Oh, in the name of all that is holy, why, why do I continue to read these snotty “If you don’t like Girls, you don’t GET Girls” articles that inevitably annoy me and make me turn to the blog in a fit of irritation? Damn you, Girls and that insufferable sect of your fans. Stop distracting me! I want to write about my heartbreak over Dan Harmon being fired from Community and you’re making it harder by existing and being annoying! (Not that all or even most Girls fans are obnoxious; this review of the latest episode is very well-written and praises the show intelligently and analytically.)
Anyway, the latest snotty Girls review comes from Jezebel in the form of an article by Foster Kamer called “Boys Who Talk About Girls: And Now, a Black Guy Weighs In”. I thought the title was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but apparently not – or rather, the title is meant to direct its tongue-in-cheekiness towards those whiners who talk about the racial problems of Girls, not towards the show itself. Here are a few questions that the writer asks his interviewee:
“And now we’re going to begin talking about the race issue, something we’ve strenuously avoided discussing in this column until now. What do you make of ‘Girls’ being lamented for a lack of diversity?
Does it bother you at all?Why not? Haven’t you read The Internet, sir? Why aren’t you pissed?
People made a very big deal about ‘Girls’ not looking like a model U.N. You don’t seem sufficiently scandalized. Explain yourself!
And here is the question I’ve been more excited to ask among all the others: It seems the majority of the racial diversity critique outrage is coming from White People Who Blog On The Internet. Why do you think that is?
White guilt seems to be an appropriate response to race in America, though, no?
But it’s really, grindingly irritating when it’s so outwardly projected in the same way any guilt is, in that it’s not going to do anything. It’s not going to bridge equality gaps. Like cheating on a spouse and confessing: The truth that will set you free is so often an indulgence. You’re getting it off your chest.”
My reaction to this? Well, I’m no lawyer, and the little I know of courtrooms comes from My Cousin Vinny and the handful of Law and Order episodes I’ve seen, but several of these so-called questions make me want to leap to my feet and say, “Objection! Leading the witness!” I don’t speak for “Anthony,” the interviewee who Kamer assigned a pseudonym, and I bet he probably means every word he says, but if he didn’t agree with Kamer, Kamer’s questioning style didn’t give him a lot of room to feel comfortable about voicing an opposing opinion. Kamer’s questions are dripping with so much smug that someone might feel like an idiot for disagreeing with him.
There are other garbage comments in this fine piece of journalism of the “critics of Girls are JUS’ JELLUS of Lena Dunham” variety, but I won’t talk about that now. Right now, I want to address the concept of white guilt.
White guilt is a term tossed around in many different spheres. If you’re a white person who tries to be actively anti-racist, you’re going to be accused of acting out of “white guilt.”
I’m a white person who has a tag on her blog called “white girl talkin’ about racism,” and I’m here to tell you that I don’t feel remotely guilty about being white. Maybe there are people who do, but I don’t. Why should I? I didn’t have any control over my Irish-Italian heritage. As Lady Gaga would say, I was born this way, baby.
On top of that, I don’t feel guilty for benefiting from white privilege. That’s because I find guilt to be a pretty useless emotion. Feeling guilty doesn’t actually solve anything, and acting out of guilt is a selfish thing to do.
Still, while I don’t feel “guilty” for being white or benefiting from white privilege, I do feel conscious of it. And I acknowledge that this kind of privilege isn’t fair. I’m an American, living in a country that is supposedly a melting pot, yet American people of color are often treated as foreign creatures, as Others, in their own damn country, and are still marginalized, still discriminated against in a way that I am not and never will be.
That’s why I occasionally blog about racism on a blog that’s mostly about feminism. I don’t care about assuaging my own guilt, because as I said, I don’t feel guilty. What I feel is a sense of social responsibility to add my voice to the people who are fighting for their own rights, who are fighting to be treated as equals in a society that pretends we’ve already achieved equality while lamenting over the statistics of “minority babies.”
Social responsibility, compassion, and the fact that I like to talk and write a lot: those are the three things that motivate me to write about racism, not guilt. I’m willing to bet that a lot of white people who talk about racism feel the same way.
But you know what? Forget about me. I’m not a victim of racism and this isn’t about my hurt feelings (especially because I don’t have any on this issue). You want to think that I’m motivated by guilt, and this whole post is a lie? Feel free to think that way.
But look at this article on Girls: written by a white guy, talking to one black guy who already agrees with him that Girls is totally not racially problematic at all, with the white guy theorizing that most of the complaints about racism are coming from white people.
Meanwhile, many of the posts in the comment section that are unhappy with the race issue on Girls are coming from…wait for it…people of color.
What a clever way to deflect criticisms of racism. Responding angrily to people of color who point out racism would be showing your true colors (choice of phrase intentional to make a point), but if a white person talks about racism, it’s so easy to turn it around, make accusations of white guilt, and make distractions so that the original point is lost.
And again, this isn’t me saying, “Boo-hoo, I try to be a good white person but people on the Internet are mean to me,” because guess what? Ranting about white guilt doesn’t really hurt white people. Ranting about white guilt often dismisses and erases similar comments coming from people of color.
