Originally Posted by
MadMojoMonkey
I kinda remember a prominent BLM march in London a bit over a year ago when the entire world screamed about the same thing for the first time in history.
Seems monumentally stupid to ignore that. Whether or not they're right (and history says they are), ignoring the raw power of that human sentiment can't lead to good things.
A big problem with understanding racism, IMO, is the word privilege connotes some bonus advantage, when in reality it's a lack of a bunch of tiny disadvantages.
Your language of "treating them as victims" is loaded AF. When, at least in the US, many, many statistics show that supposedly historical racism has left dramatic marks on modern life, then the word victim is at least somewhat appropriate. The widespread, systemic racism in just home ownership in the US is stark. The systematic, intentional criminalization of black culture to strip away the right to vote from "felons" is not hyperbolic. The people who wrote the laws that accomplish this have confessed to their insidious racist intent, and the laws are still being enforced.
So obviously treating an individual like they're a victim of society is problematic, but it's also problematic to look at this evidence and NOT say that black people as a group are still being victimized by racist laws. At least... that's my take on it.