Ok, let’s talk about this for real. 

Because yeah, kind of. But also…like…sort of not. 

Because even if you aren’t activily sexist, or homophobic, or racist, you have still been raised and socialized in a way to be complacent with the systems of misogyny, cisheterosexism, and white supremacy, and you BENEFIT from those systems. 

It’s important, if you belong to an oppressive group, to recognize these systems and ways in which you may be complacent and benefiting from them. Like, you have to actively seek to unlearn these attitudes and presumptions. You can’t just say “Well none of this applies to ME OBVIOUSLY. I’m a GOOD PERSON” and move on without any real reflection. 

Also, fuck Republicans. -shrugs- You fucking chose to be a Republican. Own that shit. 

So if you’re a straight white male that has done nothing wrong to anyone, what are you supposed to? My adoptive father( who is white btw) always gets shit from people saying he’s “trying too hard” just because he’s not a piece of shit racist, sexist or transphobic. Please recognize a good person not by the color or their skin because I know a shit ton of POC that are horrible people so are you really gonna tell me that my father is the shittier person because he’s a straight white male? Get the fuck over yourself.

Literally no one said that. 

What I will say is that straight, white cis men are raised and socialized within a system that benefits them at the expense of others. That being raised in this system normalizes it and often makes people complacent and even defensive of that system, regardless of whether or not they are consciously aware of the larger ramifications of that. That being part of an oppressive majority necessitates an awareness of these things and conscious, deliberate unlearning of toxic mindsets. 

This isn’t to say that if you are white, or a dude, or straight you are instantly a shitty person beyond redemption, but that the social privileges you are afforded means that you must actively, not passively, work to examine the ways you are complicit within the oppressive system that benefits you.

Privilege does not make you an oppressor, it just means you benefit from a system made by oppressors.

There is no shadow patriarchy counsel of evil men who created the misogynistic systems we have today, and normal, innocent, blameless men just stumble around through it, benefiting from it, complacent within it, without in any way being complicit in its maintenance and propagation.

You can not be neutral in instances of injustice. 

If you are part of an oppressive group, either you are, however tacitly and unintentionally,  oppressive, or you are consciously and deliberately working to be an ally and fight that oppression. You can’t just tap out and pretend it doesn’t involve you.