Happy 2014, y’all!
I’ve been absent from the internets for a long
spell. Between a starting a new job (yay!), dealing with some personal drama
(not so yay, but getting better), and news that Betsey the sorta-beagle is in
the process of dying from cancer (sob)…well, there’s been a lot of offline
distractitude in my world.
Sigh.
But I’m back, so…
…shall we?
***pause…sip coffee and snuggle Betsey the sorta-beagle…continue***
I’ve observed several recent Twitter-based
corrections within the feminist world and I’ve noticed a pattern.
More accurately, I’ve noticed a continuation
of an offline pattern take place online.
Someone within the movement indulges in a
public display of privilege/bigotry, people point it out and express their
outrage/shock/pain/disappointment, and then other folk start talking about
tolerance and how we shouldn’t eat our own.
Cue chaos…more
outrage/shock/pain/disappointment…and folk fretting about how all of this is
bad for feminism because the world is watching.
I’ve been blogging for some eight years (gasp)
and this ain’t new. Longtime readers know that I’m not a fan of the school of
tolerance. One tolerates a stench and hopes it goes away. I don’t know many folk
who want to be the stench of feminism.
When a person takes a shit in the middle of
the room tis important to everyone within that room that 1) that shit gets
cleaned up, 2) the source of the shit understands that shitting in the middle
of the room isn’t acceptable or productive and is the very definition of
insulting and disturbing, and 3) that folk appreciate that the room shitter,
through the act of shitting in the middle of the room, has reset reality and
will have to prove over time that they understand that and aren’t going to gleefully
take a public crap again.
We all get this.
It isn’t confusing.
We’ve all watched some amazing Twitter-based and/or
online actions calling out room shitters.
Nope, this isn’t confusing…until we encounter
a situation where the shit in the middle of the room originated from someone on
the left.
Did I mention that this ain’t new?
This fumble over how to address wrongness from
within keeps flaring up…and tis why I’m committed to making 2014 a year of
realness.
Y’all, it is beyond important that we
encourage and respect authentic responses to public displays of bigotry and
privilege.
If women of color had a dollar for every time
we’ve been told to give someone a break after they just took us out at the
knees, we might be able to fund an international multi-media campaign to educate the masses on why we
ain’t trying to hear that shit.
And it is critical that we cease tolerating
and explaining away displays of bigotry and/or privilege from within.
The whole world is indeed watching and nothing
damages a movement like hypocrisy. That’s why we are quick to gleefully point
that mess out when conservatives do it!
Lawd knows I’m a better activist for having
been told about myself along the way…for being forced to look at
my shit in the middle of the room and clean it the hell up…and for being given
the gift of an opportunity to learn and grow.
Toodles.
