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Gnarls Barkley - [Going On]--- So. Evelyn-Evelyn. Kevin Smith. Privilege. Private Law. We've talked about this, before, haven't we? Weve discussed the problem, here? Let me say this as clearly as possible, one more time, then: People are shit.
People like to feel special about themselves, and this extends outward especially to victimhood. If you are a member of a group, then the chances are high that you will seek to make yourself and that group more important and special, for some reason or another. (Cake - [I Will Survive]). Human nature. We like to be special.
All of us are a part of some interlocking, overlapping groups of classes which mean that we will, by turns, find ourselves privileged and persecuted. Race, ethnicity, religion, hair colour, spelling choice, weight, fashion sense, cartoons we enjoy, sexual preference, gender differentiation, whatever. I am not a single thing. You are not a single thing. Your chosen and happenstance experiences, coupled with the facticity of your existence and the choices you make, regarding those traits, mean that you are a complex and unique individual, just like everyone else on this planet, and to tell someone that they Should Behave Some Way is to ignore the uniqueness of each human experience, and to perpetuate the kind of environment in which privilege finds a home.
The Dresden Dolls - [Modern Moonlight]--- And we all have our "triggers." We have the things that remind us of our trauma, and the way that White Male Privilge™ has done us wrong, and society has screwed us over. We're gay, or we've been raped, or we're black, or we're poor and struggling to support a family, or we're trans, or we're bi-polar, or we're pagan growing up in a strict Catholic family, or we are and have been all of these things, and we're trying desperately to find our place in the fucking world. It's hard. It's hard because, yes, society as it stands, does have privileges worked into its very fabric, so deep and so strong that those who benefit from them may not even realise it.
But that doesn't mean that people should feel guilty for being something.
It doesn't mean that I can't seek to understand or talk about something I'm not.
It doesn't mean that, being black, I have to be angry at the white man, or to demand reparations, or fight for Affirmative Action.
The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets - [Shoggoths Away]--- It doesn't mean that, being male, I can't aim to understand and empathize with the plight of women, in this society.
It doesn't mean that, being non-Christian, I can't understand the joy and redemptive value of the offer of Christ's love.
It doesn't mean that, being whatever it is that you are, you have to feel guilty for not being more oppressed.
Guilt solves nothing. Blame and finger-pointing gets no real change, in this world. If what we really want is a more just and equal universe, then what we need is more understanding, more even-tempers, and less reactionary "You Can't Talk The Plight Of Group Whatever Because You Aren't A Part of Them And You Can't Know!"
Louis Jordan - [Beans and Corn Bread]--- But if what we want is to feel special, to feel set apart because we are the sufferers of unique injustices, to be seen as different and better and more stoic because we have soldiered on, to continue to foster a society in which being different is an excuse to make Your Different the Better Different, then by all means: Continue in this vein.
Static-X - [Shadow Zone]--- And yes, there is empowerment in the reappropriation of terms, in the reclaimation of power, through owning your differences, through owning the things for which "Traditional" society shuns you, and building a new society based in the owning of these things. But when I own the fact that I'm a black, "Pagan," self-worshipping academic in an interracial relationship, that doesn't mean that I then get to say, "And Everyone Who Doesn't Love The Nature Of My Being, And My Particular Perspective Ought To Be Ashamed Of Themselves."
Android Lust - [Lover Thine]--- What I get to say, instead, is that privilege is a fact. Recognise it. Work to raise awareness of it and deconstruct it. But don't think that you're immune from it. If you stop and truly, honestly, examine your life, you will see privilege and favourable fate, somewhere. To ignore that fact is to make the fact of privilege stronger, not weaker.
Patsy Cline - [I Fall to Pieces]--- People are shit. They want to be special, and they want to be different, and as long as there are people, on this planet, there will be someone who is different and wants so badly for that different to be "Better," that they will persecute and hunt and exclude those who are not their kind of different. And becasue people don't want to be persecuted, hunted, or excluded, they will either conform to that existing different, or they will form enclaves of their own, special kind of different. And they will want that different to be "Better," and so on. We can recognise this for what it is, and seek to change it, and our behaviour, with it, or we can ignore the fact and continue to make it worse, by shouting about how it's so bad that people don't treat each other better, and how we should all try to be equal, and understanding, but don't you dare try to speak or write or think from someone else's perspective, because You're Not Them, and you're obviously succumbing to the blindspots in your own privilege, if you can't see how just being you is wrong.
Lisa Loeb - [Stay]--- Because that makes sense.
I eagerly await the deluge of comments and arguments between people who don't even know each other that inevitably follows when I make one of these posts.
Thom Yorke - [Skip Divided]--- Good night.
People like to feel special about themselves, and this extends outward especially to victimhood. If you are a member of a group, then the chances are high that you will seek to make yourself and that group more important and special, for some reason or another. (Cake - [I Will Survive]). Human nature. We like to be special.
All of us are a part of some interlocking, overlapping groups of classes which mean that we will, by turns, find ourselves privileged and persecuted. Race, ethnicity, religion, hair colour, spelling choice, weight, fashion sense, cartoons we enjoy, sexual preference, gender differentiation, whatever. I am not a single thing. You are not a single thing. Your chosen and happenstance experiences, coupled with the facticity of your existence and the choices you make, regarding those traits, mean that you are a complex and unique individual, just like everyone else on this planet, and to tell someone that they Should Behave Some Way is to ignore the uniqueness of each human experience, and to perpetuate the kind of environment in which privilege finds a home.
The Dresden Dolls - [Modern Moonlight]--- And we all have our "triggers." We have the things that remind us of our trauma, and the way that White Male Privilge™ has done us wrong, and society has screwed us over. We're gay, or we've been raped, or we're black, or we're poor and struggling to support a family, or we're trans, or we're bi-polar, or we're pagan growing up in a strict Catholic family, or we are and have been all of these things, and we're trying desperately to find our place in the fucking world. It's hard. It's hard because, yes, society as it stands, does have privileges worked into its very fabric, so deep and so strong that those who benefit from them may not even realise it.
But that doesn't mean that people should feel guilty for being something.
It doesn't mean that I can't seek to understand or talk about something I'm not.
It doesn't mean that, being black, I have to be angry at the white man, or to demand reparations, or fight for Affirmative Action.
The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets - [Shoggoths Away]--- It doesn't mean that, being male, I can't aim to understand and empathize with the plight of women, in this society.
It doesn't mean that, being non-Christian, I can't understand the joy and redemptive value of the offer of Christ's love.
It doesn't mean that, being whatever it is that you are, you have to feel guilty for not being more oppressed.
Guilt solves nothing. Blame and finger-pointing gets no real change, in this world. If what we really want is a more just and equal universe, then what we need is more understanding, more even-tempers, and less reactionary "You Can't Talk The Plight Of Group Whatever Because You Aren't A Part of Them And You Can't Know!"
Louis Jordan - [Beans and Corn Bread]--- But if what we want is to feel special, to feel set apart because we are the sufferers of unique injustices, to be seen as different and better and more stoic because we have soldiered on, to continue to foster a society in which being different is an excuse to make Your Different the Better Different, then by all means: Continue in this vein.
Static-X - [Shadow Zone]--- And yes, there is empowerment in the reappropriation of terms, in the reclaimation of power, through owning your differences, through owning the things for which "Traditional" society shuns you, and building a new society based in the owning of these things. But when I own the fact that I'm a black, "Pagan," self-worshipping academic in an interracial relationship, that doesn't mean that I then get to say, "And Everyone Who Doesn't Love The Nature Of My Being, And My Particular Perspective Ought To Be Ashamed Of Themselves."
Android Lust - [Lover Thine]--- What I get to say, instead, is that privilege is a fact. Recognise it. Work to raise awareness of it and deconstruct it. But don't think that you're immune from it. If you stop and truly, honestly, examine your life, you will see privilege and favourable fate, somewhere. To ignore that fact is to make the fact of privilege stronger, not weaker.
Patsy Cline - [I Fall to Pieces]--- People are shit. They want to be special, and they want to be different, and as long as there are people, on this planet, there will be someone who is different and wants so badly for that different to be "Better," that they will persecute and hunt and exclude those who are not their kind of different. And becasue people don't want to be persecuted, hunted, or excluded, they will either conform to that existing different, or they will form enclaves of their own, special kind of different. And they will want that different to be "Better," and so on. We can recognise this for what it is, and seek to change it, and our behaviour, with it, or we can ignore the fact and continue to make it worse, by shouting about how it's so bad that people don't treat each other better, and how we should all try to be equal, and understanding, but don't you dare try to speak or write or think from someone else's perspective, because You're Not Them, and you're obviously succumbing to the blindspots in your own privilege, if you can't see how just being you is wrong.
Lisa Loeb - [Stay]--- Because that makes sense.
I eagerly await the deluge of comments and arguments between people who don't even know each other that inevitably follows when I make one of these posts.
Thom Yorke - [Skip Divided]--- Good night.
