elistodragonwings:

When people say “white people are like this” or “white men are like that,” in the context of social justice, the point is not that white people or men or straight people or whoever are inherently a certain way or inherently have certain negative traits. Where this is coming from is that our general mainstream society makes it so that white people, straight people, cis men, etc. are going to have a harder time recognizing or understanding the experiences of other identities, while also often making it so they don’t need to recognize or understand to get by. (One way it does this is by placing those group’s opinions about others’ experiences as equal-but-opposing to those others’ own opinions about their own experiences. Ex: “This thing harms me” vs “Those people are just too sensitive”). All that can lead to certain commonly seen and complained about traits.

If these statements apply to you and you’re upset by them, then blame society’s systematic biases for limiting your ease-of-understanding, not the people pointing it out. It may come across as an attack on you because people are hurting and lash out, as people do, but remember that it’s really about the system that did you a disservice too.

