IBARW 3: Intra-POC education

[oyceter]

This is a post for Intl. Blog Against Racism Week.

My terms, definitions, and disclaimersI've been struggling with this issue for a while, and I wanted to see how other POC were dealing with it

Comments

[oyceter]

I know! It's so hard for me because I keep realizing just how little I know about China and Taiwan and Chinese culture, especially when I go back. And then I read my flist and realize how little I know about Korea and S.E. Asia and India and Africa and Black Americans and Native Americans and Latinas and.... whyyyyy can I not download knowledge directly into my brain?

[fresne]

Well, not in answer to your question, although possibly tangential to it...

Well really more based off a post I saw on someones blog (but in comment on IBARW, but not for IBARW), will you be cross posting this and your definitions in Mandarin? In a English as not necessarily communication default sort of way.

[oyceter]

Uh. I feel vaguely obligated to, but also terrified, since the topics are so dependent on precise language and I am pretty certain I will say something inadvertantly offensive. Also, I will sound like a fifth grader writing...

[yeloson]

Sure, everyone starts with themselves. You have to, it's a survival tool.

Then I thought about the people I care about. If I want to support and be there for them, immediately I'm having to deal with feminism, lesbian, gay, bi, black, NDN, african, carribean, filipino, indian, iraqi, japanese, korean, viet, mexican, lao, thai, khmer, fijian, hawaiian, samoan etc. issues. Just the people I care about.

That's certainly not universal, but it is a lot. I talk to them, I read stuff they give me, I may not find full education, but I work my way outward as I go...

[oyceter]

Yeah, I've been trying, but I still sometimes get overwhelmed with the amounts of information I don't know! I mean, clearly this is no one's fault but my own, but the reader in me gets very frustrated that I don't know everything rightthissecond.