Dear White People (WP) and supporters of WP,
If you were offended by my video, then you should be offended by Justin Simien's title, Dear White People.
I'm sorry for offending you, but that was never my intent at all. My video was intended as satire: Asian people really don't have anything white people don't.
I'm sorry for stereotyping you, but I'm tired of having to clarify and defend myself all the time because when I and millions of angry minorities (E.g. Azealia Banks) say "white people," we're not talking about you personally; we're talking about the white patriarchy. We know all white people aren't the same because we would find it deeply offensive if you thought the same about our people.
Now you're probably thinking: "You didn't use white people in that way in your video," and you're right, I didn't. I used white people as an "other" to Asians, the main subject matter of my video. Like I said in my director's commentary, the title is very misleading. However, I'd still like to address this issue because I feel like white people still don't get it.
Using the term "white people" to describe white patriarchy might not be politically correct, but being politically correct isn't going to end racism in America. Ending racism in America requires white people and yes, all white people, not the just the white patriarchy, to recognize that they have white privilege, inaccessible to millions of non-whites.
White privilege means "whiteness" is the norm. Anything else is different. Thus, while white stereotypes are offensive to the white individual, they aren't racist because racism is "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior." White people have never been denied anything because of the color of their skin because they have defined themselves as the superior race without any opposition and by setting the norm.
Looking at the latter part of this definition, I can see why people thought I was being racist because it looked like I was saying Asian people were more superior than white people. However, I started the video by saying, "Aside from white privilege..." for a reason. With that opening statement alone, I acknowledged who the true "superior race" is, and like always, white people failed to take notice of that and made it about their feelings instead-now that's what I call a white privilege-and accused me of making a faulty argument when that wasn't even my argument to begin with.
I now realize that it was my own fault for bringing white people to the video in the first place (my point would have gotten through a lot better without the comparison), but I did want people to know about white privilege and without the controversy and anger due to this video, I would have never gotten to speak to you more on this topic, so thank you white people, for actually helping a minority today.
XOXO,
Sassy Girl
