Having Read The Fine Print……: Dangerous Ideas Part 1_ See us as people not tools..

(damn. i was commenting on my blog last night riffing on this very same idea.  not realizing that ba had already said it much better than i could.

mai’a)

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An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all. Oscar Wilde.

What is change?
What is growth?

As Part of the Dangerous IDeas series I am asking myself that.
Why because part of change ,REAL change is admitting that we need to change ourselves. And none of these movements ( and I promise you I am on a god awful amount of list seves )

but one of the basic hallmarks that seems to be addressed LESS and LESS about movements for so called social change is that .

While bogged in theory and very vocal about fighting “systems” the first thing to go under the bus are humans usually for a form of social capital that sadly is marked and measured by financial capital within the same systems they claim to fighting.

aka When push comes to shove they measure their success not by the people they claim to be concerned with but the response of kyriarchial structures or the ability to exploit those structures.

further aka . The people aren’t more important than the structure.

That’s what I used to think , until time and time again having read interactions and been part of interactions and finally reading Afro-dyte piece is that very simply

it’s not that they think that people aren’t more important than structures it’s that to often they don’t think whatever there talking about is people at all.

And unfortunately I have seen two HORRENDOUS examples of this recently online but would also like to point some trends of it generally and then

Next post is flufffy bunny happy things.

I was reading through my links page and read Daisy’s piece which made me giggle uncontrollably. The semantics of white feminists acting ridiculously stupid put aside. Lets focus on Celie’s experience there.

Outside of politics, outside of anything but basic HUMAN INTERACTION.

She was spoken around, ignored, became part of a collective that gave preferential treatment to anybody that wasn’t her.

That’s not the way you treat a human being of whom you have any regard. If you have ANY value of their exisitance , there is basic consideration that is accorded another human. She was questioned not for her skills but in many ways for her obedience.

The mind blowingly racist shit aside, the problem is that when confronted with the mistreatment of

SOMEONE IN THEIR COLLECTIVE.

The primary response was not to address the injury to the HUMAN BEING in their collective but the nebulous concept of their racism. Which of course for a ” radical feminist publication” involved a run to the male dominated system of cops.

At this point you HAVE to laugh you HAVE to , or you will cry in utter despair.

The next one bothers me something powerful

1. BEcause a very specific part of me is just pissed . Because as I was discussing with another friend. When this happened to me and others ( who included Women of Color w/disabilities) the response was that well they’ll learn. Which is often code for well you are not close enough to ur idea of acceptable human so really they’ll watch it this time
2. It involves writers who forget whatever the hell else you’ve heard. Know better . ESPECIALLY writers that claim to be for women.
3. The community this was comitted against DEFINITELY not JUST in monetary terms can not be giving this kind of consideration away.

So really

WHAT THE F&^$%&??!?

That’s just deplorable , especially for a free lancer and MORE so from a teacher . In essence after asking a community of people who risked health and ability and multiple “spoons” ( that is a beautiful and succinct analogy) to talk to your ass about something you navel gazing chronicle as part of dealing with your ” privilege”.

The semantics are not mine to truly unpack but I would like to point to the things that truly irked me.

Scheduling takes time, organizing a curriculum ( which essentially this was it was a “teaching moment that required an obscene amount of prep work .

And what was requested in terms of a bookslist was essentially a curriculum.

You get paid for that and Miriam and Courtney KNOW THAT. At least one of them makes a living off of that.

That the very least a PUBLIC apology isn’t issued isn’t just semantic , it’s a slap in the face to the GRACE that is extended.

More so the textbook well sure but what we do is. Is disgusting and more so because really when you have wronged another human being. someone you care about

This is not a time to retell why your brand is okay , especially using a person whose not even on the discussion. Coopting the work of another to dismiss someone else’s concerns in an effort to make them focus on your pain?

That’s not the way you treat humans that’s the way you treat tools. It’s not a discussion it’s a chess match of seeing these people as things to be moved around for your own use. And if it happened to you in ANY situation there would be hell to pay.

Except that wasn’t the point .

It was damage control. It was hey lets have a conversation about why covering these other TOPIC not peopel not living breathing humans and their life and death concerns .

Which in and of itself isn’t bad , it’s good media strategy but frankly an entire discussion about hwo you’ve harmed people becomes a treatiseon YOUR NEEDS and your development and how YOU can’t be held responsible for the ish you do.

Regardless of teh whole BINGO fail card.

This is a really bad example of the way you humor someone you don’t think is deserving of questioning you.

And yes I know Miriam is a POC but the ” Do you think we control” is patronizing beyond belief . and quoting stats at someone doesn’t fix anything but merely states why YOU are too important to do simple human kindness.

The issue isn’t that anyone thinks that the people who gathered to make this action are wrong or right, it’s that there was no consideration at all . It was phrased as a here is why your points are wroong because we are too big to be responsible .

Because THEY felt they could not see it , the conversation was focused on making sure everyone else knows knew why it’s just not right to pressure thim.

And putting in the full name of any woman is just fucking disgusting and yes I am cussing. Because it’s bush league shit that as a woman online I know can compromise safety . Also the first name last name tone shit , is straight up telling someone to know there place. I only have to watch my tone with people who pay me, raised me, or fuck me . To ask that of anyone else is to basicallya sk for subserviance and is both deplorable and insulting. You don’t want to talk to someone as equals without immediately falling onto your white girl bullshit don’t show the fuck up.

I will leave the rest of the TEACH ME but we’re too big to make any concessions ( and the subsequent half assed ooh look they have a link as if a pat on the head fixes that shit) but it is especially galling because the work that was put in, is literally consulting. Market research , resource collection, agenda setting.

Our ( speaking specifically as a black/immigrant backgroundWOC but also observing the same across phenomena across identities) generates funds, speaking times and liberal acceptance for others. The ability to vbe seen as with or NOT with us on a base level ( never by us but other post)

IS NOT WORTHLESS.

and the work Ceilie AND these women did in ANY OTHER SETTING is worth money. LOTS of it.

Done to them by a man this would be COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED all out war, but somehow it’s understandable.

Oddly enough I am going to steal from a feminist quote.

” Feminism is the radical notion that women are people”

When Civil Rights workers marched on of the most prominent signs was this :

Social change and equality movements are not about in my opinion who deserves what and who doesn’t, but that no matter what your ability, race color and creed that you were human.

The radical movements followed were about being a SELF DETERMINING people who had the at least the basic presumption of human dignity. Not to have to have continued conversations where in the premise is how many different ways there are to not be granted the respect or common courtesy of being engaged with as humans.

Focusing on media ESPECIALLY progressive media ( supposedly) highlights this gap. OOB did a WOC once every 10-15 years but put with an actual HUMAN of color in their midst, seemed to hit every trope of dehumanization they could.

Being of color being of varied ability does not mitigate humanity.

So rather than ask soome large theofhetical trope or idea . Lets focus on this?

How would you respond if the person you were talking to was someone you believed was human?

Would you ask them to do mountains of work and then tell them they need to watch how they spoke to you?

Would you say you were speaking to other ___ people? Implying that truly what was important was not their humanity but the identity and frankly you could get that from any “one of those”

or would you listen , try to fix the hurt and find a way to stop it.

That’s what you do for humans , now do it for everyone