashkenazi Jews, Ojiicree (Indigenous North America Nation) and Britt (so like probably bit of all European blood cause England was the town bike of that contenant before they went off to colonize shit). Great Gran fled WW2 Austria and Papa was all Native. So it's not some 300-400 year removed 0.5% bs either haha
Thats a huge overstatement and the way marsha P johnson has been idolized takes so much away from the other organizers, protestors, and activists that existed before stonewall, during that time, and after. Its not like she played no part but she was not "the reason you have rights" there was already a very active ongoing movement this event was when all the rage they felt at being constantly raided assaulted came to a head and they fought back against the police instead of going quietly.
@@KD-ou2np I apologize for my hyperbolic statement, I mean yes the real depth of queer rights and the fight for em can be traced basically as far back as the institutional banning of said existence began spreading. My point was more to emphasize the way current history has whitewashed a fight that has often been spearheaded by variety of diverse faces.
I live in a VERY white (and very leftist) bubble in Finland and I'm so grateful I came across this video. It opened my eyes to many things I haven't thought about or only scratched the surface of. Thank you so much.
This video is great and puts a lot of my scattered thoughts into words. This really effectively shines a light on how privilege blinds a person to a more nuanced understanding of the world. For me, when I first got into economic leftist thought, I had already done a lot of social deconstruction and so when going into some of these spaces, I felt a distinct lack of intersectionality and empathy outside of the white straight man perspective. It was disconcerting and made me feel alienated with these people who had realized the many failings of the economic buildings of society but failed to understand how social prejudice can work as its own entity that must be addressed equally.
I just listened to a biography podcast of Fannie Lou Hamer, and it was so disheartening to hear that she had to spend so much time and energy just getting so-called antisegragation white Democrats to give black people a voice. That, after everything she'd already suffered and sacrificed for voting rights. As a white person, this kind of video topic makes me irrationally uncomfortable, but that's why I need to watch it, so thank you for doing this work. Eager to see what content you make in the future.
have been reading waste of white skin recently and learning a lot about class and whiteness, a sentence that has stuck with me the most is "as long as white identity is most often deployed to obscure black suffering, sympathy with whiteness comes again at a cost paid by black people". i can't wait to watch this video
I'm Quebecese, a French Canadian from the Province of Quebec. Un canadien québécois! Un français, canadien français, américain du nord français. Un francophone québécois canadien. Un québécois d'expression canadienne française française. Je suis un canadien... américain, francophone d'Amérique du nord. Un franco-québécois... un franco-canadiens du Québec. Un québécois canadien. And because of that, the term "speak white," which means to "speak English" (thrown at us up until 1999 when vandals rose a flag on the bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau written: "From this point on, speak white!") was two words that caused a dissonance in my view of the world, in how I viewed my colour and the colours of others. On m'a dit que j'étais blanc, mais on m'a dit de « parler blanc, » I was told I was white, but also told to "speak white." Where I live, it is part of our history that British colonisers would discriminate us, French colonisers, for speaking our tongue after the French and Indian War. We were "a people with no literature and no history" according to Lord Durham in his letters to the Crown. How can I be white if I don't speak white? How can I be part of white history if I'm from a people "without literature nor history"? Only to say that, even in the history of my people, we always saw, felt, and understood ourselves as othered. Even worse when I, as a kid, was shamed by my peers for trying to speak the French our ancestors fought so hard to protect from assimilation... I grew up surrounded by paradoxical identities and definitions so blatant and incongruous I couldn't but come to the conclusion: whiteness is bullshit My people didn't survived thanks to whiteness. If anything, the French crown just screw us over by demanding we hunt and send them furs only for them to resell the transformed products back into the colony. If anything, our ancestors survived only thanks to the original owners of these lands, and despite a lot of us being racist and xenophobic against First Nations, a lot of us just straight up adopted their customs, intermingled, and created a new identity and culture for the French colonists of the time. I mean... the Métis Nation and Louis Riel are a blatant example of this legacy. Hell... for a lot of us, the only reason the French and Indian War was lost is because the stupid French supremacist Montcalm forced our troops to fight "the proper square formation white European style" instead of letting us fight guerrilla style as our Native allies had had taught us for decades. So, yeah... Whiteness is bs and we ought to dismantle it.
Yet a lot of Québécois still use whiteness to prop themselves above people of color, and use their past oppression as an excuse to cover their racism, it's so ingrained that the premier has the balls to say: "On n'est pas raciste ici au Québec" The same month a native woman died from litteral racist neglect. Québécois have become white after the Révolution Tranquille, even tough francophobia racism still exists *cough* Steve McCullough *cough* it is mostly confined in the Rest of Canada, but not to other white nations to the same degree. This is also the reason why the independentist project failed, because racist sentiment infected it and ingrained itself in it for many years, it even got hold of the high echelon through Parisau and his racist comment in 1995 that killed the project for at least two generations. That "I'm a victim, therefore cannot victimize" mindset is extremely dangerous, as seen in what's happening in Israel.
1:00:50 "A lot of self-described leftists aren't really leftist, so much as they see leftism as a means to access the fullness of the privilege their whiteness should afford them, but some other variable has denied them" I'm reeling from this line, because it explains so many people I've seen in leftist spaces who will absolutely let the mask slip the moment they're expected to show humility or understanding to somebody more marginalised than themselves.
This video was fire. Gonna share it around and watch the bigots come crawling out. Edit: they did in fact come out Edit: apparently this video is racist to certain folks I won’t name smdh
I’m not a leftist. Anyone on the left that has told me that their revolution will magically solve racism has been either a liar or a delusional victim of ideology or a bit of both. It’s magical thinking. They are every bit as bad as a free market conservative that believes equal opportunity exists-maybe worse, because they’re supposed to know better.
Damn...I had to watch this again. So much to think about. As a latino, idk where we fit in with a lot of this stuff. We are an ethnicity and not a race and white Latinos let us know this all the time. So, we have this issue to address, but aside from that we also have a lot of the stuff Lil Bill is talking about as well.
Yeah it's complicated like blackness. My mom technically is afro-latina (white PR father) but she doesn't know that side so she identifies as black. Whereas I know plenty of brown skin dominicanos who will throw hands if I say their black. So I usually try to stay away from commenting on Latino identity because I wasn't raised in that sphere
@@lilbilliam Thanks for responding man! I really appreciate it. But, yes, complicated to say the least. I think a lot of it has to do with the ever present legacy of Spanish colonialism and the colorism enforced upon its colonies. For example, in Puerto Rico, they like to say they aren't racist and yet most (if not all) the top government officials are white. Most of the people that live in the affluent places like Guaynabo are white, while most of the residents of a non-affluent place like Fajardo are black. So, it's funny how that worked out right? Dominicans had this legally enforced colorism as well, but it was also compounded by the dictator Trujillo who reigned for a very long time. He basically made it illegal to be black. The guy used to put pancake powder on his face to be more white (Sammy Sosa comes to mind.) and ordered his soldiers to shoot any Haitian crossing the border on sight. No questions asked. So, yeah, a lot of Dominican families have passed on this trauma and have that reaction to being called black as a result. I do want to say this one last thing, my family's skin tones range from very dark to basically white. It is very hurtful to see my darker family internalize a lot of the colorism and even get offended when I try to approach them about it. Hurt people hurt people, but things like this are why it is important to have these discussions. Much love to you, waiting for that next vid. I will definitely pass this one onto as many folks as I can.
@Dave102693 we've treat everyone in our family the same, no matter the skin tone, because Latinos identify more with nationality than what color they are
Segregation and racism are ingrained in both political parties in certain ways. I'm really glad you explained that this idea wasn't so far-fetched. I love how informative this video really was.
Damn. I'm trans, I'm white, I'm 26 years old. I took a leftist quiz that said I'm "centrist Marxist" and go with that even though I disagree with how our political spectrum is constructed in the first place. I didn't know most of this even happened. Using "say her name" for a trans person doesn't make any sense to me. It refers to the media's tendency to cover racial events with the POC referred to as "black(etc) woman/man" in headlines instead of their names, perpetuating a large part of systemic racism. I don't know if that's even an issue with trans people. I can't say I've seen enough headlines about it to begin with. Surely we can come up with a "let's talk about this" slogan that doesn't start to drown out the existing tag. It would even be more effective in other ways. But I guess the Twitter keyboard warriors gotta be lazy with it and start unnecessary conflict, at the least. It's also like they think no one will take trans lives seriously unless we co-opt racial struggles that they see as having more history to it, when that isn't even true. That is buying in to decades and centuries of book burning and censorship against trans people and does a massive disservice to our forebears. It's counterintuitive to buy in to the attitude that we, on our own, don't matter and aren't otherwise worth consideration. God, that's so stupid. But I can't put out all that nuanced line of thought in a catchy and brief slogan when it feels so important, to me. This keeps frustrating me over and over. Watch this comment get no attention because I couldn't formulate it within 30 minutes of the video releasing, also. And that's just how social media works.
Brianna is being buried under her deadname. That's why. It still doesn't make sense to used Say Her Name, it should be something like Use Her Name or something direct like "Don't deadname the dead" instead.
And yes, being buried under the wrong identity is a problem we've faced for a very, very long time. And it removes our stories and our humanity just as surely as not using the names of black victims of police violence. There are a lot of parallels between Trans issues and Black issues, but it isn't an excuse to co-opt black liberation slogans.
@@Jane-oz7pp I did see a tweet saying that, at first it made sense but then it kind of didn't. How is she being burried under he dead name? Aren't her parents supportive? I thought you could put anything on a headstone. Her death certificate though, will probably misgender her and deadname her, as she didn't get a grc. Getting one is a not an easy process, which is annoying as fuck. Maybe the tweet was remembering Leelah Alcorn who's parents deadnamed her when she died.
@@Jane-oz7pp sorry...but "use her name" is so similar to the original slogan that at that point it's just semantics. in trying to avoid using something from Black activism, it feels like the focus is taken off the actual problem at hand. i don't want you to think i'm disagreeing with you, though, because right at the beginning you make a perfect point.
Trust me, Mediterranean, Danubian and Latin whites are also fucking appalled at how nonchalantly Anglo and Germanic whites decide not to season their food.
Vaush is so frustrating. He comes so close to understanding and then turns around to double down on dumb shit. I'd like to think I've had some productive conversations in his comment sections but of course I have no way of knowing what takes.
Half of his White Leaf Network is like that. The trans, indigenous, non hetero, and the women apart of it, almost always repeat the things he says, look the other way or both.
@@jlp6864 cos they weaponise their identity in order to defend their favourite white man… whilst claiming that anyone who criticises him are doing the same thing
I’m a white person; I have this white friend who struggles with equating all oppression to a matter of class struggle, it drives me fucking crazy. Granted, once upon a time he was way better at understanding micro aggressions and systematic oppression then I ever did when we were like teenagers, but as we got older, he basically started insinuating things like “white people are mostly just harmless and it’s the rich who make them racist and homophobic” and he called me classist when I said most mechanics are racist like ??? Sry man my girlfriend is Latina and every mechanic shop in the state treats her completely differently than me or the friend I’m describing. It’s especially bad because she can fix cars herself for the most part; but the white dudes always treat her like she’s a wild animal that just woke up in a car one day. Plus the way they always overcharge women in general. This friend is mostly a nice guy, but his defensive white guilt has gotten to be way too much, it’s basically formed a big divide between us forever. Plus now he’s trynna return to the Catholic Church and now has all this Christian apologetics on top of the white Marxist shit.
Jerek Bilbar Even if rich people make people racist and homophobic at some point they still have to take accountability. I mean essentially something outside of ourselves *does create these depositions and attitudes, mainly *society* . But does that mean you have an excuse to keep supporting and perpetuating what society has taught you? Especially when you have the ability to think in alternative ways and at the very least have your natural instinct of fairness and wrong to aid you if nothing else?
Racism and classism have always gone hand in hand in this country Eben when it were illogical to do so. So, it makes sense why he's equating these issues with just 'eat the rich- rhetoric. Thing is, your friend forgets his own privilege until it's his own problem. But given America, he'd need to be directly involved like your situation with your girlfriend to see this distinction happen and not assume his perspective is the objective standard and a person complaiming must have done something. Kind of like how Americans assume many places outside of America probably speaker their language but also at some capacity might speak their own English language. It's a foolish assumption but that's the privilege of being an American. You can assume things that aren't true the other way around. You need accommodation for the other way around; which is hard to come by or justified in its absence. Also even as a Christian myself, you see this weird push for conservation of whiteness with the assumption they are seemingly in better shape beczuse they're somehow more righteous or something. It's the strangest thing how they will preach Theology in one breath but switch to republican politics as well as targeting minorities via crime stats but not the social issues, poverty, heavy policing, food deserts, lack of education; taxes, etc that yield their desperate situation in the first place. I'm not a leftist whatsoever but I appreciate the fact that they even consider that there's more to the story than 'poor people deserve what they're getting because they didn't work as hard as I did' rhetoric.
Damn, u basically whooped my ass for an hour straight... Youch. But your point is well taken. And telling ppl uncomfortable truths can be thankless task, credit to u for doing it anyway. And how tf does this guy have only 60k subs? Great video, liked and sub'd
Very good video. Very worth the time it took to watch. I was vaguely aware of most of this already but I still see parts of what you said in myself and intend to take this all to heart.
Thanks man. This video really put into concrete words the cognitive dissonance I've felt from what are still largely all white leftist communities. I thought I was going insane.
This was a Rollercoaster ride I was not prepared for. I had autoplay on just for background noise but this grabbed my attention and wouldn't let me go.
I’ve yet to read much theory but have consumed some history and it seems like Black people have traditionally been at the forefront of every progressive and radical movement, both in terms of being on the front lines and actually starting them up (not to mention creating language for them and being open to just about anyone joining in good faith). This is especially true for Black women. It’s all true even when Black people were not permitted to be at the forefront, either due to their enslavement or ghettoization and poverty. Thank you for all your videos and I appreciate you for this one especially, since I have now decided to begin my theory reading journey by reading Black radicals, in particular Black women, first.
Time to watch this as a white leftist to see if I fall victim to similar tendencies! Thank you for the videos you make! Ill comment again to articulate what I've learned for other ghostly toastlies to maybe learn too.
I'm not even black, I'm South Asian. It's a great informative video and much that I didn't know. Americas history of racism isn't really necessary for someone who lives in India, but always good to learn new things
Hmmmm. If I lived in India, I would certainly focus on India's history of anti-black racism, i.e., its treatment of more melanated people within and beyond its borders. Gandhi in South Africa comes to mind. And that racism gets exported to the U.S. and elsewhere--from the descendants of Brahmin immigrants like Kamala Harris (her mother's lineage) to Bollywood's colorism. Of course, from China to Brazil, India is not alone in it's oppression of its most melanated people. I'm also clear that anti-"darkness" which extends beyond anti-"blackness" should be a focus of examination for the Left and why BIPOC politics is such a fail for me. For example, South Indians or aboriginal Australians don't get categorized as "black" in the U.S., even if their skin is darker than say, Neil DeGrasse Tyson or as dark as Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Remember Malcolm X said the rich white liberal was the most dangerous type of racist. NOT the typical poor Southerner exaggerated in the media. I always thought that was interesting... Now one thing I'll say is I'm a constitutionalist white man in US South, but like to expand my history after majoring it in college. More perspectives like this need to be standard in school as history just repeats itself when the masses forget. Anyways, great video man.
This is my lived experienced, I grew up around poor white people that were supposed to be the racist ones. Yet they were just like me, poor and trying to make it. I noticed as an adult what brother X said was right since it was always those rich white kids that was cussing me out for not "obeying" them.
What did Malcolm X say about technology and economics?
@@psikeyhackr6914 What?
@@DibbzTV
Marx used the word 'depreciation' 35 times in the first two volumes of his major work.
He wrote about the depreciation of machinery, the depreciation of money and moral depreciation. But he died in 1883. The first gasoline automobile appeared in 1885.
Try finding an economist talking about what Americans lose on the depreciation of automobiles every year. How about every year since Sputnik? Then this brings up the issue of planned obsolescence.
Adam Smith and Karl Marx never saw a Planned Obsolescence Consumer Economy. The Left and the Right seem out of date because of technology to me and then ni@@as act like there is something wrong with learning about it.
Look at what is happening to the automobile market now. Honkys spent decades going into debt for junk designed to become obsolete while auto companies made useless variations while jacking up prices.
People paying interest on depreciation!
But Marx did not predict worker/consumers buying this kind of junk to depreciate.
Some prophet!
When and where did he say that?
This was very interesting and informative! I am mixed, black mom, white dad, but I look white. Blue eyes, pale skin, wavy hair. Mom and I talk politics almost daily, and during Bernie’s run for president, we were watching him talk about racial issues, to which he did poorly and brought up the fact that he was a part of the March on Washington as like his validation for understanding racial issues. My mom said something to the effect of like ‘I knew this was coming’. I asked what she meant, and said while she agreed with like him on economic issues, the problem is that people on the left think that if these economic issues are solved, then racism will be solved, and it’s just another way of like not looking at the racial issues, but the lefts versions. I had never thought of it that way until she broke it down, and now I see it a lot on the left. That same feeling I had talking to her of like “oh shit!” (but in a good way) is the same feeling I had listening to this.
What do you think are the racial issues that need to be dealt with today?
I lived in Bernie's state for two months several years ago. He was the US Representative at the time. His state is relatively liberal but as far as black people are concerned in Vermont that is a strange phenomenon. People from Vermont were clueless when it came on to black people. Expecting more from Bernie was going to be a pipe dream.
Hmm. I never picked up on that. Bernie never made it sound like solving economic issues would solve racism 😂. And him marching on Washington is dope as fck, especially for the time. Y’all sway way too easy man
@@dwrighte1 I'll take it that most white people don't get what it's like to experience the kind of racism black people experience. If I have ever said things that appear class reductionist, it's usually in response to what I perceive as class omissionist narratives coming from the media, the corporate world, or white liberals. I feel that greater economic equality is *necessary* for reducing racism, but that's not really the same thing as saying it is *sufficient*. Giving people healthcare isn't going to solve racism, but neither is continuing neoliberal economic policy while merely having HR departments give "racial sensitivity training" to employees.
The truth is racism is intertwined with economics. When racist policy makes it harder for an entire group of people to own anything, the effects of that will carry on for generations, even when the racist laws that caused it are no longer officially on the book. Most of the time I hear horribly racist reasoning, it's from right wingers who do this make-believe that everyone is born with the same opportunities when that's 100% blatantly false. Belief in economic meritocracy fuels their racism. Maybe a lot are already racist, but believing in economic meritocracy and other just world fallacy myths certainly entrenches it.
I don't see liberals pushing back against these bullshit narratives as hard as the economic left does, regardless of race. Instead I see liberals spreading really insidious bad-faith claims, like claiming black people caused Bernie to lose the primaries. The truth is old people in the south voted for Biden. Some of these Biden primary voters were black, but most of them were actually white. Why does the media spread such BS if not to create division in the left? I mean, criticize Bernie wherever criticism is due, but to pretend Biden, of all people, is better on race is just ludicrous.
Can you Pls answer me ?
As a white person who considers himself left leaning, the problem I have always had with white leftists is they talk about liberating oppressed people almost entirely without consideration for the self determination of those being oppressed, as if they are speaking about children. Its the same sort of demeaning mentality that allowed for the oppression to happen to begin with. It would seem that they are not truly interested in the betterment of people, but only interested in the admiration they might receive for being "progressive" while not actually being "progressive"
Yeah there's still an obvious air of supremacy, and the scary thing is that I bet a lot of them truly don't notice it.
dont forget about the oppressed white women who forget they're white
It sounds like you haven't learned enough to know what the problems and challenges with the left are.
This thing that you say is happening...well, it isn't *not* a thing that happens but - Really, bro? Your whole reason for not trying to change society for the better is that doing so seems like an insincere posture??
You do realize that when we say "leftists" we mean people who identify as socialists, anarchists, communists...some kind of anti-capitalist. Are you operating under the idea that white people are not harmed and exploited by capitalism?
48 isn't a lot of likes, but it's enough that I took the time to respond. Please do some clicking around and learn a thing or two, left-leaning casual scrollers.
Any accidental praise or attention you might receive for being "progressive" will be worth it for the capacity you'll gain to interact meaningfully with the world. Promise.
the "white savior" narrative
@@jesseluciano1388To be fair, women are still women and have had a shit run for a while. Don’t really think you can legitimately argue that.
Loved this video. Very frustrating trying to get through to these people, which is why I stopped. What ive learned is these people really just dont know any black folks
And not interested in doing so either
The straight black trans woman that thinks her heterosexism is hilarious agrees with the straight black cis male. Surprising.
@@yehooyahoo6861 define my "heterosexism" for me and do it in a way that isnt transphobic.
@@KatBlaque
By using the fact that you’re trans as like a distraction to the homophobia. “I’m srry I’m str8 lol” So it’s funny to you that you are able to move in the world as a hetero woman and people critique you reasonably? Like the cognitive dissonance is amazing. We trust your experience as a trans person and ally for you, that’s our job as cis queers, and you’ve got the same job in reverse. It’s LGBT and it always will be because it’s a community. But you’d rather ride the fence of passing and being hetero to belittle people from your platform. It’s just creepy vibes; it’s giving toned down Blair white. I don’t get why you think you’re exempt from criticism. That’s all I can say I support all trans people even the wrong ones honey.
@@yehooyahoo6861 Dawg... what?
As a white leftist that was hard to watch. Why? Because it was so true. I learned something today and I thank you for it.
np whitey
@@drstevej2527 isn’t this the point of the video to spread ideas eg. teach?
@@drstevej2527 For a second, I thought you were saying that the OP was still displaying white fragility / saviourism / whatever. I can see now you're just one of the people Bill is talking about.
@@drstevej2527 muh credentials muh credentials No credentials muh credentials 😂
@@drstevej2527 your response to someone laughing at your apparent obsession with credentials - from *white supremacist* organisations, somehow necessary to spread thoughts and ideas on leftism - is to recommend they improve their grammar? Dude just scroll, you don't have to respond 💀
An excellent and much-needed video. If I'm being honest, this is a lot of history that I've been ignorant of as a white creator that this honestly helped direct me in where I need to learn more about.
So nice to see people from all parts of left-tube finally recognizing and addressing this issue as of recent. We've got a long way to go, I'll be the first to say I never really truly understood the extent of white supremacy until a few years ago, but having raw videos like this is very refreshing.
Ayyyy JessieGender1 it's nice to see you here. I'm always glad to see the Progressive Content Creators that I watch interact with eachother even in small ways like this. It helps reinforce the idea that we ALL have to stand together in solidarity and fight back against Oppression, Regressionism, Racism and Bigotry in general and helps show that you are being genuine.(whicu helps me feel more confident in sharing your Videos to Friends&Family of mine and even mentioning you as one of my sources)
Wtf Jessie Gender is here? I knew she was based but THIS based? Queen.
Oh shit hey Jessie!! Cool to see you here :3
@porter9494 In other words, you don't actually care about other people, you just want free stuff. Why would anyone want someone like you on their side? I'd rather stay away from anyone with the mentality you demonstrate here. It's going to ruin anything you touch
I am a leftist, who’s mostly white. I live in a town in the south that’s named after a confederate general. During the beginning of the George Floyd protests I suggested we rename the town publicly. It seemed like a no-brainer, Robert E Lee was a slaver, we should rename the town. This went horribly, eventually getting the news called on me as well as the sheriff’s office. I lost my job, my ability to find a job locally and to this day have to defend myself from upset “historians”. None of my online “leftist” friends did anything besides pat me on the back. I could have succeeded with support and other people shaming the town. Instead I’m left as a “betrayer” of my “heritage” and got Jack shit done. I too am sick of toothless trendy leftists.
Yeah cause upset 'Historians' know that Lee wrote in his diary that slavery was debaucherus
This is the only video on anything ever that ever said anything about slavic anything. I've heard nothing about my beautiful slavicness from anywhere else and even hearing the mention of my slavic identity brings me immense joy. Slavic racial history is so interesting but I feel like the only people that talk about it are either white nationalists claiming they're minorities because they can't pronounce they're own last name, or people making fun of russians.
Slavs have an interesting history that I wish I could speak on more with authority
I am from slavic country too. Many people here talk and debate of topics about where we are from. But most my country has only but 2 races . We don’t have much mixed other races like that of US.
Leftism for us might show it self maybe different to what is being told in video. We are fighting authoritarian power with our voices being silence.
I like video but I am unsure how to take it into practice as there are no black people here to listen in to and hear how we can do better. Our material conditions here seem so far from what is being sad as well as my English make it hard to undestand this video.
Can you explain commenter what you mean by people who cannot pronounce their last name? I don’t undestand?
No mention of Finno-Ugrics 😢
@@khris461 What they are talking about is the relationship of ethnically white Americans to their “true” ethnicity. White Americans will often attach their identity to the ethnic backgrounds of their ancestors, as to distance themselves from the connotations of benefiting from white nationalism that being white in America does, and to give them a sense of identity and cultural pride they could not otherwise possess without the aforementioned connotations of racism. The joke that OP is making is that these white Americans are suggesting that they are ethnic minorities BECAUSE they cannot pronounce their own surname, when that is obviously not the case when observing this country and its institutions.
As a Mexican/Native, I always think it's a little humorous watching white and black folks in a metaphorical cage match for power, but then I realized I'm not a spectator and that I am also in the cage and Im in the fight all the same and I should probably start throwing hands because it ain't all cash for me either.
Especially nowadays when very powerful people like trump are actively looking for ways to get Latin people out of America with project 2025,
We all have to fight, and the common enemy is always white supremacy.
Appreciate the video, so many white people on the left want to operate from this colorblind perspective and commonly lean on the fact that they had limited opportunities or were never handed anything not recognizing that just being white is something in the context of white supremacy. Even LBJ recognized it when he said " If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." Whiteness is a currency even if you don't perceive yourself to be cashing in on it, you are. Therefore it has to be acknowledged and addressed as a separate issue.
you have nothing to complain about. if you are living in a white country than thats on you. you should expect to be identified as "other".
White supremacy isnt a thing.
But im glad that you tacitly admitted that multi-racialism and "diversity" doesn't work and isn't sustainable.
Agreed
You are one of the few people who remember that very quote by LBJ.
Yuuup. I know too many people in positions like mine (well off parents, own homes, had free choice in education, was able to always have a stay at home parent, had support pursuing whatever niche interests) who don't even acknowledge how goddamn loaded the dice were in our favor from the very beginning, all while acting like they are fucking self made and criticizing folks who weren't as if we are all starting on a level playing field. No, it's just extremely demonstrably false, and I don't trust anyone who isn't very open about every advantage they had along the way. Folks like to act like where they ended up is more important than the opportunities they started with (I wasted so many opportunities because I was a spoiled, ungrateful, egotistical little shit growing up) so it feels like people are projecting their problems on everyone but themselves.
Also internalized racism is just a thing, I still have to constantly check myself from whatever weird internalized shit I have built in from my upbringing - turns out having progressive beliefs doesn't make your inner world just change overnight.
One issue I'm repeatedly having is the lack of respect many black people have for white poverty, as if that or rural poverty isn't widespread as well. These comments about r/breadtube are interesting because I actually got banned from this very same thread for the crime of making an argument that someone starting a statement with "well white people should" by saying "hey maybe don't, you're literally doing the thing". If we're going to keep centering race as incredibly important and to not say racist shit or do microaggressions or make assumptions based on these types of classes, and call out when others do that, when I basically never see people identifying as black telling others to not so that, how exactly is that not incredibly hypocritical? If asking equal treatment from a black person as a white person is "engaging in reverse racist rhetoric"... How do I discuss things without being forced into benevolent racism and holding double standards? Do I get to ask someone to stop being racist towards an Asian American on the bus without first letting you know what race the aggressor is? If so, uh... Why are you wanting me to treat people better exclusively based on their race?
Thaaank you for this. As a black leftist, trying to have this conversation with white leftists over the last decade has been enraging, demoralizing and made me question my own sanity and experiences. Feels like gaslighting.
Also, been saying for years that the dogmatic treatment of Marx’s words is a huge problem. He didn’t live in a 21st century, multicultural society, there are things his analysis simply couldn’t have accounted for.
The work of so many black leftist scholars, especially Crenshaw, serve as helpful expansions and additions to his theories, but broadens them beyond just the economic.
I feel like I see more dogmatic stuff when ti comes to Lenin, which I don't reconcile with because I have never, ever found Lenin to be worthwhile. I feel it is hard to escape Marx though as so much of leftist theory after his publications had some derivative of Marx. Crenshaw you mentioned, who along with people like Du Bois, Sojourn Truth, was also heavily influenced by Gramsci who was directly a product of Marx writings and an expansion of. I mean Marx writing a major if not the main influence on people like Willina Boroughs, Cyrill Briggs, Claudia Jones, Cedric Robinson. The list is so long. Of course they are all branches and unique visions and theories, but they all have the same springboard. I personally really like Roberto Unger and his theories of False Necessity which argues that we fail to understand the plasticity of the institutions we create and everything is much more malleable than we have convinced ourselves as a whole. It tries to rid the notions of dogmatism and move beyond a "ism" so to say, because as you spot on said, Marx lived in a totally different era, and he was formulating a lot of new thought based on the earlier stages of industrialization, we are way past that now.
Aren't you demoralized by the fact Marx was white and that black culture doesn't have much chance of producing anyone on Marx's scale in any foreseeable future? (and I'm not a Marxist so it's not like Marx is god or something for me - just a very influential social philosopher).
@@AntonMochalin what the hell?
@@AntonMochalin Lol, Huey Newton was seen as an icon for millions of people internationally, including millions in the US, black and white alike.
You should also take note that "black culture" is heavily rooted in poor southern white culture, aka cracker culture. In essence, black culture is not really any different than the culture of poor people all throughout the world and of history. The point is that Marx was an armchair revolutionary in the fact that he knew the working class he was writing to was going to start the revolution, not himself. If anything, black culture will take the _lead_ in any sort of revolution within America, and I think that's very apparent considering recent developments.
As a Black person, I recognise that "left vs right" is not my battle. It is not my monkey nor my circus. If you want to liberate your people, you should start by refraining from identifying with, or assimilating to, other people's delusions.
I'm so happy Cornbread Tube has become its own thing because it's pushed me to be conscious of grassroots efforts and community building that's happening outside of Twitter.
Solid solid video, cornbread tube we up‼️💪🏽
It's a gang fr
Something I repeatedly find in the social work field is performative solidarity, they'll post their nice lil infographics on social media and wipe their hands clean. There's a severe emotional disconnect and unless it's a community theyre passionate to work in theyll throw out blanket statements/'solutions' while ignoring the complexity/nuance of individual people.
The truest folks I've met are the ones from my local community action groups who don't try to give answers or solutions and just take the time to listen to people
So I personally am white, and I have ADHD, am probably autistic, and I have been working with social workers and psychologists. It seems to me that this entire structure of helping people is very hierarchical and I just can't help to draw the connection to white saviourism after hearing how in some communities in non-western countires they are employing community care as support for people with mental health issues. I personally find this sort of creating for oneself and others together healing in comparison to the hierarchical helper and helpee structure, but I really don't know how to implement it looking at what things are available.
Social work schools often inherently benefit rich kids becoming social workers. They have strict, large demands on internship/practicum hours, with most insisting that they are unpaid. Despite being all bark about self-care, they expect you to either A) burn yourself out by simultaneously working an internship, completing classwork, working a job (and possibly raising kids depending on your situation), or B) be rich and have mommy and daddy pay for all of your expenses so you can study.
@@toni2309 White guilt is a VERY nasty mental poison to where a lot of "allies and advocates" have a hair-trigger from saying a slur the moment you refuse their means of "helping". Other people simply are solving problems over here in the west they're making more problems because there's profit and clout keeping issues alive.
No bells, no whistles. Just a man talking into a microphone with the occasional visual slide, and still pound for pound one of the best video essayists on youtube.
I remember when every political RUclips channel was like that.
@porter9494weird take. Cultural issues are equally important. Intersectionality is key
For quite a while I was doomer af because it seemed like there wasn't a braincell shared among the "online left" but after finding this channel it's clear I just wasn't searching hard enough.
Your videos have given me quite a lot to think about and I could likely write a whole paragraph now but I think I'd rather think on things a bit before I try to "come to any conclusions" so to speak
Gotta be honest how did this video change your mind? Wow this was a messy lack of logic. So he says whites aren’t technically any group except for a racial construct but blacks and Asians are?! What’s worse is he argues that Asians are all the same due to coming from the same geographical area when whites occupy a far smaller geographic space. Then he argues that black people are considered one race due to a shared history of oppression; which is incoherent as it assumes all people who are black share this which is not the case. If he wants to argue that all races are nothing more than social constructs or that all races are a real tangible thing then that can work, but arguing arbitrarily that whites aren’t a race due to your own personal biases is just fallacious.
@@thedukeofchutney468Maybe watch more then 10 minutes of the video.
I am a mentally disabled white woman, I didnt grow up near litterally anyone I just grew up in the mountians so I didnt get to talk to much of anyone aside from Older White people. I recently decided I am gonna educate myself on the world and found your videos and you always make such well articulated points I feel like I get to learn so much about a life I will never live. Rewatched Moonlight because of your video on it and understood it way better. I dont know if it's like weird to say this but these also are helping me while im in the hospital doing PHP for other mental issues. I write down every historical figure or book you mention and am forming a little reading list. Thanks for just doing you even if I'm not the intended audience!
Every white person that listens to this crap is mentally ill sweetheart you didn't have to clarify😂
as a white leftist my understanding of leftism at depth really exploded when i started decentering white voices, great vid
Hittin them keywords
"and I absolve you of your white guilt in the name of Yakub, the ni99a and the black soul. awoman."
lefties love bernies p[olice protection and clap for racist sangers legacy
lol@@basedgamerguy818
I learned about this years ago. Progressive movements from 1st wave feminism, to the LGBT movement, to JK Rowling trying to get brownie points until she decided to make exceptions. Have been prolifically white.
Susan B Anthony, a champion for women's rights who was the subject in a Powerpuff girls episode about feminism, I later learned in recent years that when it came to the idea of including black women well, she took exception to that, I recall her quote on the matter absolutely not good to say the least.
But yes white people do need to learn that being leftist, progressive, and sticking up for minorities requires you to not make things about yourself.
Also our weakness is we have to acknowledge that white people as much as they can educate themselves, it's important to acknowledge we're not gonna understand what they go through cause their lived experience is different.
It's like how we know a rich guy can't understand the plights of the poor even if he reads books on the realities of abject poverty, because he's never been poor.
If the whole thing is supposed to be a kind of small self-help group, that's ok. If we're talking about a political movement, it's not going to work that way. Humans are not angels. Of course, they must also see a benefit for themselves. The left defines itself precisely by the fact that it doesn't just press on the moral tear gland. So originally seen. It's already clear to me that the left now actually defines itself as a kind of self-help group.
binary sexuality is also whiteness. invented to serve colonial needs. sexuality only for procreation
@@davruck1 So Europe invented Christianity especially for colonialism and the rest of the world was non-binary before.
@@davruck1 go get therapy your sick not progressive
But the rich man is at least in a sense poor: He's morally bankrupt.
I’ve definitely been someone who has said “no war but the class war” without realizing that I was bypassing racially based struggles.
My intent was unity, but my application was exclusionary.
How is it not a class war. Poor vs the rich. Isnt it always that way....
@chris3571 it is a class struggle. But it's not only a class struggle.
Race, sex, gender, etc are all woven in as well.
@@GilboPaints That's really just a government psyop to distract you from the government's and corporations evil they all want us fighting each other so we don't pay attention to those on top
It's a good slogan but slogans lack nuance inherently
HAHAHA
In a span of less than a month this channel has become one of my favorites. The last segment struck a cord with me, we must all strive to have empathy and take action to be better if we wish to attain any meaning changes within our society. Thank you Billiam, enjoy your vacation.
You go have empathy with the 60% of violent crimes demographic
Imma stay far away from them what we need them for anyway?
Every time you brought up logic, I was dying harder than the Eagle's chance at another Superbowl
Go Cowboys
thank you for this video. i am a black queer person who's been raised in a predominantly white are of the south. i never got to learn about any of these people in school and am just learning. i've sadly only been able to access leftism through a white lense bc of it and it never really sat right with me
Blacks dont care about politics its mostly a white thing
Your topics is like getting pussy sneakers basketball and gangbaning thats why its hard to find topics
Thank you as a white Trans leftist I needed this. Though while I'm Australian it's a hard truth to realise that what you said can easily be applied to our First Nation's people. Especially when a lot of white Australians see their history as 'invaded their land, forced them into missions and slavery, took away their children, only saw them as flora and fauna until the late 20th century but it's all okay cause our prime minister said sorry in 2008' and a good amount of white leftist would leave it at that despite the fact that our First Nations people are still horrifically oppressed. The Uluru statement from the Heart is still mostly ignored and they're still one of the most oppressed communities. Sorry this had reminded me that I need to get off my behind, listen and actually be a better ally
Hey Ashley, right with you there. I'm taking a subject at uni at the moment (co-ordinate by a First Nations professor luckily) that's teaching me a lot about this stuff and it feels like every week is a new 'oh shit' moment. What I'm still finding strange though is learning all of this stuff in theory but not actually knowing pretty much any indigenous people. It's a tricky spot, because you want to be empathetic and a good (actual) ally, but without actually being in direct contact with First Nations people as friends or peers or anything, I worry how that might affect my perspective
Don't worry. At least you have a heslthcare system.
@@machida58ha ha ha. yeah. a healthcare system that has been actively ignoring our first nations people for decades.
I'm glad to see this. I would love to see more people in leftist spaces discuss Black Power and self determination in Australia. International scrutiny is as important as it was in the '72 Tent Embassy.
Rudd's apology was an apology to the Stolen Generations; those families effected by forced removal, not to the aboriginal people as a whole. The 'Flora and Fauna Act' is an urban myth from the '70s which still lingers in public conscious, and at present the current referendum on the Voice to Parliament is pulling away from original demands for a Treaty - of which has never been negotiated in the history of Australia! Treaty would form a pathway to land rights and sovereign governance for First Nations who do not identify with Australian constitutional recognition.
@@lisdexamphetamine But at least you have one.
I was feeling some heat as a Marxist but I'm so glad I watched this video because it really gets to some critiques that heavily needed to be spelled out. I was aware of harmful history of white socialist movements in USA from the book "Settlers, the Myth of the White Proletariat" by J. Sakai, but the connections you made to contemporary white leftism were incredible. Here's to a future of better solidarity!
Have you read Black Reconstruction? Great book.
I felt his criticism of Marxism was largely unfair. Marx himself laid the groundwork for it, but it does and should go beyond him. With concepts like Dialectical Materialism we can analyze history scientifically and critique our own conceptions. Because of this we see a tradition of Marxist writers critiquing Marx for his blind spots. Writers that Lil Bill even mentions. This is why book worship of even Capital itself is anti-Marxist.
@@DeadLoon I do agree with this also. I liked the video's critique of certain trends within modern white leftist groups, like the belief that being a leftist somehow allows us to shed our privilege (I am sure I've been guilty of that). However, I struggled to see how some of the critiques of Marxism really made sense considering the way Marxism has been used and developed specifically by Black revolutionaries. Huey P. Newton is mentioned in the video but of course there's also Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, and especially Walter Rodney who's "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" is vital for any Marxist to read, especially white/European Marxist who benefit from the exploitation of Africa. I am pretty sure there's also a speech Walter Rodney on the importance of Marxism in the modern age to colonized peoples.
Unfortunately, Sakai's book is riddled with factual errors. He isn't wrong that settler colonialism has deeply shaped U.S. capitalism. Whereas in Europe the peasantry was dispossessed in the enclosure movement, in the U.S. the Indigenous people was genocidally expropriated, Africans brutally enslaved, whereas "free" wage workers were largely European colonial settlers and later naturalized immigrants before the Civil War. Since then there has always been racist stratification WITHIN the working class between the descendants of European settlers, of enslaved Africans, and of dispossessed Indigenous people and Mexicans. But where Sakai goes wrong is that he falsely jumps from the accurate view that "whites" had privileges over ALL people of color under the law (and still do de facto, despite civil rights legislation) to the exaggerated claim that all European settlers were petit bourgeois. In reality, many of them were European peasants only recently dispossessed in enclosures, vagabonds sold into indentured servitude in the conquest of Ireland, etc., and many remained dirt poor and illiterate (including many white tenant farmers and sharecroppers, coal miners, factory workers, etc.) well into the 20th century. His book is more a polemic than a serious work of scholarship, and while he gets some important things right, he also gets some things wrong and it should be taken with a big grain of salt. The truth is, the most conservative, white chauvinist elements of the labor movement always had the backing of the state and big capital (see: Samuel Gompers' AFL). The radical socialist, anarchist, communist etc. labor activists who organized across racial lines in U.S. history have generally been crushed by the state and big capital, from the Knights of Labor gunned down in the Thibodaux Massacre of 1887 to the IWW crushed in the First Red Scare (1917-1921) to the Communist Party USA crushed in the Second Red Scare (1947-1952) to Fred Hampton's Rainbow Coalition crushed by COINTELPRO (1969-1971). It wasn't just the racism of white workers, in each of those cases it was massive violence deployed by the state that destroyed interracial class-based solidarity.
@porter9494 hey? NO ONE GIVES A FUCK ❤️
If you refuse to see the roots of the issues that these programs are attempting to "fix", you're just gonna address the symptom and not the actual problem.
Damn. The bit at the end about white leftists intrinsically seeking the full birthright of their white privilege was a spike in the brain. I've had qualms about this, but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Thank you for putting it so succinctly.
This is an awesome and necessary video, sir.
As a baby leftist, I've been struggling a bit with how these various priorities line up and how we can actually achieve solidarity and solutions. This point hit me hard.
I'm another baby leftist and agree with what you said.
Thank you so much for the work you put into this. Being a white trans woman puts me at a very particular intersection of marginalization and privilege, and it's astonishing how universally my fellow white queers (and i'll be honest, even white trans folk specifically) have a blindspot for the privilege part of that. Your critique here is spot-on, and i'll absolutely be coming back to this vid's history section to trawl for topics of research in the future, cuz you bring up a lotta shit i've never heard of that i really need to learn about if i ever want to do anything of real value with myself. Cheers.
As a black man thank you for being open and honest about that
Love from a cis straight black man to you and the trans community. Stay strong and walk on. I know you're all having some problems right now. I'll stand with you whenever I can.
Y’all some 🤡 this has now real value in the real world just a clown talking about look we oppressed
❤️
As another white trans woman I second this, the way that transnes and white transnes lays in the middle of many social conditions in our society is a unique one, however we are still of a privileged status and can’t necessarily see the whole picture on our own. This video was very informative 👏👏💕❤️💕👏👏
Thank you for this, Bill(iam). I’ve watched it three times.
I’ve found myself stepping away from online leftist discourse since re-engaging with the liberation theology of my youth, for a lot of the reasons you’ve laid out here. I was on trajectory of being the very kind of white leftist-aesthetic dude you describe, wanting to use leftism to access privileges otherwise not currently available to me. And I felt awful about it, without really knowing why until I watched videos like yours.
I plan to share this one around to as many discord servers as I can.
This, lots of folks just coming to the Left need these lessons
"Just replace the word 'rapture' with 'revolution' and you have online leftism in a nutshell."
OOF. That one cuts deep.
Amazing video. So so so good. I’m a white gay guy, I’ve experienced hate directed at me in real life. This gave me a perceived undeserved confidence in talking about the struggles of all marginalized people, but i didnt really know what I was talking about. And some of the most racist shit I’ve ever heard irl came from white gay men. Over the past couple years I’ve grown a lot in understanding whiteness as a whole and intersectionality. Stuff like this is gold for me cause frankly I’m pretty stupid. I’m not a theory nerd, and bad at reading, so videos like this were everything is laid out in a fun and interesting way is so appreciated. I didnt find this video hard to watch as a white person, honestly I thought felt good to hear whiteness explained the way you explained it and solidified my concept of it.
Honestly, there's a massive problem with gay men where they allow their sexual racism to manifest in general racism. And then they cover it up under "racial preferences". There's a serious undercurrent of anti-Black hate in White gay men.
Nobody is ever finished learning. I'm glad you've recognized how you're lacking are doing something about it. Most people never make it this far
@porter9494
So you chose ignorance. Closing off your ears and tryna belittle people you don't know with titles such as "alphabet people." You feel good about yourself like that? You sleep soundly after acting like a 5 year old putting fingers in your ears and think you're smart? You want this and that for no one but yourself but fail to realize that change starts by wanting to help others.
Go ahead and continue being proud of your self-centered hostile approach to politics, see where life takes you
I'm so glad I came across your channel. Your critique of leftism, white leftism and it's white supremacist proclivities on particular, are so refreshing and necessary. As a black man who used to identify as a leftist until I realized how anti black it is was I became completely turned off by the racism I was seeing and experiencing in these circles. I noticed overtime that white leftist never really cared about black people or our issues only insofar as black people could be an asset to the white leftist class reductionist agenda. They don't care about the racism we continue to face, the poverty we still endure. They don't support reparations because the white left like the conservative right believe that reparations is ridiculous because in their minds black people don't really have it that bad even though we have been at the same wealth level since 1865 and white wealth has soared astronomically since then. They don't believe that black peoples opinions are valid or relevant unless it completely lines up with their own political views. I cant feel apart of a space that shows me time and time again that I don't really belong there.
LMao if you think leftists are anti-black what the hell do you think about right wingers and centrists?
You should read "Anarchism and the Black Revolution" by Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin, a black anarchist activist and former Black Panther. Anarchism being the negation of all hierarchy, including any racist hierarchy, doesn't fall prey to class reductivism as the mainstream left often does. You can find it for free online
@@KorakBrosepf Im calling out the left in particular because the left pretends like it's in solidarity with black people while the right and centrists make it clear they aren't on our side. I understand where black people and centrists/rights stand. It's the left whose playing games.
@@mell7249 Thanks, I already have read it but thanks for the recommendation
With all due respect, I think expecting white people to care about black issues as much as black people do, was your first mistake. And please don't take this wrong. I'm white but I'm in complete solidarity with you, insofar as I can be. But.... white people will never understand nor care about black issues the way black people will. Just like men will never understand and care about womens issues like women will. Indeed, you shouldn't want white people to lead the way on black liberation. That should be done by black leaders.
Thanks for this Bill, white brit who grew up predominantly in a largely Black neighbourhood in london, theres a lot of stuff about the Black struggle in the states that i didn't know about, lot of stuff about the states i don't know too. Will continue to listen and do my best not only for my Black countrymen but Black people as a whole.
Big love from normal island
Thank you for making this, it’s super important and I hate how people default to being defensive instead of just taking criticism and trying to be a better person, if people are so fickle that being asked to not do or say something makes them lash out how do they expect to build a community never mind a revolutionary movement?
Sad part is that it takes hard work and discipline to be a decent/good human being. It’s easy to be a piece of shit and/or be problematic.
@@riotron1026 + so easy to bicker about small shit like hurt feelings over arbitrary things, instead of learning and moving forward together
@@Skulls69 Yeah, it’s that “perfectionism” thing a lot of people (especially white ppl, and I’ve been guilty of this) get caught up in. Are you a “perfect” leftist? Do you never ever cause any harm ever? Impossible standard that makes it very easy for white ppl to back out of dealing with their own racism. Keep learning, keep moving, take the step forward and apologize + learn if you mess up, keep moving forward.
@@Skulls69 bickering about Marx being racist is at least one step backwards considering we have intersectionality to build upon. Don't even get me started on the alliance between Marxist Leninists and the far right.
Something I took way too long to learn is like, WHY certain things make me feel defensive, and it's because those are the truths that I didn't want to acknowledge because that would mean I have to accept that I'm imperfect, and I think I am awesome! Looking inwards is one of the hardest things in the world, but also the most important.
It’s Sunday and you took me to church. Thank you for your content. Always hilarious and informative.
@@gipit33 Off-base about what? That white people have failed Black people at literally every opportunity throughout history? That the historical examples he uses are inaccurate? That his analysis of those historical examples of white leftism are erroneous? Granted, I'm not an historian - more of a history hobbiest - but it doesn't take a PhD to recognize that white people drag our deeply-ingrained racism into every forum, so why not Leftism? That's a fact. So, how can I as a white person do better? What is he off-base about? I don't even know why I'm baiting this; I guess I have time tonight.
@@gipit33 lol
@@gipit33then do it?
Informative??🤡
@@gipit33 OK
I try to push empathy and compassion. I fell in love with intersectionality, buddhism, and later anarchism, after years of living in a post-racial fallacy in a drunken stupor. I'm white and trans, and I'd really like to get out of the house and involve myself in direct action. I agree wholeheartedly. Leftism in the US has been absolutely stunted by doing the exact thing they accuse "identity politics" or more accurately, politicisation of marginalised groups actually does. It's enraging as well as alienating. Thanks for the video. This is motivating, and I appreciate the continuing education.
Being a good leftist is hard but it's still worth it even when we're internally fragile. Great lecture! Just subbed to your channel. Wishing you the best!
being a "good" leftists in your society is just dancing for neo nazis. he sell his identity to white supremacists use it as they see fit. you are all terroristst and criminals
As a person who watches those debate bro streams, I thought this was an amazing critique and tbh this is mandatory viewing for all debate bro fans. Great video
As a person who
@@Icedsobaka Yes, that's a sentence used to add context, even if it's often abused.
@@grandsome1 don't worry, they know that, they are just trolling because they're salty their favs got called out. Look at their comments in this video.
@@michaeltalksanime Salty? Sitting in brine for years. For decades.
@@MarcosElMalo2 😂😂😂
hi i came to this through your mentioning it in other videos. i'm as white as an overbite during a kickass bass solo.
you've clearly been in the trenches and spent a lot of time considering the ramifications. i grew up as a traumatized child of some white supremacists who would do fun things like call me "race traitor" for being into michael jackson's "remember the time." so i obviously also really appreciate and enjoy everything you're saying.
really good essays. deep listening, no filler. you mentioned a lot of familiar stuff, but even more bits of curiosity. keep going.👏🏻💪🏻
Yup. You'd think having empathy for disadvantaged peoples (be they Palestinians, indigenous peoples, enslaved, etc.) is a normal human thing. But seems that whiteness is a powerful drug.
By the way Palestinians also look down on Ethiopians too as well
Palestine IS whiteness manifest: Rome burnt down Judea and didn't want the Jews to come back, so they named it Palestine. Palestine is an Imperialist name to put a bow on their ethnic cleansing.
@@ambatuBUHSURK Anyone using the term woke as a pejorative should immediately be dismissed as an idiot.
@@ambatuBUHSURK Probably because America has a direct relationship with these 3 groups of people. America had a direct affect on the Palestinians, Indigenous and American enslaved people. America also gives aid/ asylum to the Rohingyas, Romani and Dalits.
100% Well said.
I fangirled a little inside soon as you mentioned Du Bois and Baldwin. I've been a fan of Baldwin for a few years and wanted to learn more about what Du Bois actually theorizes. I just recently got copies of a few of Baldwin's writings and Du Bois's book The Souls of Black Folk. Halfway through The Souls of Black Folk and I cannot recommend it enough for leftists, it lays the groundwork for learning the reality of black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Du Bois is such a magnificent figure that I was so misled about in public school.
my head is smoking, your content is DENSE. i am trying to follow.
Really appreciate the Wilmington Race Riot mention. I’ve lived in NC my whole life and went to supposedly good schools, yet somehow the only successful coup in US history that forever changed the demographics of what was then the largest city in the state never came up. More people need to know about it, I had to learn about it from a goddamn Reddit post
I came from the Twitter threads by FD/Foreign about white culture where I saw you in the QTs. Good video, no regrets.
I am a white leftist (and from the Deep South, no less!) so I've had to do a lot of reflection and difficult, uncomfortable work dismantling my own whiteness. I think the best piece of advice I ever got surrounding that was, if you feel uncomfortable learning about this shit, _good._ Because it is uncomfortable. Racism is uncomfortable. Whiteness is uncomfortable. And feeling uncomfortable means you're actually on the way to making progress. Embrace that discomfort, and get over it. That's the only way to grow.
If white leftists want to do better (like we so often say we do), then we need to be willing to at least be a little uncomfortable. For all the incredibly difficult, uncomfortable work non-white leftists have had to endure simply for being who y'all are, we owe y'all that at least.
Again, good video. I appreciated your thoughts.
Great post. I had a similar realization as a straight man who took gender studies. I don’t think I’m some expert on feminism, but I came out of that class knowing I just don’t know a lot of the experience of women.
Growing up is uncomfortable, which is why the irony of conservatives fighting against "CRT" as they refer to it (aka reality) and similar topics kills me. Somehow we are the snowflakes tho. I mean I PERSONALLY am one, breaking down at every own from the right into a fetal position sobbing mess, but not everyone is! Now excuse me while I hide in my safe space 😂
FD is the guy who supports abuse!
is blackness uncoformtable too ?
@marvin yes because you can't talk about blackness without talking about whiteness.
Oh man, your reasons why whiteness exist are a big part of what I write about in my scholarship. I called whiteness a pyramid scheme/multilevel marketing scam. Keep up the great work, man.
After getting to the end of this video, I appreciate the irony of me typing this out. I’m white, trans and on the verge of my 20s. When Brianna was murdered, it really affected me. I’m still stealth in day to day life and seeing someone my junior but further in transition get killed by teens was a real wake up call to the mounting danger for just existing whilst being trans. When the hashtag went around I vaguely remembered it being used for someone killed by US police in the past, to be honest as an Australian it seems like the US has a new police murder every week. and I think part of me had hoped the use of those same words was some show of solidarity rather than a co-opting of it. The section on being aware of your appearance really struck me, I can relate to that, albeit in a different way. I spent a lot of time being angry at the world because I’d internalised that being happy was something other people got to enjoy. I’ve tried to put that behind me, be a better human, less bitter, and I’d hoped my politics had contributed to that. To be honest a lot of me find this very disheartening. That it’ll never be enough, that I’ll always be defined by my failures as a person. I suppose everyone is on some level. To be honest I’m lost as to where to go from here, I guess I just have to be ok with that.
+
How about getting out and mobilizing? Anything. I'm not trying to be an asshole, but your making this about yourself and moping online does not help us. There's plenty your white privileged could be leveraged for, otherwise it's just noise
Invoking The Black Panthers while also ignoring their words and positions on race is honestly the same thing white leftists do all the time so it’s a little disappointing to see that happen here as well, in the words of Chairman Fred Hampton himself, “First of all, we say primarily that the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx, and Lenin, and Che Guevara end Mao Tse-Tung and anybody else that has ever said or knew or practiced anything about revolution, always said that revolution is a class struggle. It was one class--the oppressed--those other class--the oppressor. And it's got to be a universal fact. Those that don't admit to that are those that don't want to get involved in a revolution, because they know that as long as they're dealing with a race thing, they'll never be involved in a revolution. They can talk about numbers; they can hang you up in many, many ways, but as soon as you start talking about class, then you got to start talking about some guns. And that's what the Party had to do.”
The problem with Marx and them they ALL came from upper classes, they exploited people just so they can profit. "Revolution" is just somebody's payday. Revolution comes at a price of blood and people being smart would realizing killing somebody over how they live is a gross irony. Since it can comeback to hurt everything they know.
Got eemmm
Let's not pretend like every member of the black panther party (or even Fred Hampton himself) meant for the class struggle supercede the black struggle. Them niggas were still black in the 60s and 70s. White socialists/marxists were not showing up in significant numbers to collaborate with or contribute to the Panthers efforts to make day to day life better for black people living in mostly black neighborhoods. Ideology and life are two different things friend.
There were plenty of things I’d known I was guilty of that I’ve been working on but there were also plenty of not realized and it hurt to hear them. Thank you for the work involved in bringing attention to these issues so I can avoid them in the future.
The poorer one is, if white, one’s whiteness becomes experienced as the only privilege left. The privilege of whiteness becomes something desperately held onto, whether we are aware of it or not. Growing up poor in Alabama I witnessed this all the time. If people are kept poor their privilege gets connected to notions of their survival…. and it is connected because privilege makes all the difference in someone’s chance of survival. Even though poor people helping each other would ultimately be better for everyone, including white poor people, this would require generational changes over large amounts of time. No one thinks this far ahead when they are worried about their electricity, water, and food. Since the middle class continues to shrink there will be more poor white people and many of them are going to hold to white privilege with everything they have to do so.
The less power some one has the less likely they are willing to give up the power they have left.
I beg you, please don't use the term "middle class" or bemoan how it's shrinking. For anyone who is a leftist those words should never come out of one's mouth. The "middle class" is not our friend. They are the source of everything that's wrong in this world.
invalid framing. its clear you fell for the psyop as a means to not make certain people angry. there is no more privileged race than black people in white countries.
remember: the true mark of privilege is being rewarded for doing and being bad. NOT being rewarded for being good. literally all of "white privilege" comes from 1) good behavior and being non-oppressive 2) living in their OWN countries.
you really cant be "privileged" in your own countries. At the very least its not a privilege to villainize or weaponize.
Great comment. So much truth. Check out the book Dying of Whiteness. The author discusses this with regards to gun control, healthcare, and education.
Yup like King said they feed them Jim Crow in hopes they won't notice how empty their bellies actually are
@@tacrewgirl Thank you, I will absolutely read this.
Thank you for putting in the work to help people like myself see what is in their blind spots. Keep up the good work. Your videos are incredibly informative, and you have a great sense of humor even as you talk about very serious topics.
people tend to support their own interests, not the interests of others unless it benefits them indirectly
11:50 that actually kind of explains why basically everyone in leftist spaces calls me a larper when I talk about my desire for legitimate action to be taken..
We saw Chaz you guys ARE larpers
Far rightwingers got entire areas in Ohio you had some limp dick street given to you as a joke
I'm not gonna keep responding to every individual comment that says this, but it's important to get the story straight so listen up.
Re: SayHerName.
The phrase Say Her Name was NOT co-opted from indigenous folks. You all are thinking of the phrase Say THEIR Names meant to draw attention to murdered and missing indigenous women. This phrase started gaining widespread use right around the time the #SayHerName movement was created in direct response to the death of Sandra Bland.
At some point during the timeline, the two phrases just kinda melded into each other however the #SayTheirNames movement is specifically organized to bring light to missing indigenous women.
I'm just gonna give y'all the benefit of doubt and assume that y'all are basing the "Black people took it from indigenous folks" from the 2021 doc "Say Her Name" that covers the missing indigenous girls from Big Horn County Montana, but to answer the question, #SayHerName as a movement was organized specifically to address black women.
It's pedantic I know, but so is using the phrasing origin to deflect from the point of the controversy so there you have it
Bump.
Also I took a while to watch this video because I didn't know what you were going to say about Breanna Ghey and as I'm from the UK their death really hit me hard. But to be honest for the little vigil that we organised among finally saying a lot of things that we felt scared to say under the UK climate of anti-trans sentiment it did feel consciously aware of the presence of Whiteness in that space. It seemed inevitable that we would think of her namesake, but I think I might have been the only one who talked about how this hate crime was part of the same White supremacist system that killed Breanna Taylor at the vigil.
I ended up talking to someone who I have just clicked with at the vigil (subsequently becoming very close friends), and what they said really impacted on me. They are Black British-Ghanaian and they had the immediate thought that if either of the suspects or the victim had been Black, it would have been immediately put into the journalistic angle of knife crime, which is associated with Black people in the UK media landscape. In truth the way they are made into a symbol feels complicated, because on the one hand the UK political class and media largely does not acknowledge that transphobic systems kill kids so there is a reason why they were amplified in this conversation in this country. But also there is a deep lost opportunity in the White Western Anglophone alphabet people community for amplifying the marginalised instead of centering the most powerful, and stochastic terror movements like LGB drop the T are just this neocolonialism beginning at home, like happened with the Welsh.
I feel honestly awkward being Christian still in that White Western Anglophone alphabet people community, but the biggest reason I'm still in the Jesus fandom, as I call it now in a semi serious way, is that that community still doesn't have anything to address the needs and cries for change that Stormzy, Guvna B, Wretch 32, Kendrick Lamar, Desmond Tutu, John Sentamu and Martin Luther King Jr which radicalised me long before I ever cared about Marx. They are the reason I came out, via Kat Blaque. Cos although I was transphobic towards myself, I couldn't accept people telling me that who participated in racism.
Anyway, you don't need to read this, I just thought I'd say that you are doing good work and that the conversation which didn't happen with the conversation around the Closer (like you mentioned in your video I'm tired of defending Black men) is happening because of this video. Much love from a Cheshire trans person.
+
Great video. Watched it with a friend. Paused it a lot to discuss and look up stuff. Learned lots. Definitely sharing with others. Thanks for the book recs, pop snark, and sarcasm.
It's a lack of self reflection that comes from the need to be right. When people identify with a moral movement, they do so because they want to absolve themselves of their moral shortcomings, and the recognition that identity might not be strong enough to do that is tough to get over. And when you're jaded and internet poisoned like me, that's just one more barrier to empathetic engagement.
As someone who's frequently argued with communists and socialists about often surface level understandings of race, anti racism, and it's intersection with capitalism and western society, I can't thank you enough for making this video. Legitimately had a hallelujah moment
Same here bro. This dude actually can articulate what he means by shit.
He doesnt come off as some woke retard that you normally encounter on Twitter.
@porter9494 talking about race does not divide the proletariat. Racism does. Talking about homophobia does not divide the proletariat. Homophobia does.
@@js1741LMAO leftists are the funniest listen to this drivel😂
I'm trans and white, thank you so much for talking directly about Keffals. She's clever and good at dodging criticisms, but so much of her clout is derived from truly toxic followers
Ikr?
This statement is not meant to absolve any trans people who are actually part of her stanbase (love that phrase btw) but the trans people who I look up all absolutely despise Keffals.
Lol the only reason I know who keffles is because she made up a whole bunch of random shit about bad empanada, admitted it, and then tried to apologize about it and some weird a backhanded way, and then went back to making stuff up
And yet in getting kiwi farms taken down for a couple days she’s done more for the left than any of your favourite creators ever will.
@@zetanone7211so the fuck what?
Thank you for this.
The history is essential, and there was so much here I didn't know...
But so is the self reflection and the empathy. If we can't reflect on pur mistakes, if we put up our "shields", we don't learn, and you see that all the time with social media; people doubling down on bad takes under criticism because their ego won't allow them to do anything else, sometimes becoming almost their entire personality: casting the "critics" as enemies they can't back down from, and the reason they have to keep going.
And instead, we have to reflect and empathise. We have to listen to voices like yours and we have to do better.
Great video. So much to think about and mull over.
There is no real hope for equality or safety without intersectionality. So long as any group is marginalized all are at risk because marginalization requires making the judgment that a group is 'lesser' due to some chosen criteria.
Allowing anyone the power to make that judgment against one group sets the precedent that someone *has* that power which opens the door for that judgment to be applied to any group that they choose. They can change the criteria any time they want.
I keep trying to get people to realize that the 'slippery slope' is only a logical fallacy if you say A MUST lead to B. Understanding that A CAN lead to B and that's dangerous is just common sense. Acknowledging that A OFTEN leads to B and that's not a chance worth taking is basic observation.
(Not sure I got that out coherently, I hope I made some sense)
I gochu
Treating people with dignity and respect is a slippery slope. If we stay on that path, we might have to give up our beloved traditional sports team names.
Intersectionality is an academic concept that is incompatible with class warfare.
When it comes to race and Marx, there are things even most Marxists miss the significance of for example the first person to call himself a Marxist Paul Lafrague was a Cuban who self identified as "proudest of his negro extraction", he was also Marxs son in law, in turn Marx himself was nicknamed by his friends and family "The Moor", to the point that when Marx died the letter Engels recieved called him "Moor".
I love how Blacks believe these Jewish lies that Marx was a friend of blacks😂
Uuh remember Marcus Garvey remember how the communists wanted him dead?
Remember Karl Marx his letter to Engels?
Fuck man, this video encapsulating a lot of the things I've been frustrated with for a while but haven't been able to put my finger on. I see all these people online talking about how identity politics "divide the left" but what really divides the left is trying to use a specific viewpoint to enforce some universal code of action, or more likely inaction, that in reality is just based on their experiences rather than anything universal. And the line about just being a good person was the perfect end to this. It seems a few people don't realize that genuine compassion and empathy are WAY more important than endless arguments and oppression disguised in equality.
Solid video man, you seem like a very grounded and realistic person. Your passion has been tempered by experience and wisdom, instead of being dulled by it. I feel like you're the sort of person who would be willing to have a discussion instead of hosting a presentation.
i didn’t understand a lot in this video, terminology and certain figures or groups, but i think that’s a good thing. it gives me an opportunity to learn and points me in the right directions to do so. great video :)
I definitely learned alot about how white apathy to black oppression hurt the ability of labor movements in the 20th century to build a strong mass movement.
Definitely got to reflect on some emotional things thatll help me be in better community with black folks and poc.
I appreciate this video alot! A few thoughts. Cornell West I think put it well when he wrote (shout out to T1J's video on me knowing this) racism existed before capitalism.
"Solidarity goes both ways." Is such a good motto ill be carrying with me. Awesome video!
I'm only one quarter of the video in and already feel this is one of my favourite video essays that I've seen in long time. Love your pace, love the "in your face" stile of exposing all the subjects and love the 'not serious' takes. But above all love the subject and how you delivered and explained it.
I'm instantly subscribing.
Ps. As a white anarchist myself I won't say I deeply understand everything or have the experience based knowledge needed to do so, still I'm appreciate every second of it and I'll do my best to try to interiorize the ideas (without appropriating and decontextualizing them).
Ps2. I'm not native English speaker so sorry if my writing isn't the best.
🤡
As a white anarchist myself I wanted to say
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub
(I'm the Scatman)
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub
Ski-bi dibby dib yo da dub dub
Yo da dub dub
Ba-da-ba-da-ba-be bop bop bodda bope
Bop ba bodda bope
Be bop ba bodda bope
Bop ba bodda
Ba-da-ba-da-ba-be bop ba bodda bope
Bop ba bodda bope
Be bop ba bodda bope
Bop ba bodda bope
I'm so grateful for this video, I'm white and anarchist reddit love and support and white and that's it
@@Icedsobaka did you enjoy your labor rights today? Good. Anarchists fought and died for them. Black and white ones even.
@@Slurpverson you can’t do that on the street. Maybe log off and renew your library card.
Well said Brother. You put it all on the table. Enjoy your vacation!
Iii8mkkkmi.😮
Your closing statements at about 59:38 really moved me. I needed to hear that.
As always, you didn't miss. Had me feeling some good feelings and happiness saying some of the things you said.
except his entire video was a miss of blatant invalid logic and framing.
@@abrasiveanswers7239 cope and seeth
@@MindMistressCS as a black person can you explain the inherent harm in using the sayhername hashtag for Brianna Ghey to begin with? I've heard people say that it somehow takes away from black women. But Imo not only should it be used for Brianna Ghey but doing so will spread the hashtag around more leading to more people seeing it, learning about it, and therefore learning more about victimized black women too. Isn't that what we want?
@@Hazegod I think he was referring to the #n hashtag because Abrasive is clearly anti-black.
@@MarcosElMalo2 anti-blackness isn't a thing.
I'm usually on the fence with you dawg. Before this vid I never really understood if you were flirting with some Hotep shit or not. But, I think I understand you more now. This was excellent. Oh and uh... Silence ya phone, homie.
I give hotep vibes? 😭😭😭
@@lilbilliam Nah not really bruh... Like surface level you have a type of sarcastic bitterness that they often exhibit, and that initially set off alarms. But, your language is totally different. You straight, bruh.
Thanks for this video, I’ve been trying to do more listening lately and this put things into perspective more for me.
1st gen Filipino, I have nearly zero connection to Filipino culture other than my family. It’s colonialism, which works to make the colonized hate themselves and their culture and instead to embrace the colonizer ways (White Americans). Nearly 80% of Filipino kids in the US cannot speak their native language despite it being their first language in the Philippines, cuz the parents want them to adopt English, American ways, American education all cuz it’s better, to find ‘success’ in America, and cuz learning Filipino ways will just get in the way. Oh, and the education system and the culture in the Philippines is white American anyway, it’s not the parents’ fault they think like this.
I disagree that all ‘Asians’ can be lumped into 1 group. We’re like the biggest group in the world and are way too diverse to be called 1 group. Asia is the most bombed place in the world, but some places are disproportionately more bombed than other. More colonized than others.
Welcome to how Africans feel when we're put together as one
one group*
Thank you! As a mixed blood lgbt person I would be either a special kinda stupid or willfully ignorant if I couldn't admit I owe most my rights (the queer ones anyway) to a pissed off Black Transwoman with a brick. And why wouldn't I want to admit that anyway? That is like one of the most badass moments of queer history and I will forever Stan that woman ❤ oh and ya got everything else right on the head. I gotta admit being white passing has got me stuck in some hella awkward racist AF conversations where I have to decide education or evacuate?
mixt wHat??
@@Joshvs3 mixed bloodlines/ethnic heritage. Got an odd blend of Ashkenazi Jews, Ojiicree (Indigenous North America Nation) and Britt (so like probably bit of all European blood cause England was the town bike of that contenant before they went off to colonize shit). Great Gran fled WW2 Austria and Papa was all Native. So it's not some 300-400 year removed 0.5% bs either haha
Thats a huge overstatement and the way marsha P johnson has been idolized takes so much away from the other organizers, protestors, and activists that existed before stonewall, during that time, and after. Its not like she played no part but she was not "the reason you have rights" there was already a very active ongoing movement this event was when all the rage they felt at being constantly raided assaulted came to a head and they fought back against the police instead of going quietly.
@@KD-ou2np I apologize for my hyperbolic statement, I mean yes the real depth of queer rights and the fight for em can be traced basically as far back as the institutional banning of said existence began spreading. My point was more to emphasize the way current history has whitewashed a fight that has often been spearheaded by variety of diverse faces.
@@JaceReboot im just being facetious with the use of "mixed blood"
I live in a VERY white (and very leftist) bubble in Finland and I'm so grateful I came across this video. It opened my eyes to many things I haven't thought about or only scratched the surface of. Thank you so much.
This video is great and puts a lot of my scattered thoughts into words. This really effectively shines a light on how privilege blinds a person to a more nuanced understanding of the world.
For me, when I first got into economic leftist thought, I had already done a lot of social deconstruction and so when going into some of these spaces, I felt a distinct lack of intersectionality and empathy outside of the white straight man perspective. It was disconcerting and made me feel alienated with these people who had realized the many failings of the economic buildings of society but failed to understand how social prejudice can work as its own entity that must be addressed equally.
I just listened to a biography podcast of Fannie Lou Hamer, and it was so disheartening to hear that she had to spend so much time and energy just getting so-called antisegragation white Democrats to give black people a voice. That, after everything she'd already suffered and sacrificed for voting rights.
As a white person, this kind of video topic makes me irrationally uncomfortable, but that's why I need to watch it, so thank you for doing this work. Eager to see what content you make in the future.
have been reading waste of white skin recently and learning a lot about class and whiteness, a sentence that has stuck with me the most is "as long as white identity is most often deployed to obscure black suffering, sympathy with whiteness comes again at a cost paid by black people". i can't wait to watch this video
This remind me of a line for Sartre's review of Wretched of the Earth 'Have the courage to read this book.'
I'm Quebecese, a French Canadian from the Province of Quebec. Un canadien québécois! Un français, canadien français, américain du nord français. Un francophone québécois canadien. Un québécois d'expression canadienne française française. Je suis un canadien... américain, francophone d'Amérique du nord. Un franco-québécois... un franco-canadiens du Québec. Un québécois canadien.
And because of that, the term "speak white," which means to "speak English" (thrown at us up until 1999 when vandals rose a flag on the bridge between Ottawa and Gatineau written: "From this point on, speak white!") was two words that caused a dissonance in my view of the world, in how I viewed my colour and the colours of others.
On m'a dit que j'étais blanc, mais on m'a dit de « parler blanc, » I was told I was white, but also told to "speak white." Where I live, it is part of our history that British colonisers would discriminate us, French colonisers, for speaking our tongue after the French and Indian War. We were "a people with no literature and no history" according to Lord Durham in his letters to the Crown.
How can I be white if I don't speak white? How can I be part of white history if I'm from a people "without literature nor history"? Only to say that, even in the history of my people, we always saw, felt, and understood ourselves as othered. Even worse when I, as a kid, was shamed by my peers for trying to speak the French our ancestors fought so hard to protect from assimilation... I grew up surrounded by paradoxical identities and definitions so blatant and incongruous I couldn't but come to the conclusion: whiteness is bullshit
My people didn't survived thanks to whiteness. If anything, the French crown just screw us over by demanding we hunt and send them furs only for them to resell the transformed products back into the colony. If anything, our ancestors survived only thanks to the original owners of these lands, and despite a lot of us being racist and xenophobic against First Nations, a lot of us just straight up adopted their customs, intermingled, and created a new identity and culture for the French colonists of the time. I mean... the Métis Nation and Louis Riel are a blatant example of this legacy. Hell... for a lot of us, the only reason the French and Indian War was lost is because the stupid French supremacist Montcalm forced our troops to fight "the proper square formation white European style" instead of letting us fight guerrilla style as our Native allies had had taught us for decades.
So, yeah... Whiteness is bs and we ought to dismantle it.
Yet a lot of Québécois still use whiteness to prop themselves above people of color, and use their past oppression as an excuse to cover their racism, it's so ingrained that the premier has the balls to say: "On n'est pas raciste ici au Québec"
The same month a native woman died from litteral racist neglect.
Québécois have become white after the Révolution Tranquille, even tough francophobia racism still exists *cough* Steve McCullough *cough* it is mostly confined in the Rest of Canada, but not to other white nations to the same degree. This is also the reason why the independentist project failed, because racist sentiment infected it and ingrained itself in it for many years, it even got hold of the high echelon through Parisau and his racist comment in 1995 that killed the project for at least two generations. That "I'm a victim, therefore cannot victimize" mindset is extremely dangerous, as seen in what's happening in Israel.
I don't like how Qubecois tried to call themselves the White n-words of Canada, when there were already Black Canadians experiencing racism.
1:00:50
"A lot of self-described leftists aren't really leftist, so much as they see leftism as a means to access the fullness of the privilege their whiteness should afford them, but some other variable has denied them"
I'm reeling from this line, because it explains so many people I've seen in leftist spaces who will absolutely let the mask slip the moment they're expected to show humility or understanding to somebody more marginalised than themselves.
This video was fire. Gonna share it around and watch the bigots come crawling out.
Edit: they did in fact come out
Edit: apparently this video is racist to certain folks I won’t name smdh
V-man and the White Leaf Network be like….
I’m not a leftist. Anyone on the left that has told me that their revolution will magically solve racism has been either a liar or a delusional victim of ideology or a bit of both. It’s magical thinking. They are every bit as bad as a free market conservative that believes equal opportunity exists-maybe worse, because they’re supposed to know better.
? Who are the people that the video's racist to
@@Dave102693 When did Vaush say he found the vid racist though to my knowledge he hasn't reacted to it yet
Damn...I had to watch this again. So much to think about. As a latino, idk where we fit in with a lot of this stuff. We are an ethnicity and not a race and white Latinos let us know this all the time. So, we have this issue to address, but aside from that we also have a lot of the stuff Lil Bill is talking about as well.
Yeah it's complicated like blackness. My mom technically is afro-latina (white PR father) but she doesn't know that side so she identifies as black. Whereas I know plenty of brown skin dominicanos who will throw hands if I say their black.
So I usually try to stay away from commenting on Latino identity because I wasn't raised in that sphere
@@lilbilliam Thanks for responding man! I really appreciate it. But, yes, complicated to say the least. I think a lot of it has to do with the ever present legacy of Spanish colonialism and the colorism enforced upon its colonies.
For example, in Puerto Rico, they like to say they aren't racist and yet most (if not all) the top government officials are white. Most of the people that live in the affluent places like Guaynabo are white, while most of the residents of a non-affluent place like Fajardo are black. So, it's funny how that worked out right?
Dominicans had this legally enforced colorism as well, but it was also compounded by the dictator Trujillo who reigned for a very long time. He basically made it illegal to be black. The guy used to put pancake powder on his face to be more white (Sammy Sosa comes to mind.) and ordered his soldiers to shoot any Haitian crossing the border on sight. No questions asked. So, yeah, a lot of Dominican families have passed on this trauma and have that reaction to being called black as a result.
I do want to say this one last thing, my family's skin tones range from very dark to basically white. It is very hurtful to see my darker family internalize a lot of the colorism and even get offended when I try to approach them about it. Hurt people hurt people, but things like this are why it is important to have these discussions.
Much love to you, waiting for that next vid. I will definitely pass this one onto as many folks as I can.
@@Defialos I’ve wonder how does this play out in multiracial families in Latin America?
@Dave102693 we've treat everyone in our family the same, no matter the skin tone, because Latinos identify more with nationality than what color they are
Segregation and racism are ingrained in both political parties in certain ways. I'm really glad you explained that this idea wasn't so far-fetched. I love how informative this video really was.
Damn. I'm trans, I'm white, I'm 26 years old. I took a leftist quiz that said I'm "centrist Marxist" and go with that even though I disagree with how our political spectrum is constructed in the first place. I didn't know most of this even happened.
Using "say her name" for a trans person doesn't make any sense to me. It refers to the media's tendency to cover racial events with the POC referred to as "black(etc) woman/man" in headlines instead of their names, perpetuating a large part of systemic racism. I don't know if that's even an issue with trans people. I can't say I've seen enough headlines about it to begin with. Surely we can come up with a "let's talk about this" slogan that doesn't start to drown out the existing tag. It would even be more effective in other ways. But I guess the Twitter keyboard warriors gotta be lazy with it and start unnecessary conflict, at the least.
It's also like they think no one will take trans lives seriously unless we co-opt racial struggles that they see as having more history to it, when that isn't even true. That is buying in to decades and centuries of book burning and censorship against trans people and does a massive disservice to our forebears. It's counterintuitive to buy in to the attitude that we, on our own, don't matter and aren't otherwise worth consideration.
God, that's so stupid. But I can't put out all that nuanced line of thought in a catchy and brief slogan when it feels so important, to me. This keeps frustrating me over and over. Watch this comment get no attention because I couldn't formulate it within 30 minutes of the video releasing, also. And that's just how social media works.
Brianna is being buried under her deadname. That's why. It still doesn't make sense to used Say Her Name, it should be something like Use Her Name or something direct like "Don't deadname the dead" instead.
And yes, being buried under the wrong identity is a problem we've faced for a very, very long time. And it removes our stories and our humanity just as surely as not using the names of black victims of police violence.
There are a lot of parallels between Trans issues and Black issues, but it isn't an excuse to co-opt black liberation slogans.
@@Jane-oz7pp yeah I don't mean to discount intersectionality, for sure. I just wanted to keep the comment as short as possible.
@@Jane-oz7pp I did see a tweet saying that, at first it made sense but then it kind of didn't.
How is she being burried under he dead name? Aren't her parents supportive? I thought you could put anything on a headstone.
Her death certificate though, will probably misgender her and deadname her, as she didn't get a grc. Getting one is a not an easy process, which is annoying as fuck.
Maybe the tweet was remembering Leelah Alcorn who's parents deadnamed her when she died.
@@Jane-oz7pp sorry...but "use her name" is so similar to the original slogan that at that point it's just semantics. in trying to avoid using something from Black activism, it feels like the focus is taken off the actual problem at hand. i don't want you to think i'm disagreeing with you, though, because right at the beginning you make a perfect point.
Blud explained
Vaush, Xanderhal and keffals perfectly in this vid lol
These 3 are a problem.
Trust me, Mediterranean, Danubian and Latin whites are also fucking appalled at how nonchalantly Anglo and Germanic whites decide not to season their food.
....Damn, Guile's theme really does go with everything.
thank you for calling out the "I found a minority co-sign". that shit is wild and I fucking hate when anybody does it but especially Vaush lol
Vaush is so frustrating. He comes so close to understanding and then turns around to double down on dumb shit. I'd like to think I've had some productive conversations in his comment sections but of course I have no way of knowing what takes.
Half of his White Leaf Network is like that.
The trans, indigenous, non hetero, and the women apart of it, almost always repeat the things he says, look the other way or both.
Vonch
@@Dave102693 they repeat it because they agree with him though i dont understand why thats even noteworthy to point out?
@@jlp6864 cos they weaponise their identity in order to defend their favourite white man… whilst claiming that anyone who criticises him are doing the same thing
Got brought here from Kat Blaque's channel, thanks for such a great video!
I’m a white person; I have this white friend who struggles with equating all oppression to a matter of class struggle, it drives me fucking crazy. Granted, once upon a time he was way better at understanding micro aggressions and systematic oppression then I ever did when we were like teenagers, but as we got older, he basically started insinuating things like “white people are mostly just harmless and it’s the rich who make them racist and homophobic” and he called me classist when I said most mechanics are racist like ??? Sry man my girlfriend is Latina and every mechanic shop in the state treats her completely differently than me or the friend I’m describing. It’s especially bad because she can fix cars herself for the most part; but the white dudes always treat her like she’s a wild animal that just woke up in a car one day. Plus the way they always overcharge women in general. This friend is mostly a nice guy, but his defensive white guilt has gotten to be way too much, it’s basically formed a big divide between us forever. Plus now he’s trynna return to the Catholic Church and now has all this Christian apologetics on top of the white Marxist shit.
Jerek Bilbar
Even if rich people make people racist and homophobic at some point they still have to take accountability. I mean essentially something outside of ourselves *does create these depositions and attitudes, mainly *society* . But does that mean you have an excuse to keep supporting and perpetuating what society has taught you? Especially when you have the ability to think in alternative ways and at the very least have your natural instinct of fairness and wrong to aid you if nothing else?
Racism and classism have always gone hand in hand in this country Eben when it were illogical to do so. So, it makes sense why he's equating these issues with just 'eat the rich- rhetoric.
Thing is, your friend forgets his own privilege until it's his own problem. But given America, he'd need to be directly involved like your situation with your girlfriend to see this distinction happen and not assume his perspective is the objective standard and a person complaiming must have done something.
Kind of like how Americans assume many places outside of America probably speaker their language but also at some capacity might speak their own English language.
It's a foolish assumption but that's the privilege of being an American. You can assume things that aren't true the other way around. You need accommodation for the other way around; which is hard to come by or justified in its absence.
Also even as a Christian myself, you see this weird push for conservation of whiteness with the assumption they are seemingly in better shape beczuse they're somehow more righteous or something. It's the strangest thing how they will preach Theology in one breath but switch to republican politics as well as targeting minorities via crime stats but not the social issues, poverty, heavy policing, food deserts, lack of education; taxes, etc that yield their desperate situation in the first place.
I'm not a leftist whatsoever but I appreciate the fact that they even consider that there's more to the story than 'poor people deserve what they're getting because they didn't work as hard as I did' rhetoric.
You're not white
Sounds like your friend was right.
@@ultraguy14 was white*
Damn, u basically whooped my ass for an hour straight... Youch. But your point is well taken. And telling ppl uncomfortable truths can be thankless task, credit to u for doing it anyway. And how tf does this guy have only 60k subs? Great video, liked and sub'd
geez dood what a cuck
@@Bran_Flakesx7 take the projection somewhere else I dont care what you do in your bedroom freak
Very good video. Very worth the time it took to watch. I was vaguely aware of most of this already but I still see parts of what you said in myself and intend to take this all to heart.
Thanks man. This video really put into concrete words the cognitive dissonance I've felt from what are still largely all white leftist communities. I thought I was going insane.
This was a Rollercoaster ride I was not prepared for. I had autoplay on just for background noise but this grabbed my attention and wouldn't let me go.
I watched your black capitalist video and I must say, this is a good look at the flipside of the coin.
I’ve yet to read much theory but have consumed some history and it seems like Black people have traditionally been at the forefront of every progressive and radical movement, both in terms of being on the front lines and actually starting them up (not to mention creating language for them and being open to just about anyone joining in good faith). This is especially true for Black women.
It’s all true even when Black people were not permitted to be at the forefront, either due to their enslavement or ghettoization and poverty.
Thank you for all your videos and I appreciate you for this one especially, since I have now decided to begin my theory reading journey by reading Black radicals, in particular Black women, first.
Thanks for the video, it’s been very eye opening. As a white leftist myself it’s just.. Painful how accurate this is. You’ve earned a sub.
Man youve always had great videos but lately you have really stepped up this and your liberation theology are really great
"yeah let's just pretend like this didn't happen... oh wait that's right Y'ALL ALREADY DO"
you're too goated for this platform fam
Time to watch this as a white leftist to see if I fall victim to similar tendencies! Thank you for the videos you make!
Ill comment again to articulate what I've learned for other ghostly toastlies to maybe learn too.
Love how all the comments are the most blatant cases of white guilt.
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I'm not even black, I'm South Asian. It's a great informative video and much that I didn't know. Americas history of racism isn't really necessary for someone who lives in India, but always good to learn new things
Hmmmm. If I lived in India, I would certainly focus on India's history of anti-black racism, i.e., its treatment of more melanated people within and beyond its borders. Gandhi in South Africa comes to mind. And that racism gets exported to the U.S. and elsewhere--from the descendants of Brahmin immigrants like Kamala Harris (her mother's lineage) to Bollywood's colorism. Of course, from China to Brazil, India is not alone in it's oppression of its most melanated people. I'm also clear that anti-"darkness" which extends beyond anti-"blackness" should be a focus of examination for the Left and why BIPOC politics is such a fail for me. For example, South Indians or aboriginal Australians don't get categorized as "black" in the U.S., even if their skin is darker than say, Neil DeGrasse Tyson or as dark as Ketanji Brown Jackson.
India is just as bad, if not worse