Another Electronic Sheep

yuki_onna

Stories teach us how to survive. [...] And when we see story after story that has no one like us in it, a book entirely without women, a TV show where white people speak Chinese but there are no Asians visible, a movie set in California without Hispanics, image after image of a world where everyone is straight, and when we are told that it's no big deal, really, there is no race in future societies, that it's not anyone's fault if all the characters are white, that's just how they are, in the pure authorial mind, that we have no sense of humor, that we are ganging up on people because we speak our minds, this is what we hear:

You do not have a right to live. There are no stories for you, to teach you how to survive, because the world would prefer you didn't. You don't get to be human, to understand your suffering or move beyond it. In the perfect future society, you do not exist. We who are colorblind, genderblind, sexualityblind would prefer not to see you even now. In the world we make in our heads, you have been obliterated--even better, you never were. You are incapable of transcendance. You are not worthy of the most essential of human behavior. If you are lucky, we will let you into our stories, and you can learn to be a whore, or someone's mother, or someone's slave, or someone's prey. That is all you are, so pay attention: this is what we want to teach you to be.

verb_noire

synecdochic

5. If someone says to me anything that essentially means "you are perpetuating the pain that our society causes me" ("this X is troublesome", "this X is racist,", "this X is sexist", "this X is ableist", etc), no matter how the statement is phrased, I need to immediately stop, take a deep breath, and not even begin to attempt to refute this statement, explain why the explainer is wrong, or offer alternate readings of the scenario until I thoroughly understand why that person is saying this. To do otherwise is to leap to the defensive and cause harm to the person doing the pointing out, especially if the person pointing this out is already hurting.

5.1. In fact, even once I understand why that person is saying such a thing, even if I disagree that X is troublesome or if I believe that X has an alternate reading, this does not change the fact that the person who has pointed it out is hurt by X.

5.2. Historically, the tactic of pointing out alternate, non-racist (sexist, ableist, classist, [...]) interpretations is used to silence the voices of those who are experiencing pain, by attempting to dismiss, trivialize, or explain away their reactions as unimportant.

5.3. Historically, the tactic of pointing out that a different -ism or -phobia may also be influencing or causing the situation is also used to silence the voices of those who experience that pain, by attempting to deflect the conversation to the discussion of a different form of privilege and oppression, thus dismissing, trivializing, or explaining away the reactions of the people who point out the situation.

5.4. I should, therefore, strive not to do either: no matter what my intent might be in sharing my opinion, no matter what my opinion might be, I should constantly ask myself whether adding my opinion will or could be interpreted as an attempt to silence others. I will fail at this more often than I will fail at anything else on this list, because I am an opinionated person and my rhetorical style is often strident. I should not allow myself to use this as an excuse. I should do my absolute best to remain mindful of this trap.

ETA: I keep forgetting to pimp verb_noire! GO! Read submission guidelines! Donate the cashy monies! THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME OMG!

Background: One morning a couple of years ago, Dymond was in her yard, resetting a circuit breaker at the request of her mother. Four plainclothes Galveston police officers were driving by in an unmarked van, responding to a call that three white prostitutes were working Milburn's neighborhood. The police spotted Dymond (who is black), jumped out of the van and announced that she was under arrest for prostitution. Dymond grabbed a tree and called for her father. The police officers allegedly beat Dymond so badly that she had to be hospitalized (for black eyes as well as throat and ear drum injuries).

Three weeks later, police showed up at Milburn's school and arrested her for assault. Hence, the trial against her.