So, I was reading
Blackamazon (as I often do, and I wish she'd post more :P) and she has a
post up responding to
Donna's post,
Bitter LaughterI remember that the way I got to know about this little corner of the blogosphere was thru the fallout from the Clinton-blogger lunch, which was followed in short order by Burqagate. Donna's passionate arguments and pleas really struck a cord with me, and I began following her around as she commented and linked to the various blogs and comments by people of color trying to be heard. (Sorry Donna, I know it sounds creepy, and I apologize)
I've been here thru the spat over Jessica of Feministing's book cover, then Jill of
Feminste's erasure of critiques by people of color over the content of that same book, and finally the "shitstorm" regarding Amanda of Pandagon's book cover.
I'm giving all this background to show that even though I lurked thru most of it, I watched everything rather closely. I didn't really pay much attention to the new abortion study discussion at Feminste, but Donna's is correct to call out the hypocrisy of white feminist bloggers. I've seen white feminist bloggers and their commenters do the same thing to POC that they are now complaining about: argue points no one ever made, get defensive, belittle concerns, whine, basically just obfuscate and straw-man a discussion to death.
And now that the shoe's on the other foot . . . But wait, it's been on the other foot before, or were the pie wars at Daily Kos just a figment of my imagination?
Now, in her awesome wisdom, BA takes this another step and connects the hypocrisy to silencing.
I had a white friend who I ended up calling racist. I couldn't really articulate at that time to him exactly why I thought that, and that was unfair, yes. But I couldn't get rid of that feeling, that impression, and when I finally sat down and talked it over with him, it boiled down to the fact that he treated me differently than he did our other (white) friends. Nothing I said was important; my taste in music was inferior; the same with my taste in books, in movies, my opinions. Nothing about
me held any validity to him. So whenever we hung out, I was silent while he talked about himself. And I was too young to feel secure enough to put pressure on the friendship by asserting myself, so I ended it.
That's why when BA asks
Do they realize we are people ?
it hurt. Because that's what I asked myself before I ended that friendship: Does he think of me as a person, or just as the black guy it's cool to be friends with? And he couldn't understand why I was so upset; that when he talked over me, or cut me off to say something more profound, more important (to him), it negated me, and who wants to put up with that in the long run?
And now I think I understand why my friend treated me like that, and why white liberals and feminists in the blogosphere and real life constantly marginalize and silence us. I was reading the
4th People of Color SciFi and Fantasy Carnival a few days ago, and a quote by
Grada Kilomba stuck with me. Speaking of academia, she says:
This is a white space where Black people have been denied the privilege to speak... It is not that we have not been speaking; but rather that our voices - through a system of racism - have been systematically disqualified as valid knowledge; or else represented by whites, who ironically become the 'experts' of ourselves.
But this statement doesn't just pertain to academia, nor to just Black people. Substitute (or add) Latino, disabled, LGBT, Native American, and place them anywhere in this society (the blogosphere, mainstream media, or even a PTA meeting) and we see how widespread the silencing truly is; how many voices are not considered valid, and therefore not worth the time to engage.
But getting back to just Black people, I'm also brought to
this. Need I say more?
My friend and I eventually got past that period. He treated me with more respect, and I asserted myself more. We were not as close as before (and we've drifted apart more over the years because of geography and life), but I believe that he was genuinely sorry. And yet, I don't think he truly ever understood where I was coming from when I ended our friendship that time.
And I wonder if that's the best we POC bloggers and our allies can hope for from the wider white feminist and liberal blogosphere.
