When a person of color, especially if they’re black like me, affirms their support for causes such as queer liberation, feminism, animal rights, or socialism, I immediately feel that I can believe, with minimal doubt, that they’re truly convicted and principled in what they’re advocating for.
However, when a white person claims to support leftism, until my skepticism is proven wrong, I immediately assume they’re a dishonest and performative libshit. I then proceed to interact with them with hefty amounts of caution. If my assumptions are proven true, I’m never shocked.
I feel like this is just how it goes as a symptom of the inescapable perpetuation of oppressive ideology within our society.
I only ever really feel safe around poc, socialist, queer non-men. I feel a natural kindred and love for everybody and especially the people of these categories but I also tend to notice when somebody is for instance a queer poc non man that is not a socialist and also a socialist poc who is not a queer or non man etc.
It’s the sad reality of the nature of ideology within a capitalist society that every single person will internalize the hegemonic discourses, and as we all know oppressed people will oftentimes even internalize the discourses about themselves.
It’s not an unwarranted assumption either as experience may prove, but we should and (clearly you do) still struggle to find unity with all who can be united!
If it was easy to overcome the hegemony of a society we wouldn’t need to be revolutionaries in the first place, and none of us are free from brain worms. Freedom is a constant struggle etc