What kind of “whiteous” feminist are you? Let Ani DiFranco’s fans help you decide!
by mollyruthb
The Inconvenienced Fan
“I am so sick of EVERYTHING in this world coming down to race.”
“No one is responsible for their ancestors actions and shouldn’t have to be made to feel like they are.”
The Post Civil Rights Fan
“As if black people have it bad for being black! It’s no different for us white folks! Because a good majority of the black people I know, hate white people because we are white and because at some point a long, long time ago, white people started the notion that blacks were inferior. It’s not the case now and I am tired of getting shit for it.”
The Spirit Medium Fan
“African american slave ancestors would of been exstatic to see their ancestors walking through the front door..like no slave had done before..”
“Hey.. remember when Johny Cash played at Folsom Prison? Bunch of convicts jammin out to the man in black? I wonder; what exactly would the spirit of a slave feel by Ani’s presence?”
The Namaste Fan
“True healing comes to no place unless both sides come to the table and heal together. Ani, I see your desire to do the true, hard work of healing. I see how you long to make your country a place of love, acceptance and joy. I see you. You are doing right. You walk the hard yards and do not shy away from the hard tasks. I see you. And you are beautiful.”
I Can Speak For Black People Fan
“She didn’t hurt black women, she listened and canceled.”
The Wise Proverb Fan
“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat but those who cling to the past cannot create a future.”
“If people keep letting slavery define them racism will never go away.”
The Hopeful Fan
“Maybe it would be a healing thing for some people to go to the bad place and make a good experience of it??”
The Racist Who Just Became More Racist Fan
“I think it’s a shame that you felt that you had to bow to the bullies that want to ruin everything.”
The Slavery Apologist Fan
“I don’t understand the outrage. By all records the Rudolph’s treated their servants and slaves very well for the times. Plus Emily Rudolph was a tough lady, defending the property all alone against soldiers and thieves.”
The (dun dun duuuun!) Reverse Racism Fan
“Remember racism goes both ways everyone…….”
“Reading some of the hateful responses to Ani’s post shows me racism is alive and well in America and it turns out the only victims are not black Americans.”
“No one is responsible for their ancestor’s actions. End. But oh look, I’m white, I must be privileged and therefore my argument is invalid. So… who are the racists here?”
The Compassionate Fan
“I feel pretty terrible for Ani. She has worked all her life to fight systems of oppression. In fact, I took a course on colonialism and racism because I wanted to learn more because of her music. Her cancellation is her apology and acknowledgment of her error.”
The Adoring Fan
“I think people expect her to be perfect because she has set her own standards for equality and activism so high.”
“Why would she apologize for something that she shouldn’t have to be sorry for? There was a fan outcry so she cancelled the event. She doesn’t need to kiss your asses. She doesn’t need your forgiveness.”
“i agree with everything you said ani, we are all slaves these fucks are just too stupid to know it.”
The Rational Fan
“Jesus. If people were never to use anything handled or built by oppressed people, we’d all be sitting in the arctic naked.”
“That’s like me never taking a bus because at one time African Americans were only allowed to ride in the back. Get over yourselves people! Ani is the first one to speak out against injustice and you’re going to pick her apart like that? Be ashamed because you are now one of those people you b*tch about.”
“Many of our best universities are built by slaves. Should we burn them, regardless of the good that comes from them? What would Mandela do? What would Martin Luther King do?”
The My Pain is Greater than Your Pain Fan
“To compare the plantation to auschwitz like some have done is an offense to Jewish people. Yes plantations were absolutely terrible and horrible, but more people were killed at that death camp than were killed at that plantation and to compare the two isn’t really right.”
The Just Plain Racist Fucked Up and Bullshit Fan
“I am so sick of all of this race b.s.! If you are not a slave now and never were a slave… then STOP CRYING ABOUT IT!!! We are not enslaving anyone now so get over it! Yes, I said it! GET OVER IT! I am so sick and tired of being blamed for slavery or being accused of being a racist simply because I’m fucking white! I feel terrible about how people were treated in the past but you’re going to have to get over it at some point.”
“It’s 2013 slavery doesn’t exist legally in America anymore. As feminists we are progressives we have a keen knowledge of history and we notice injustice and advocate change. People that cling to oppression and bondage are sad to me. Am I not to go to a white owned business because a white man raped me?”
“There is no black slavery in this country now. There is only people. Bitter, nasty, people. The people who are making a big deal out of it are the racist ones. Instead of it just being an event where a girl takes the stages and sings, it has to be a WHITE woman, singing where a slave plantation USED to exist!! Come on! why doesn’t that plantation exist anymore??? Because the big bad white people of the north gave their lives up to make it that way! All white people are not bad and all black people are not good!”
Calling Out Fucked Up White Supremacist Bullshit Whenever We See It 
This has reached a level of stupidity that is astounding. OK people there is a simple test of whether a given setting is appropriate for a so-called progressive gathering: Is it a slave plantation that runs ads with a “massa” impersonator singing Dixie? Yes? Well then it is NOT an appropriate setting for a meeting of progressives. Please reserve that venue for your Klan rallies instead.
Just brilliant. I love that fact that I actually recognized most of the comments from the thread following Ani’s “non-apology-apology”. You truly made my afternoon with this.
This is missing one thing, the POC, who is a fan, that just wants everyone to get along, even if it means ignoring things that are blatantly wrong. Those are the best. I just love when they try to shame other POC and white folk gravitate to them. #UrNotLikThem
Excellent.
I don’t feel like I connect with a single one of these. Lol, I think the critical dialogue stemming from this is a positive and I know my lens to see it that way is privileged. May we all look deep.
This is perfect. You sure you didn’t pull the examples straight from the comments of the Facebook page for the event?
I’m pretty sure these were pulled from the threads, they also look very familiar to me.
All were taken from the thread following her “no-pology” posted on Facebook. But no doubt they were all represented on the event page, too.
I’m not a diehard Ani fan but have been following the debacle and was thrilled to come across this link.
The first thing I thought of when I read about a plantation being chosen as the place to “get suntans in the light of each other’s company” was (aside from WTF) to think it was as inappropriate a venue as, say, a former concentration camp. I’m a white Jew who has contemplated history in the eerie and appropriately respectful silence of Dachau, who had family exterminated in the Holocaust. It should not require a giant leap of empathy and logic to put yourself in the shoes of another who has been oppressed.
Reading through the comments on her “real” apology just…**headdesk**…The hypocrisy, ignorance, and tone-deafness is appalling. Why is this shit so hard for people to understand? Why can’t they- and Ani- just STFU and listen?