why do non-black people of color always have to do that “but it happens to people who aren’t black too!” thing?
no one is saying that other groups don’t suffer from racism and white supremacy, but there are very different stereotypes and meanings attached to different races.
probably because as the largest and most visible racial minority in america, a lot of people disregard non-black people of color; latin@s, middle eastern people, asians and plenty other people can slip through the cracks and their struggles aren’t acknowledged nearly as much as those of black people. It’s kind of like non-gay queer people: you find yourself having to constantly say “but I’m here too getting oppressed as well” even though everyone talks about a different group
Black people aren’t the largest group of people of color though, Latin@s are. Black people are perceived as such and the hypervisibility of Black Americans in and of itself is due to anti-Blackness.
exactly: even though latin@s are more numerous in america their struggles aren’t acknowledged nearly as much - that’s why they (and other groups) feel the need to remind black POC of their presence
this only holds water if you consider Black people to be inherently external to other POC groups - there are Black LAtinos. there are Black Asians. there are Black Natives. and so on. and within each of those communities, it is the BLACK ppl who have their struggles overlooked, marginalized, etc. see for example Black NAtives, see how the Asian diaspora loves to pretend that the Caribbean doesn’t exist. you don’t have to “remind us” of shit, we’re already living it too and chances are we’e living it worse than the rest of the POC group we’re a part of. to exclude Black people from other POC groups is antiblack. that’s called erasure. furthermore, what’s the point of “reminding Black people” of non-Black POC presence (as if we needed to be reminded) if, as you know, Black people hold minimal to virtually no political power wherever they are? what’s the point of reminding Black people? Black people aren’t making legislation en masse, we’re not even in fucking control of all those images you see of us circulated everywhere. so why aren’t you worried about letting WHITE folks know y’all exist? asked and answered: because this line of thought has jack shit to do with dismantling white supremacy, it’s about policing Black people and our political articulations of our existence, which, thanks to chattel slavery, is non-analogous to any other POC experience. it can’t be compared. and trying to disguise that fact by going “BUT NON-BLACK POCs” is antiblackness too.It really comes down to “How dare you deal with you, when you should be serving us?!?” / “Why are we wasting precious empathy on Black people instead of people like us?” etc.
(via juska-rath)