It wasn’t very long ago that I wrote about “microagressions“, aka “The stuff that piles up and wears you down”. After spending Mother’s Day dealing with a few wrong-headed micro-agressors who expended a lot of keyboard energy trying to derail discussion of the racial component in the coverage of the kidnappings in Nigeria, and media coverage of African countries-period-and then logging in yesterday to look at “youthful campus racism” against Native Americans, documented by Meteor Blades, which isn’t coming from “old people” or from “the South”, I thought it might be a good idea to dust off the Derailing for Dummies playbook for review.
You can download it here.
We have a few more years to go with the sludge and slime of racial attacks against our President and his family, and though we haven’t even come near to the 2016 primary season, the sexism sewer is already bubbling.
We already know that the right wing in this country is racist, sexist, homophobic, ageist, classist, ethnocentrist…what is more difficult to wrassle with is when elements of “isms” crop up within spaces we expect to embrace values that are the antithesis of wingnuttery.
Some of it is rooted in denial. Some in ignorance. It doesn’t make it any more comfortable to deal with. From my perspective it’s more difficult for us, since the effective building of political coalitions we need to effect change on issues of great import, are impeded by covert, and sometimes overt expressions of “isms” and the wearying process of continually having to wage struggle on multiple fronts.
While dealing with it myself, on Sunday, I was relieved to have a commenter do an effective job of summing up the derailment of a discussion of racism that was taking place in this comment she made.
So if you are faced with derailing and denial from purported allies and friends, on a blog or on facebook, or in face-to-face discussions, as aggravating as it can be, or get caught up in it without even recognizing what is taking place, here are some handy tips, links and examples you might want to bookmark for future use.
Abagond has a good piece based on derailing for dummies, and goes into a deeper discussion of how to figure out who you might be dealing with on the anonymous internet. Though not all racists black folks or other people of color are confronted by are white, and though white folks get called racist too (we have plenty examples of people from the Black Kos Community who are white, getting confronted with the same b.s. because of their active anti-racism), and yes, poc’s can be bigots too (though they don’t control systemic racism) much of the racist spewing does come from unenlightened white folks. He has a list of clues , which includes:
They bring up purple people: they say it does not matter to them if you are black, white, green or purple.
They bring up the Arab slave trade.
They point out that Africans sold and owned slaves.
They say their family never owned slaves.
They talk down to you like they know everything and you know nothing, like you are just imagining things.
They point out that Obama is half white.
They say that most crimes are committed by blacks.
They say they never got any help but made it on their own
Sigh. Cannot even begin to tell you how frequently I’ve had to read and reply to some of the things he’s listed.
I’ve decided I’m simply going to post this graphic, from Feminocracy, as a reply to anyone who drags out ye olde “race card” accusation. Tired of explaining my life is not a card game, nor is the deadly and often fatal seriousness of systemic oppression.
Dealing with, discussing, and combating racism does not make me, or any other person fighting racism, “a racist”. Or that other hackneyed standard plaint, “a reverse racist”.
I do have an anecdote to share that gave me a chuckle yesterday. After having been called “bitter” and “a racist” for posing the question about the initial lack of media coverage of the kidnappings in Nigeria being related to the fact that the girls are black and African, not white, I had a surprise on my way to school on Monday.
Had an interesting experience driving to work this morning. I usually listen to a discussion program on my local Northeast public radio station – WAMC-FM. The morning Roundtable program often covers media, and how media cover different stories. One of the panelists, Libby Post raised the question, “what if the kidnapped girls were white?”.
I admit I had to grin while driving, since after reading some of the comments from people who found my raising that question horrific, and somehow motivated by my black lens – if was interesting to hear it raised by a white woman.
Panelist Libby Post is an out lesbian (her blog is called Proudly Out), and has been attacked here in upstate New York frequently, for her views on white-straight-male privilege, and her critiques of racism hurled at the President and Sonia Sotomayor. The other woman, also white, on the panel was award winning journalist and journalism professor Rosemary Armao, who has extensive experience reporting on Eastern Europe and in Africa. She didn’t have any problem with exploring that premise, and agreeing that it was initially a key factor.
I’m still smiling, I’ll continue to explore racism and all the other “isms” in my blog posts, and teaching about them in the classroom. Those who persist in derailing attempts might want to stop and take a good look at themselves and read up on the game of bingo they are playing.
Cross-posted from Black Kos
