Standing is Solidarity With My Sisters
No seriously, Fuck You.
How can I even begin to describe how annoyed I am with certain elements of the white feminist blogosphere right now? It’s going a bit beyond words. So much so that really, all I can find it in myself to say is Fuck You and don’t give a shit whether or not that needs some explanation.
You are all behaving badly. You need to check yourselves.
And really, you couldn’t be more clear about the fact that you don’t give a shit about women of color and wish they would just sit down and be quiet in your movement if you made a big sign that said:
ALL DARKIES TO THE BACK, PLEASE BE SURE TO PUT ON YOUR MUZZLES BEFORE TAKING YOUR SEAT AND STAYING THERE.
There are times when I feel I could really quit feminism, and this is one of those times.
::facepalm::
Seal Press didn’t have “haters” before — they had people who were angry and expressing it and hoping they would listen. But they sure as hell have at least one hater now, right here.
Ico and nojojojo,
Thanks so much for posting links to those illustrations and for bringing this whole book thing to wider attention! I am so angry, I actually feel sick. I guess that’s what happens when you start the day confronting new assholery from good old Amanda and her cronies. *vomit* I can’t fucking believe that idiot is paid to publish bullshit like this, and it’s even worse knowing how many great WoC writers are being ignored.
nojojojo, I’m with you. I’m a hater now, too, right here, right now. Goddamn. There’s just no excuse for this racist crap from Seal Press and Marcotte. Cluelessness doesn’t begin to cover this. Aversive racism doesn’t even cover this. This is racism pure and simple. And fuck them for trying to pass this off as feminism.
Whoa! Srsly? *looks at pictures* Urgh, gross. And those howling savages are the only PoC in the book? Whoof.
What was she thinking? Outside of reprinting something from 80 years ago with satirical intent, there’s no excuse for pictures like that. It crosses the line from entitled cluelessness to wilful ignorance and so far out the other side. Bloody hell.
UPDATE: Marcotte’s response is here:
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/04/25/i-guess-its-a-jungle-in-here-too-huh/#comments
This whole thing is WRONG, and I don’t mean the WOC response. It’s as blatant a piece of appropriation as I’ve ever seen. And the comments about “I’m too busy being a feminist to worry about race” — shame on them.
I did call this out on my LJ (http://jonquil.livejournal.com/703332.html), and my friends educated me further.
How to count gains, the gold coin analogy. Think there are 4 people, a white couple (of both sexes) and a black couple. There are 40 gold coins in a heap. Each person is asked to pick equal number of coins, in a fair system it would be 10 each. They all take 10 coins initially. Now due to male privelege, both the black male and the white male take, 5 coins each from the females of their corresponding race respectively. Now the score is white male,15,black male,15,white female,5,black female 5. Due to white privelege, the white male takes 5 coins from the black male and the white female takes 5 coins from the black female. With sexism and racism, total scores will be white male, 20, white female 10, black male 10, black female 0. This is considering sexism and racism incur the same equal proportion of gains and losses(5 points in the analogy). If we eliminate racism, the scores would be, white male,15,black male 15,white female 5,black female 5 whereas if we eliminate sexism, the scores would be, white male 15, white female 15, black male 5, black female 5. If just one sexism or racism were to disappear and the other remained., the black female stands at the same point, of course here the assumption is that both sexism and racism cause equal losses. However in terms of power and wealth in society, it seems likely that more gold coins are taken away for racism than sexism.