I certainly agree that this person was not offering his comment in the most appropriate manner. At the same time, when you suggest that the lack of white bodies in a black church is comparable to the lack of POC bodies in at a charity event, you are proving the necessity of the critique in the first place.
The black church qas established itself as a space for black and brown people to commune in a cultural environment that is specifically based upon their racial background, so it is logical that there would be fewer white bodies in that space. A Broadway charity event is a space in which people who love Broadway and naked chorus boys gather together to watch naked chorus boys; there is nothing inherently racial in that description, aside from the fact that Broadway still caters to a predominantly white audience, for a variety of reasons.
The person who pointed this out, in an inappropriate manner, was definitely not being polite, and I would say they were being shitty. Agreed. That acknowledged, I'm sure you are aware of the ways in which words like "civlized" have a history of being used in a racist manner against POC, which perhaps you weren't thinking of when you wrote your post. |
