I made a comment in that thread, that I believe white people can be victims of racism too, which I am aware is a dicey thing to say in 2019. For me though, I can’t deny that white people are sometimes demonized for their whiteness. To me, that is racism.
Similarly, I believe a man can be a victim of sexism. I’ve personally seen this in child custody matters where men have to jump through far more hoops than women do to obtain the same rights to see their own children.
In both of these cases, I sometimes hear that it isn’t possible for individuals within a group in power to experience discrimination because of the nature of the group’s status in society.
In other words:
Where white people hold power, white people can’t be victims of racism.
Where men hold power, men can’t be victims of sexism.
I don’t believe either of these things are true because they conflate the group with the individual. I also find myself in an interesting place on the issue as a person who is a member of both a marginalized group (ethnic minority) but also a group in power (men).
I am curious to hear what others think, especially given our community’s diversity.
Racism and sexism are bad. Sadly there are some people who have no problem with being a racist or sexist. But I’ve experienced a lot of AUDISM. Yes, it is new word for you.
Definition of audism
: discrimination or prejudice against individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing
Here is some stories, I got kicked out of boarding school for my bad behaviors. My mom wanted me to go to religious school so we went there to get myself enroll in there. The school admins refused to accept me because I’m deaf because they think deaf people are dumb, which is not entirely true. My mom was upset and crying. I was pissed about it. I told Mom that I want to go to my neighbor friend’s public school. She gave me a dirty look because she doesn’t want public school for me, but she had no choice but to send me there. Again, the admins there thought I was dumb because I’m deaf. I was placed in classes for students who are struggling. I aced all classes. Admins called Mom in for meeting and Mom thought she was gonna get “I told you so” but instead they apologized to my Mom and decided to place me in advanced classes. I still make A’s on those classes. But I wasn’t happy being in hearing school so I went to deaf school in Washington, DC and graduated there.
Another story, while I was away from deaf school for my behaviors, I went to hearing high school. I didn’t like there and I don’t like being only one deaf student there. So I suggested to go different hearing high school that have deaf program. (someone) blew up on me about me going there and said it is black school and that black people there are thugs. I didn’t know what to say but I was too stubborn to transfer. After transfer, I went there. I saw all black students wearing formal suit and tie (or dress for female) and they look very professional. Of course, that school is law magnet. Ironic.
From these experiences, I learn not to judge people by appearance and not to assume anything about people.
It breaks my heart to know that racism, sexism, audism, or other form of -ism still exist in the world.
Also, many hearing people from business won’t hire deaf people because they don’t know what to do with them. It is wrong. I hate discrimination. For me, I am forever grateful to have a job in college. Plus I have second job that I am about to start soon.
I think the only way to stop -isms is to change the DNA of humans. Ever since humans came into existence there has been hatred/distrust for the other tribe. Usually the reason isn’t the difference of gender or color but underlying jealousy,megalomania or just to troll. The only way for -isms to go away is to make everyone equal in wealth/status/gender/color, but even then we would probably start hating each other based on eye color or shoe size.
this is quite a negative thought, basically your saying there’s nothing we can do about it…
I refuse to believe that all forms of discrimination is hard-wired. It’s the people who do it, and it’s up to us as a community to say something about it, to tell them we don’t accept it, and if required, to punish them for it.
Very true. And we should create a safe environment for anyone to speak up to any of that shit, without being called all sorts of things for doing that.
a suffix appearing in loanwords from Greek, where it was used to form action nouns from verbs ( baptism ); on this model, used as a productive suffix in the formation of nouns denoting action or practice, state or condition, principles, doctrines, a usage or characteristic, devotion or adherence, etc. ( criticism; barbarism; Darwinism; despotism; plagiarism; realism; witticism; intellectualism ).
A decent example:
Envelope-ism = Unlikely
Friend-ism = Fits in contemporary usage.
Ism = don’t like someone that’s different than them.
Don’t even have to be color based, there are rich that hate poor people, even more there are multiple poor people (leftist libtards) that hate rich people. That’s an ism too.
I can testify to this as well. As a survivor of intimate partner violence perpetrated by a female, I’ve become an advocate of the rights and needs of male survivors of partner violence. (I do not support the “men’s rights movement,” which is a different thing entirely.) Putting aside for the moment the fact that woman are still under-represented and under-paid, our society has been so successful at bringing to light violence against women that violence against men is not only ignored, but more often than not ridiculed and used as humor. I can tell anyone with a willing ear that from experience I know it is anything but funny if it cannot work equally well both ways. It is painful, degrading and humiliating, and it’s my goal to help society understand that.
To address the broader topic, though, I was thinking only this morning, shortly before I found this topic, about Senator Sanders. People are expressing concern that perhaps an elderly white man is not the person to bring about the revolution he touts. I can understand that point of view, but I also think that someone from within an oppressor group can be a very powerful agent of change to reverse that oppression. It takes the participation of willing men to bring to light the horrors of violence against women - and vice versa. (Many of my online supporters are women who want to see DV end for everyone as much as I do.) So perhaps an old white man can be effective at reversing the atrocities that old white men have wrought on other demographics throughout US history.
My takeaway is that yes, individuals within historically discriminated demographics can certainly suffer from discrimination. As a society, we need to address the broader historical context without losing sight of the fact that any individual can suffer just as much as anyone else, for any reason.
Very true. And we should create a safe environment for anyone to speak up to any of that shit, without being called all sorts of things for doing that.