Will Shetterly: DO NOT ENGAGE

[coffeeandink]

I am not putting this public just because I banned willshetterly a few years ago and I think it's tacky to make a public post warning people against him that he cannot comment on. But I am willing to be tacky in front of my friends! Never mind, I will be tacky in front of the world. It is worth it if I can spare someone the pain of attempting to argue with

Comments

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[winterknight]

This is extremely true. We were dirt poor (like nothing but powdered milk and relish in the house to eat, but I should add -- we had a house, which was a very good fortune and a privilege, thanks to my uncle, who paid for most of it until my parents were solvent; we enjoyed the residue of my mother's father's financial prudence but we would not have been able to afford much of a home at that time) but both my parents had post-secondary educations and my father was a professor. We were what my mother always called "the academic poor". She never believed we were "socially deprived" because of our finances and often pointed out exactly what kind of privilege my father had because of his position.

When I was a kid, we could be that broke and wearing second-hand clothing and yet people still behaved as though my father intimidated them. He said it was because of the social structure that drilled deference to academic authority into people and that it didn't fade even when they were adults. Also, as my mother would point out, her upbringing allowed her the skills to make sure we never looked as poor as we were when we were broke. So we were broke, but not poor or under-privileged.

ETA again, sorry: I remember more than once, my mother said we had the luxury of being poor, because we had just enough of a safety net that my father could afford to pursue his academic career. The scarcity in our house was always presented as (a) a choice and (b) a privilege that we enjoyed because of where we came from. We always did manage to scrape by. Hn. I'd never really considered that before. I think that's an interesting take on Shetterly's version. *goes off to think about it*

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[sparkymonster]

, but I should add -- we had a house, which was a very good fortune and a privilege

One a personal side note, something I found out recently was some part of the legal paperwork on my grandparent's house actually said that it could not be sold to negroes. I don't know how they got around that.

Also, I wanted to thank you for your comment. You have said some great things, thank you for sharing.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[winterknight]

actually said that it could not be sold to negroes

I'm very glad for your family that, for whatever reason, your grandparents were able to circumvent that. It was incredibly wrong that it should ever have been a concern. My mother told me about things like that when she talked about life in Texas, so I grew up with such things as part of my awareness. (Not that I would ever claim that knowing those things stopped me from internalizing a lot of my own culture's racism. That's the shitty thing about internalizing, it's part of the fabric of your understanding and it takes huge effort to see it and pick it out.)

I'm grateful that whatever I said 'worked'. I have my on and off moments. *g* Thanks for pointing it out.