Racism, Jokes, and LJ Friending
metafandom linked to dmitchell1985's On Fandom, Racism, and Hypocrisy
I'm copying to here my reply to her in the comments for personal archival reasons. But I do welcome a discussion in my LJ with anyone who is interested.
Apparently I missed the Against Racism Blogging Week, but you mentioned several things that made me think and reflect on my own experiences.
True, sometimes it irritates me that a person who doesn't understand the background I come from can off-handedly proclaim how utterly and personally abhorrent s/he finds racism, sexism, etc. One of the most illy-phrased comfort words are: "I understand how you feel." For anyone who has been in an emotional situation and was confronted with those words, you know the gut reaction to that: "No. You can't." And there is truth in that reaction. Afterall, how can anyone, anywhere, possibly know what anyone else feels? It is not too far to say that all experiences are unique to the individual and that there is always something lost in the translation. However, I do NOT believe that precludes a straight, Protestant, Caucasion, healthy male raised in Southhamptonshire from being able to say he is against bigotry and actually understand what that means (though, granted, it might be a bit more difficult).
We do not need to experience the exact same iniquities and outrage in order to be able to say affirmatively that the attitude and mentality that allows us to treat other human beings as less than human is abhorrent and - dare I say it, Evil. There are very few in world who has not suffered some outrage or another simply due to a difference in them that was singled out by the perpetrator (not all of whom are aware of the fact). I believe the majority of the fandom here are women. As a member of what was once call the "Second Sex," being made to feel inferior, being made to feel you have let your whole sex/ethnicity/etc. down whenever you make a professional mistake... The outrage of those experiences is, in a way, shared across groups. This is not, however, to imply that our feelings and sufferings are interchangeable. I will hold resolutely to my position that it is not. But at the same time, there must be a compromise between the uniqueness of experience and human understanding.
And the spoken/written experiences of other people, to me, are a great help in that direction.
You also mentioned a racially-inappropriate joke, and your reaction to it. Not knowing exactly what you are refering to, or even the exact content of the defense, I can only say that the fact that the readers did find it funny mean that in a way thay had already recognized the "racism" or an interpretation of reality at least in which it is possible. I feel a little guilty myself, laughing occasionally at the jokes made at the expense of my ethnicity, say, or my sex. But the thing about stereotypes and racism - something I feel a lot of people dismiss or ignore in our culture of professed "color-blindness" - is that some of these things contain within them the truth. And comedy, afterall, is mostly a matter of realizing reality and then laughing at its absurdity.
I'm not sure I share your opinion that an insider's view, similar to my own, would necessaily mean they're more likely to know what they're talking about. The views might be more realistic in certain areas, yes, but I am acquainted with too many people who are all too conscious of their group-specific plight...and yet cannot understand how bigotry affects someone from a group they do not share. Naive ideals can be tempered with time, as is usually the case. But people who pride themselves as being hard-headed realistics are not nearly as understanding or changeable. Or so it's been in my experience.
In reply to your comment on friending on LJ, I do not think a lack of "sincerity" is the problem. Like any relationship one enters, I think an important part is understanding exactly what both sides expect from each other. The reason why they became friends in the first place - it's a lost easier to pin-down on LJ. Myself, I admit to friending people only for their stories or fic recs, and will and have moved on (i.e. defriended) when they either stopped playing in the fandom I'm interested in or changed the content of their journal to almost entirely RL. I have also done my share of squeeing and glomps and "I love you"s when commenting on a fandom-related post. And I was not at all insincere. However, I think it a bit over-reaching to expect even the frequent commenters on a fandom affiliated f-list to be of the same personal intimacy and loyalty that we expect from the people we first meet face-to-face.
So. This is just a long post on my personal thoughts. Possibly, I am convinced I am right...in which case, no one can change my opinion. ;)
I'm copying to here my reply to her in the comments for personal archival reasons. But I do welcome a discussion in my LJ with anyone who is interested.
Apparently I missed the Against Racism Blogging Week, but you mentioned several things that made me think and reflect on my own experiences.
True, sometimes it irritates me that a person who doesn't understand the background I come from can off-handedly proclaim how utterly and personally abhorrent s/he finds racism, sexism, etc. One of the most illy-phrased comfort words are: "I understand how you feel." For anyone who has been in an emotional situation and was confronted with those words, you know the gut reaction to that: "No. You can't." And there is truth in that reaction. Afterall, how can anyone, anywhere, possibly know what anyone else feels? It is not too far to say that all experiences are unique to the individual and that there is always something lost in the translation. However, I do NOT believe that precludes a straight, Protestant, Caucasion, healthy male raised in Southhamptonshire from being able to say he is against bigotry and actually understand what that means (though, granted, it might be a bit more difficult).
We do not need to experience the exact same iniquities and outrage in order to be able to say affirmatively that the attitude and mentality that allows us to treat other human beings as less than human is abhorrent and - dare I say it, Evil. There are very few in world who has not suffered some outrage or another simply due to a difference in them that was singled out by the perpetrator (not all of whom are aware of the fact). I believe the majority of the fandom here are women. As a member of what was once call the "Second Sex," being made to feel inferior, being made to feel you have let your whole sex/ethnicity/etc. down whenever you make a professional mistake... The outrage of those experiences is, in a way, shared across groups. This is not, however, to imply that our feelings and sufferings are interchangeable. I will hold resolutely to my position that it is not. But at the same time, there must be a compromise between the uniqueness of experience and human understanding.
And the spoken/written experiences of other people, to me, are a great help in that direction.
You also mentioned a racially-inappropriate joke, and your reaction to it. Not knowing exactly what you are refering to, or even the exact content of the defense, I can only say that the fact that the readers did find it funny mean that in a way thay had already recognized the "racism" or an interpretation of reality at least in which it is possible. I feel a little guilty myself, laughing occasionally at the jokes made at the expense of my ethnicity, say, or my sex. But the thing about stereotypes and racism - something I feel a lot of people dismiss or ignore in our culture of professed "color-blindness" - is that some of these things contain within them the truth. And comedy, afterall, is mostly a matter of realizing reality and then laughing at its absurdity.
I'm not sure I share your opinion that an insider's view, similar to my own, would necessaily mean they're more likely to know what they're talking about. The views might be more realistic in certain areas, yes, but I am acquainted with too many people who are all too conscious of their group-specific plight...and yet cannot understand how bigotry affects someone from a group they do not share. Naive ideals can be tempered with time, as is usually the case. But people who pride themselves as being hard-headed realistics are not nearly as understanding or changeable. Or so it's been in my experience.
In reply to your comment on friending on LJ, I do not think a lack of "sincerity" is the problem. Like any relationship one enters, I think an important part is understanding exactly what both sides expect from each other. The reason why they became friends in the first place - it's a lost easier to pin-down on LJ. Myself, I admit to friending people only for their stories or fic recs, and will and have moved on (i.e. defriended) when they either stopped playing in the fandom I'm interested in or changed the content of their journal to almost entirely RL. I have also done my share of squeeing and glomps and "I love you"s when commenting on a fandom-related post. And I was not at all insincere. However, I think it a bit over-reaching to expect even the frequent commenters on a fandom affiliated f-list to be of the same personal intimacy and loyalty that we expect from the people we first meet face-to-face.
So. This is just a long post on my personal thoughts. Possibly, I am convinced I am right...in which case, no one can change my opinion. ;)