In response to #Blackout, White supremacists who were angry that we dared to have anything that was ours and that didn’t center them thought they’d “counter” by making a Whiteout tag. While most of us ignored them, White “allies” thought they’d distance themselves from their privilege help by mocking them. This post has a warning for classism.
(Food mentions link one and three)
Kristi receives an ask suggesting that people spam the Whiteout tag with “pics of rednecks and hillbillies missing teeth on it.”
When called on the classism and asked to mock White people without mocking poverty, Kristi feigns ignorance (bonus: a White person and current stfumras mod tries to make this about defending White racists) and then actually claims that poverty has nothing to do with it because Duck Dynasty.
(Homophobia, abortion, rape, rape apologism, cissexism)
Someone else attempts to call stfumras out on the classist crap, and Kristi stubbornly refuses to admit that there’s any association with poverty and just rants on about ignorance, bigotry, and lack of education. She also says she “doesn’t condone the toothless part”, but she hadn’t actually bothered not condoning it until someone pointed out that they were defending mocking “toothless hillbillies”. It wasn’t objected to until it was convenient to do so.
(Ableist language)
Someone suggests that anyone complaining about those terms are just looking to claim White oppression, and the primary person calling stfumras out on this says she’s not even White, and repeats that her gripe is with the classism.
Kristi snaps that “The OP said NOTHING about poor people and only mentioned hillbillies
and rednecks, (toothless part I don’t agree with). Stop changing history
because you’re getting proven wrong you liar.”
Even if we pretend that the terms “redneck” and “hillbilly” don’t have strong associations with rural poverty, OP specified toothlessness. Kristi “objected” to that part after she realized
it would destroy her point entirely, but it was anon who said it in
the first place.
So yelling that “the OP said NOTHING about poor people”
is a lie, and Kristi is in zero position to claim that anyone else is “changing history because [they’re] getting proven wrong”.
When people tell her she’s overstepping, Kristi yells about her rural family members and acts as if she has the right to talk about these terms because of them, because she grew up in a small town, and because she’s asked for donations before.
(Racism)
Growing up in a small town where people pretended to be Southern (not the same as rural) doesn’t mean you’ll be classed as a “hillbilly” or “redneck”. Being related to people who might be doesn’t matter either (I’ve never been even close to rich just because my grandfather was!). Toothlessness is associated with extreme poverty; needing some financial help to get a divorce is not poverty of the same degree at all.
Even though two other people said that “White trash” was not an acceptable term either and expained how, Kristi kept complaining that CxD was the one “equating” the terms to their actual meanings and that she was the real bigot for pointing out classism (apparently not a real thing to Kristi, as she used scarequotes). Seeing as one of the terms objected to was “White trash”, it’s hypocritical of Kristi to say she understood why it’s an objectionable term but then go on to berate CxD for objecting to it!
Kristi keeps right on with the disgusting tactic of accusing a Native woman of being invested in White supremacy. Even if this were true, this is not her place at all as a White person. She also continues to deny the meaning of the terms and says CxD should “shut up already” and “come off your pedestal.”
Kristi flat out lies about what happened, claiming it all “started when someone told a black person not to call asshole white people hillbillies or rednecks”. While a Black person did step in to claim that this was just a ploy to defend White people, the original ask was by an anon who suggested mocking “rednecks and hillbillies with missing teeth.”
It’s absolutely despicable to rewrite events so that the anon is now definitely a Black person, and so that the words used that make it clear that anon (like most people) associates those terms with poverty are left out. This is a White person being willfully ignorant and pitting brown folks against each other, all because she’s incapable of admitting that she was wrong or speaking out of turn.
More inappropriate responses.
(Gore mention)
More accusations of defending Whiteness (speaking of “changing history” to suit you…)
Kristi tries to claim that mocking people for missing teeth (almost like they perhaps couldn’t afford to get treatment to keep them or replacements) is solely about ableism.
First, I want to quickly ask that even if for some reason you’re not convinced that “redneck” and “hillbilly” and “White trash” are classist terms, that you put that aside for a moment and focus on the lying and the backpedaling and the racist overstepping from stfumras. It’s a pattern I’ve already shown in my previous masterpost focusing on transmisogyny.
Second, I didn’t want to leave this without an explanation as to why all this is particularly damaging. First, yes, the terms “redneck” and “hillbilly” and “White trash” are heavily associated with “low class”, uneducated, poor White rural people. I don’t understand how someone can pretend otherwise. Of course the terms aren’t “racist against White people”, but I won’t say they don’t contribute to racism. Let me explain how:
The stereotype is that these people are ignorant and bigoted and oppressive. That may well be true, but by pretending racism is the domain of a subset of White people, we’re ignoring the fact that there are plenty of upper and middle class, well-educated racists. This impression is also really convenient for “liberal” White people,
who refuse to accept that yes, they too can be racist, simply because they don’t think they fit the stereotypical image of one.
White supremacy is upheld by all White people, particularly ones with more power. All White people contribute to and benefit from White supremacy. Some are just louder about it.
Further, by calling them “uneducated”, we’re implying that racism is a result of ignorance, just an accident and that “they don’t know any better.” It’s letting them off the hook, and I don’t think I need to explain how it’s classist to mock someone for not having access to quality education, anyway.
A reminder that Kristi of stfumras is a massive racist who thinks it’s acceptable for her, someone who BENEFITS from White supremacy, to tell someone oppressed by it that they’re invested in upholding it.
A reminder that Kristi of stfumras is a White Feminist who responded to a poor Native women’s objections to her classism with gaslighting, mockery, and by accusing her of racism.
A reminder that Kristi of stfumras’ idea of anti racism is to overstep and to use me and mine as a shield for her racist and classist garbage.