I get the feeling I'm going to regret commenting....
I've been reading the comments here and I understand and respect many of the various (and even opposing) perspectives.
One thing I wanted to discussing is race identifying. I completely understand why for POCs being asked to identify their race is sometimes painful and frustrating. I get it. I truly do. And they aren't wrong for feeling that way.
However I don't think what many people realize is that it's also a necessary evil in many cases, specifically in regards to white members needing to identify themselves.
The problem with white-dominated social justice spaces, particularly anti-racism spaces is that there are too many speshul white peepul who think because they've voted for Obama, like Will Smith and know who George Clinton is that they have an all-access pass to show their privileged asses and whitesplain to POCs.
I can't tell you how many times I've had some white person talk down to me about racism on anti-racism cites and engage in more racefail than you'd find on a KKK site. Hell, I can't tell you how many times cis straight white folks try to straight-splain to me how homophobia works and attempt to police me.
Last month alone, my friends and I have discussed how we've had to drop white-dominated anti-racism, feminist, queer rights sites and have decided to set up our own space because of the consistent fail.
When you're a POC who gets whitesplained to enough times (or a queer person who gets talked down to by cis straight white folks), eventually you can usually tell if the person engaging in the fail is straight/white.
That isn't to say that all POCs are in lock step or hive minded. There might be other POCs who disagree with me and vice versa and they might be right and I might be wrong or I might be right and they could be failing something fierce. That's fine. But at least if I decide to invest energy in engaging with them (and decide they're worth my time), I feel I should know whether or not they have an authority to speak on these issues if they're POCs or to check their privilege and shut the fuck up if they're white. Because it's not a matter of if a white person is going to overstep their bounds on spaces like this, it's a matter of when.
Look I'm not saying pro racial profiling white members or anti racial profiling. Whatever the mods decide or the community as a whole, I just think that needs to be taken into account as well.
That's my take on the situation. Your mileage may vary.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-07-01 06:02 am (UTC)I've been reading the comments here and I understand and respect many of the various (and even opposing) perspectives.
One thing I wanted to discussing is race identifying. I completely understand why for POCs being asked to identify their race is sometimes painful and frustrating. I get it. I truly do. And they aren't wrong for feeling that way.
However I don't think what many people realize is that it's also a necessary evil in many cases, specifically in regards to white members needing to identify themselves.
The problem with white-dominated social justice spaces, particularly anti-racism spaces is that there are too many speshul white peepul who think because they've voted for Obama, like Will Smith and know who George Clinton is that they have an all-access pass to show their privileged asses and whitesplain to POCs.
I can't tell you how many times I've had some white person talk down to me about racism on anti-racism cites and engage in more racefail than you'd find on a KKK site. Hell, I can't tell you how many times cis straight white folks try to straight-splain to me how homophobia works and attempt to police me.
Last month alone, my friends and I have discussed how we've had to drop white-dominated anti-racism, feminist, queer rights sites and have decided to set up our own space because of the consistent fail.
When you're a POC who gets whitesplained to enough times (or a queer person who gets talked down to by cis straight white folks), eventually you can usually tell if the person engaging in the fail is straight/white.
That isn't to say that all POCs are in lock step or hive minded. There might be other POCs who disagree with me and vice versa and they might be right and I might be wrong or I might be right and they could be failing something fierce. That's fine. But at least if I decide to invest energy in engaging with them (and decide they're worth my time), I feel I should know whether or not they have an authority to speak on these issues if they're POCs or to check their privilege and shut the fuck up if they're white. Because it's not a matter of if a white person is going to overstep their bounds on spaces like this, it's a matter of when.
Look I'm not saying pro racial profiling white members or anti racial profiling. Whatever the mods decide or the community as a whole, I just think that needs to be taken into account as well.
That's my take on the situation. Your mileage may vary.