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wolven7Miles Davis - [Why Do I Love You? (Live)]--- Let's Make Some People Angry.
It's February, which means it's Black History Month, here in the US of A.
As some of you may know I HATE Black History Month. Simply put, i hate it because it's been nearly fifty years since Dr Martin Luther King and Brother Malcolm were shot and killed, and we still have one month out of the year, where we try to cram in all of this shit? Really? We can't yet weave all of this important information into our daily lives and education?
The same goes for Women's and Native People's History Months. They're insultingly inadequate.
I'm going to quote myself, wholecloth, with amendations, and extra emphasis:
I disagree with pretty much every view on racism, in what slides between major and very minor details. I don't think that racism is simply the fact of Power/Privilege combining with Prejudice, but I also don't think that the understanding of the place of privilege, and the blinding effect it can have, on those who have it, can be Overstated.
I believe that any person can be racist, prejudiced, bigoted, regardless of background, or history, and that those things can express themselves in unintended and unconscious manifestations. But I don't believe that anyone needs to feel supremely guilty about that fact, so much as they should recognise it, and attempt to change it.
I don't believe that the burden of proof should have to be on someone proving that they aren't racist, nor should the first reactions to People Who May Have Privilege saying something that Someone Who has No Privilege (literally "Private Law," by the way; we don't think about that enough) may not like, or may misinterpret, be the cry of "RACIST!/HOMOPHOBE!/"CLASSIST!" Because they're NOT, necessarily.
But any attempt for the accused to show why they aren't what they've been accused of being reads only the same as someone denying that they're in denial. When the real problem may be that there has been a miscommunication, and the "offending" party has been misunderstood.
If we cannot have a conversation about this, we will get nowhere.
If everyone stops at "People Who Look Like Me are oppressed by People Who Look Like You, and you should FEEL BAD ABOUT IT, So Don't Talk To Me About Racism."
If Everything a white person says in a conversation about oppression is an apologetic for the stance of The Angry Black Man.
If we don't Begin to understand the fact that racism is more multidimensional and multifaceted than "White People BAD!"
If we don't approach the things we do with the ability to say, "I may not Be A Racist, but I may hold views and FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS about the way of the world which are visible to many others, but are invisible to me (because of privilege, placement, or a particular set of understandings), and which may impact my interactions with those people."
If "Those People" (see what I did there?), can't take a step back and say, "Maybe This is Unintentional, and They Aren't Racist, and MY Fundamental Assumptions are getting in the way."
We. Will get. Nowhere.
My white girlfriend shouldn't feel uncomfortable talking to me about racism.
My white friends should not feel completely comfortable assuming any position I have on racism.
My BLACK FRIENDS should not feel completely comfortable assuming any position I have on racism.
We should be able to speak to each other, openly, honestly, reflectively, clearly. Recognising that we each have a frame of reference which may be invisible, to us, at first. We have tentative conversations. We fumble, we try, we fail, we get back up and try again, and we Do. Not. Fly Off. The Handle.
Because assuming a white(/straight/rich/male/etc.) person is racist(/homophobic/classist/misogynist/etc/), or even unconsciously holds racist views? Detrimental to "race relations." Assuming that a person of color(/gay person/poor person/woman/etc.) DOESN'T and CAN'T hold those views, or views analogous to those? Equally Detrimental.
Holding the analogous views is especially insidious, because they allow us to say, "Well, you can't talk about this, or understand this, because you haven't been oppressed, like My People have." And if we can't talk about it or understand it. . . then we can't work through it.
And if we can't work through the problem, we can't fix it.
And I know we all want to fix it.
Björk - [Cover Me]--- So that was me talking to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
matociquala about representations of race in her novels, and how those representations are perceived by others.
I want to repeat that: How those representations are perceived by others.
This is the thing that pisses me off about conversations about people being offended by anything, most notably right now, cultural appropriations. (Sneaker Pimps - [Low Place Like Home]). When you tell me that I've done something offensive, you are interpreting something I'm doing. You have, by your very action, here, made a presumption about my intentions, my mental state, my knowledge, my emotional stance, whether I have respect in my heart.
You are placing a value judgment on my actions, based on knowledge which you cannot possibly have.
Now, let's be clear (Again): Racism exists. Racist actions exist. Sexist, homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic, WHATEVER Actions Exist. These attitudes and the people who hold them are real. And sometimes we can spot a bigot. (Pig - [The Seven Veils]). They're wearing the Double Lightning, or they're saying something like "All fat people are disgusting and should die," or whatever. But some bigots are more subtle, and their actions and attitudes more insidious and pervasive. It is only through a sustained engagement with their behaviours that we can come to understand the bigoted architecture of their thinking. (Skinny Puppy - [Pro-test]). And, yes, it's true that some people don't know what their architecture is. Some people have ingrained privilege of which they are unaware.
I call this the Invisible Architecture of Bias.
But you know what? Just because bigots exist, just because insidious and hidden bigotry is a Real Thing, just because the Invisible Architecture of Bias pervades every single one of us? That's no reason to automatically assume that someone is either A) Intentionally Bigoted, B) Ignorantly Holding Bigoted View, or C) Is Blithely Unaware of the Impact of Their Actions.
Hope for Agoldensummer - [Love Letter]--- You don't know what I know. You don't know my family history. You don't know what a Sugar Skull or a Headscarf or a Facial Veil Mean to Me. You don't know what I'm learning or what I'm trying to make them mean to me.
If I don't come from your country, your people, your specific history, then I don't get to engage in it? To find resonance with it?
I know a fair amount about the Zen principle of Kenshō. I know what that breaking through of non-duality means, in its context. (Jack Off Jill - [American Made (Tweeker Remix) pod]). But I can also take this concept, and... Not lift it out of its context, because the connotations necessarily come with it, but I can place it in a different context, next to something else, in a different philosophy or culture.
I can draw a comparison between Peter Singer and Jainism. I can use the principles of one to talk about another.
It is not appropriation. It's engagement, analogy, conceptual development.
Nina Simone - [Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair (Jaffa Remix)]--- And it's the only way we learn and grow as a species. Fucking grow up.
Everyone.
[Edit:5.44pmmatociquala wrote this as part of a very long response thread, and I think it would do good to add it here: "I think it helps to remember that everybody trying to have these conversations is in pain, scared, and feels as if they are under siege.
"All of us."]
It's February, which means it's Black History Month, here in the US of A.
As some of you may know I HATE Black History Month. Simply put, i hate it because it's been nearly fifty years since Dr Martin Luther King and Brother Malcolm were shot and killed, and we still have one month out of the year, where we try to cram in all of this shit? Really? We can't yet weave all of this important information into our daily lives and education?
The same goes for Women's and Native People's History Months. They're insultingly inadequate.
I'm going to quote myself, wholecloth, with amendations, and extra emphasis:
I disagree with pretty much every view on racism, in what slides between major and very minor details. I don't think that racism is simply the fact of Power/Privilege combining with Prejudice, but I also don't think that the understanding of the place of privilege, and the blinding effect it can have, on those who have it, can be Overstated.
I believe that any person can be racist, prejudiced, bigoted, regardless of background, or history, and that those things can express themselves in unintended and unconscious manifestations. But I don't believe that anyone needs to feel supremely guilty about that fact, so much as they should recognise it, and attempt to change it.
I don't believe that the burden of proof should have to be on someone proving that they aren't racist, nor should the first reactions to People Who May Have Privilege saying something that Someone Who has No Privilege (literally "Private Law," by the way; we don't think about that enough) may not like, or may misinterpret, be the cry of "RACIST!/HOMOPHOBE!/"CLASSIST!" Because they're NOT, necessarily.
But any attempt for the accused to show why they aren't what they've been accused of being reads only the same as someone denying that they're in denial. When the real problem may be that there has been a miscommunication, and the "offending" party has been misunderstood.
If we cannot have a conversation about this, we will get nowhere.
If everyone stops at "People Who Look Like Me are oppressed by People Who Look Like You, and you should FEEL BAD ABOUT IT, So Don't Talk To Me About Racism."
If Everything a white person says in a conversation about oppression is an apologetic for the stance of The Angry Black Man.
If we don't Begin to understand the fact that racism is more multidimensional and multifaceted than "White People BAD!"
If we don't approach the things we do with the ability to say, "I may not Be A Racist, but I may hold views and FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS about the way of the world which are visible to many others, but are invisible to me (because of privilege, placement, or a particular set of understandings), and which may impact my interactions with those people."
If "Those People" (see what I did there?), can't take a step back and say, "Maybe This is Unintentional, and They Aren't Racist, and MY Fundamental Assumptions are getting in the way."
We. Will get. Nowhere.
My white girlfriend shouldn't feel uncomfortable talking to me about racism.
My white friends should not feel completely comfortable assuming any position I have on racism.
My BLACK FRIENDS should not feel completely comfortable assuming any position I have on racism.
We should be able to speak to each other, openly, honestly, reflectively, clearly. Recognising that we each have a frame of reference which may be invisible, to us, at first. We have tentative conversations. We fumble, we try, we fail, we get back up and try again, and we Do. Not. Fly Off. The Handle.
Because assuming a white(/straight/rich/male/etc.) person is racist(/homophobic/classist/misogynist/etc/), or even unconsciously holds racist views? Detrimental to "race relations." Assuming that a person of color(/gay person/poor person/woman/etc.) DOESN'T and CAN'T hold those views, or views analogous to those? Equally Detrimental.
Holding the analogous views is especially insidious, because they allow us to say, "Well, you can't talk about this, or understand this, because you haven't been oppressed, like My People have." And if we can't talk about it or understand it. . . then we can't work through it.
And if we can't work through the problem, we can't fix it.
And I know we all want to fix it.
Björk - [Cover Me]--- So that was me talking to
matociquala about representations of race in her novels, and how those representations are perceived by others.I want to repeat that: How those representations are perceived by others.
This is the thing that pisses me off about conversations about people being offended by anything, most notably right now, cultural appropriations. (Sneaker Pimps - [Low Place Like Home]). When you tell me that I've done something offensive, you are interpreting something I'm doing. You have, by your very action, here, made a presumption about my intentions, my mental state, my knowledge, my emotional stance, whether I have respect in my heart.
You are placing a value judgment on my actions, based on knowledge which you cannot possibly have.
Now, let's be clear (Again): Racism exists. Racist actions exist. Sexist, homophobic, transphobic, fatphobic, WHATEVER Actions Exist. These attitudes and the people who hold them are real. And sometimes we can spot a bigot. (Pig - [The Seven Veils]). They're wearing the Double Lightning, or they're saying something like "All fat people are disgusting and should die," or whatever. But some bigots are more subtle, and their actions and attitudes more insidious and pervasive. It is only through a sustained engagement with their behaviours that we can come to understand the bigoted architecture of their thinking. (Skinny Puppy - [Pro-test]). And, yes, it's true that some people don't know what their architecture is. Some people have ingrained privilege of which they are unaware.
I call this the Invisible Architecture of Bias.
But you know what? Just because bigots exist, just because insidious and hidden bigotry is a Real Thing, just because the Invisible Architecture of Bias pervades every single one of us? That's no reason to automatically assume that someone is either A) Intentionally Bigoted, B) Ignorantly Holding Bigoted View, or C) Is Blithely Unaware of the Impact of Their Actions.
Hope for Agoldensummer - [Love Letter]--- You don't know what I know. You don't know my family history. You don't know what a Sugar Skull or a Headscarf or a Facial Veil Mean to Me. You don't know what I'm learning or what I'm trying to make them mean to me.
If I don't come from your country, your people, your specific history, then I don't get to engage in it? To find resonance with it?
I know a fair amount about the Zen principle of Kenshō. I know what that breaking through of non-duality means, in its context. (Jack Off Jill - [American Made (Tweeker Remix) pod]). But I can also take this concept, and... Not lift it out of its context, because the connotations necessarily come with it, but I can place it in a different context, next to something else, in a different philosophy or culture.
I can draw a comparison between Peter Singer and Jainism. I can use the principles of one to talk about another.
It is not appropriation. It's engagement, analogy, conceptual development.
Nina Simone - [Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair (Jaffa Remix)]--- And it's the only way we learn and grow as a species. Fucking grow up.
Everyone.
[Edit:5.44pm
matociquala wrote this as part of a very long response thread, and I think it would do good to add it here: "I think it helps to remember that everybody trying to have these conversations is in pain, scared, and feels as if they are under siege."All of us."]
