Watching competition reality shows with woke theory in mind makes them so much more interesting. And enlightening.
Season 2 of Squid Game: The Challenge, a team of two women (one of color) strategically set back a pair of men. Hell hath no fury like the white guy, who SEETHED at the Black woman. Revenge would be one thing, but this was palpable hate, which got her partner eliminated (tit for tat is fine). Then a white woman in another team went ballistic at her over a another strategic decision, all expecting this poor girl to bend — they got her crying but they didn't break her. The more she cried the more the white players felt justified in cruelty that went beyond game-play.
It all screams, "Only we are allowed to make strategic choices. You don't know your place and didn't show unilateral empathy towards us, so we will ruin you." Using terms that don't sound racist.
But it comes out in the actions. Double-standards are glaring when you know to look for them. All you need to see it is set aside your biases, hold even standards, and watch how things play out. Watch how people react to actual fair play.
The white woman apologized semi-sincerely afterward, but the man only apologized because it was expected.
The Black woman saw through both of their acts. Because she knows. (Interestingly, she is exmormon.) She went over to discuss it with the remaining players of color, who also knew. The group of remaining white folks? Oblivious and self-righteous.
Dear fellow white people — we are kept stupid and emotionally reactive, self-centered, self-unaware, focused only on our own problems and plotting who we can shove down in our attempts to solve them. Our egos have been inflated and weaponized against us. It's scary, but we have to confront it!
We look like absolute fools.
Just start paying attention. Dig deep. Hold the same standards for everyone (especially yourself), and you'll see how it works.
Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸
in reply to Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸 • • •You'll also see, as you set aside ridiculous myths about how racism works, that sometimes POC act like asshats, too. If you're not using their behavior to justify the poor behavior of white folks, you'll learn that everyone is unique, and we all react to our oppression differently. A number of featured Black players in previous episodes were misogynistic or opportunistic or unfeeling or antisocial.
But not a one of them seethed like this white man scorned, and the white woman who followed his lead. The others all accepted their losses with grace. It wasn't personal, just a game, because they're all used to losing sometimes. They're especially used to losing to other POC, white people, and women. I can relate, because as an autistic nonbinary woman who worked in STEM, yeah, I learned when to accept my defeat and vanish from the spotlight.
But this guy clearly had never lost to a Black woman before. His ego was bleeding out all over that playing board.
I don't think he even realized what was happening to him, this conditioning playing out in him like the tool he is.
#WhitenessIsACult #AbuseCulture #decolonize #RealityTV
Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸
in reply to Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸 • • •Anyway, I'm rooting for Prela now. She's the toughest one on this show, in every possible way. She's my role model.
#WhitenessIsACult #AbuseCulture #decolonize #RealityTV
Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸
in reply to Mx. Luna Corbden 🐸 • • •Thing is, too, the guy is a poker player.
I hope all his future opponents use this loudly broadcasted tell to get him tilted in every tournament.
#WhitenessIsACult #AbuseCulture #decolonize #RealityTV