Franchesca Ramsey Explains Why Every Racial Term Isn’t Always Racist
This can’t be emphasized enough: history matters. History is especially important when making judgements about whether or not common terms like “cracker,” “white trash,” and “redneck” are “racist against white people.” That’s exactly what Franchesca Ramsey is doing in her new video with MTV News, proving that even terms that seem “racist” on the surface have deep histories in classism and white supremacy.
Ramsey is known for being funny and quick-witted. But, her Decoded series shows how simple, everyday experiences can carry deeply racist undertones. In this new video, she shows that terms that are typically used to stereotype white people actually aren’t racist because white people were the people who actually created the terms. Surprised? Probably not.
In the end, what this video shows is that calling something or someone racist without rooting that concern in historical context just muddies up any conversations which might be had about racial aggression and animus. It’s impossible for non-white people to be “racist against white people” and suggesting so is just a distraction.
Watch the video below:
Photo: YouTube Screenshot
anybody can be racist against any race. I dont know where you magically get off on thinking one can’t be racist against white people, especially when the word racism means, “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics
or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.” It has nothing to do with power structures or some BS like what ms.ramsey was spewing. I’ve been called nigger by a non white person. The term may be meant to be pejorative to black people, but it was nevertheless used in a racist manor against me. To think that minorities can’t be racist against white people just because YOU are the one muddling facts and history, is inherently racist
That’s true, not every racial slur is ‘racist’. But EVERY racial slur is an example of color bigotry. Which, unlike racism, does not require power and privilege to practice. All it takes to be a color bigot is to have hate in your heart toward ‘The Other. And ANY human can.