This is the last bit I’m gonna say about this for now. This isn’t an either/or question. People are indeed people, individuals, with their own particular ambitions, histories, families, sexualities, genders, etc. That’s true. What is also true is that these people currently exist and live within national and international systems of racial oppression and white supremacy. That’s a fact. It’s a very, very bad fact. It’s something that shouldn’t be true, but it *is* true.
Saying that we should just see people as people is great! But it also isn’t enough. These systems which have been put in place, systems of unequal justice, systems of abusive policing, systems of international colonialism and exploitation have to be dismantled as well. These systems manifest themselves everywhere, in all sorts of interactions, including sexual interactions, and especially in staged sexual interactions, i.e. porn. We find certain things attractive and erotic both because we’re people with personal sexual histories and proclivities, but also because various systems of oppression privilege certain kinds of eroticism over others.
When, for example, you have a porn film which focuses on four American GIs tying up and faux-raping a bunch of “muslim terrorists,” that is not just a group orgy, it is also a performance of American imperialism and colonialism. When gay tumblr blogs post pictures of white bearish men posing in police uniforms, that communicates that police aren’t just powerful and dominant, but that their power is also erotic, and ought to be submitted to. Porn has subtext, that’s simply a fact. Saying that “people are people” and arguing that we should just be colorblind is a nice thought, but in the end it can’t help dismantle these oppressive systems.
P.S. Some food for thought, slurring someone’s nationality before arguing that we should see people as people makes the latter ring a little hollow.
Bracken's Corner 