At least not in most people’s definitions.
Not because I believe in captialism or assimillation. But because I don’t have the privilege to be able to reject these systems and still survive.
Most of the ‘radical’ queers I know don’t work (or work for very little/radical orgs). Most of them I know have college educations that were paid for by their parents. Most of them I know police who is and who isn’t radical with no regard to privilege and power.
All very not radical ideas, if you ask me.
So I am very uncomfortable defining myself in that way. Maybe it is just my experience that lends myself to not IDing this way.
Has anyone felt similarly? Or want to say what being a radical queer means to them?
I identify as a radical queer exactly because of the ridiculousness I’ve felt from some radical queer communities. I want to counteract the unchecked privilege and power and challenge the idea that you have to leave the system to be a true radical queer. I’ve been privileged to have jobs I love, though most are not especially “radical” in nature (all non-profits, but none with strong critiques of capitalism for sure considering some have worked with the likes of Goldman Sachs).
I’m so over radical communities that are not committed to building true alternatives to the systems that oppress us but instead just protest and tell people to leave the system.
I’m committed to building safe space for queer and trans* people in the food justice movement, especially around sustainable agriculture which is why I get the fun job of working with farmers in the city greenmarkets as my authentic queer self and challenging them whenever they say or do oppressive shit (of any kind: even if you love my lil gay self, if you say some racist shit I’m gonna call you out).
I have a college education paid in small part by my parents which afforded me the ability to hold the paid work I enjoy, but I do still have a mountain of school debt so I ain’t working for free.
Being a radical queer means practicing radical inclusion. That means you don’t shut out someone or something because it doesn’t live up to your expectations. Work with what you got or you aren’t going anywhere.
Oh, and radical queer communities have GOT to stop with the crazy white privilege and racism. It drives me nuts and makes those spaces completely unsafe for a large percentage of people I love in my life (and makes NYC seem like the only place in the US where you can find radical queer POC spaces).
to judge one’s activism as not “radical enough” and “pointless” comes from a privileged, hierarchal perception of what activism is
prof. k. wayne yang talks about “deep organizing.” a form of activism that the “radical activists” will never see or realize.
“deep organizing” is activism by just being you. to be part of a system that was not meant for you and who wants you “dead” and to survive and excell is activism in itself.
to be a person of color, queer, lgbt, womyn, disabled, poor, non-christian, un/low-educated, intersex…in a system like education or the work place & succeed is activism in itself. you challenged the system that was not originally intended for you and who told you that you are “different.” you disrupted the original plan & goal of the sytsem. that is activism in itself.
prof. barbara j. love talks about “critical liberation” & “revolutionary love” where she critiques activism coming from anger because of a situation, reactionary activism, and activism from love, that is done through love of yourself and love of others. the activists who are march on the street and trash/vandalize space, & at the same time pro-union & pro-workers are a contradiction. you marched for the workers and then made the workers clean up after your movement. can you sing & dance after your demonstration instead of going home angry? can you sit with your oppressor and see them as an individual rather than a person of power; to whom you fought against because they didnt see you as a person, but a number or an obstacle instead.
activism can come in different forms. whether it be marching or singing, writing a poem, doing an art piece, cleaning a place up, raising awareness, doing workshops, praying, changing your facebook picture, wearing a particular color, or just being you in a system that doesnt want you. the activist dilema (k.wayne yang) is dehumanizing other’s experiences in the “movement” by comparing their activism to yours and creating a mythological hierarchy on which form of activism can produce a better result.
always trying to challenge myself to come from a place of love and not anger after anger failed me horribly personally a couple years back. activism from a place of love is long term and destined for change.
What follows is a friend’s recent experience which I feel must be addressed by a whole host of communities. What happened is beyond problematic and further displays the power that privilege plays in our society. What happened is fucked up. Reason enough to bash back.
“I am writing this in defense of myself and all women who know all too well the bitter anger that manifests so deeply from having been harassed, pushed around, and silenced too many times in life. I am not naming names and this note is not intended to give away any actual identities.
Last night I was at a bar with some friends when I unexpectedly saw the person who molested me (i.e. grabbed my crotch) outside of First Ave last summer. To make matters worse, he is a somewhat well-known musician in the cities, so a lot of people think he’s cool. I often see him around town but this time he was in very close proximity and I could not just ignore him as I usually do. When I told the people around me what was eating me, they said that sounded like something he would do and with a chuckle they “assured” me with the explanation that he was probably just on drugs and didn’t know what he was doing. This ironic justification was particularly infuriating to me. The argument that it’s ok for someone to act despicably based on the fact that they were unable to control themselves because they were on drugs is so completely backwards I have a hard time believing that even they believe it.
Eventually, he walked into the group I was in and when I snubbed him, a person in the group told him why. Now, I really didn’t give him a chance to talk because I was so angry that every time he spoke to me I said something along the lines of “Fuck you.” He then became frustrated and said, “Well, I was going to apologize but…” and walked off. Now everyone in the group viewed me as being unforgiving, unreasonable, and over-reactive. At the end of the night, he came up to me and the people I was talking to and said good night but before he left he patted me on the cheek and called me Vagina Girl. I didn’t say anything, I just glared at him but I was immediately told by the person next to me I should stop “feeding into it.” Then another person, who claimed to be very close friends with him told me it was funny and awesome that he grabbed me and that he would grab a friends balls as a joke. I then pointed out that I was not his friend nor was I male and that both of those factors very much changed the scenario. Not long after that I went home angry and frustrated.
I do not understand how people hear a story like that and then basically accuse me of over-reacting and deserving of being mocked by the offender for “feeding into it.” Honestly, I’d like to think I would’ve been able to let go and ignore him all night if my initial concerns hadn’t been responded to so callously. However, I think this situation is really representative of a larger picture. My anger at him is not fueled by that one incident last summer but by a lifetime of living in a sexist society in which I have endured far worse than a crotch grab. Similarly, the responses I received from people do not stem from critically thinking about that specific situation but by living in the same society which does not trust the word of women nor take their abuse seriously. In fact, I think part of the reason for the lack of sympathy I received was that I refused to accept his apology and thus play the role of the female; the submissive, nurturing enabler who will be a martyr for the sake of everyone else’s comfort. Traditionally, in my life, I truly have been the person who will sacrifice my pride to keep the peace, apologize for things I didn’t do, etc. But this time I couldn’t bring myself to. Why should I be the peacemaker when he is the one who started the war? I don’t owe him anything and certainly not the satisfaction of letting him off the hook, so to speak. I also felt that by backing down I would have been making a statement, that it is ok and “all’s well that ends well” or something. What he did was not and is not ok. Obviously, he was not bothered by the fact that, under the influence of drugs or not, he randomly molested a woman. He made that abundantly clear when he made it a point to call me Vagina Girl and pat my face before he left for the night.
Though it goes against my nature, I am decidedly not apologizing to anyone for my anger last night. I was not belligerent, I didn’t scream or flail, nor did I hurt anyone. I simply allowed for some transparency and sometimes the truth is ugly.”
if i hear another person mention reverse racism as a real concept i will slap them.
(Source: calloutqueen, via adamsea)
I cannot tell you how long I’ve been meaning to do a post on this very subject - especially with the numerous posts I see on tumblr that address almost every other type of privilege (heterosexual, white, male, able-bodied, cis-gendered, wealthy, etc) but American and Western privilege. In some earlier posts of mine, I tried to combat this topic through the explanation of the horribly unfair and severly biased global visa application system that many people from non-Western countries are subject to. I’ve highlighted the ones that I can most relate to, not the ones I believe are most important - they all are. The only thing where this particular post fails is that it lacks to mention several other critical privileges. Here are a few of my own:
If you need me to elaborate on any of these points/privileges, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to.
- Being completely oblivious to the visa and travel restrictions that certain people, mainly from non-Western nations, face as you are exempt to them.
- Having the privilege of being treated better than the locals in a foreign country simply based on your nationality
- Not having to learn about other countries and their histories
- Not necessarily having to adapt to life in foreign countries and immerse yourself in the local culture as US goods, ideologies and commodities are often exported, implemented or enforced in other countries
- Knowing that if anything serious were to happen to you anywhere outside of US territories, your story would be more likely to make headlines and you’d also have full backing of your gov’t
- Rarely having to question whether or not your nationality will count against you in an international setting because of the negative light in which your country is viewed by most people around the world
- Being able to essentially ignore any issues that are occurring in another country because of your position on the power spectrum, unlike people from other countries who are constantly being bombarded with news about the US
- Having everybody know general facts about your country such as who is the head of state, what your nation’s capital is, the national currency and other facts about contemporary culture in the US
This is a guest post by commenter Mira from Serbia. She does not hate the USA, especially not its people, but she does think it is unfair for any one culture to have most of the power and use it on others.
American privilege is not what many Americans often think it is. It is not about living in a great place full of opportunities and freedom instead of a horrible swamp. What is important to understand is that America, the USA, did not earn the good things it has through honest, hard work: specific historical conditions made the USA rich and powerful. It uses that power to work for its interests.
So having American privilege means being on the stronger side of the power struggle.
Here are some common ways of displaying American privilege (note that some of these apply to Western privilege in general):
- Seeing your nation as “default” – it is normal, everybody else is “different”.
- Assuming your cultural norms are universal.
- Not knowing what is like to have war in your homeland.
- Expecting people in other countries to speak your language when you travel abroad.
- Assuming everybody knows, or should know, your culture (even things like the “American Idol” contestants).
- Assuming nobody else has any of the technological advantages you have – like not knowing how to use a computer or even an oven.
- Believing everything you see on the news, even though it is told from the American point of view and is not a universal truth.
- Assuming everybody wants to live in America, since it is the best place to live (even without universal health care).
- Seeing people from other countries as inferior to you, even if they are highly educated and successful.
- Having plenty of movies and TV shows in your language, full of people from your country, showing your culture and way of life.
- Becoming famous or successful much more easily even if you suck at what you do.
- Assuming everyone on the Internet is American.
- Believing everybody else wants to adopt the American way of life. If they do not, there is something wrong with them. If they do not, America is going make them.
- You can take the liberty of shortening or changing people’s names if they are hard for you to pronounce.
- Believing America is fair and free. Everybody else lives in a mess.
- Assuming everybody wants the USA to help them.
- Seeing the USA as the best nation there is and being confused when others feel the same about their own countries.
- Being confused about people who do not like the USA or those who think it is not perfect. They must be jealous!
It is important to understand you have American privilege even if your life in America is not great; even if you belong to a discriminated group. Just as all whites have white privilege, even those who are poor, gay or non-Christian and therefore experience discrimination, so all Americans have American privilege.
Word. Word, word, word. This stuff comes up on the regular when I talk to strangers about being Jamaican. When I was younger, I used to wince when somebody blathered on about their stupid fucking vacation and how poor.but.nice the people were and how they got their hair braided and smoked really cheap weed. I used to just avoid answering when they asked why the bulk of my relatives still lived there, since they were so close to the States and there’s so much more opportunity in the USA. (Or, alternately, avoided reacting to people’s surprise that the Jamaican diaspora extends beyond Brooklyn and Brixton.) I used to clench my fists until my nails dug into my palms when people wondered why I considered (and still consider) returning to live at least part-time in that hopelessly poor, backward, queerphobic, Third World country.
Now I just walk away, because I’m old enough to realize that it’s not my job to school people on their Yankee privilege, nor is it my responsibility to explain who I am, in any respect, to anyone. I’m not Green Mile-ing anyone’s ignorance about a goddamn thing. But damn, I wish they gave this list out to middle-school USian kids, because it’s damn well worth it for them, for everyone, to consider their nation as but one in a ton of others, no more inherently worthwhile than the rest.
Yes yes yes. Just as I was taught about white privilege, male privilege, and class privilege in high school (still too late, but lucky to even get it), I should have been taught all the other privileges I possess. Most especially this one.
