dear straight, white men

Snagged from tumblr:

dear straight, white men:

i love you, i respect you, but some of y’all need a little reality check. you’ll probably know whether or not this applies to you.

you can refer to yourselves as oppressed when:

• you are murdered solely for being white
• you are murdered solely for loving someone
• you are murdered for saying “no”
• you are murdered by law enforcement for being white
• you can’t depend on law enforcement because you are white
• you receive unfair prison sentencing because you are white
• you are denied voting rights because you are white
• you are denied certain medical services
• you are sold as a slave
• you are deemed incapable on a daily basis
• you aren’t allowed to hear all options regarding your health
• something regarding you is illegal
• you are paid less because of your gender (it’s real, the wage gap literally exists whether you want it to or not)
• you see yourselves portrayed as weak and fragile in the media
• your children are ripped from your arms and treated like dogs because you weren’t born in a place

no, I don’t want any of this to happen to you, and I truly hope that it never does.

we know men are more likely to commit suicide. we know men are more likely to be homeless. and that isn’t good, and we want to fight that. we want to fight anything that makes the world more shitty and less equal. but you aren’t more likely to commit suicide because you are white or because you are straight. you aren’t more likely to be homeless because you are white or because you are straight. you may be more likely because you are men, but not because you are white or straight. this isn’t said to discourage the issues MEN as an entirety face—LGBT+ men, black men, asian men, Latino men, minority men, yes, even white men—but saying you are oppressed for being white or for being straight considering what others have gone through and continue to go through on a daily basis is incredibly ignorant. we’re not saying your problems don’t matter or that your life has been easy, we’re saying you aren’t oppressed in the way that minorities are. part of your job in helping to fight for rights and encouraging people to support you is recognizing that, despite what may negatively affect you, you don’t have it the worst of everyone. your privilege is a platform: use it to reach out to men struggling with depression and suicide. use it to do something about the level of homelessness in America. use it to actually do something about the issues you bring up in debates. don’t just use it to complain and be counterproductive. use it to benefit people that need it. that need you.

sometimes you have to be the one to spark change.

https://feministism.tumblr.com/