“Us” versus “Them”

This whole “us versus them” mentality really gets us nowhere.

I understand the desire — the need — to have community and to not always be the “other,” the “them.” (RENT, anyone? “To being an ‘us’ for once / instead of a ‘them!’”) As someone who has been part of a “them” for as long as I can remember, I get that.

At the same time, I think we often tend to go too far with the “us versus them” mentality.

I Just Can’t Do This Right Now

I know I said that I would respond to yesterday’s blog post about Aura Blogando’s response to SlutWalk today. I should, and I will, but just not today. I just can’t do it right now. Emotionally, mentally, I need some time. A few minutes ago, I finished reading one of the most blatantly transphobic pieces I’ve read in a long time (on FoxNews.com about Chaz Bono) — someone linked to it on Facebook, and I ignored the voice in my head telling me to just skip it. And the sheer transphobia of it (not at all masked by a pretense of pseudo-science) just makes me want to cry. Usually, I’d dismiss it as the utter b.s. it is, or I’d get angry and in the mood to fight injustice. But right now, it just makes me want to cry, or hide, and that’s how I can tell I need a break. 

The Ugly Side of SlutWalk

I have a few friends who are really excited about SlutWalk. I didn’t know much about it; I just assumed that it had to do with sex-positivity and the fact that wearing “provocative” clothing doesn’t mean that someone is “asking for it.” Those are good messages, and so I didn’t give it much thought. And then another friend posted a link on Facebook to Aura Blogando’s “SlutWalk: A Stroll Through White Supremacy,” and everything changed. 

“You Need To Respond Verbally.”

It frustrates me when the color of my skin makes people think that I don’t speak English. I was on a plane a few months ago, sitting behind the people in the exit row. The flight attendant asked the person whether they understood the requirements of sitting in the exit row; when the person (presumably) nodded, they were told, “You need to respond verbally.”

It brought back a memory of a flight I’d been on previously. I was sitting in exit row, and the flight attendant asked whether I understood the instructions. I nodded — I don’t remember how many times I’ve flown seated in the exit row, but it was enough to be nothing new. Instead of telling me that I need to respond verbally, the flight attendant then asked me whether I understood English.

Don’t Tell Me You “Don’t See Race”

Originally posted at 5:52 PM, February 11, 2010

I’ve heard several people say that they “don’t see race” or “don’t see color.” Without exception, these people have all been white. All of them meant well, certainly; I assume that what they meant was that they do not consider themselves prejudiced against people of color. Still, a statement that one “doesn’t see race” — in this society, at least — reeks of white privilege. Allan G. Johnson quotes James Baldwin in Privilege, Power, and Difference: “To be white in America means not having to think about it” (22).