Is it the same impulse, to defend the drunken snog, that winds up as defending Roman Polanski... hmm. I will have to think on that.
It reminds me of the debate on racism recently where I became very aware that generally the younger generation have a quite different interpretation of what a racist is, than older generations.
To me, for example, a racist is the skin head thug out on the streets smashing in peoples faces. Because that's what I encountered in my formative years. So to hear somebody being accused of being a racist, who isn't a skin-head thug, is quite shocking to me (an extreme example, but you get the gist I hope). It's an extremely powerful word. In the same way as 'sexual assault' is extremely powerful.
Yes, it's exactly the same thing that popped up all over the place in the RaceFail discussions (and also in the Racebending stuff for the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie). People say "It's racist to do X" and then people react (essentially) saying "But if I did a racist thing then I'm a racist, and I'm not a thug, therefore the thing I did isn't racist, therefore you're just being nasty to me!"
Because, hopefully, we're mostly no longer having to talk about why it's wrong to kick people to death in the streets for having a different coloured skin, and have now moved on to cultural inequality and power relationships, which are a lot more subtle, and ingrained.
Yeah, and I think perhaps for people like myself who were on the streets fighting the Neo-Nazis, it's quite deep-grained offensive to hear somebody being called a racist, who doesn't fit into our/my preconception of what a racist is.
And I'm convinced, as you say, that this was a major contribution to the whole racefail thing. Because I thought that was so depressing, where people who are all basically on the same side, were falling out with each other so visciously. While all the time the real racist assholes are still out there laughing themselves silly at our sides inability to get along.
(And I'm not convinced we have moved on so much from kicking people to death in the streets. Look at the lot of Muslims in the UK for example, or anybody with brown skin in America. Or indeed that the BNP are still around. Though thank the gods Nick Griffin has had to resign following their election failure.)
Oh no, I do understand the concept. And I do admit that I am no doubt somewhat antiquated in my thinking on a lot of these issues, because I am a product of my environment where racists were skin head nazis, and sexual assaulters were rapist bastards who were largely protected by the police and society.
But at the same time I'm increasingly finding the politics of victim privilidge to also be damaging to real progress.
Oh no, I do understand the concept. And I do admit that I am no doubt somewhat antiquated in my thinking on a lot of these issues, because I am a product of my environment where racists were skin head nazis, and sexual assaulters were rapist bastards who were largely protected by the police and society.
But at the same time I'm increasingly finding the politics of victim privilege to also be damaging to real progress.
I think at heart it comes down to, people interpreting the world in very very different ways. And to effect real change, you somehow have to challenge that, without making people feel defensive and threatened. Which... is a huge challenge for language.
I think this is where use of language to lessen hard blows like that comes in. I got very angry when the newspapers kept blythly saying that Gordon Brown called Whatserface 'a bigot' all over the place. He never said that. He said she was 'a bigoted woman'. I think I can safely and categorically say that I am not a racist. I can equally categorically say that I have in the past said racist things. I am about as far as it gets from a homophobe but I have been guilty of homophobia. Being guilty of an indiscretion/prejudice does not mean that you are fit to be defined by it.
Absolutely, I agree. And I think everybody has this to some extent. We all say dumb stupid insensitive things sometimes. It doesn't mean we're dumb and insensitive.
Which I think is one of the problems with the internet as a form of communication. A lot of things divorced from body language, sound quite different.
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andrewducker) wrote2010-05-25 01:04 pm
no subject
Is it the same impulse, to defend the drunken snog, that winds up as defending Roman Polanski... hmm. I will have to think on that.
It reminds me of the debate on racism recently where I became very aware that generally the younger generation have a quite different interpretation of what a racist is, than older generations.
To me, for example, a racist is the skin head thug out on the streets smashing in peoples faces. Because that's what I encountered in my formative years. So to hear somebody being accused of being a racist, who isn't a skin-head thug, is quite shocking to me (an extreme example, but you get the gist I hope). It's an extremely powerful word. In the same way as 'sexual assault' is extremely powerful.
no subject
Because, hopefully, we're mostly no longer having to talk about why it's wrong to kick people to death in the streets for having a different coloured skin, and have now moved on to cultural inequality and power relationships, which are a lot more subtle, and ingrained.
no subject
And I'm convinced, as you say, that this was a major contribution to the whole racefail thing. Because I thought that was so depressing, where people who are all basically on the same side, were falling out with each other so visciously. While all the time the real racist assholes are still out there laughing themselves silly at our sides inability to get along.
(And I'm not convinced we have moved on so much from kicking people to death in the streets. Look at the lot of Muslims in the UK for example, or anybody with brown skin in America. Or indeed that the BNP are still around. Though thank the gods Nick Griffin has had to resign following their election failure.)
no subject
no subject
But at the same time I'm increasingly finding the politics of victim privilidge to also be damaging to real progress.
no subject
But at the same time I'm increasingly finding the politics of victim privilege to also be damaging to real progress.
I think at heart it comes down to, people interpreting the world in very very different ways. And to effect real change, you somehow have to challenge that, without making people feel defensive and threatened. Which... is a huge challenge for language.
no subject
no subject
Which I think is one of the problems with the internet as a form of communication. A lot of things divorced from body language, sound quite different.