My friend P told me about this website: Derailing for Dummies.
It’s the site I’ve always wanted to find. Funny, snarky, succinct and fucking brilliant.
Some highlights:
You know how it is. You’re enjoying yourself, kicking back and relaxing at the pub or maybe at the library; or maybe you’re in class or just casually surfing the internet, indulging in a little conversation. The topic of the conversation is about a pertinent contemporary issue, probably something to do with a group of people who fall outside your realm of experience and identity. They’re also probably fairly heavily discriminated against - or so they claim. . The thing is, you’re having a good time, sharing your knowledge about these people and their issues. This knowledge is incontrovertible – it’s been backed up in media representation, books, research and lots and lots of historical events, also your own unassailable sense of being right. Yet all of a sudden something happens to put a dampener on your sharing of your enviable intellect and incomparable capacity to fully perceive and understand All Things. It’s someone who belongs to the group of people you’re discussing and they’re Not Very Happy with you. Apparently, they claim, you’ve got it all wrong and they’re offended about that. They might be a person of colour, or a queer person. Maybe they’re a woman, or a person with disability. They could even be a trans person or a sex worker. The point is they’re trying to tell you they know better than you about their issues and you know that’s just plain wrong.
You know how it is. You’re enjoying yourself, kicking back and relaxing at the pub or maybe at the library; or maybe you’re in class or just casually surfing the internet, indulging in a little conversation. The topic of the conversation is about a pertinent contemporary issue, probably something to do with a group of people who fall outside your realm of experience and identity. They’re also probably fairly heavily discriminated against - or so they claim.
. The thing is, you’re having a good time, sharing your knowledge about these people and their issues. This knowledge is incontrovertible – it’s been backed up in media representation, books, research and lots and lots of historical events, also your own unassailable sense of being right. Yet all of a sudden something happens to put a dampener on your sharing of your enviable intellect and incomparable capacity to fully perceive and understand All Things. It’s someone who belongs to the group of people you’re discussing and they’re Not Very Happy with you. Apparently, they claim, you’ve got it all wrong and they’re offended about that. They might be a person of colour, or a queer person. Maybe they’re a woman, or a person with disability. They could even be a trans person or a sex worker. The point is they’re trying to tell you they know better than you about their issues and you know that’s just plain wrong.
What a great beginning. And they say sarcasm isn’t a pedagogical tool. Ha!
My favourite sections include:
If You Won’t Educate Me How Can I Learn You Just Enjoy Being Offended – NEW! Don’t You Have More Important Issues To Think About – NEW! You’re Taking Things Too Personally You’re Not Being Intellectual Enough/You’re Being Overly Intellectual
If You Won’t Educate Me How Can I Learn
You Just Enjoy Being Offended – NEW!
Don’t You Have More Important Issues To Think About – NEW!
You’re Taking Things Too Personally
You’re Not Being Intellectual Enough/You’re Being Overly Intellectual
OMG. All the snark, all in one place.
The author(s) also use the adorable technique of (TM) and the copywrite symbol to indicate terms like Privilege® and Marginalised Person™ . Loving it.
From: But That Happens to Me Too! What this demonstrates is your total lack of understanding of what “othering” means in a practical sense. You’re ignoring the way your life is otherwise entirely immersed in a state of absolute privilege and revealing the fact you fail to comprehend the process of objectification and marginalising they go through all the time. When you are Privileged®, “similar” experiences simply do not happen on an equal footing because they do not otherwise reflect marginalisation. This obliviousness is highly insensitive and trivialising and will definitely cause them to grind their teeth! But it’s also an important step in affirming your privilege: Privileged People® are accustomed, after all, to it being “all about them”. Not used to simply sitting back and listening to othered people‘s issues, Privileged People® like to be the centre of attention at all times. It reminds them that they are important. By doing this, you will feel good about yourself and send a crucial message to the Marginalised Person™ (yes you really can diminish their experience by making it all about you, all the time!).
From: But That Happens to Me Too!
What this demonstrates is your total lack of understanding of what “othering” means in a practical sense. You’re ignoring the way your life is otherwise entirely immersed in a state of absolute privilege and revealing the fact you fail to comprehend the process of objectification and marginalising they go through all the time. When you are Privileged®, “similar” experiences simply do not happen on an equal footing because they do not otherwise reflect marginalisation. This obliviousness is highly insensitive and trivialising and will definitely cause them to grind their teeth!
But it’s also an important step in affirming your privilege: Privileged People® are accustomed, after all, to it being “all about them”. Not used to simply sitting back and listening to othered people‘s issues, Privileged People® like to be the centre of attention at all times. It reminds them that they are important. By doing this, you will feel good about yourself and send a crucial message to the Marginalised Person™ (yes you really can diminish their experience by making it all about you, all the time!).
Read it, bookmark it, share it with your friends.
Dear god why do I glance at the newspaper headlines, why?
So I’m out and about yesterday, just living my life, happy, and I come upon a Toronto Star newspaper box with the headline above. Full article here.
DO NOT under any circumstances read the comments. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.
There’s also a snarky column by Lorrie Goldstein of the Toronto Sun (I KNOW), and an equally unhelpful column by Marcus Gee in the Globe and Mail.
A sweeping year-long probe into racism at Ryerson University has found a staggeringly diverse campus where some visible minority students say they feel harassed and excluded, where profs don’t always deal with offensive comments made in class and some non-white staff report a “chill” that shuts them out of the power loop.
A year-long probe, that’s great. Good opportunity to be thorough and non-superficial.
I need to state once again for the record that I HATE the term visible minority. Hate it hate it hate it. Almost as much as I hate the term non-white.
Talk about a chill.
Read the rest of this entry »
This blog was inspired by the panel with Judy Rebick and others, which I linked to and talked about here.
The evil MW, who spoke on the panel in question, talked about victimhood and oppression in ways very common by those on the right, as well as anyone who doesn’t understand the levels of how oppression works, and the ways in which it manifests in people’s lives.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve heard this “argument” put forth, by both ardent right-wingers, as well as white folks on the left.
This is my first attempt to articulate, in writing (rather than indignant sputtering) the flaws in this argument, and this framing, and to try to get some talking points and arguments assembled in a coherent manner.
So, the argument goes something like this:
“Why do you focus on oppression so much? Are you saying Group X* is so oppressed that everyone in Group X is just a passive, helpless victim? Now, that’s offensive! I belong to Group X (or I’m married to someone in Group X, or my best friend is from Group X or someone from Group X once sat beside me on the subway and I smiled at them, etc) and I’m (or They say they are) not oppressed! By using this language you’re manufacturing victims where none exist! Just to further your bleeding heart agenda! Shame on you!”
…or something like that. Rolleyes.
*Group X is any marginalized group, and can include people of colour, Aboriginal people, women, people who are poor / low income, queers, disabled folks, youth, seniors. And all intersections between those groups, and anyone else who experiences systemic marginality.
So, to the debunking.
I met Uzma several years ago, at a pan-asian conference in Vancouver. At the time she was the ED of CASSA, Council of Agencies Serving South Asians and I was on the board of CCNC-TO (Chinese Canadian National Council- Toronto Chapter). She was funny, she was smart as hell, and she didn’t put up with any guff.
Uzma recently wrote an article for the Toronto Star entitled “Immigration’s Tough New Face”.
Now, I write a lot of critiques (that’s a nice way to put it) about the corporate media, including the Toronto Star. Here is a rare chance to see me say something nice about the Star. Enjoy this moment. It won’t last long.
I guess it’s time to ‘fess up about a quirk of mine.
We all have those things, those pop culture things, for which we have to turn off our critical brains, switch off our rocking analysis and simply be entertained. Some friends of mine love action movies, some love sci fi/fantasy. As a Trekkie I understand. But one of my escapes has been my shameful secret until now.
I like rom coms.
Worse, I like schlocky Hollywood-style BAD rom coms.
Please don’t judge me.
Amongst my favourite rom com actors is Sandra Bullock, so when I saw my first ad for the movie “The Proposal” (while watching the Oscars earlier this year), I knew I would see it.
It received horrible reviews, so I knew what I was getting into when me and my friend A made our date for dinner and a movie last night.
Oh the lack of humanity.
The “plot” is that they work in publishing, hardworking sincere “everyman” Andrew is bitchy, mean Margaret’s executive assistant. A few early scenes show us what a horrible person she is, and that everyone hates her, including him. When she comes into the office people text things like “It’s here” and “The witch is on her broom”. She’s a Canadian and learns she’s about to be deported. She decides to force Andrew to marry her, and in a moment of faking the legitimacy of their relationship in front of the immigration officer, invites herself to his family’s celebration (in Alaska) of his grandmother’s birthday.
Bla bla they fall in love by the end.
Great. Sounds like a lovely waste of time for me and A. Turn off the brain and away we go.
But. There was racism.
