(A)Musing(s)
Bienvenue!
Food for thought.
Mmm mmm good.
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Television: In the criminal justice system--Me: SEXUALLY-BASED OFFENSES ARE CONSIDERED ESPECIALLY HEINOUS. IN NEW YORK CITY, THE DEDICATED DETECTIVES WHO INVESTIGATE THESE VICIOUS FELONIES ARE MEMBERS OF AN ELITE SQUAD KNOWN AS THE SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT. THESE ARE THEIR STORIES. DUN DUN
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“If people do not actively combat a political regime which oppresses them, it may not be because they have meekly imbibed its governing values. It may...”
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EVER SINCE I STARTED TAKING HERBIVORE STUDIES COURSES AT THE LOCAL UNIVERSITY IT’S BECOME MORE AND MORE DIFFICULT TO ENJOY A WIDE RANGE OF WHAT I...
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youre-not-in-wonderland-anymore:
usually don’t agree with anyone at FoxNews, but God this is...
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Have I mentioned that my favorite insult/term of endearment is "Whorcrux" ?
She must really really like me :P
(via zodiacsociety)
"100yearsoflolitude: I call things racist a lot. A lot of my friends get tired of it. No one ever wants to talk about race with me, because nobody I know ever agrees, and people get tired of my insistence and frustration. Which is fair. But I think the reason I get so frustrated is not because someone is “right” and someone is “wrong”, but because we mean different things when we say something is racist.
I think most (white liberal) people’s definition of racism has to do with labeling individuals, and is based on the individual’s intent. In this model, “racist” is a big scarlet letter you can stamp on somebody that will fuck up their life forever, and as such you’re supposed to wield it very carefully. If you ever use it, it shuts down dialogue immediately - it’s a serious and unrecoverable moral judgement, even if you say someone’s behavior is racist rather than calling them one (see Jay Smooth’s wonderful video about intent vs action). You’re not supposed to call somebody racist before you’ve carefully scrutinized their intent - whether they REALLY hate and have anger toward minorities, or whether it’s something more benign. “Racism” is ultimately a word invoked not to interrogate race relations, but to blame individuals.
I think that’s a really flawed model. By reducing “racism” to a word we use to label individuals only, it becomes easy to ignore the collective, structural racism that is way more damaging and prevalent than, like, Michael Richards saying the N word onstage, or something. It makes it hard to scrutinize anythign that does not have a single originator.
This model of racism serves to shut out any discussion about race (and therefore perpetuates racism itself). It excuses much more “benign”, “casual” (ie unintended) racism, because there become no words to label it. White people in general feel uncomfortable talking about race because they’re worried they’re going to say something “wrong”, and have this scarlet letter applied to them.
Reducing “racism” to an issue of intent also minimizes the actual lived effects of a racist society. Having the determiniation of racism rest solely on an individual’s intent, and not on the consequences of their actions, serves to further foreground the feelings and thoughts of the “racist” while erasing the victim of that racism.
So basically, what I mean when I call something or someone “racist” is that it’s either/both a product of, or a cause of, systemic racism (which, incredibly oversimplified, is defined as prejudice + systemic power, which is why I think minorities can’t be racist, but that’s a whole other issue that everyone I know disagrees with me on). I’m not saying that the thing or the person is inherently hateful."
I think most (white liberal) people’s definition of racism has to do with labeling individuals, and is based on the individual’s intent. In this model, “racist” is a big scarlet letter you can stamp on somebody that will fuck up their life forever, and as such you’re supposed to wield it very carefully. If you ever use it, it shuts down dialogue immediately - it’s a serious and unrecoverable moral judgement, even if you say someone’s behavior is racist rather than calling them one (see Jay Smooth’s wonderful video about intent vs action). You’re not supposed to call somebody racist before you’ve carefully scrutinized their intent - whether they REALLY hate and have anger toward minorities, or whether it’s something more benign. “Racism” is ultimately a word invoked not to interrogate race relations, but to blame individuals.
I think that’s a really flawed model. By reducing “racism” to a word we use to label individuals only, it becomes easy to ignore the collective, structural racism that is way more damaging and prevalent than, like, Michael Richards saying the N word onstage, or something. It makes it hard to scrutinize anythign that does not have a single originator.
This model of racism serves to shut out any discussion about race (and therefore perpetuates racism itself). It excuses much more “benign”, “casual” (ie unintended) racism, because there become no words to label it. White people in general feel uncomfortable talking about race because they’re worried they’re going to say something “wrong”, and have this scarlet letter applied to them.
Reducing “racism” to an issue of intent also minimizes the actual lived effects of a racist society. Having the determiniation of racism rest solely on an individual’s intent, and not on the consequences of their actions, serves to further foreground the feelings and thoughts of the “racist” while erasing the victim of that racism.
So basically, what I mean when I call something or someone “racist” is that it’s either/both a product of, or a cause of, systemic racism (which, incredibly oversimplified, is defined as prejudice + systemic power, which is why I think minorities can’t be racist, but that’s a whole other issue that everyone I know disagrees with me on). I’m not saying that the thing or the person is inherently hateful."
QUEERING THE GAME OF LIFE: What I mean when I call something “racist”
Fucking brilliant.
Whoops.
(Source: megustamemes, via thegirlinpurpleglasses)
"Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional."
He got it!
Sometimes this is exactly how I feel. Then again, I’m probably missing this reference, too….
(via thegirlinpurpleglasses)
