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

Will Shetterly IHU

[sparkymonster]

Case in point about willshetterly

(orig context, since deleted http://willshetterly.livejournal.com/53471.html)

Will Shetterly (willshetterly) replied to your LiveJournal comment in which
you said:

> I wish someone would do a taxi test with a middle class black and a
> "trailer trash" white. For those who want to play the oppression
> hierarchy game, the result would be interesting.> Michael Moore did with Yaphett Kotto and a poor white man who had an

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[veejane]

And I think the implications of Choate used to be even more meaningful in Shetterly's highschool years. You know: class markers were observed much more strictly; old-boy networks (especially white, Protestant, moneyed ones) created whole worlds of privilege to which outsiders were not generally invited. That's changed, some -- diversity initiatives; scholarships; an emphasis on intellect as if that were something pure and unaffected by class -- and anyway the world has changed too. The lockstep of privileges past has fractured and lost some of its meaning, although the infrastructure of that privilege is alive and well.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[icecreamempress]

Well, as someone who grew up in a very broke, very upper-middle-class white WASP family herself, not having money is not the same thing as being poor when it comes to privilege.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[rachelmanija]

Yeah, I have to second that. I grew up in family that was sort of voluntarily impoverished for sort of religious reasons, but that's really different and I knew it even when I was in it. For one thing, which may not have been the case in your family, mine could have packed up and climbed up the economic ladder any time they felt like it.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[nihilistic_kid]

I'd never heard of Choate until I was an adult. Amusingly, several branch committee members of the local franchise of the International Socialist Organization had gone.

One of them asked me if I could sneak him on to the pier where my father works, so he could get some practice in "relating" to workers.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[veejane]

I'd never heard of Choate until I was an adult.

Your invitation got lost in the mail.

Although I loathe my school newsletters and begging letters, and they track me down no matter where I might hide, I am somewhat looking forward to the next one, so I can read about how all my erstwhile classmates have lost their shirts in international finance and decided to become artists.

hold on JUST A DAMN MINUTE.

[delux_vivens]

This man has been writing RPF about POC and their privilege and class and blah blah blah but his ass went to CHOATE?!

WILL SHETTERLY WENT TO CHOATE?

Re: hold on JUST A DAMN MINUTE.

[icecreamempress]

He didn't do all his schooling there, apparently, but he did attend: I linked his blog about it upthread.

Yeah, no words either.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[skywardprodigal]

CHOATE? LOL. Dinner every night in proper dress Choate?

BWAHAHAHAHAHA

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[veejane]

Yep! Although thankfully they'd loosened that restriction by... 1990? Anyway, it was still in effect in the middle-80s, which is why I can only tie a necktie backwards (i.e., on somebody else's neck).

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[skywardprodigal]

That is just too awesome. Choate. Heh. Choate. HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[icecreamempress]

As for the writers, about the time I began paying attention to their
race, I was reading Delany and Frank Yerby. They would've told me that I
could be a black writer

I can't believe that W*ll Sh*tt*rly has never actually met Samuel R. Delany. Or that, if he has ever actually met Samuel R. Delany, he thinks that Delany would ever suggest any such thing.

And Jesus Christ, Frank Yerby could hardly be a black writer himself--why would he encourage some random white guy to do it?

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[icecreamempress]

I should say that by "Frank Yerby could hardly be a black writer himself" here I mean "Frank Yerby was hardly allowed to be public about his identity as a black man by the publishing industry"--I don't mean any disrespect to Yerby's beautifully crafted, page-turning work or to the ways in which he pushed the envelope about racial inclusion. Just talking about the ways in which his black identification was marginalized by the folks who wrote his paychecks.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[coffeeandink]

You are, as ever, *awesome*. Need to rush off to dr's apptmt, but will edit post to point here tonight.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[rosefox]

They would've told me that I could be a black writer

Last night while on the train with ktempest, we were looking at Ted Nugent's hilarious new book where he declares himself to be a black Jew (I believe it includes the line "Can I get a 'Hallelujah! Preach on, Brother Nuge!'?") and I suggested that ktempest make shirts that say "Tempest says I can be black".

I'm guessing Shetterly doesn't get one.

Re: Will Shetterly IHU

[sparkymonster]

I suggested that ktempest make shirts
that say "Tempest says I can be black"

I SUPPORT THIS IDEA