Social Justice Usage
Source: Dictionary.com, entry for “yt folx“
Yt folx is internet slang for “white folks.” Sometimes serious but often humorous, yt folx is typically used by people of color, usually black Americanas, to call out white privilege, racism, or cultural appropriation.
New Discourses Commentary
“Yt” is a racial slur against white people that can be read either as “white” (whyte) or as “whitey” (y-t). It is a more derogatory version of the related slang racial slur “wypipo” (white people). Like many terms in the Critical Social Justice lexicon (including its slang), “yt” is therefore not difficult to understand. It is worth mentioning how the Woke ideology justifies the use of the term, however, given that it is unambiguously a racial slur, which superficially seems to go against its nominally “antiracist” ethos.
In the Theory of Critical Social Justice, racism is unidirectional. It can only flow from positions of concentrated systemic power (i.e., privilege) toward those alleged to be oppressed by that systemic power (see also, domination and hegemony). The claim is that while those in oppressed positionalities might be engaging in prejudice, they lack access to the systemic power necessary for them to effect oppression, such as racism (or sexism, etc.). Thus, at worst, applying a racial slur “upward” against the alleged flow of systemic power (see also, punching up) would be considered prejudicial, though it would also frequently be regarded as a form of strategic resistance against the Theoretically defined structurally determinant power dynamics (see also, disrupt and dismantle). Thus, utilizing a racial slur against white people, who are deemed the beneficiaries of a “white supremacist” superstructure in society, would not be considered an act of racism or discouraged as such (see also, white complicity and white comfort).
The short summary of this view (as given by critical race Theory) is that white people created and maintain the “white supremacist” system of power (as a Marxian superstructure, a.k.a. “whiteness”) to minoritize and exclude people of color, especially blacks (see also, BIPOC, anti-Blackness, and racialize), and marginalize their points of view, culture, knowledges, ways of knowing, etc. That is, they erected a racially exclusive system that maintains their own societal advantages and privilege (see also, racial contract), which they are loath to relinquish or challenge, or even to acknowledge (see also, willful ignorance, white fragility, and white ignorance). This system is said to impose politically constructed race (see also, social construction) and thus to limit the (statistical) range of attainment possible for people who are not white unless they “act white” or position themselves as “white adjacent.” Given these conditions, largely following the thought of the French-Algerian postcolonialist psychoanalyst Frantz Fanon, people in oppressed positions are entitled and encouraged to resist their oppression by a variety of means not allowed to those in relationally privileged positions, including, for Fanon and many in his wake (see also, Antifa, liberationism, black liberationism, and black lives matter), through violence.
In such a system, it is not possible for the oppressed to exert (systemic) power over the dominant, so those deemed oppressed are free to use tactics like racial slurs (inter alia) with impunity because they, by their very existence and especially by the double standard maintaining their use (see also, tolerance), challenge the allegedly determinant power structure. “Yt” is one such slur directed against white people.
See also, wypipo and strategic racism
Related Terms
Acting white; Anti-Blackness; Antifa; BIPOC; Black liberationism; Black lives matter; Critical; Critical race Theory; Dismantle; Disrupt; Domination; Exclusion; Hegemony; Ideology; Knowledge(s); Liberationism; Marginalize; Marxian; Minoritize; Oppression; People of color; Positionality; Postcolonialism; Power (systemic); Privilege; Punching up; Race; Racial contract; Racialize; Racism (systemic); Sexism (systemic); Social construction; Social Justice; Strategic racism; Superstructure; Theory; Tolerance; Violence; White; White adjacent; White comfort; White complicity; White fragility; White ignorance; White innocence; White supremacy; Whiteness; Willful ignorance; Woke/Wokeness; Wypipo
Revision date: 7/15/21
21 comments
YT =whitey, which is not a new term, has been a derogatory term since at least the 19th century. Anyone saying you can’t be prejudice, racists, or derogatory to white people is just plain wrong.
ok craquer
I am so glad someone screen shotted this page and put it on facebook. I hurried to google the part they showed so that I could laugh harder. Congrats on not disappointing me 😂😂😂
This is a page filled with bullshit and it’s all hilarious
This is the most “white whine” nonsense I’ve heard all day. I will never understand why white people wanna be oppressed so bad. They are so ready to use slurs against other people, but cry when they’re described accurately by words that they’ve used to subjugate the entire planet for at least 500 years.
Maybe if you’re a member of a group that benefits from the fact that all your ancestors committed genocide on massive scales to occupy land for the sole purpose of gathering wealth, and then continues (to this day) to oppress the survivors of the groups they stole from so they can’t take that wealth back, people would talk to you in a way you like better.
This is the absolutely most “white whine” nonsense I’ve seen online today. Why do white people want to be oppressed so badly that they can’t take criticism? Why are they so ready to use slurs but assume they’re the target of them when they aren’t?
Y’all need to sort out your lives.
You didn’t actually explain why it’s racist. You just used a lot of words and broke down part of what systematic racism means. It is not racist and stop pretending to be a victim.
It is not a slur. It was made up so people could comment without flagging social media algorithms. As was literally every other example provided. Stop trying to victimize yourself.
Sincerely,
A white guy (possibly whiter than you)
“Yt” is absolutely a slur. You don’t get to tell me whether or not im offended by this act racism, acts of racism, and social racism.
The same way you wouldn’t appreciate your people being disrespected and referenced as “blks”.
Practice what you literally preach. Stop expecting justice and thinking it’s okay to hold racial prejudice in the same instance.
You are living in the historical significance of these phrases being racist. Identifying and associating character traits to a group based on skin colour is racist. These abbreviations are currently being used to disparage people with white skin, when we speak on current societal by folks who buy into critical rac(ist)e theory … or is there some time stipulation I’m unaware of? Acknowledging racism toward people with white skin doesn’t erase the history of racism on any other group.
If I could use a term from the woke. Getting all upset about the reality of racism sounds a little….. fragile, to me.
The strangely disabling property of practicing critical race theory elements, such as the use of yt, shows the Marcusian lack of reciprocity that is so characteristic of the use of anti-white racist expressions. Almost by hegemony, white people do not usually react to these slurs as if they were racist slurs. That behaviour of accepting in a condoning way has to change before there will ever be any environment where these slurs are considered to be racist by white people in general.
The term “yt” isn’t a slur it is just a word to abbreviate the word white. the N word and many other slurs have been around since slavery and white didn’t experience it the same way as people of colour many centuries ago. the fact that a white man recently thought that it would be ok for white people to have a “slur” just makes you ignorant. you cant make your own slur when white haven’t even had the experience of racism. you haven’t had to fight for your freedom. You white people have had a lot more privileges than any other race and then you have the audacity to make up your own slur that’s embarrassing
Ofcourse its written by a yt man
Why do racist white people like you always want to be oppressed, willfully ignorant, and violent?
Let me educate you “wypipo” is AAVE( African American Vernacular English)
A Slur is a type of hate speech meant to harm individuals simply because of their group membership, to dehumanize an oppressed group.
In what way has yt been used to dehumanize yt people. ‘yt’ has no historical significance, that has been shown to remove white people as a group from their humanity.
Hurt feelings don’t equal slurs. Be better and have compassion towards people especially BIPOC, Who have to actually go through racism.
Of course you are a white dude. Looking at your bio, it seems that you are also a racist, so it tracks that you would be offended by being called “white”.
Neither “wypipo” nor “yt” are “racial slurs”. They are used to abbreviate “white people” and “white,” respectively. Use of those words can get a person’s posts and comments flagged on many social media apps.
Another reason that these abbreviations are used is that they are shorter than the phrase that they represent. When there are character limits, using abbreviations that are universally accepted makes it easier to express what a person wants to say within that character limit.
The terms “yt” and “wypipo” are not used solely by BIPOC communities. They are also utilized by many wypipo, myself included. I am not sure how a very, very, very yt woman, like myself, can be “racist” against my own demographic.
The claim that these phrases are racist has only surfaced in recent years, whereas actual racial slurs used against communities and demographics that have historically been marginalized and subjugated, have existed for decades, if not centuries. The ridiculous claim that anyone can be racist against wypipo was made up by wypipo, mostly mediocre yt men, like yourself, as a way to express their abject need and desire to be oppressed.
It is categorically impossible to be racist against wypipo. A person can be prejudiced or bigoted, but not racist, against wypipo. Wypipo, as a demographic, have never been marginalized or subjugated by another demographic. For something to be racist there must be a power structure in place that works against the demographic that is being targeted. In the entire history of the United States, no other demographic has ever marginalized or subjugated wypipo. No other demographic in the United States has ever held more power than wypipo, or more specifically, yt Christian men.
To be clear, your opinion that those abbreviations are racist is not why you are racist. Your rejection of Critical Race Theory and support of other racist ideologies are what make you racist.
As a personal side note, as a yt woman who is educating herself about racism, both overt & covert, microaggressions, yt privilege and yt supremacy, as well as battling against yt supremacy in this country, I will continue to use “yt” and “wypipo” for the sheer joy that it brings me to trigger racist snowflakes like yourself and the other mediocre yt dudes that are inevitably going to reply to this comment, crying into their Cheerios while they whine about how “oppressed” they are and spout off any multitude of yt supremacist ideologies and talking points.
Mariah: If it isn’t a slur, what is it? Shall I apply the “duck” analysis for you? Or perhaps you think it’s a term of respect?
if they called me that the only response they would get from me is a knife lodged in their throat
The “N” word isn’t a slur either – according to many young black folks who use it all the time.
if the term ‘Yt’ is being used to demonize and dehumanize human beings on racial grounds, and to incite hatred, which it manifestly does, then it is just as as much a slur as ‘N*****.’
Yt isnt a slur