Icons! The theme is Iron Man :)

[4] Tony Stark
[3] Tony&Rhodey
[11] Gwyneth Paltrow Vogue Shoot (Pepper-ish)
[11] Felicity Huffman in Sports Night (...as Kate Kildare)

prevue//

Icons found HERE.

The idea that "whiteness" as an identity is something that an individual can choose to embrace or reject is purely a product of white privilege.

It is philosophically founded on identity as the product of individual choice rather than societal assignment. The idea is itself manifestly false. I am white not because I have chosen to be white, but because society has coded me as white. I am white because, being coded as white, I am afforded white privilege.[1]

Part of the white privilege I am afforded is the ability to ignore the fact that I am afforded white privilege in a thousand ways every day, even if I explicitly act to nullify every aspect of white privilege under my control. Cops will not pull me over for driving while black if I reject my whiteness. Employers will not quietly discriminate against me if I reject my whiteness. I won't start getting worse service in stores, or followed around be security, if I reject my whiteness. ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

I also won't suddenly stop having the racist attitudes that come as a consequence of having the privilege of not understanding all the privileges I am afforded. I won't suddenly stop exercising the privileges I exercise by reflex because I don't realize they're the product of privilege. That stuff is the product of work, and I cannot do that work if I don't explicitly acknowledge that I am coded as white and shine a spotlight on it each and every time it tries to crawl into a corner and operate unseen.

All that happens if I reject my whiteness is I get to feel good about myself because I'm pretending to strike a blow for racial justice when in reality all I'm doing is complying with white supremacy and hiding it with a thin coat of paint, secure in the knowledge that not one consequence of being coded non-white that befalls people of color every day will come to my doorstep. The racetraitor folks put themselves at more risk when they can, but to be a racetraitor is to specifically embrace being white.[2]

That's white privilege. It's white privilege because it perpetuates white privilege. It's white privilege because people of color don't get to pretend they're not coded as people of color. That's a good way to get killed, and that's no exaggeration even in this day and age.

And now it's debunked, and that's what we're here to do in debunkingwhite

[1] Because I am Jewish, there are times and places where I was specifically coded as "not-white." In those times and places, specific structures such as the judenstern and ghettos were instituted to get around my people's light skin. The United States in the twenty-first century is not one of those places, so let's have no foolishness on that front.

[2] Else, what is there to betray?

 http://thwip-snikt.livejournal.com/7055.html#cutid1 

You can view the previous banners here:  http://thwip-snikt.livejournal.com/6238.html#cutid1

I started the first coat of paint on my nightstick/baton. It's made, as all my props are, primarily out of duct tape. Which is black. The paint is also black - a matte black, to smooth things out and fill in gaps and make it less shiny. I set it on newspapers to dry, and there is a bottle of black paint and a paintbrush right next to it.

I went out to the garage to have a some before starting on washing wigs. The garage is right off of my workroom, there's a door that connects the two. As I'm out there, I suddenly here 'What the hell?' from inside. Followed by 'what is this crap?'.

My father, who has a keen interest in this whole cosplay thing, had apparently decided he wanted to play with my nightstick - since the sword has been moved to my bedroom to make room and he can't pick that up and play with it at will - while it was wet with paint.

I snuff my cigarette and rush in, exclaiming 'WET PAINT! WET PAINT!' even though it does no good now. Which led to me explaining why I'm painting something that's already black, well, black. So now I have to make little 'wet paint' signs for anything that's drying.

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In other news, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, jade_pen! I hope it's as awesome as you are!

And for the splash page we get -- fanservice yay! In fact, more fanservice than the rest of the chapter, despite Fuka showing off her bikini.

( Yotsuba & Pools )

---L.