#i am not racist

Last week I had a serious conversation about racism with my mother and younger brother (20 y/o). I told them that racists aren’t just people who are part of the KKK, white supremacists, nazi’s. People who make racists jokes, who call black people the n-word ‘as a joke’ are ALSO racist.

I told them that this is also the case with rape culture. It starts with sexist jokes towards women AND men, rape jokes, saying things like 'boys will be boys’, victim blaming, and the pyramid ends with actual rapists and murderers. Even if you 'just’ make rape jokes, YOU are part of the problem.

I looked at my brother and he had a face like “Omg, seriously….” He wanted to say something but he couldn’t because my arguments were just too good tbh and well he doesn’t understand those topics enough.

I told him “Luuk, you are a racist”. He said “I am not a racist!!!!!”. Yes, yes you are. You have gross racist memes on your phone. A meme that said “90s kids will remember this” with three picture of things from the 1990s and a picture of a chained black man from the 1890s. That makes you racist, even if it’s 'just’ a joke.

He calls people the n-word (both the English and the Dutch version), black neck, and cotton picker. That makes you a fucking racist.

I told him all of that and he left, like a coward. He knew that he couldn’t win the argument so he just left. I sincerely hope that he learned something from our conversation.

I am so glad that Tumblr and a lot of other websites educated me on racism, sexism, feminism, homophobia, transphobia. It opened my eyes and don’t say certain things anymore because I don’t want to be a racist or a sexist. I have said racist things, a lot of racist things, and it’s NOT okay. I learned from it and hate the fact that I used to be like that.

Please, please, educate yourself and open your eyes.