(Untitled)

[sullen_hearts]

This is my 10th contribution for 14valentines. You can read more here. Today's theme is Women of Color, which I'm sort of not at all talking about.

Comments

[avriisme]

I wish I had something intelligent to say to this post, because it's kinda clever and I'm not feeling very clever because it's midnight and I'm tired :-/

I don't know what to do to change things. I know apathy and resignation are bad ideas when it comes to society and politics because if you believe you can't change anything so you don't even try, and just shrug your shoulders and let things happen, and don't much think or care what's happening, then there really is no way anything will change. But then again I also think that there's a right and a wrong way to change things... we really need to have a discussion about punk music and political/social change when I see you in March because I have interesting stuff to say about that and we need to talk about it! I'm a bit tired to type it all out now though. :S

[sullen_hearts]

We should definitely have that conversation, then. I like your opinions, they're always grounded in a) knowledge and b) experience.

[sullen_hearts]

I do think poverty's got a lot to answer for. Where I'm from the poor white underclass rages against the "immigrants" because of poverty, imo.

That is a unique position, kudos to you. I am white, could choose to live in ignorance of all this shit but I don't because that's not who I am. If there's one thing that Theology taught me it's that all people are fundamentally the same; divisions are made by humans out of fear.

Himself's family are what I'd term 'casually racist'. I'd like to say it's not their fault, because where they live is one of the whitest places in England (seriously, he's from really close to Easington), but I also know that they know better... My four year old niece knows what she shouldn't say and why, so why don't they? They're better than they used to be around me, but seriously. People piss me off.

If my coding's ballsed up it's cos I'm on a Mac and the quotation marks aren't in the right place....

[dippy_hippy]

Hi, here via 14valentines *waves*
I think you're in the uk, no? me too, and I can see that happening with the ID cards and my parents don't understand why I wouldn't want to carry one, along the lines of the you have nothing to hide. But surely there comes a point at which we turn round and tell them to stop because they know so much already, and do we really want to become more of a 'big brother' country than we already are?
Apparently my thoughts aren't the clearest on this, but I do agree with you was the point, but how do you do anything about it?

Music could change the world if the people were willing to listen.

[sullen_hearts]

I am indeed in the UK. Exactly, I have nothing to hide and despite the fact I agree with the 4 Skins and think all coppers are bastards I'd still be polite to one and co-operate with them - but then, I'm a white woman, I'm not exactly profiled to be 'trouble', you know? I ust don't agree with having to carry a piece of paper that says who I am on it. What's it to them about where I am?

I don't know how you change things; it's hard and seems pointless right now.

Yes, I think you're right... Too many people can't be bothered to listen.

[doublefourtime]

THE MANNER OF YOU LIVEJOURNALLING IS CAUSING ME CONCERN, REBECCA.

I think you and I know that we generally have the same opinions on things. Frank Turner's been aiding my unemployed introspectiveness a lot lately, too.

Race and class and politics aren't things that my parents or myself explicitly talk about, even though my parents are educated working-class and my mum's Indian (and we buy the Guardian AND the Mirror, lol). I always feel extremely white and middle class even though that's not how I appear (and I always feel a sense of UM NO, INDIAN if some thinks I'm Pakistani lol) and I am extremely privileged, and it's something I'm constantly thinking about and working on.

I want to help change things. Maybe I won't be The Guy, but I'd like to be The Guy Behind The Guy or part of a support base for a charity or organisation that can educate others and help people help themselves.

Music can change the world, but not if it involves Bob fucking Geldof.

[sullen_hearts]

What's the manner of my livejournalling done to you??!?!?

My desktop's fucked. I think the power supply has burnt out. BRB FAILING.

tl;dr

[extemporally]

I don't have anything intelligent to say to this post, but this really meant something to me. My family, too, is the exemplification of "casually racist" - and it just gets pretty fucked up, because my father's sister married someone who was half-Malay, and converted to Islam. I've heard my mother talk over the phone, almost in the same breath it seems, about how "Malays really are lazier" (yes, I kid you not) and how unfair it is that my cousin (the son of that aunt I mentioned) couldn't seem to get a really good position in the civil service because of his (Malay, Muslim) name.

Um, yes, personal TMI there. But I feel that (in my country, at least), there's a lot of historical baggage with regard to racial issues in general, and that this is generally underdiscussed, and unexamined, and absurd, hypocritical situations like these arise all too often. This post really made me think about it once more, and I'm glad. I don't want to inherit my parents' (to be fair, it is an attitude that is common to many older people in my country)

hi, my own tl;dr and anecdata - let me show you it

[doublefourtime]

Oh God. My mum's family are ethnically Indian, Hindus by religion but Malaysian by nationality. The last time I was in Malaysia was summer 2005, and sitting around listening to my mum and her family (more her generation then my cousins and second cousins) talk about the Malays/Muslims and the Chinese and so-and-so Indian identity and this that and the other really, really upset and baffled me because it was so constant and casual. Which tbh, happens all the time in the UK but I guess the difference is that I don't come face to face with it on a regular and/or personal basis

Re: hi, my own tl;dr and anecdata - let me show you it

[sullen_hearts]

That's really interesting too. I mean it.

Re: hi, my own tl;dr and anecdata - let me show you it

[extemporally]

Oh man, that's really interesting. Hi, you share my experiences! Sometimes I want to run far and away, but I appreciate my roots too, and everything - it's hard to separate "where I come from" from "who I am" - so sometimes it gets hard to say, "Okay, my culture has given me A, B, and C, and that is awesome, but let's abandon X, Y and Z, because that is downright reprehensible."

I have an aunt who's Christian and another one who's Muslim, but on the other hand I have all my life gone to schools where people of my own race made up 99.99% of the student population, so. Singapore's weird that way - you can tout diversity all you want, but it doesn't hide the fact that most of the population is segregated along socio-economic, if not geographical, lines.