Anti-Racist/ Feminist Zine

so i took like a million year hiatus from making zines.

But I'm back doin' it, slowly but surely...hopefully this will be long term and it won't just be an incomplete or pathetic one zine and then me pooping out. any who, recently at my school Knox College, (which believes itself to be the most radical place ever because it was founded by abolitionists) had a really racist article in the school newspaper. Which caused a lot of uproar because the administration failed to address the article and racism on campus (until they finally did). it was the tip of the iceberg because while Knox prides itself in being so diverse and welcoming a lot of students of color are often tokenized by teachers, marginalized by RA's as "troublemakers", and we feel the fucking stares, we hear the fucking comments, that people make. Especially because a lot of (white) people in this school admittingly come from suburban predominantly white backgrounds, when they come to Knox it's like the first time they seen a Black/Latino/Asian/ Middle Eastern/ etc person in their entire life. So FUCKED UP SHIT is said (for example in one ANSO class I had this one kid referred to Black people as "Negroes" because he thought "that's what they like to be called"). And it's especially shitty when people that claim to be activist, vehemently anti-racist, 'liberal', feminist, or radical SAY and DO fucked up things.

So me and my friend Nicole from my Woman Studies class or compiling a zine about feminism., racism. etc for our Action Project. and in light of the current situation at Knox, this is the first thing I wrote:

Tips for Anti-Racist White Allies.
(For those who care about deconstructing privilege and fighting internalized white supremacy)

1. Don’t tell me not to get emotional. I am not a child. I don’t have temper tantrums out of nothing. Getting angry, upset, sad, disappointed over a racist event taking place is a rational, validated reaction. I can’t not take racism personally because it affects me as a human being.

2. Don’t tell me that you have friends who are Black, Latino, Asian, etc to back up your racist views. I don’t care who you’re friends with. If I call you out on being racist, I’m not asking you if you are being racist, I am telling you your being racist.

3. Do go outside your comfort level. I went outside my comfort level by leaving a diverse community back home and going to a predominantly white school. So if I invite you over my Spanish-speaking household, don’t sit there all awkward like a chicken about to lay an egg. Interact with people, ask questions, make conversation, I’ll translate I promise.

4. Don’t make generalizations about other cultures. Um, I don’t care if you took a class, went to a country, or have a friend with the cultural background being discussed. In anthropology 101, first thing you learn is to not pass judgment on other cultures and to adopt the perspective of those within that culture.

5. You are not a feminist if you tell me Black, Latino, Middle Eastern, etc, men are inherently sexist. No, that just makes you a racist. No one is inherently anything! Besides white dudes can be just as sexist as men of color. If anything an argument can be made that sexism is expressed in different ways world wide. Sexism isn’t closed to any cultural group, most societies world-wide currently live in a patriarchy and the US and Europe sure as hell does.

6. We probably won’t fuck you if you fetishize us. Telling Asian women you have “yellow fever”, or commenting on the size of Black men’s penises, doesn’t translate to “I think you as a person, are attractive, I like you.” More so it says, I “view you as a sexual commodity.”

7. There is no such thing as “reverse racism”. First of all the term itself is racist, “reverse racism” means admitting that there is a “right way” to be racist (aka white supremacy). Racism is social, political, economic, systematic institution that is ingrained in our education system, our culture, science, EVERYTHING. This type of institution does not exist against whites as a socially stratified class the way it does to people of color. Prejudice, against anyone and everyone exists. So if you do experience discrimination because of white skin (which does happen, I’m not denying that) it is just that, discrimination/ prejudice. But it’s not founded on an overall system the way racism is.


there is so much more that can go into this list but, hey, zine for Action Project is due the 15th so I gotta hustle.