Um, yes, it does make me a bigot. June 16, 2009

About two weeks ago, a commenter wrote the following about the Miley Cyrus: That Achy Breaky Bigot video by ill-literacy that I reposted:

Come on ! That doesn’t make her a bigot. I’m sure you have done things that some could interpret as bigoted.

While I don’t know if this person (or robot) really had any interest in my blog, this sentiment is worth addressing because it’s a common way of derailing and shifting conversation away from the privileged person. This isn’t necessarily a response to this particular comment, but I’ll use it as a starting point.

That doesn’t make her a bigot.

What is a bigot? Most people would say it’s someone who is proud of their intolerance and has a fanatic dedication to that intolerance. I disagree; bigotry is limitless. Being a bigot involves a particular frame of mind, where intolerance is normalized. We need to stop thinking of bigotry that is reserved for ‘those people over there’ who are loud and stomping all over the place declaring that “God Hates You.” We have to stop thinking of discrimination as something that happens individually, or that bigotry cannot take on subtle forms, integrated into our institutions. If we think of oppression in terms of systems, then bigots don’t live outside those systems. We have all been bigots at some point in our lives, then.

What Miley Cyrus did was bigoted. Doing the “slanty eye”, regardless of intention or knowledge, is bigoted. It’s more than gestures and words and phrases – these things are borne out of ignorance. Ignorance allows violence to not only start or happen, but ignorance also makes sure that violence will continue. Ignorance is that frame of mind where prejudiced acts are made to be inconsequential to you and prejudice is normalized so that it’s not typically seen as prejudice. If repeating and redoing the things that makes violence endure makes a person not bigoted, then I don’t know what does.

I’m sure you have done things that some could interpret as bigoted.

Yes. I have. I’ve done many, many things that some could interpret as bigoted. Do you know why? The things I did were bigoted. Just like Miley, I’ve done the “slanty eye” in the past without understanding the ramifications. It doesn’t make me any less accountable to my actions, and it doesn’t make me any less of a bigot. Defensiveness, denial, and trying to deflect any responsibility from myself makes me a bigot. When I say the word ‘dumb’ or ‘lame’ (and other ableist words) to mean something ineffective or stupid, whether I catch myself in the act or not, it makes me a bigot. When I defend my supposed “right” to use those words, it makes me a bigot. When I participate in the oppression of another, it makes me an oppressor; it makes me a bigot. Being a “good” person (oh, and yes, that does include us do-gooder equity seekers) does not exempt anyone from engaging in bigotry.

Hey, it’s been awhile June 7, 2009

I haven’t written anything on the blog in awhile. Somehow, I managed to completely miss the entirety of May without realizing it. I was overwhelmed offline by a number of things, but it’s gotten a little less frantic now and I’m more in control of myself (again). I wanted to concentrate on things before my ass was handed to me. Well, my ass got handed to me anyway, so I think I’ll be back to posting my reflections again. The pause, however, made me realize that what I had set out to write about last year has not happened as frequently as I expected.

Almost a year ago, I finally decided to leap into blogging publicly where anyone could read, instead of my usual habit of putting everything under lock and key to a specific set of people. I wanted to talk about anti-oppression as it related to me, because despite all of the great writing I was following, I couldn’t see myself in it. I wanted to share my thoughts, from my unique vantage point, in the hopes that maybe there was someone else who felt similarly. I love reading blogs by womanists/feminists, and other anti-oppression blogs, but it is intensely isolating when you aren’t able to identify yourself within it. I’m aware that this is unclear, but I can’t seem to make sense of the feeling either. So, I started a blog. And I got distracted. I’m not saying I’m some kind of prolific blogger. I simply wanted to write about being an Indo-Trinidadian-Canadian overhyphenated queer woman while I was also trying to make sense of it all, where other people could easily find it. I’m finding I haven’t done that as much as I intended.

So, it’s bad my ass was handed to me in May, but at least I realized that I’ve veered off the course I intended to take.

I haven’t written anything on the blog in awhile. Somehow, I managed to completely miss the entirety of May without realizing it. I was overwhelmed offline by a number of things, but it’s gotten a little less frantic now and I’m more in control of myself (again). I wanted to concentrate on things before my ass was handed to me. Well, my ass got handed to me anyway, so I think I’ll be back to posting my reflections again. The pause, however, made me realize that what I had set out to write about last year has not happened as frequently as I expected.

Almost a year ago, I finally decided to leap into blogging publicly where anyone could read, instead of my usual habit of putting everything under lock and key to a specific set of people. I wanted to talk about anti-oppression as it related to me, because despite all of the great writing I was following, I couldn’t see myself in it. I wanted to share my thoughts, from my unique vantage point, in the hopes that maybe there was someone else who felt similarly. I love reading blogs by womanists/feminists, and other anti-oppression blogs, but it is intensely isolating when you aren’t able to identify yourself within it. I’m aware that this is unclear, but I can’t seem to make sense of the feeling either. So, I started a blog. And I got distracted. I’m not saying I’m some kind of prolific blogger or that I get a lot of hits (which is why I don’t bother making categories). I simply wanted to write about being an Indo-Trinidadian-Canadian overhyphenated queer woman while I was also trying to make sense of it all. If other people read it, that would be an added bonus. I’m finding I haven’t done that as much as I intended.

So, it’s bad my ass was handed to me in May, but at least I realized that I’ve veered off the course I intended to take. Change and rethinking yourself is a good thing!