The Anatomy of a Call Out (And Why It Needs To Change)

[hayi]

I recomend reading this first, to get a proper understanding of some of the terms used in the article.

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the activist community privilege or bigotry “call out”.

For those that aren’t, it is a method for either revealing privileged, bigoted or problematic behaviors to others publicly or to attempt to reveal to an

Comments

[penumbral2276]

I don't believe that calling out bigoted behaviors can ever be overused.

[mybluesunset]

Any tool can be overused. Each person only has a certain amount of tool-using time, after all, and if they're only using one tool to the exclusion of others, then they can't accomplish very much on big projects that need a variety of tools and materials to finish.

[penumbral2276]

Who says you have to use one tool to the exclusion of others? It's also not my job to make it a "project" to fix the attitude and perceptions of anybody who says anything racist, sexist, transphobic, classist, or any other -ist. I find it impossible to see how calling out harmful and ignorant behaviors is "overdone" or "overused." You seem to be thinking that it's always a choice between only calling somebody out and only doing something else. You can do both at once, and calling somebody out is hardly a physical resource that can be depleted with use.

[mybluesunset]

Like the author of this piece said, calling out a bigoted view is when you burn down a rotting section of forest. Persuading people of a new view is when you replant that section of forest. I wouldn't have any problem with people burning down rotting sections of forest if they were also always replanting them, but that's not happening all the time. I mean, say you spend X hours a day on activism. If you're using almost of those hours on calling-out like reactionary behaviors and few on persuading and other rebuilding type behaviors, then I'd say you were overusing the tool of calling out, relative to the total amount of time you spend on activism as a whole. There's no unchangeable set point above which you're calling people out too much, I agree, but there is a relative point. ("You" is general you, not you specifically)

[mybluesunset]

I love both of these articles, both the one linked at the top and the one that's partially posted on this page.

The first one because it's such a great classification of activist personality types and how they are all necessary and useful in conjunction with each other, as well as having their own unique pitfalls. It helps me classify myself and how I need to change, too. I already knew that I needed to use more pathos in my arguments, but somehow having it in the form "I'm a Logic Bomber who needs to switch to Emoting when the situation calls for it" seems shinier and more official.

The second one because I think it's a very appropriate reminder for this community. I've thought something similar before, but didn't know how to phrase it to not sound like a tone argument. This article explains it well, though:

If you burn down a section of rot and disease in a forest, you do actually have to replant the trees in the spots you burned, or you’re really not doing anything useful. And calling out does not involve any rebuilding. It

[mybluesunset]

I should add that I don't know anything about the incident that sparked this article, so I'm missing some context here, but I like her general point a lot.

[mybluesunset]

I've also been very bothered when people say things like "But I don't care about what white people/men/cis people/straight people think, they can't ever change anyway." I don't think we should be pandering to privileged people either, but if you really think that you can't change anyone's mind, then you've already given up the battle. Because change is the whole point. Otherwise all you're left with is helpless frustration.

[la_vie_noire]

Because change is the whole point.

Sometimes it isn't. Really isn't.

Again, please, if you want to change people we will congratulate you. But don't tell the oppressed their goal is to change their oppressors because a lot of the time it's not.

[redikolous]

This is a lot of reading and I'm going to read it all, but I do have difficulty seeing how calling out bigotry can be overused. Also, that thing between this comm and that blog, a lot of people were genuinely hurt by her suppositions. It wasn't simply activism culture at play. Though I did see a lot of thing wrong with what some people were saying.

[entelodont]

I just want to add something about the BFP incident. I've been holding my tongue, but it since it keeps coming up and in this particular context, it must be said.

Some of the people who reacted badly, very badly to BFP's article were survivors themselves. They were hurt, they'd been listening to weeks of non-survivors justifying that song, and they reacted viscerally. I don't think anyone can argue that this was an appropriate forum for such a sensitive topic, but I don't think they were wrong to do so. The shit-stirrers who wandered in later definitely behaved badly, and the post was a disaster, but I do not think the gut reaction of survivors should be blithely lumped in with that.

I am not sure if BFP ever made the distinction. And while of course I cannot dictate what she does or does not do, I can personally ask that it is vital to consider the reality of each situation before we make sweeping statements about them. /rant

Some of the aforelinked posts have recommended abolishing the callout. I don’t agree with that. And this

[whomp]

From what I understand it has something to do with this person called BFP and an ontd_f post that directed lots of (possibly) negative traffic her way?

[cabaththeboy]

eh

The thing about the whole bfp incident is this: we had a bunch of abuse survivors calling out another abuse survivor.

I understand anger, I understand bottled feelings, but bfp is not the enemy. Instead of giving her voice and her experiences (that most probably are shared by other people as well) the space and consideration they deserve we silenced her. That's not anything to be proud about.

Sometimes the experiences of women don't fit into the acceptable frames we have constructed (and calling out is a very effective method of keeping these alternative narratives in check) but we still have to listen to them and learn from them, and not follow the knee-jerk reaction to attack them.

[102bb]

Sometimes it just feels good to call someone a piece of shit. Is this particularly revolutionary or helpful? No. Do people learn by being called out in an LJ community? More often than not, they don't, but it's not always about educating people. Sometimes it's about making the marginalized feel better. It's about releasing years of pent up steam and uniting the weak through acts of anger, rebellion, and shared frustration. Properly devised, well-thought out "attacks" have their place and there are people who are educated in carrying those things out. I've met these people. I've worked with these people. They are incredibly important to any movement, but not everyone is capable of being as controlled or detached in their approach to such sensitive topics, and that fact needs to be okay with every person in the every movement, otherwise, we're just going to end up fighting amongst ourselves.

[102bb]

I'm just going to stop beating around the bush here and say what I'm really thinking: this notion that everyone who's responding to daily harassment, hatred, violence, poverty, and exclusion should respond in a way that best benefits change is ridiculously naive. Unbelievably so.

[fruhlings]

that's a very good point as well.

[lisaquestions]

I meant to agree with this last night, but I still do. I think anger is valuable and necessary and we really need to be free to express it.