Coffeeandink said it, and I will say it too
"I, a cis-gendered white woman, have most notably lost my shit in cases where the people informing me I’d made a racist statement or performed a racist act did not use the word "racist." Therefore, I do not believe that the term "racist" is the only trigger here. I still don’t believe this."
She said this in a discussion on rozk ’s journal, and it was a little while back. I don’t want to go flaring up discussion there. I just want to say that– me too. That’s the way I got called out. And you know what? I remember that the nice-and-polite didn’t really register with me at first. Someone had to use the R word before I got shocked enough to stop and pay attention.
So to all those poor maligned folk who’ve been called on their assumptions for the first time, I say this;
Okay, if I agree that calling nice white people racist hurts so horribly terribly that they cannot take any further steps towards understanding the issues that the antiracists have pointed out– can you promise me that those nice white people *will* take seriously the issues that the antiracists have pointed out, if they are approached nicely?
And I would like those white folks who are making it all about their hurt feelings to answer the question, which underlies so much of this;
How do you feel about the ways in which minority peoples are shown in popular culture, does it bother you to see furrin folks being exoticized for entertainment, would you ever notice if an author got your particular subculture right for once, or wrong as usual? Have you ever bet on how far along in the film the one black guy (or gay guy, or woman, or Hispanic) will die, or counted the black whores and junkies against the black middle-class or heroic portrayals?
Because this is the tribe. These are the roots. We are, in this particular crowd, the children of story, which is why the topic has engulfed the damn sf-writing white guys for, perhaps, the first time.
The mostly women of color who are involved in this bootless discussion, the white allies– and the queers of all stripes as well– we are all of us writers, storytellers, readers, consumers of culture. You’re looking at the *edges* of the tribe who are battling towards the center.
Um.. more later, I’m falling into incoherence.
This…this was just a brilliant post. Thank you for it.
You are so welcome, and you didn’t have to go locking down your own post– you quoted the best part of mine anyway, LOL
I’ll unlock it pretty soon actually…
=-)
I locked my post because I sooo didn’t realize yours was locked when I x-posted. I just got swept up in the moment. (I hate breaking flock, especially when it’s because I just wasn’t paying attention.) I’ll put it back up once yours goes live. =-)
I always figured, when I was doing original writing, that it was my responsibility to be anti-racist and such. I say, and such, because I set aside my writing before I became so immersed in progressive thinking and probably didn’t think about all the types of minorities… but then every time I read something real or fictional that made me aware of stereotype issues, I took them into account. One cyberpunk story I wrote had a Japanese-American elderly, short, and very take-charge woman, her sort-of-adopted-son Hispanic angsty hero, his white girlfriend who was fleeing dictatorial employers, and a black mechanic with his own shop.
Perhaps the right phrase to use to challenge stereotyped writing is “white privilege”. A blogger I know is using “racially charged”, but it makes me think of a tense, charged, near-riot racial confrontation.
Whites who do and say racist things but don’t think they are racist are probably blinded by privilege, which just means they don’t know what it’s like to face racism in the way minorities do (they may have run ins with the patriarchy or heterocentrism or classism that make them misunderstand privilege at first). White and male tend to be the default cultural assumptions. If a script says 3 senators are meeting, and there’s no other details, unless the director is *aware* of culture-deep assumptions and the need to fight them, he’s going to have 3 white guys in the room. I read a black actress saying that she was constantly being turned down for roles as secretaries, call center people, etc… because the script didn’t ‘call for’ a black woman. Junkies, strippers and whores, she’d get call backs on. And it’s ridiculous, because I worked in corporate America, and there are loads of black insurance adjusters, clerks, call center personnel, etc.
yep– you are a very lucky woman to have missed all of this, but it’s only one comment out of thousands by now, on the (current) Cultural Appropriation Conversation Of Doom. here’s a timeline and you can find amazing links on ‘s lj, here– but– only if your health is good!
This…this was just a brilliant post. Thank you for it.
You are so welcome, and you didn’t have to go locking down your own post– you quoted the best part of mine anyway, LOL
I’ll unlock it pretty soon actually…
=-)
I locked my post because I sooo didn’t realize yours was locked when I x-posted. I just got swept up in the moment. (I hate breaking flock, especially when it’s because I just wasn’t paying attention.) I’ll put it back up once yours goes live. =-)
This…this was just a brilliant post. Thank you for it.
You are so welcome, and you didn’t have to go locking down your own post– you quoted the best part of mine anyway, LOL
I’ll unlock it pretty soon actually…
=-)
I locked my post because I sooo didn’t realize yours was locked when I x-posted. I just got swept up in the moment. (I hate breaking flock, especially when it’s because I just wasn’t paying attention.) I’ll put it back up once yours goes live. =-)
I always figured, when I was doing original writing, that it was my responsibility to be anti-racist and such. I say, and such, because I set aside my writing before I became so immersed in progressive thinking and probably didn’t think about all the types of minorities… but then every time I read something real or fictional that made me aware of stereotype issues, I took them into account. One cyberpunk story I wrote had a Japanese-American elderly, short, and very take-charge woman, her sort-of-adopted-son Hispanic angsty hero, his white girlfriend who was fleeing dictatorial employers, and a black mechanic with his own shop.
Perhaps the right phrase to use to challenge stereotyped writing is “white privilege”. A blogger I know is using “racially charged”, but it makes me think of a tense, charged, near-riot racial confrontation.
Whites who do and say racist things but don’t think they are racist are probably blinded by privilege, which just means they don’t know what it’s like to face racism in the way minorities do (they may have run ins with the patriarchy or heterocentrism or classism that make them misunderstand privilege at first). White and male tend to be the default cultural assumptions. If a script says 3 senators are meeting, and there’s no other details, unless the director is *aware* of culture-deep assumptions and the need to fight them, he’s going to have 3 white guys in the room. I read a black actress saying that she was constantly being turned down for roles as secretaries, call center people, etc… because the script didn’t ‘call for’ a black woman. Junkies, strippers and whores, she’d get call backs on. And it’s ridiculous, because I worked in corporate America, and there are loads of black insurance adjusters, clerks, call center personnel, etc.
yep– you are a very lucky woman to have missed all of this, but it’s only one comment out of thousands by now, on the (current) Cultural Appropriation Conversation Of Doom. here’s a timeline and you can find amazing links on ‘s lj, here– but– only if your health is good!
I always figured, when I was doing original writing, that it was my responsibility to be anti-racist and such. I say, and such, because I set aside my writing before I became so immersed in progressive thinking and probably didn’t think about all the types of minorities… but then every time I read something real or fictional that made me aware of stereotype issues, I took them into account. One cyberpunk story I wrote had a Japanese-American elderly, short, and very take-charge woman, her sort-of-adopted-son Hispanic angsty hero, his white girlfriend who was fleeing dictatorial employers, and a black mechanic with his own shop.
Perhaps the right phrase to use to challenge stereotyped writing is “white privilege”. A blogger I know is using “racially charged”, but it makes me think of a tense, charged, near-riot racial confrontation.
Whites who do and say racist things but don’t think they are racist are probably blinded by privilege, which just means they don’t know what it’s like to face racism in the way minorities do (they may have run ins with the patriarchy or heterocentrism or classism that make them misunderstand privilege at first). White and male tend to be the default cultural assumptions. If a script says 3 senators are meeting, and there’s no other details, unless the director is *aware* of culture-deep assumptions and the need to fight them, he’s going to have 3 white guys in the room. I read a black actress saying that she was constantly being turned down for roles as secretaries, call center people, etc… because the script didn’t ‘call for’ a black woman. Junkies, strippers and whores, she’d get call backs on. And it’s ridiculous, because I worked in corporate America, and there are loads of black insurance adjusters, clerks, call center personnel, etc.
yep– you are a very lucky woman to have missed all of this, but it’s only one comment out of thousands by now, on the (current) Cultural Appropriation Conversation Of Doom. here’s a timeline and you can find amazing links on ‘s lj, here– but– only if your health is good!
That, my friend, is what we call a CFJ at my house.
The phrase originated when Wolf and I were traveling, and came across a motorist driving 20 miles under the speed limit, followed by various and sundry others doing their best to go around. Just before slowing down to join the queue, she remarked, “Well, isn’t this just a cluster fuck jamboree?” Which, of course, made me laugh hard enough to spray iced tea out my nose.
Interesting conversation, I’m sure, but my health isn’t good enough to touch that.
a motorist driving 20 miles under the speed limit, followed by various and sundry others doing their best to go around
In many ways, yes!
That, my friend, is what we call a CFJ at my house.
The phrase originated when Wolf and I were traveling, and came across a motorist driving 20 miles under the speed limit, followed by various and sundry others doing their best to go around. Just before slowing down to join the queue, she remarked, “Well, isn’t this just a cluster fuck jamboree?” Which, of course, made me laugh hard enough to spray iced tea out my nose.
Interesting conversation, I’m sure, but my health isn’t good enough to touch that.
a motorist driving 20 miles under the speed limit, followed by various and sundry others doing their best to go around
In many ways, yes!
That, my friend, is what we call a CFJ at my house.
The phrase originated when Wolf and I were traveling, and came across a motorist driving 20 miles under the speed limit, followed by various and sundry others doing their best to go around. Just before slowing down to join the queue, she remarked, “Well, isn’t this just a cluster fuck jamboree?” Which, of course, made me laugh hard enough to spray iced tea out my nose.
Interesting conversation, I’m sure, but my health isn’t good enough to touch that.
a motorist driving 20 miles under the speed limit, followed by various and sundry others doing their best to go around
In many ways, yes!