Oh this again

[la_vie_noire]

When white feminists talk stupid shit about things they know nothing about and make stupid conclusions.

Via aqrima, white lady talks shit because she read an article about India in NY Times.:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/world/asia/10honor.html?src=me&ref=general

I, personally, do not feel that culture is an excuse for violence. In fact, I feel that there is no excuse for violence. Using religion and culture to excuse murder is an act of cowardice. Yet, still they continue…in the name of religion and tradition, etc.

What I find disgusting about this story—beyond the whole pointless death and human intolerance—is that the family changed their story multiple times. Changing your story in such a fashion over and over again is rather indicative of guilt. And an autopsy showing that the young woman suffocated…that, too, seems more like murder than suicide. Were there marks on the neck indicating that she had been hung? Was there rope? Did the rope have any of her DNA embedded in the threads from, you know, hair and skin that would have certainly been torn and irritated? Is there even any evidence that she hung herself, aside from the family’s changing stories?

And isn’t it suspicious that her “suicide” note suddenly appeared after they changed the story?

No, you cannot change society in one day. Ms. Pathak’s brother was right in that. But that doesn’t mean that culture cannot change at all. It can, and it will. Hopefully, one day, the outdated, ignorant, and conservative notion of honor killings will be gone and women will be one step closer to being safe and equal in the cultures that once advocated such archaic systems.

Ah, the condescending attitude and superiority of white people. Imagine if they actually bothered to educate themselves!

Aqrima has a wonderful response here:

you’re saying that this is done in the name of (outdated, archaic, conservative, ignorant) culture, and that is wrong. and some people say that this is what the culture says, and it is outdated, archaic, conservative and ignorant.

you’re working on the assumption that 1) there is some primal indian culture that we (indians, south asians) come from, and 2) that you know what it is.

and you don’t. you really, really don’t. i get the sense you (and the person you reblogged) are just another white feminist who thinks it’s okay to make blatantly racist and imperialist statements about our cultures, while you’re completely ignorant about the ways in which, for one, imperialism has shaped our cultures. made it so that we are in this bind where it’s either fundamentalism or modernity, and nothing. fucking. makes. sense.

ETA: White lady responds to Aqrima, after a bunch of nonsense about how she (White Lady) has right to talk: "excusing horrible violence on an innocent victim (a whole line of “but, but, but,” really?) makes you an evil person.."

Because she is so concerned about the killing happening in India. *throws up*

I would say that making fun of an Indian woman's culture while you stamp over a woman's death like that makes you an evil person. No one is fooled.

White lady, an Indian woman calling you on your racism while you pretend concern about a woman's death isn't "excusing a murder," far from it. And you making this straw man and slippery slope towards her and her culture is really awful and privileged.

You, white lady, aren't the one being killed there and won't ever be. You have no idea about these women lives beyond what you read in a NY Times article. So shut up.

Comments

[willow]

I'm not going to click - but from the excerpt you provided, I immediately started thinking about the culture of racism in the US and in England and how that culture leads to violence and how people then talk about how change is slow but they're trying.

Where's the big white feminist screed against that?

[la_vie_noire]

Ahaha, but you know how white people have no culture! You have just a lot of *individual* acts that have no relation whatsoever with each other. When they are violent acts against minorities... well, it's just a casualty they happen so much!

[crossedwires]

I, personally, do not feel that culture is an excuse for violence.

But when white people do it, it's okay? Particularly in the name of 'enlightenment' or 'educating the uncivilized'. :((((

[la_vie_noire]

Well, first white people have to educate Those People in What Is Important!

You know how brown people don't know what is better for themselves and only a honkey can stop the killing in those archaic cultures!