Radioactive Dreams

2teen2talk2u:

nakedbabes:

Looking at this I’m not entirely sure what to think. Admittedly I’m really out of touch when it comes to this whole internet art aesthetic, but I’m not sure how far artistic license or expression or whatever can go in terms of justifying a white person painting their face black and their lips red. What kind of productive, helpful or enlightening statement about femininity, sexuality or race could you possibly be making with this?

Maybe its just ignorant, self indulgent bullshit. I say maybe, I mean definitely. Maybe this whole thing is just a bunch of white, middle class art students self aware enough to spend hours taking pictures of themselves, dying their hair green and making Sabrina the teenage witch .gifs but not self aware enough to acknowledge their own privilege/racism. 

Or maybe I’m just really not getting it.

Were here were queer get used to it, being a gay white male is nothing close to being privileged. If he is bringing conversation to this piece months after it was done, hes doing something right. The queer community should be seen as a whole, not black, white, bear, powerbottom, twink ~_~. Its 2k12, okay.

His being gay does not suddenly stop the image from being racist. It being part of a piece of “art” does not stop it from being racist. You and others implying that I’m somehow in the wrong for taking offence to it, or implying that this has somehow opened up some sort of a conversation is bullshit.

As a white male he doesn’t have to deal with racism, the image is essentially meaningless from his perspective - the lack of privilege he has in regards to being gay doesn’t suddenly mean he doesn’t have white, male or cis-gendered privilege - its disgusting and beyond upsetting that so many people seem to condone this image and by association the centuries prejudice and oppression that it represents and is a product of.

How many people who liked the image on tumblr or when it was posted on facebook would identify as a feminist or queer positive, how many of those people would be offended if I had posted an image of a woman being raped or beaten, walked up to this guy in the street and called him a faggot or said something ignorant equally homophobic and offensive thing about gay marriage? If I did or said those things, the same people now telling me to chill out or hand waving what I had to say away with an apathetic “whatever” would be outraged, wouldn’t they?

 Yes, it is 2012 but that does not mean that racism doesn’t exist, just because people like Zain don’t have to deal with it in their day to day life doesn’t mean it’s suddenly not there. This whole bullshit thing is irrefutable proof of the fact that racism is alive and well, and I’m not going to let a bunch of privileged white, middle class teenagers on the internet tell me otherwise.