>> The rules of the game are that I'm supposed to be giving lip service to doing what BIPOC (or just black) people decide they want allies to do. <<
If it's just lip service, it won't change anything. The problem I see with people focusing on abstract or symbolic things is that real, necessary change gets ignored.
They'll get all lathered up about a flag or a street name or one statue. That may be fun for them, but to me it looks like swinging at shadow's instead of cutting the opponent off at the knees. I'm more like ...
Statues: Let's survey the statues in town and their demographics. Compare that to the demographics of people living here. Then whenever a new statue is to be added, make it for one of the underrepresented categories, until this type of public art matches local demographics. This way, everyone will be able to see themselves represented, which makes them feel more welcome, which improves mental health and civic engagement.
Housing: Survey the units in town and the souls on board. Are there enough units in good condition to house everyone? If not, make it easier to build more units of whatever type is needed most. In many places, that's affordable housing. If you don't need high-end units, don't approve any projects for those. Check your barriers to construction and remove any that block whatever you need.
Concrete changes to improve people's lives.
>> They don't agree with each other, but I should never presume to apply common sense to decide which of the many ally-options offered seems likely to be most useful, as my common sense is just "white" thinking. <<
Anyone who tries to rule out my common sense gets classified as a nonrational obstacle and ignored, avoided, worked around, or worked against as necessary.
I can see how "white thinking" could be a problem for white people, but it's not hard to broaden perspectives by studying what other people have said.
>> Thus, since my common sense doesn't apply, I am expected to choose among actions by some other means, such as my own convenience ;-( So performative breast beating is all that's expected/required from me.<<
That's just a distraction that doesn't fix anything. It supports the status quo.
People get really pissed off when I point this out. I don't care. I'm a bard, pissing off the powerful is part of my job.
>> Fortunately (?), I'm a "bad ally." So instead of turning off my mind, my empathy, and my "white" common sense, I continue to do what I was taught back before the new rules were publicized enough for me to have heard of them, if they even existed at all. "Do not unto others as you would not wish to be done by". <<
That's a great rule.
>> Don't treat people differently because of irrelevant characteristics, including especially those out of their control. <<
Sooth.
>> And I empathize, or not, based on shared characteristics, not officially preferred identities like race.<<
Well reasoned.
I think a big part of it is about how people relate to others. If ICE raids a town in search of undocumented persons, then I feel angry and threatened, because I do not want to deal with the fucking Gestapo, because I know exactly where that leads. White people don't feel threatened because they don't relate to "those people."
>> Sadly, what I do is only one drop in a large ocean, and many of the other drops are working at cross purposes.<<
Yeah, but it's better than nothing. Most of the time when a life or a world gets saved, the person doing it doesn't even realize. Tiny actions and kindnesses can change history in unexpected ways.
>> I'm not successful at fighting city hall even on my own behalf. If "my" government or my employer is actively discriminatory - as I think they both are (against blacks; I'm not dog-whistling about affirmative action) there's precious little I can do. I'm left treating the few blacks who do get through as 100% peers, with extra consideration for the painful life experience they are probably carrying along with them. And not having a fit if they want to keep to their own, and avoid people like me they see as white - same like anyone who doesn't want to spend time with me for any other reason.<<
Every little bit helps.
>> [Note: I went from BIPOC to black, because in the real world, I've got bazillions of BIPOC colleagues, with themselves or their recent ancestors mostly coming from the Indian subcontinent, or other parts of Asia. <<
Fair enough.
>> I don't see anyone acting biased against them in the workplace, and even the local cops behave well when some loon does display overt bias. (e.g. One of my Indian colleagues called the cops on some assshole who wanted to take her half-white child away from her, on the grounds she couldn't possibly be his mother.) <<
That's encouraging.
>> These people don't get an entirely fair deal, but the issues are different and generally lesser. Other BIPOC groups get about as bad a deal as black people, but again, with different issues.<<
It does vary.
>> One aspect of performative anti-racism is that this complexity is never noticed; "intersectionality" appears to be taboo.] <<
People have always tended to ignore that, except for those activists who focus on it. Race, gender, religion, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, etc. -- everyone is a tesseract of identities, and few people have the most popular version in ALL of those. Most people have several unpopular ones. Intersectionality is the norm. With gender alone, half of every other group is intersectional because they're female. Which is sort of obvious.
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dancing_serpent
Thoughts
Date: 2021-12-01 10:48 pm (UTC)If it's just lip service, it won't change anything. The problem I see with people focusing on abstract or symbolic things is that real, necessary change gets ignored.
They'll get all lathered up about a flag or a street name or one statue. That may be fun for them, but to me it looks like swinging at shadow's instead of cutting the opponent off at the knees. I'm more like ...
Statues: Let's survey the statues in town and their demographics. Compare that to the demographics of people living here. Then whenever a new statue is to be added, make it for one of the underrepresented categories, until this type of public art matches local demographics. This way, everyone will be able to see themselves represented, which makes them feel more welcome, which improves mental health and civic engagement.
Housing: Survey the units in town and the souls on board. Are there enough units in good condition to house everyone? If not, make it easier to build more units of whatever type is needed most. In many places, that's affordable housing. If you don't need high-end units, don't approve any projects for those. Check your barriers to construction and remove any that block whatever you need.
Concrete changes to improve people's lives.
>> They don't agree with each other, but I should never presume to apply common sense to decide which of the many ally-options offered seems likely to be most useful, as my common sense is just "white" thinking. <<
Anyone who tries to rule out my common sense gets classified as a nonrational obstacle and ignored, avoided, worked around, or worked against as necessary.
I can see how "white thinking" could be a problem for white people, but it's not hard to broaden perspectives by studying what other people have said.
>> Thus, since my common sense doesn't apply, I am expected to choose among actions by some other means, such as my own convenience ;-( So performative breast beating is all that's expected/required from me.<<
That's just a distraction that doesn't fix anything. It supports the status quo.
People get really pissed off when I point this out. I don't care. I'm a bard, pissing off the powerful is part of my job.
>> Fortunately (?), I'm a "bad ally." So instead of turning off my mind, my empathy, and my "white" common sense, I continue to do what I was taught back before the new rules were publicized enough for me to have heard of them, if they even existed at all. "Do not unto others as you would not wish to be done by". <<
That's a great rule.
>> Don't treat people differently because of irrelevant characteristics, including especially those out of their control. <<
Sooth.
>> And I empathize, or not, based on shared characteristics, not officially preferred identities like race.<<
Well reasoned.
I think a big part of it is about how people relate to others. If ICE raids a town in search of undocumented persons, then I feel angry and threatened, because I do not want to deal with the fucking Gestapo, because I know exactly where that leads. White people don't feel threatened because they don't relate to "those people."
>> Sadly, what I do is only one drop in a large ocean, and many of the other drops are working at cross purposes.<<
Yeah, but it's better than nothing. Most of the time when a life or a world gets saved, the person doing it doesn't even realize. Tiny actions and kindnesses can change history in unexpected ways.
>> I'm not successful at fighting city hall even on my own behalf. If "my" government or my employer is actively discriminatory - as I think they both are (against blacks; I'm not dog-whistling about affirmative action) there's precious little I can do. I'm left treating the few blacks who do get through as 100% peers, with extra consideration for the painful life experience they are probably carrying along with them. And not having a fit if they want to keep to their own, and avoid people like me they see as white - same like anyone who doesn't want to spend time with me for any other reason.<<
Every little bit helps.
>> [Note: I went from BIPOC to black, because in the real world, I've got bazillions of BIPOC colleagues, with themselves or their recent ancestors mostly coming from the Indian subcontinent, or other parts of Asia. <<
Fair enough.
>> I don't see anyone acting biased against them in the workplace, and even the local cops behave well when some loon does display overt bias. (e.g. One of my Indian colleagues called the cops on some assshole who wanted to take her half-white child away from her, on the grounds she couldn't possibly be his mother.) <<
That's encouraging.
>> These people don't get an entirely fair deal, but the issues are different and generally lesser. Other BIPOC groups get about as bad a deal as black people, but again, with different issues.<<
It does vary.
>> One aspect of performative anti-racism is that this complexity is never noticed; "intersectionality" appears to be taboo.] <<
People have always tended to ignore that, except for those activists who focus on it. Race, gender, religion, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, etc. -- everyone is a tesseract of identities, and few people have the most popular version in ALL of those. Most people have several unpopular ones. Intersectionality is the norm. With gender alone, half of every other group is intersectional because they're female. Which is sort of obvious.