Quit Trying To Muzzle Me

One of the things I constantly battle as a African descended person trying to tell my stories or speak my mind about issues is vanilla flavored privilege filled folks deploying an array of silencing techniques.

They attempt to shut down or divert the conversation from whatever points I was attempting to make.

Just because what I or any other POC has to say makes you uncomfortable or does not neatly line up with your worldview doesn't make it wrong.

It also doesn't give you the right to attempt to shout it down.

I'm not 'racist' when I call out whiteness, the insidious way it operates in our society, instances of white peeps behaving badly or vanilla flavored privileged peeps saying stuff that is, let's say it, racist.

Speaking of racist, that stunt when you post epithet filled comments while hiding behind anonymous screen names is so nekulturny.

If your pointed sheet wearing behind is bold enough to say it, be bold enough to claim it.

I love it when you call on the mythical Black 'friend' who just happens to have a viewpoint that is diametrically opposed to mine and lines up neatly with yours.

Um, that's the oldest trick in the book, and doesn't fly because conservative Black peeps are currently about 2% of our voting population.

The likelihood that you know a Black person that just happens to have a viewpoint that neatly lines up with yours is about the same odds as the LA Clippers winning back-to-back NBA championships.

Oh yeah, don't try the fake comments trick either. You know, the one where you claim you're Black, biracial, a 'minority' (dead giveaway) _______________ (fill in the blank).

But you post a talking points filled commentary that sounds like you got it from Rush Limbaugh or WingNutDaily, express thoughts that put you in the Clarence Thomas or Condoleezza Rice sellout club or stick in links that go directly to right wing websites.

Writing styles are as individual as fingerprints. There are certain historical, racial, cultural and gender nuances that you vanilla flavored poseurs don't get or miss that will always get you race (and gender) perpetrators busted.

You can personally attack me by calling me, 'angry', 'emotional' or whatever euphemism du jour you're using at that moment, but it still doesn't change the fact that the crap happened and I'm calling it out.

So you can chill with your weak attempts to use various silencing techniques to muzzle me. I'm still going to call your BS out when I see it and when it happens.

If you want a meaningful dialogue on various issues, it can't be a one way conversation. Just as you wish for me to listen to what you have to say, I need, deserve and demand the same respect.

Online Discourse Frustrations

One of the things that I've found is irritating about substantive online discourse in the blogosphere and beyond is how race and white privilege rears its ugly head in the middle of it at inopportune times.

If a Black person (or any POC) on a mixed race blog states an opinion that doesn't neatly line up with white groupthink on an issue, they are immediately challenged to prove it, provide links to it, loudly denounced as being 'racist' or the person is viciously personally attacked in order to divert attention from the original subject matter being discussed.

The same hue and cry for accuracy doesn't exist when a white person states their opinion on an issue. It's just taken as a given that it's correct, it's grounded in logic and reason and 'errbody's' supposed to accept with without debate even if it resembles barnyard feces.

The problem is that Whites and Blacks live in vastly different worlds. Black people grow up in a world in which we constantly confront racism and its deleterious effects on our lives. Whites grow up in one in which they live enveloped in that white privilege cocoon. Even if a white person transitions or is GLBT, they still carry with them white privilege as they are discriminated against and reviled by their fellow whites.

Therefore, it's illogical for example, a white feminist to say that you know what it's like to be a black woman' because you're not even though there are some things about womanhood that cross cultural and ethnic lines. But even I'm cautious about saying that line even though I've been transitioned for over a decade and probably have more credibility if I said it than you ever will.

We aren't even close to being a 'post-racial' society either. The election of President Obama and 40 years of post civil rights legislation did not magically erase the 400 plus years of racist attitudes that buttressed slavery and we never addressed post emancipation.

Those attitudes are so insidious that even if you think that you're not being offensive, there are times that the racism oozes into your statement and you're not aware of it until a POC calls you on it.

And don't even get me started on that BS race card meme or the your civil rights struggle is 'just like ours' because it isn't.

Just because POC's are bluntly expressing an opinion that happens to be diametrically opposed to yours, it doesn't make us 'angry'. If we're pissed, there will be no doubt about that because we'll definitely let you know when we are.

Too many times when POC bloggers write about various issues, some peeps get defensive about it. As one of my fave bloggers Renee says, 'If it ain't about you, don't make it about you.' If you don't exhibit the behaviors we're complaining about, then don't take it personally.

Even though online discourse can be maddeningly frustrating at times, they are also sorely needed conversations to help foster understanding as to just how deeply entrenched and pervasive these racist attitudes are in our society.

But if both sides approach them in a spirit of Kingian love, an open mind an a willingness to listen to thoughts and opinions which may uncomfortably challenge some core assumptions you've held about some issues, we'll all be better for the experiences.