Long Form Links – 2008-04-20
by Latoya Peterson
(I want to pause here to note three things: 1. Do you realize how fucked up it is that for some reason it is “wrong” for a woman of color to want the same advantages that white women get for doing the same work? 2. Do you realize how much it sucks big fat hairy dog cock that I have written about media justice for two fucking years and there is STILL a whole group of assholes who claim to have been regular readers and can somehow manage to say with a straight face that I want to “own” ideas and/or steal ideas from others? and 3. Do you realize how much it sucks big fat hairy dog ASSHOLE that even when I do my best to state my anger WITH THE FULL RECOGNITION that what I am saying may hurt somebody and thus ACTIVELY work to PROTECT that person while still expressing my anger–I am STILL berated for being angry, mean, judgemental, too harsh–and furthermore–I should EXPECT the attacks that I get? Do you recognize the problems with telling a woman of color that she can not even show anger at *anonymous*?)
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I support and honor the several women of color who’ve posted that the answer is not to leave, but to fight harder, with lawyers if necessary. I support and honor those women because they are fighting, they refuse to back down, they are organizing, they are sharing their strategies of not backing down with other black women and women of color alike.
But for me—a person who believes in media justice–the point was never to say I own this fucking material—but to say we must build a movement because the only way I and my community will ever have peace is if there is a movement. Those women of color who say they will not back down because they own the material—they are building a movement, just in a way that is different than I what I am doing. It may be different, but it’s not directly conflicting with what I am doing. And if they choose to call themselves feminists–well, I have a mouth and eyes that I can use to find out what they mean.
“Feminists,” on the other hand, are not movement building, they are actively destroying women and blaming those women for the destruction. They are saying the point of feminism is “equality with men” without even thinking to acknowledge that “equality with women” is just as admirable of a goal and maybe even possibly the first step to achieving the goal of equality with men. They are saying, Just do it, just do it, JUST FUCKING DO IT.
And so I withdraw myself from this “movement”.
And I reject and rebel at the label “feminist.”
I reject and rebel at the label “feminist” because I reject and rebel against silence and erasure.
I purposefully and deliberately burn all bridges to all people/movements with the purposeful and deliberate awareness that I will build bridges again, but ONLY WITH a person/movement and only if those bridges require no body parts to build.
And I do so without rejecting the absolute necessity of a gendered analysis of media justice, violence against and within communities of color, etc. Because if you think I haven’t noticed the gendered dynamics written all over this fucking blow up, you’d be 100% wrong.
Feministe – Having the Answers
Too often, I have expected other women to have The Answers.
When feminists and women of color have criticized white feminists, I’ve expected Answers. I’ve wanted to ask, “So I get that you don’t like this, but what do you want to happen?” or “So what do you want me to do?” I’ve gotten frustrated when no one offered solutions beyond “recognize your own privilege” and “just stop being shitty.” I’ve read through comment threads where other certainly well-intentioned white people have asked things like, “I get that you want to abolish the prison system, but what do you want in its place?” and “Calling the police is an expression of privilege? So what should I do instead?”
I’m also not able to answer those questions, or a whole lot of other questions about what a truly equitable world would look like. I’m not able to find a solution to everything, even if I can identify a problem. But it never occurred to me that maybe the entire premise of the questions was unfair. It never occurred to me that asking them in the first place, and expecting an immediate answer, is problematic in its own right.
The Curvature – On Being an Ally
I am angry/upset about the accusations and vitriol directed at BFP, who took every single effort to keep this situation civil. I am angry/upset about what I perceive to be a purposeful denigration of her work. I am angry/upset about the allegations of jealousness. I am angry/upset about the comparison of WOC bloggers standing behind BFP to right-wing attack dogs, as though this was about bringing a certain person down by any means necessary, rather than a valid concern and justifiable anger — as though the criticism is coming from a place of privilege, rather than a demand to be heard in a community that would rather not hear it. I am angry/upset about the attempt to silence those with an honest grievance, because whether agreed with or not, it deserves to be heard. I’m angry/upset that the anger of those standing behind BFP has been misrepresented as hate and lies and therefore ignorable. I’m angry/upset that people who know their history, who are educated about racism within the feminist movement, who know better, seem to be making every effort to repeat all of the things we claim we’re past.
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I’m avoiding using her name because though I am talking about Amanda, I’m also talking about many others. I am angry/upset at these members of the feminist community for their similar remarks. Some of the comment threads have been vile. I am angry/upset at us, white feminists, for not properly addressing this. Yes, I am upset and angry with myself. Because I know that I can do better. I know that we can do better. We are supposed to be in this together, and as BFP said, we have been actively ignoring and rejecting the responsibility we have to others. When we do that, we are no longer behaving in a way that could be called feminist.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
The Person you Protect « Pregnant Drug-Dealing Prostitutes on 20 Apr 2008 at 2:22 pm
[...] have to care! That’s privilege! And acknowledge that you are IGNORING the problems of coloured women to foster and protect your relationships with OTHER PEOPLE. Privilege and ignorance and the [...]