Thoughts on Identity

[wendigomountain]

What is Identity? In the LJ community, I heard a lot of identity statements, usually about gender. I remember in the mid-90's college campuses had a big movement where students openly identified as a gender they were not biologically assigned. At the time, this caused quite a ruckus because some were railing about "the bits and pieces God gave

Comments

[erzebet]

That is a brilliant post, a mature way of reasoning these things out and makes utter sense. Very well said and thank you.

[wendigomountain]

Thank you for reading and commenting.

[jmhenry]

XO of the Failstar Galactica reporting for duty, admiral.

Identity is one of those things I've struggled with as well, Clint. You mentioned Barack Obama being called "America's First Black President," even though his mother was white. Indeed. And I can remember times during the campaign when there that idiotic discussion -- among some blacks! -- about whether he was black enough. Or too black. Whatever the hell that means. Assumptions about ethnicity suck.

If I make a comment regarding race, ethnicity, etc., they are often dismissed as being the rantings of an angry white male...

This pretty much sums up why I can never get all worked up over the various "fails" the SF community loves to indulge in constantly. For one, they're nauseating. "But John-Mark," they may say, "you're one of the minority! Take up the cause!"

Okay, first of all, I don't have to take up anything. I am mine own person, and at the end of the day, I'm responsible for my own words and actions, no one else's. That doesn't mean I don't care. Not at all! But

[wendigomountain]

Thank you, John-Mark. You are a King among men. :)

[selfavowedgeek]

Know thyself.

Oh, and sometimes it's just so gosh-darned hard to get past hasty generalizations and cherry-picking when confronting multiple sides of various issues. Maybe it's just human nature to get into a comfort zone and go "Not looking, not listening" when those other, less-popular perspectives rear their ugly heads.

Plus, it's difficult for me to see how any community can prosper from *fewer* voices.

[wendigomountain]

Thanks, Berry. I couldn't agree more.

[soon_lee]

I can't believe how unbelievably complex & entangled this stuff is in the US. In reading the previous go-rounds it's apparent to me that there is a huge amount of subtext that I struggle to understand. There's also jargon & terminology that leaves me so far behind (hidden meanings or meanings so divergent from mine) that it's like a different language, jargon & terminology that the mere mention of is the equivalent of pouring liquid oxygen on a fire.

Shorter me: you guys are nuts, and I'm not brave enough to comment in any substantive fashion.

[asakiyume]

My white ancestors, the ones who came over on ships from Europe, were just as hard working, hard-fighting, beautiful, interesting, and dangerous as those who came to the Americas on dry land.

I like this statement. All groups and classifications of people have all the virtues and all the flaws of... people. No group's beyond the pale and no group's beyond reproach (... um.. unless, I guess, you create a group called "people who are beyond the pale" or "people who are beyond reproach"... but really, I wonder who'd be in that last group?)