What is the Fairies Against Racism Web Ring? Although I do not seek to censor other peoples' pages or the content of the internet, pages that I would not want my kids looking at will not be accepted unless I feel that the merits of the content far outweigh any misgivings I might have. I just don't want my own pages associated in peoples' minds with stuff that I don't think is child-appropriate. Why Fairies Against Racism? A little over a year ago, I was doing a web search on fairies, and I ran across a page which purported to be about elves. Curious, I read it. I've never been able to figure out whether the author really believed what s/he said or not, but they used a made-up "science", the name of which I have now forgotten, to put together a thinly disguised white supremacist message. I was irritated by the racism, by the pseudo-science, and by their appropriation of elves for a bad cause. Shortly after that I put together my first "Fairies Against Racism" graphic, which can be found on the panel for the site ring. It was not until recently, when I joined the Site Fights as a spirit fairy, that I got the idea of a web ring for others to join up. Your reasons don't have to be exactly the same as mine, but here are some of mine. My Personal Beliefs About Racism It is hard to know where to start with this one. Ever since my earliest childhood memories, I have thought it was wrong to treat people differently because of superficial things, even though I was not always set a good example in this. And sometimes, I am sure that I still have attitudes which are based in ignorance and are offensive to other people. Effect on people being discriminated against I refer to "minority" or "majority" cultures throughout instead of specific "races" because these things have historically happened everywhere that people of different ethnic backgrounds live together, and continue to happen all over the world. It is not any particular "race" which always discriminates against any other particular race, but most often the one in power or highest population in a particular area. Unfortunately, racism can become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy type of thing. Minorities of any type within a society are often treated like their culture/way of doing things just isn't good enough. Many of them may try to blend in with the majority culture in order to be treated better, only to discover that they are still rejected. It is like the majority culture is saying to them "Your way of doing things isn't good enough for us, so you'd better change. But no matter how much you change, you still won't be one of us". This leaves them feeling like they belong to no one--they have rejected their old culture, but aren't accepted by the new one either. That can lead to many personal problems. Then, if they do show problems coping, the majority culture turns around and says "Look, we always knew they were no good. This just proves we were right." Such symptoms are observable anywhere this happens, and are not tied in to race or ethnicity; they are tied in to being treated poorly. Those that continue to practise their own cultural traditions are also treated poorly, and in fact usually worse, by many people. Often people from the majority culture see different ideas and traditions as somehow wrong or threatening and lash out at anyone who is visibly different than themselves. That doesn't show concrete examples, but it does give a small glimpse of how racist thinking can harm its targets. And it isn't true that this sort of thing doesn't still go on. I know people who have experienced racism directly in their own lives. A friend of mine has had people refuse to serve her in restaurants because she is Native American. Another friend of mine gets stopped by the police any time he goes anywhere (on foot or in a car!) after dark because of his skin colour. He is a great, well- educated young man but they assume that he is up to something bad. Can you imagine the effect it would have on your self-esteem if, like him, you were walking down the street and a young child looked at you and pointed, and said to their mother "look, Mommy, he's a bad guy!" That's all for now; I will probably have a great deal more to say later. Effect on Society at Large One of the reasons that racism still exists is that it does benefit some people some of the time. In a racist society, people from the "elite" (usually majority) group will be more likely to get jobs, promotions, important and powerful positions, better schooling, and even (as seen above) better service in stores and restaurants, seats on the bus, etc. Many people are somewhat naturally reluctant to give these privileges up, even when they offer lip service to the idea of equality.
However, this also means that the society as a whole is losing out. Some of the
results are:
These are just the most obvious reasons I could think of. I know that a simple site ring won't change the whole world, but if it helps just a few people to either feel hope when they see a group of people make a statement that racism is wrong, or to re-think their own positions on the subject, then it is well worth the effort. You can apply to join Fairies Against Racism here. |