literary nerd discourse about "not all" usage Show more
this just hit me.
i think white people are still on this "but not me!!!!!" thing when someone says "white people".
this happens on here a lot. a POC says something that's meant in the abstract (while still being relevant and valid) about "white people", and in rush the explainers.
it's pretty obvious what this is, in terms of privilege (or should be imo) -- but i want to talk about language here for a minute.
literary nerd discourse about "not all" usage Show more
i think this comes down to not understanding, for whatever reason, what a metonym is.
definition of a metonymy:
"A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely associated, as in the use of Washington for the United States government or of the sword for military power."
that what "white people" means. it doesn't mean "every single caucasian who has ever graced, or not graced, tvym, the earth".
I think many of these white people are capable of criticizing "Windows users" or "corporations" while understanding they don't literally mean ALL Windows users, etc.
It's not so much about understanding literary devices as just getting the fuck over yourself
if they're just not willing to do any fucking thing, then for sure.
i also agree that they're capable in general of lifting what amounts to a very small pebble in relation to a huge mountain of systemic oppression, but here we are