Don't leave a voicemail, seriously.

This is my one, rather flip, comment about the HP racism bullshit:

What I find particularly stunning about this whole miscenegation HP stupidity is that the fandom is based on source material which has racism as the VERY THEME underlying the plot. The book series could be called “Harry Potter and the Story of Why Racism and Intolerance of Difference is Bad.” I’m sure someone else has already pointed out this AMAZING oversight on the part of the jackasses who were insensitive enough to lump interracial relationships with “kinks” like bestiality. I suppose this just goes to show how very limited most people are cerebrally.

Sometimes, “walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins” really is the second version of the Golden Rule.

Whatever I have to say about this is vitriolic and pretty capslocky, so instead I’ll just link you to a post about how human beings are impacted by the off-handed degradation lobbed by mindless morons—the internet is for porn and hiding behind “free speech.”


J's commentary.

Discretion is the Better Part of Valor, and Why Holding Your Tongue is Often Best Practices (even on the internet, n00b).


What the two, recent racism debates in fandom have solidified in my mind is that when someone says “I’m offended” it’s best to accept that and not explain to them in detail why their outrage is silly, not important, or just dumb. Whether or not one sees the source of another person’s hurt feelings or anger is beside the point. Sometimes, yes, a person will raise issues that are more about drama llamaing or attention-seeking than any sort of “real” oppression/targeting/what-have-you. But the bottom line here is: is it my place to tell them what to get riled up about?

In large measure, I think this is the charming unique-snowflake effect one finds so rampant on the internet. I haz opinions, let me tell you them! Yes, you are *entitled* to your opinions. The word entitled has more than one connotation, though, doesn’t it? No one is telling you not have an opinion. But, I personally, am asking you to please not type it out on other people’s journals for the good of all without first at least *considering* the commentary by the people you are arguing against. Yes, tilting at windmills. I’ll illustrate.


Them: “Oh my god, did you see how racist that casting spoiler was?”

You: “There’s already a black person on that show. It’s not racist. Shut up your bitching.”

Not even addressing that actual content here, why is it your job to tell this person they’re wrong? What makes you right? What impulse makes you even comment here besides a sense of schadenfreude? Why can you be the final arbiter of what is or isn’t racism and the OP cannot? That strange impulse and your feelings of confusion now are probably best referred to as privilege. You keep hearing about that, but you still didn’t get it. Now you have an actual real to your life demonstration of how it works right here on the internet. The simple fact you can walk away and be all SQUEE HARSHING means that you live in a bubble where in your daily life, you don’t *have* to automatically be aware of the tone of racism in the world at large. Isn’t that nice? Can you imagine not having that? Can you imagine also being frightened to even say “look, I think this is wrong and it hurts my feelings” because someone is going to come along and say “THINK OF THE PORN, SQUEE HARSHING!”?

How does the enjoyment of your hobby stack up against “I feel disenfranchised in my own community because people I thought of as friends don’t think of me as an equal status human being”?

There are places you can hide to enjoy mindless entertainment. That is your privilege. You’re enjoying it right now.


Them: “I get really tired of explaining all this and just want to have a good time like everyone else.”

You: “Then shut up about all this race stuff that harshes my squee. PORN!”

You’re just a moron, and every time I see you post, I want to smack you in the head like a wack-a-mole. For you, I have this: trim your friendslist of anyone with a functioning frontal lobe. Someone discussing something you think is too high-falootin’ bothering you? Back button. You *are* still contributing to the problem, but I’m sure there’s a safe place to hide in your homogenous community of identical homes with manicured lawns and safe but sporty vehicles—please continue to ignore the world--that’s worked well so far.


Them: Golly, why do I even try? People just hurt me over and over and I feel hopeless.

You: As a woman, I know how you feel.

What?

Let me explain this in very simple terms: It’s ok to want to relate to others. We all do this. For one, as women, because we’re socialized towards empathizing (and some anthropologists argue this is actually a pre-human trait primates all have in order to better our infant survival rate). But when a person compares one’s own, totally different, experiences in a debate about oppression or intolerance then they are automatically belittling and co-opting the OP’s outrage. This is a tool that can be used on both sides of an argument and it is hard to even address by an OP without offending a would-be ally. There is no reason to do this.

Correct: I see where you’re coming from. That person/thing/polar bear was wrong.

Incorrect: As a 1/16th Martian I have also experience oppression and would like to detail this in anecdotal form thereby making this whole conversation about me rather than the OP’s outrage about the continuation of racism in every facet of our daily lives. I haz pain, let me show you it.


This might seem strange coming from me, but I would counsel caution before offering opinions on something that means very little to you and that clearly means a whole helluva lot to someone else. Is it your job to tell someone else if their feelings/opinions/heartbreak is valid? If so, why is that the case, Clark Kent? Instead of engaging, maybe you should take a moment and imagine why an OP expressed the feelings she did and evaluate whether you would feel the same if ALL THINGS WERE EQUAL in your own life. This is useful tool I learned from a billion philosophy classes, make up a Thought Experiment:

People openly describe you as dirty and ignorant by the virtue of your very birth. Some of these people are violent about it and want to harm you physically. Some of these people are just lazy and think you should be denied equal rights under the law and discriminate in their own homes and work places. You have no real recourse about this because it’s the traditional way of thinking in your community. Everywhere you turn, someone is looking at you funny because you have the wrong name or you wear clothes they disapprove of or use words they don’t like. Both your peers and superiors at both school and the work place are in the majority and are in at least latent agreement with the people who devalue you as a member of your society.

Are you a mudblood or are you a visible minority in a white society? Is the use of the term mudblood in this sentence troubling?

*

Now on the other side of this conversation.

The bingo cards thing.

I think the bingo card concept was a good one when it first emerged. Most people still have no idea they’re making the wrong-headed arguments on those cards, and often the cards can spur debate or make a person think about their ignorance. Lately, however, I think that linking to them is often used in a self-righteous way to shut down debate by people who might be well-meaning but who also often come across as arrogant. This isn’t limited to the racism conversations; I also include the feminism card here (thus, cards not card). I think it’s the sort of BOO-YAH! OPWNED! attitude I often see associated with the flourishing of those links that bothers me. That behavior is NOT converting anyone to seeing sense. I understand that those links often come out when rationality is at its wits end with a troll-like commentator who will not listen to reason and the linking is the last resource to someone frustrated with another person’s utter pig-headedness.

This, however, is not always the case, and I think that the HAHA! Ur so dumb! PWNED! stuff really makes the side of Good and Right look like jackasses to people who come behind and read through threads. I am just raising the issue that perhaps that we could talk about that tendency towards linking to the debate-ending bingo cards and see what we can do. Look, if *I* getting offended by my own side then we got a problem with how we discuss this shit, that’s all I’m saying.