Big Boss told me that a wealthy white man––someone he knows through a Christian group––this well-meaning white man asked BB
to explain racism to him after the police murdered George Floyd.
BB spent an evening educating him.
There's a philosophy going around that you, an oppressed person, shouldn't have to do the labor of EXPLAINing oppression to members of the dominant class.
People of color shouldn't have to explain racism to white people, women explain to men, queers to straights, etc. etc. etc.
This is a great philosophy! I hold it myself.
It's heavy labor, having to explain to nice people (over and over again) why the knee of their class is on other people's neck.
Other people's ignorance can be enraging and draining. Sharing your pain and insights can be emotionally expensive. It takes your time and sucks your life energy. What you couldn't be doing with that time instead!
(Restorative napping comes to my mind.)
Here's the thing, though:
if you (they, we, I) don't do the heavy lifting to educate people, a lot of those people--well meaning, but comfortable nestled in the dominant culture--just aren't going to bother to educate themselves.
And who pays the price for their continued ignorance?
You do.
So THANK YOU, people who try, try again to educate others, in all the different ways teachers do.
(I try to do my bit, but I get fed up pretty quickly.)
I was thinking about this when I read Going Gently's post, "Pride Again", about his Gay Pride rainbow T-shirt.
The blogger, John Gray, is gay--"the least interesting thing about me," he says.
He'd posted a picture of himself wearing the rainbow T-shirt. Some of his many loyal readers had objected--why do gays have to flaunt themselves?
I am awed and appreciative that John wrote a second post:
instead of shutting down the commenters (which I would have done), he kindly and patiently explained why their comments were "ill judged and rather offensive".
Which elicited another round of comments---almost all entirely supportive. But there was still the one who accepts gay people, but isn't their goal to be accepted as "normal"?
Aren't pride parades working against that?
Shouldn't flaunting difference just "fade away"?
Fade away?
What a colorless world it would be.
The whole "Why can't black people be more like Obama" p.o.v. would whitewash the world.
To flourish is to grow well, to flower.
It also means excessive embellishment, the sort some people object to seeing in Pride parades.
I miss the flourishments of the old Gay Pride parades.
As people sought to gain acceptance, the old gay communinty itself tried to shut down the flamboyance. Instead of a flourish of tulle on top of a cake, we got business suits marching under the banner of corporate sponsors.
I think the addition of T for trans and Q for questioning and queer has brought some color back again.
This is romanticized and simplified––(it's not always so pretty and successful being "crazy", as this corporate ad suggests)––but I say,
Let's celebrate and support deviance from the norm.
Let's create conditions where we all flourish.
Potatoes are good. But don't we want orchids too?
And artichokes?
And nettles?
BB spent an evening educating him.
There's a philosophy going around that you, an oppressed person, shouldn't have to do the labor of EXPLAINing oppression to members of the dominant class.
People of color shouldn't have to explain racism to white people, women explain to men, queers to straights, etc. etc. etc.
This is a great philosophy! I hold it myself.
It's heavy labor, having to explain to nice people (over and over again) why the knee of their class is on other people's neck.
Other people's ignorance can be enraging and draining. Sharing your pain and insights can be emotionally expensive. It takes your time and sucks your life energy. What you couldn't be doing with that time instead!
(Restorative napping comes to my mind.)
Here's the thing, though:
if you (they, we, I) don't do the heavy lifting to educate people, a lot of those people--well meaning, but comfortable nestled in the dominant culture--just aren't going to bother to educate themselves.
And who pays the price for their continued ignorance?
You do.
So THANK YOU, people who try, try again to educate others, in all the different ways teachers do.
(I try to do my bit, but I get fed up pretty quickly.)
I was thinking about this when I read Going Gently's post, "Pride Again", about his Gay Pride rainbow T-shirt.
The blogger, John Gray, is gay--"the least interesting thing about me," he says.
He'd posted a picture of himself wearing the rainbow T-shirt. Some of his many loyal readers had objected--why do gays have to flaunt themselves?
I am awed and appreciative that John wrote a second post:
instead of shutting down the commenters (which I would have done), he kindly and patiently explained why their comments were "ill judged and rather offensive".
Which elicited another round of comments---almost all entirely supportive. But there was still the one who accepts gay people, but isn't their goal to be accepted as "normal"?
Aren't pride parades working against that?
Shouldn't flaunting difference just "fade away"?
Fade away?
What a colorless world it would be.
The whole "Why can't black people be more like Obama" p.o.v. would whitewash the world.
To flourish is to grow well, to flower.
It also means excessive embellishment, the sort some people object to seeing in Pride parades.
I miss the flourishments of the old Gay Pride parades.
As people sought to gain acceptance, the old gay communinty itself tried to shut down the flamboyance. Instead of a flourish of tulle on top of a cake, we got business suits marching under the banner of corporate sponsors.
I think the addition of T for trans and Q for questioning and queer has brought some color back again.
This is romanticized and simplified––(it's not always so pretty and successful being "crazy", as this corporate ad suggests)––but I say,
Let's celebrate and support deviance from the norm.
Let's create conditions where we all flourish.
Potatoes are good. But don't we want orchids too?
And artichokes?
And nettles?
