Being Seen

[moondancerdrake]

I’ve had a great number of interesting conversations lately as the panel suggestions closed for Wiscon this year and we spoke about needing a place at the convention for PoC to gather. This got me thinking about my experiences at Wiscon and other places like it over the past decade or so.

Now, to begin with, I identify as a woman of color. I

Comments

[sandersyager]

The more I see your words in communities and in your posts, the more I admire your ability to cut right to the heart of things. I'm thinking of the Quaker practices I experienced in college, and the idea of speaking from the heart and speaking when the spirit moves you to do so because the message you carry may be the one you yourself need to hear or the one that needs to be delivered to another. I needed to hear this today.

I understand the risk you speak of for my own particular reasons, and sometimes, we have to make that leap and just pray someone will be there to catch us. My own challenges have often been in outing myself as a queer-identified African-American woman, often assumed to be a straight ally, and I've been asked more times than I can count why I would do that instead of keeping my mouth shut. The simple truth is I couldn't live with myself if I did. In each of the organizations I've worked for, I've started from a place of being clear that I can be accountable to a board or a supervisor, but the people I have to

[moondancerdrake]

It was hard to put myself out there like I did today, but your comments reminded me exactly why I did this. If my words and experiences can touch a singe person, than it was worth it a hundred fold. I’ve know many a queer-identified African-American woman, and thier struggle to be tolerated, much less accepted in their own communities as well as the LGBTQ community is very real. Thank you for the strong loving arms to catch me when I put myself out there, my sister, and know when you step out there to face what you must face, I got your back.

[anonymous]

Great Post!

[xakara]

There's always that moment of decision, that moment of creation in ever situation where we have to choose to craft a path of truth or a path of ease. Everyone moves in a cloud of assumption and it's always easiest to let it slide. But you know me, I'm not that person

[anonymous]

Moon, I can never understand this fear myself, but I've projected it upon my children. Both are fair-skinned, both are multi-racial, but our microcosm of society where my wife and I live wants to force them to choose one race based solely on how they look.

It's painful, frustrating and infuriating to watch my daughter, who is now four and in pre-school, being told silly, stupid things by other children whose parents are ignorant (in the literal sense of the word) and fearful of what's different.

My daughter is confused, my wife (who's Canadian) is in tears nearly everyday, and I'm frustrated. So I write to combat the ignorance and promote multi-culturalism. Thank you for personally taking a stand.

six blocks east of mars