Feminism: Richard Dawkins Takes Brave Stance Against Racism and Sexism

[Content Note: Racism; violence; stalking; misogyny]
[Note: This post was previously published at Shakesville.]

Richard Dawkins -- whom many of you know from his Dear Muslima letter wherein he blatantly appropriated the violent oppression of Muslim women in an attempt to silence an American feminist he disagreed with while at the same time making the racist assumption than "Muslim women" and "American women" are mutually exclusive groups -- has done a complete 180 today in announcing on Twitter that he cares about racism and sexism after all...

...as long as it's racism and sexism directed against white men, and as long as the "racism" and "sexism" on display are things like pointing out the race and sex of the privileged person, rather than normalizing privileged classes like 'white' and 'male' as the default and therefore without need of descriptors:

"insufferable smug white male making snide comments in loafers." Racism & sexism are fine, so long as they point in the right direction!
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) May 24, 2013

Learn to think clearly and use language precisely. You may JUSTIFY racism & sexism towards white males. But it's still racist & sexist.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) May 24, 2013

So many people incapable of drawing an elementary distinction: between racism and INSTITUTIONAL racism. Probably studied sociology.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) May 24, 2013

@richarddawkins It is sexist and also irrational to judge white males just because they are white males.
— Blue Sky (@EarthenBlueSky7) May 24, 2013

I'm sure Dawkins will explain to us at some point in the future how pointing out that someone is a member of one or more privileged classes is exactly the same as the marginalization that the members who are not part of those privileged classes face as part of their daily lives.

And maybe while he's at it he can explain why he, an adult white man, is immune from social condemnation for speaking positively about casual drug use and for using social media to post violent words and imagery, even while our society uses those things as an excuse to condemn young black men like Trayvon Martin, and how that isn't a function of his white male privilege.