Thought for the Day

[bcholmes]

I find it curious that African-American women are all lazy unwed welfare-cheating baby-making machines and African-American men are all violent drug-abusing absentee fathers RIGHT UNTIL they are standing in the way of gay rights, at which point they become socially conservative homophobes who can't see past their religious family values. If you're going to scapegoat people of color for all the world's problems, at least make your stereotypes consistent, ya know?

— "Open letter to white activists"

The whole article is good reading.

Comments

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

i don't see how an activism geared towards the elimination of broad and contradictory generalizations is served by broad and contradictory generalizations.

do you actually know any individual whose attitudes exemplify both the heavy-handed stereotypes referenced in that quote? i mean, i read that excerpt and i think "who the hell is she talking about?"

i'm more than happy to grant that some of the prop 8 backlash commentary has been misdirected (though i take that on faith and your word... i've read very little of it). but apparently so is a good deal of the pushback.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Me, I'm alarmed that stuff like this and this are going on. I've heard several queer people of colour talk about now being fearful of attending Prop 8 protests. I think I put that in a different category than "misdirected."

I don't think the "prop 8 backlash commentary" (which seems to include verbal abuse and threats of violence) is equatable to the pushback from people of colour. And I feel like it's excuse-making. "Oh, sure, the queer community is behaving badly, but so are the people of colour, so..." It's especially annoying that these are *always* the strategies that white folks use to avoid talking about race issues.

As a queer person, I choose to spend my energies being an ally to people of colour.

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

i agree without reservation that events like those are insane and inexcusable, and that the language which would support or instigate them merits condemnation.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

How to say this? I hope that you're not feeling shouted down. That wasn't my intention. I'm certainly distraught about what's going on.

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

of course i do. worse for me, i feel unheard.

but i also own my neuroses. there's a lot going on, and i'm prickly and stiff and often pugnacious with a frigid veneer.

as a friend just said in another context, "To be aware is to be challenged." i can't presume the former without accepting the latter.

this is all just so horrible. partly, i direct my critique inwards (in-family) because it's manageable and (i keep thinking) possibly constructive in a limited way. my feelings about the actual authors of this situation and these divisions are far less coherent and completely unprintable.

[firecat]

The bit you quoted reminds me of how women are all whores until they are frigid bitches and how mothers are all suffocating until they are neglectful and so forth.

[aquaeri.livejournal.com]

It does seem to be one of the diagnostics if you're trying to identify an underprivileged group.

[didactic-cudgel.livejournal.com]

OT, for lack of any worthy contribution: I hope you have a happy birthday today.