I kinda wish people cared as much about the actual discrimination minoritised people face that affects their ability to live their lives fully, as they do about restricting entry to a single museum exhibit one day a week.
I don’t care about the actual act itself of restricting white people from some museum for a day. In a bubble? Who gives a shit.
But this kinda stuff just diminishes the credibility of legitimate movements meant to actually improve equity and equality. It sways the general public into thinking that rights activism is immature and unreasonable.
It gives the AfD sort of parties of the world really easy ammo and is basically just handing them red herrings served on a silver platter.
Shit is dumb and counter productive.
I strongly disagree with the argument that we should moderate our behaviour based on what the people who hate us might say about us.
Bigots and fascists don't need to be "given ammo". They just make up their ammo no matter what we do. They lie, all the time. It doesn't matter what we do or don't do, they will find a way to feel aggrieved. Changing our behaviour based on what they might say only allows them power and control over us. And it limits what we can do to actually help the marginalised people they target.
We need to be better about where we spend our efforts. We should focus on helping people, regardless of what bigots say. It's a bad habit of moderates, to spend all their time arguing and negotiating with bigots, rather than supporting the people bigots target.
Regardless of what right wingers say, people in the middle – who frequently sway elections – look at news like this and I don't think it paints the left in a positive light.
Well I think it's a losing strategy to care how to right-wing portrays your actions. And I think that caring for minorities is more important than pandering to conservatives and even to some extent to moderates. Especially since historically rights have been won even when the progressive movements fighting for them were extremely unpopular, in other words pandering to the sensibilities of moderates would have lead the movements into stagnation.
The museum claims the objective is not to be discriminatory
discriminatory
"treating a person or group differently from other people, because of their race, gender, sexuality, etc."
How are they treated differently?
that's... the sole subject of the article.
the museum's decision to restrict white people from entering a small section of the display
Ok, so? They arent treated differently. They are just not allowed to access a certain space at a certain time because the business owners said so.
Can they now not get a job because they couldnt access the space at that certain time?
Thats not treatment. Thats just business.
"They arent treated differently."
"They are just not allowed to access a certain space at a certain time"
That's called being treated differently... I really don't know what else to say.
Can they now not get a job because they couldnt access the space at that certain time?
Can a Cheetah run really fast? What relevance does that have to anything?
Truly, white people are the most oppressed race.
Now they can not... checks notes: Access a safe space for bipoc that is open 4 hours a week!!! Truly disgusting!!!
What! You support Child Slavery?!
See, I can also make up imaginary strawman arguments. You reason like a five-year-old.
You dont even reason. you just keep repeating the same argument you had 2 posts ago.
Its not discrimination. youre not missing out on anything. you just cannot access a safe space for bipoc. you can also not enter any womens shelters. are you now arguing that you are being discriminated against for being the wrong gender?
you just keep repeating the same argument
There is only one argument. Whether or not this is discrimination. You just plainly say it isn't because "they [White people] aren't being treated differently" with absolutely no justification for that claim. How can you not see that's just plainly nonsense? There wouldn't be a controversy if that was the case. This article wouldn't exist if that was the case. I suspect you are confused because you are thinking "discrimination" is something else. Maybe English is your second language or something but I did post the definition....
Everything else you bring up about women's shelters and not being able to get a job and the "WhItE PeOpLe ArE sO OpPrEsSeD!" talking point are just red herrings that have no bearing on anything I said. I'm blocking you because I'm wasting my time replying to you spelling all this out, have a nice day.
How could they think anything good would come out of doing that. All they do is give ammo to the other side.
It’s also just plain racist.
When you're so anti-racist, you come full circle and enact segregation again.
There's no good answer to the problem and the far-right uses that to always "win".
The museum creates a space for people of color to view the displays without having to worry about angry racists threatening them with violence. This makes racists angry and violent.
If you buckle and open up the space, who moves in? Why, the racists of course! The space is no longer safe and people are intimidated out of it. The racists don't want them seeing it, so now they don't get to see it.
If you don't buckle, what happens? You get 600 "the left are the real racists" comments on social media from people privileged enough to have never been pushed from any space.
Its the same formula whenever schools have LGBT spaces without homophobes or gyms and trains are "women only" to avoid being leered at and sexually assaulted.
If anyone reading is having trouble relating to these feelings, imagine watching pornography with the actors parents standing behind you -- whatever their feelings may be towards their daughters work, you'd definitely be more comfortable if they weren't there.
We also have women only days in saunas. Is that a problem for you too?
You act like there hasn't been a push for gender-neutral spaces for years now.
This kind of self defeating bullshit from the "progressive" wing of politics needs to stop. This is textbook throwing a stick into your own bicycle spokes tier nonsense.
Ah. Tokenism at it best.
Tokenism (n): The policy of making only a perfunctory effort or symbolic gesture toward the accomplishment of a goal, such as racial integration.
You get a news headline and feel so good that you did something...
How is that even legal in Germany?
As long as it's not a public institution they have "Hausrecht", meaning they can decide who is allowed to enter and who isn't*.
^^^*Terms ^^^and ^^^conditions ^^^apply
For several months now, Saturdays at the museum have been reserved for black people and people of colour to explore a colonialism exhibition
Ohhh noo. Anyways...
Strange response to racism.
Heaven forbid that us white people feel the tiniest modicum of discomfort. I sincerely hope it'll help foster a sense of empathy for those that continue to suffer real substantive harm.
Also, I find it pretty unlikely that the people who would cry about this tiny concession are the same people who would be interested in going to this exhibit anyways.
Racism is either wrong or it isn't.
That's massively over-simplified.
Discrimination is bad. But not all discrimination is the same. Ubiquity and power dynamics play a huge role in what makes racism so damaging.
And, unfortunately, sometimes correcting for past discrimination can itself involve discrimination.
Fuck racism and anyone who defends it.
How some of you make it more complicated than that I will never understand.
All the people in this thread standing up against "racism" for the most minor of limitations to the dominant racial group.
The proportion of comments here against an exhibit on colonialism being reserved 1 day a week for the victims of colonialism is disturbing.
And this is just a manufactured rightwing "controversy". The museum had been doing this for months (it's literally just 4 hours a week) without issue until a radio station associated with Germany's far-right saw something they could spin as anti-white to rile up the "oppressed" white whiners on far-right Twitter.
The German version of this story has more information, but frankly it should have been obvious to all these "reverse racism" whiners that it was just a BS rightwing controversy regular people shouldn't give two shits about. The associated party, AfD, is Germany's far-right racist party, which has been ruled in court to be legitimately suspected to be a "threat to democracy".
The fact that it became an issue "on social media" only after a white journalist documented that they were refused admission sort of tells you the whole story here.
Nobody cared, until angry racists made a big deal about it. It's likely that, on balance, the vast majority of people don't care and aren't paying any attention to the racists. But if it involves angry racists, it leads, because that shit generates clicks and controversy. JOURNALISM.
You can fix racism with racism trust us
I'm curious how they are enforcing this. Is it self-reported or is there someone at the door determining if you're un-white enough? I'm half white and racially ambiguous, so not sure I'd make the cut lol. On the other hand, my grandparents were immigrants who lived under colonial rule.
Frankly, the Irish, Saami, Palestinians, and lots of native Americans are all colonized people who might be considered or visually identified as white. That said, I’m in Germany, it can be racist af, so I absolutely understand how a safe space might be desirable.
I actually see the value in providing a safe space for oppressed or marginalized communities, such in the way that women's shelters don't allow men.
I don't know what the answer is be here, but it's not nearly as black and white (no pun intended) as commenters here seem to believe.
This is incredibly dumb, but tbh I understand their intention. In Germany you'll meet the worst kind of racists.
Once in Starbucks, a white ~~cunt~~ woman filled my coffee mug with trash while I was in the bathroom... Less extreme, but I think every Asian descendant was at least once told to go back to China. I have been mocked for my Asian eyes, etc.
Seriously, many of their grandparents were okay with locking Jews in camps, the population as a mass grabbed and shared Jews' properties, and then officially killed them in gas chambers.
You sound pretty racist yourself when you generalize the whole german population like that, based on one asshole messing around with your coffee ...
I didn't. If that's your take from this text of mine, I don't know how I could explain that to you.
You're not alone in being called a bigot here for describing bigotry. It's absolutely nuts.
So, maybe I edited my comment and they are replying to an old version which could've indeed been poor, so I don't blame them too much.
Anyway, I'm finding out that those people who complain on the web often can't read. Especially the type who thinks in black or white basis. They can't see nuance. If people do see nuance, they often wouldn't attack unless I write something really stupid.
Simply put, that type of people can't be argued with. They won't see the complexity of reality. Hence, it follows that they can't read. Maybe they are teenagers who love to write on Steam threads or something (god forbid, I love that too).
So I often tell them they are wrong, with some explanation, yet also tell them I don't intend to convince them (because they aren't ready) and maybe that they have to read my text again (which they can't).
This seems fine to me? Why shouldn't they have a specific day to go and reflect without me being there?
Maybe that's the only day of the week you have available to go. Maybe it doesn't help inclusionary cultural practices to intentionally separate races.
Oh no i cannot go to a museum in the only 4 hours that i am free during the whole week. Discrimination!
It's not even a day, it's 4 hours Saturday morning.
“Why can’t we exclude some races sometimes guys?”
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