...do you actually care what a privileged white person has to say about the recent events in the USA? Do you need or want to see someone posting a black image in social media with a hashtag #blackouttuesday as their way of showing support? Do you feel like white people, especially those who do not even live in America, get involved in the issue at hand by voicing out their support with retweets and shares?
I am not trying to come off as rude or ignorant, I’m genuinely curious and want to know. Of course not all black people can speak as one (some of ya’ll voted for Trump…) but I would like to hear from someone actually closer to this issue than what I am.
I’ve always found that posting #jesuischarlie #prayfor________ #georgefloyd and changing your profile picture to suit the current most talked about (≠the worst) catastrophe in the world is bullshit. I feel like that is just for people to post so they could feel good about themselves, and to polish their own image in the eyes of their viewers. I’m not saying social media doesn’t have any power but I think blindly sharing what ever is the biggest injustice media likes to show doesn’t do jack shit to help the people who are actually suffering. It only floods everyones feeds and people grow bored of it real fucking fast when the issue doesn’t actually touch them first hand.
If it wasn't clear yet, I am a privileged white person. A white girl with a happy wholesome childhood in one of the safest countries in the world, Finland, where we have very little corruption and our police are actually nice.
Along with being privileged, I don’t really know many black people, mostly just because there aren’t that many around where I grew up and live. I think I must have been a teenager when I first saw a black person in the flesh. Not to be confused with in the nude mind you.Of course with globalisation we now have increasing numbers of different colours, nationalities and ethnicities all over Finland, but since I’m not a social person to begin with, I don’t know any really.
To make this clear: I see colour, doh, I’m not colour blind and I like different kinds of people dislike all kinds of people equally. (:
The videos and stories we hear from America are something we here in Finland can not even begin to understand, it’s so foreign to us. We also don’t have the baggage of our ancestors being slave owners, like white Americans do. Though I feel like you should never punish a son for his fathers crimes.
No matter how many videos I see of police brutality in the States, no matter how much I read or hear about the injustice towards black people, I can never understand this whole issue. All of it is so unthinkable to me because it_would_never_happen_here.
We live in a safe haven in Finland, a bird’s nest, with decent people, even the asshole dumb politicians are mostly down to earth in real life, there is lots of space, our weather is not deadly and we don’t have earthquakes and tsunamis. We have social security, a somewhat working healthcare system and in criminal cases, the justice/injustice is not in the hands of a random uneducated jury.
I am privileged, thankful for it, but also can’t feel guilty about it. I got lucky and I know not many people do, but I don’t think I can do much about it. My view is that all I can do about this issue, and any other alike, is to be a decent human being for the people I interact with in my life. If everyone did the same, we wouldn’t have this issue. But most people are idiots and assholes, no matter the colour of their skin.
