I will not be silenced.
I was speechless when I saw E Bear’s post…
Okay, speechless for all of 60 sec, and then I screamed loud enough to rattle the window and immediately defriended her. I admit I held on for longer than most, hoping this author I had such respect for would come to realize her mistakes, but this last post was more than I could take.
I will not be silenced. Not by Elizabeth Bear or anyone else. It’s one thing to cast aside common sense and the possibility for productive dialogue, because someone is unwilling to ever toy with the idea they might have been wrong. But to toss out the gauntlet like that, suggesting that the “evil people” out there on the other side of the dialogue are crazy or on drugs, and then to tell them to stop talking about the things that bother you because there not important enough to bother with, is too much like pitiful playground tactics to me. It reminds me of slapping someone in the face and then going to stand by your friends for protection, knowing if the person you wronged does anything, your friends with stick up for you.
I’m going to talk about race, not just at Wiscon, but until then and after until the day I leave this earth to rejoin my ancestors. I’m multiracial…my children are multiracial…we don’t have the luxury of sticking our heads in the sand and pretending all is honey, and roses, and perfection with the world. This world is not perfect…this country is not perfect. As long as we are silent or allow ourselves to be silenced, the world wide suckage will never improve. Sure these conversations are hard, but then true worthwhile change is never easy…transformation is never painless.
To suggest we can just stop talking about the hard stuff and it will just go away is not only soaking in heavy levels or privilege based denial, but it slips right into being delusional. When the privileged choose to walk through life with blinders on anything that threatens that becomes a target. And then people wonder why the places that we once hoped were safe for us, now no longer feel safe? And then people wonder why so many who speak out hide their RL selves behind the shield of a pseudonym?
I know the costs…I know the dangers…but I love my community, my family, and myself far too much to be silenced ever again. Stick your head in the sand if you want to, I choose to stand in the sunshine and shout toward the future where all can hear me.
Okay, speechless for all of 60 sec, and then I screamed loud enough to rattle the window and immediately defriended her. I admit I held on for longer than most, hoping this author I had such respect for would come to realize her mistakes, but this last post was more than I could take.
I will not be silenced. Not by Elizabeth Bear or anyone else. It’s one thing to cast aside common sense and the possibility for productive dialogue, because someone is unwilling to ever toy with the idea they might have been wrong. But to toss out the gauntlet like that, suggesting that the “evil people” out there on the other side of the dialogue are crazy or on drugs, and then to tell them to stop talking about the things that bother you because there not important enough to bother with, is too much like pitiful playground tactics to me. It reminds me of slapping someone in the face and then going to stand by your friends for protection, knowing if the person you wronged does anything, your friends with stick up for you.
I’m going to talk about race, not just at Wiscon, but until then and after until the day I leave this earth to rejoin my ancestors. I’m multiracial…my children are multiracial…we don’t have the luxury of sticking our heads in the sand and pretending all is honey, and roses, and perfection with the world. This world is not perfect…this country is not perfect. As long as we are silent or allow ourselves to be silenced, the world wide suckage will never improve. Sure these conversations are hard, but then true worthwhile change is never easy…transformation is never painless.
To suggest we can just stop talking about the hard stuff and it will just go away is not only soaking in heavy levels or privilege based denial, but it slips right into being delusional. When the privileged choose to walk through life with blinders on anything that threatens that becomes a target. And then people wonder why the places that we once hoped were safe for us, now no longer feel safe? And then people wonder why so many who speak out hide their RL selves behind the shield of a pseudonym?
I know the costs…I know the dangers…but I love my community, my family, and myself far too much to be silenced ever again. Stick your head in the sand if you want to, I choose to stand in the sunshine and shout toward the future where all can hear me.