Thread by @Delafina777

We're getting another round of "education will fix racism" and that's utter bullshit. And I will come back to what I said after the Pittsburgh shootings: people aren't abusing marginalized communities out of ignorance. They're doing it out of hate.

The Orlando shooter didn't massacre people at Pulse because he just... didn't know enough about gay people. The Pittsburgh shooter attacked Tree of Life BECAUSE he knew they were working to help refugees.

And for every heart-warming story about homophobes or white supremacists making a gay or Black friend and discovering their humanity, there are 100 homophobes with gay family members or white supremacists who work with Black people.

So every time I read a story about how someone who commits a hate crime is volunteering with the community they targeted, it's like, that's Rehabilitation Theater. They're going to learn the right language to sound like they've changed, but whether they have is a crapshoot.

Meanwhile, a marginalized community is having to do all this emotional labor, and frankly, asking them to hang out with someone who harmed them for no reason other than sheer spite is gross and unfair.

And in most cases they do it anyway! Because that's survival. But it's not okay that it's being asked. Those volunteer opportunities shouldn't even COME UP unless the community that was harmed brings them up, makes the offer.

This story gets touted in a lot of social justice circles. Jewish groups love it because Shabbat dinners turned a Nazi around. Liberals love it because people Love & Understanding-ed a Nazi out of being a Nazi. And that's great. reformjudaism.org/blog/2018/05/2…

And in this case, members of a targeted group proactively reached out and offered their time and teaching. But that shouldn't minimize how much effort, by multiple people, it took to change *one* guy's mind.

Marginalized groups usually put in the massive time and effort to attempt to educate people because *it's necessary to survive.*

I'm not okay with someone having to spend their lives pouring in energy to educate haters on the chance that MAYBE they'll decide not to be violent.

And if you're okay with "on top of everything else marginalized people suffer, they have to give all this time & energy educating the people who hate them so MAYBE they won't get violent," *you are upholding a broken system.*

Don't give me, "well, that's just the way it is."

The way it is is wrong. The people donating time and effort to educating privileged haters about why hating marginalized people is wrong should be other privileged people, not the targets of hate.

Covington's response to their students harassing Natives shouldn't be "oh, let's have them volunteer on a reservation." It should be to redo their own curriculum. It should be investment--of time and money--in figuring out how to create an environment that discourages hate.

And miss me with the bullshit about "if marginalized people don't educate privileged people on how they have a right to exist, how will we ever fix bigotry?" Resources exist to educate yourself. Stop putting the onus on the victims.