Oops, I was way too vague in my language. *edits to change to ethnic oppression*
Those white people suffer class discrimination, same way I suffer from gender discrimination (and have suffered class discrimination) but once again, while that is definitely a thing (and a very important thing) it is a different thing. Those oppressions should definitely not be ignored, and they might even have a place in discussions about race (ie the way the two interact) but people do not get to say (and they try) "I am oppressed in X non-racial way thus I do not have any responsibility to consider the ways in which I benefit from being white" etc.
I agree the ideas can be too narrow in these discussions, really what it boils down to is replacing one incredibly faulty set of assumptions about ethnicity and race etc with another, still faulty but much better one. It would be nice if people didn't need these boxes at all, but I've yet to find an effective way of combating oppression that doesn't use them. In my experience if you try to judge every case on it's merits without some sort of framework ones subconscious bias ends up supporting the status quo. It is still important not to let the framework totally obscure the individual human experience though, and I have seen people do this. (As always, every group has it's people who suck, including anti-racists and POC)
People with complicated ethnic identities (specifically those on the boundary of "white and "not white") do get the short end of the stick when it comes to discussions of race from both sides, same as any other group in a liminal state (bisexuals, transsexuals, people who cross class boundaries, immigrants, etc) I have a particular bee in my bonnet about this sort of thing, you may have noticed my rants about transphobia in feminism. But while I try not to perpetuate simplistic attitudes to mixed race people myself and bring these issues up where I think they're appropriate, I tend to feel that on the whole it's a conversation that needs to be had between mixed race people and non-mixed race POC and the best thing I can do is try not to get in the way and where it helps offer my support. And afaict (though I am willing to be corrected, what do I know) the static mixed-race people get from anti-racists and non mixed-race POC etc, while bad and in need of improvement, is still much less hurtful than the way they get treated by regular society.
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Those white people suffer class discrimination, same way I suffer from gender discrimination (and have suffered class discrimination) but once again, while that is definitely a thing (and a very important thing) it is a different thing. Those oppressions should definitely not be ignored, and they might even have a place in discussions about race (ie the way the two interact) but people do not get to say (and they try) "I am oppressed in X non-racial way thus I do not have any responsibility to consider the ways in which I benefit from being white" etc.
I agree the ideas can be too narrow in these discussions, really what it boils down to is replacing one incredibly faulty set of assumptions about ethnicity and race etc with another, still faulty but much better one. It would be nice if people didn't need these boxes at all, but I've yet to find an effective way of combating oppression that doesn't use them. In my experience if you try to judge every case on it's merits without some sort of framework ones subconscious bias ends up supporting the status quo. It is still important not to let the framework totally obscure the individual human experience though, and I have seen people do this. (As always, every group has it's people who suck, including anti-racists and POC)
People with complicated ethnic identities (specifically those on the boundary of "white and "not white") do get the short end of the stick when it comes to discussions of race from both sides, same as any other group in a liminal state (bisexuals, transsexuals, people who cross class boundaries, immigrants, etc) I have a particular bee in my bonnet about this sort of thing, you may have noticed my rants about transphobia in feminism. But while I try not to perpetuate simplistic attitudes to mixed race people myself and bring these issues up where I think they're appropriate, I tend to feel that on the whole it's a conversation that needs to be had between mixed race people and non-mixed race POC and the best thing I can do is try not to get in the way and where it helps offer my support. And afaict (though I am willing to be corrected, what do I know) the static mixed-race people get from anti-racists and non mixed-race POC etc, while bad and in need of improvement, is still much less hurtful than the way they get treated by regular society.