Buying victimhood
This is the title of a post I saw on LiveJournal. The notion of “buying victimhood” was being extended to cover:
…various (otherwise to me inexplicable) patterns of ‘buying victimhood’–from adopting a baby of another race to proclaiming oneself a ‘male feminist’ to affecting the clothing, hair style or speaking pattern of an underprivileged group (and then decrying the discrimination one encounters as a result).
In response to a comment questioning whether cross-racial adoption was really a way of “buying victimhood”, or whether all who adopted minority children were trying to buy in to victim status, the author of the post linked to this essay.
This essay is a prize.
Its author, Kil Ja Kim, begins with the premise that:
Along with dreadlocks and a non-white lover, the coolest accessory of the white liberal “left†these days is a bought colored kid.
In other words, the only reason white people adopt minority children is to they can have an entry-pass to minority culture.
How many times have you been sitting in an activist meeting to have a white parent stand up and urgently talk about the racism that his or her “child†experiences as a person of color? How many times have you had to sit and watch how these white people are so delighted to tell non-whites what their child experiences as a person of color? How many times have you been confronted by a white person who demands access to a people of color space and use their bought kid as an entry pass (similar to when they use their non-white lover to get into places)?
Whatever the case, a white “liberal†or “leftist†person who adopted a colored kid is still a white person walking around with a purchased body of color.
I believe I do see an example of someone buying victimhood, but I don’t believe it’s the adoptive parents. I think Ms. Ja Kim has bought victim status. She has shopped in all the best places and bought several lots of the stuff. Her position is not one of being pro minority, but anti White.
I guess you don’t get it. The whole point is, there is nothing you can do to make shit better. You’re white in a white supremacist society, and that’s all there is to it. You purchased a colored kid (sometimes two or three) as a white person. You can never take that back. There is little you can do to repair the damage. No amount of cultural lessons, no amount of anti-racist work you do, no amount of money that you give, no amount of slang or phrases that you learn, can change the structure that you are a part of.
Oh, I get it. You, Ms. Ja Kim, are a racist. Whites are evil because they’re white. No matter what they do, they remain white, and any good they do is the product of evil White hands.
You have bought a short ton of victimhood, and as a result, everything you’ve been through, from your middle-to-upper class upbringing to your schooling to your freedom to pursue whatever cultural classes you feel like, is part of the victimization you’ve been through.
I hope this dear-bought victimhood keeps you warm at night. I hope it remembers your birthday and comes to visit you and your children on special days. After all, at this point, it looks like you’ll have it in your life forever.
This is not true of the two who chose to be your parents.
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