Two Quotations
Jan. 5th, 2012 08:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
browngirlTwo things people said that I had to write down.
I've seen this process happen over and over all my life, and this is the most succinct explanation of it I've seen in a long time. From What Tami Said, 2010.
Disdain for "political correctness" is often positioned as a concern that some important truth is not being spoken for fear of offending someone. But that concern is nothing but smoke and mirrors. To invoke "political correctness" is really to be concerned about loss of power and privilege. It is about disappointment that some "ism" that was ingrained in our society, so much that citizens of privilege could express the bias through word and deed without fear of reprisal, has been shaken loose. Charging "political correctness" generally means this: "I am comfortable with my privilege. I don't want to have to question it. I don't want to have to think before I speak or act. I certainly don't wish to inconvenience myself for the comfort of lesser people (whoever those people may be--women, people of color, people with disabilities, etc.)"
I view this next one as a wider case of, among other situations, the above. And oh, I need it.
And when they tell you life is not like this, life is never like this,/life will never be like this, insist that the sun/has always found a time and a place, the moon too knows when and where to enter,/and you too have your stories,/and you too have your place. -- Shira Erlichman, from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
exceptindreams, after this funny poem
I've seen this process happen over and over all my life, and this is the most succinct explanation of it I've seen in a long time. From What Tami Said, 2010.
Disdain for "political correctness" is often positioned as a concern that some important truth is not being spoken for fear of offending someone. But that concern is nothing but smoke and mirrors. To invoke "political correctness" is really to be concerned about loss of power and privilege. It is about disappointment that some "ism" that was ingrained in our society, so much that citizens of privilege could express the bias through word and deed without fear of reprisal, has been shaken loose. Charging "political correctness" generally means this: "I am comfortable with my privilege. I don't want to have to question it. I don't want to have to think before I speak or act. I certainly don't wish to inconvenience myself for the comfort of lesser people (whoever those people may be--women, people of color, people with disabilities, etc.)"
I view this next one as a wider case of, among other situations, the above. And oh, I need it.
And when they tell you life is not like this, life is never like this,/life will never be like this, insist that the sun/has always found a time and a place, the moon too knows when and where to enter,/and you too have your stories,/and you too have your place. -- Shira Erlichman, from
exceptindreams, after this funny poem
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 03:58 pm (UTC)I'd rather them be bold enough in their -ism to state it in plain terms instead of couching in different words.
More and more... I think I don't want to hear it, and feel that tummy-roiling rush of stress hormones. I'd rather people not be bigots, of course, but if they are feel so horribly trammeled by social strictures that they don't use bigoted language, at least that reduces the incidence of other people hearing blatant bigotry and feeling slapped in the face.
And oh, don't get me started on hipster 'irony' such as hipster racism. I might never stop ranting and waving my arms. :)
You know my Happy Everything card? A coworker genially accused me of trying to be PC with it, which helped me to articulate what I'm trying to do with it, the difference between grudgingly including a diversity of concepts and genuinely wanting to.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-05 04:10 pm (UTC)I hope that coworker has been stricken from the card list. I love the card! I know you worked hard to make sure everyone was included, and I even had another card from a friend in a completely different social circle whose card was a picture of their family (similar to mine, Jewish woman married a non-Jew, except they have a baby) and the words "Happy Everything".
So...yeah. Silly co-worker.