(no subject)

[magistrate]

Years later, I was at a con with Chip when a young man asked him a question. That young man, gay and black, as Chip is, had just attended a writing workshop where he'd found it very difficult to get recognition about why the things he was writing about were important. He asked Chip how a black gay man could find his voice in science fiction. Almost before the words were out of his mouth, a white woman overrode him with, "Well, I just don't see race in my life. I don't make it a problem. I don't see race. It just doesn't exist as an issue."

Very gently, Chip replied, "If you can't see something that threatens my life daily, then you can't help me fight it. You can't be my ally."

–Nalo Hopkinson, Looking for Clues

Comments

[yetregressing]

That is.. fascinating. And awesome. And I don't really know what my response as a highly privileged white person is at this moment in time, but it... part of it resonated, somehow. I'm not sure how yet, but... I think this will be helpful.

[magistrate]

Kyriarchy is a weird thing. And for all that different axes and avenues of privilege aren't the same, a lot of the ways of talking about them are really similar. So, "I don't see gender." "I don't see sex." So on.

It's this sort of "Really? Do you at least see how much of society is built on those things? Do you see how you're so much more likely to die of violence as a black person or so much more likely to suffer sexual assault as a trans person?" People feel noble and egalitarian by saying "No! People should be seen without these things," but just refusing to see those things without undoing the societal crap that does so much damage actually does more harm than help, because it contributes to those things continuing unchecked.

In any case, that was one of the most eloquent ways I'd seen it put. Way to go, Samuel R. Delaney. (How one gets "Chip" from that name...)

[yetregressing]

Exactly. That's a problem I'm running into with the GSA at school--kids want to be like 'that isn't what people should see--we shouldn't care if people are gay, lesbian, or trans' and while I understand where they're coming from, I have to bite my lip to keep from telling them they're wrong, that we sort of have to care if people are like that, because we have to be alert. You can't just not see those things, because there are people that do see those things and see them in a way that may eventually be harmful to the people who are LGBTQ (throwing in Q at the end of the acronym is something else entirely, but none of the students have asked me about it yet and I don't look at the teachers (who are more likely to cringe or question my use of it) when I say it).

Which is a roundabout way of totally agreeing with you. In terms of race, it is important to acknowledge the histories of underprivileged (less privileged? Language is failing me here, plus I'm totally exhausted).

But yeah. It really resonated with me on some fronts and made me go 'I have to be more alert and aware' on other fronts, I guess. I'm probably rambling at this point.