I think that the thing that has pissed me off with the timing of the SCOTUS decisions is that there really is a divide-and-conquer thing going on. Because the timing of the two mean you read it all together, and it forces those of us who strongly believe both in the need for the VRA and the need for an anti-DOMA (which wasn't entirely struck down, thank-you) to try to choose between panicking and celebrating. Because it IS really hard to hold both impulses at the same time.
The word for feeling both these things at once is "overwhelmed", and the vast majority of folks will necessarily choose to focus their attention on one or the other.
And I haven't been able to celebrate Wednesday's decisions in light of what happened on Tuesday.
In a lot of ways, it feels to me like the so-called pro-gay decisions on Wednesday were timed to distract us from what came the day before. That since each of us has only so much energy/attention, AND because we DO need to celebrate sometimes (in order to survive), the timing of the gay stuff after the racist stuff serves to distract us from the fact that SCOTUS is in effect saying that racism no longer affects voting rights. Which is total bullshit.
(The Wendy Davis thing--I don't like lumping it in with the SCOTUS mess because it came about separately if concurrently. There's simultaneous joy and tragedy in the same cause, there.)
I'm reminded also of the fact that racism/sexism/homophobia/transphobia/classism are not just questions of intent but of effect. And the admonition not to harsh others' squee can have racist/etc. effects, even when someone's "heart is in the right place."
no subject
The word for feeling both these things at once is "overwhelmed", and the vast majority of folks will necessarily choose to focus their attention on one or the other.
And I haven't been able to celebrate Wednesday's decisions in light of what happened on Tuesday.
In a lot of ways, it feels to me like the so-called pro-gay decisions on Wednesday were timed to distract us from what came the day before. That since each of us has only so much energy/attention, AND because we DO need to celebrate sometimes (in order to survive), the timing of the gay stuff after the racist stuff serves to distract us from the fact that SCOTUS is in effect saying that racism no longer affects voting rights. Which is total bullshit.
(The Wendy Davis thing--I don't like lumping it in with the SCOTUS mess because it came about separately if concurrently. There's simultaneous joy and tragedy in the same cause, there.)
I'm reminded also of the fact that racism/sexism/homophobia/transphobia/classism are not just questions of intent but of effect. And the admonition not to harsh others' squee can have racist/etc. effects, even when someone's "heart is in the right place."