earlier i reblogged this thing about a white supremacist framing of a white person essentially using third gender to deconstruct a white cis gay man.

i largely pointed out why this was racist, with some links to previous writing i”ve done on the subject. of course….

i get some white cis person whitesplaining and cisplaining all over the place, giving me a rundown of their version of the white mythology of ‘third gender”.

only for them to give this reply to an ask

Which is a such a stunning and beautiful example of white supremacist logic.

Note the false dilemma:

If I go with what biyuti wants and stop using the term “third gender” for white people, I end up disrespecting the identities of those of my friends who are white and self-identify as “third gender” (based on the Western/European history I described). Not exactly a cool thing to do as a cis person.

If I respect the gender identities of my friends and keep using the term “third gender” for them even if they are white, I end up disrespecting people of color who consider that term racist, regardless of the location/background/heritage of the white person using it. Also not cool, as you (and biyuti) have made abundantly clear.

Of course, still working with a false premise that the ‘western/euro” history can somehow be isolated from white supremacy or colonialism (hint: it really really can”t).

The reason this is a false dilemma is because these are not the only two options. Because if this person were serious about being either a cis ally or an anti-racist ally (which is demonstrably not something that concerns them), the real solution here is to inform the white people in their life that they are all racist, appropriating pieces of human filth for using the term ‘third gender”.

This isn”t a mere matter of disrespect. It is white people, like this person, attempting to justify and excuse their appropriation and white supremacist behaiviour.

And doing it with the belief that their views are based in any clear understanding of history:

I tend to think that it should be possible for a white person (in Germany, since that’s where I live and where I have most of my friends) to reclaim the term “third gender” from the pathologizing views of Western/European sexology and to use it to positively connect to Western/European LGBTQ subcultures (yes, I wish I had a more appropriate term for that, too) of earlier centuries because that is part of their heritage. I also tend to think that it’s not useful to tell “third-gender”-identified Western/European people that they can’t use the terms their Western/European predecessors used (or had used on them) because that will likely only intensify the appropriation of other culture’s terms/concepts (and I think we all agree that this should definitely be avoided).

This boils down to: based on my erroneous understanding of history, I believe that white peopel should be allowed to appropriate this iaopoc identity, so that they don”t appropriate these other ones.

Which, if I even thought for a second this was an effective tactic, I might be inclined concede this piece of ground. Except… this never works with white people. You concede an inch, and they”ll colonize your entire fucking country, destroy your culture, and create a mythology wherein they can go

“all this stuff we do and have has always been ours, why are you so upset?”

[and. omg. the fucking audacity for a white cis person to tell a third gender twoc about any of this shit is exactly white no one likes you and you all fucking fail at being ppl worthy of even my barest consideration. fuck you.]