You’re quite correct, this is an outline. Each point in the outline is thoroughly explained elsewhere, stoneself’s purpose in writing the outline was to distill all that explaining into a concise outline. If you are as well read on anti-racism literature as you indicated earlier, you’ve seen those explanations. (You mentioned that you are vexed that people frequently send you to documents you’ve already read such as Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, or perhaps Tim Wise’s essays. If this discussion is typical, it’s because you don’t demonstrate an understanding of the content of those documents, leading people to believe you haven’t seen them. If you have seen them and disagree with them, that’s worth spelling out more clearly.)
“Racism (or sexism, or etc.) means exactly that one discriminates on the basis of race (or sex, etc.) It's part of the definition, you can't get away from it.”
Incorrect. Discrimination is only mentioned in one of the three definitions of “racism” given on dictionary.com. None of those three definitions are the definition used by the people who have been studying and working to dismantle racism over the last few decades. That definition is given succinctly on the debunkingwhite community info page:
Racism = racial prejudice + power Racism: A system of advantage based on race.
This is the definition in use in the above post, and there are reasons for that:
Racial discrimination has a different impact when it is an individual attitude alone than when that attitude is backed by power, whether that power is formally defined in law or informally defined in society.
Even if an individual white person doesn’t discriminate, the fact remains that we live in a society that gives us privileges because we are classified as white.
Your misunderstanding of this definition of racism is the root of your inability to understand the logic of 4D. Simply put, you receive privilege whether you want to or not – for example you have the privilege of not having to worry about police harassment for Driving While Black. One’s mental capacity is not a factor in this.
‘"I don't need to be a carpenter to know that's a poorly built chair."’
Looking at the chair and seeing that its joins are poorly fitted will not give you an understanding of what it’s like to have a fractured coccyx because the chair fell apart when you sat in it. Having a fractured coccyx as the result of an automobile accident will not give you an understanding of what it’s like to have a fractured coccyx because the chair fell apart, e.g. the other person may only sit on futons in the future. Telling them that there’s no reason for them to be avoid chairs because you had a fractured coccyx once and you weren’t afraid of chairs afterwards would constitute invalidating their experience and treating your own as the only one that matters.
The discrimination your friend faced certainly can hurt you, and no one has claimed otherwise. However, the pain you feel for it is not the same pain your friend feels, particularly if your friend can’t make rent because she was discriminated against.
Further, not all forms of discrimination operate exactly the same. For example, there’s a fundamental difference in the discrimination I face as a bisexual compared to the discrimination a person of color faces because I have the option of a closet and unless they have the physical characteristics to let them try to pass they do not. Note that this cuts both ways.
“So with that point out of the way, permit me to briefly explain that the real "fail" that brought this about was little more than internet drama.”
Funny, I thought the real fail that brought this about was decades-old issues around how institutionalized SF/F publishing is informed by and reinforces our racist society; the impact that has on participation in SF/F fandom by people of color; and the lengths to which some people who are invested in the privilege they hold are willing to go to defend that privilege – ranging from TNH’s threat against critics of EBear to Will Sh*tt*rly outing someone to you dismissing it all as “little more than internet drama.”
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Re: I accept your invitation to a debate in good faith of learning
Date: 2009-03-19 05:14 pm (UTC)“Racism (or sexism, or etc.) means exactly that one discriminates on the basis of race (or sex, etc.) It's part of the definition, you can't get away from it.”
Incorrect. Discrimination is only mentioned in one of the three definitions of “racism” given on dictionary.com. None of those three definitions are the definition used by the people who have been studying and working to dismantle racism over the last few decades. That definition is given succinctly on the
Racism = racial prejudice + power
Racism: A system of advantage based on race.
This is the definition in use in the above post, and there are reasons for that:
Your misunderstanding of this definition of racism is the root of your inability to understand the logic of 4D. Simply put, you receive privilege whether you want to or not – for example you have the privilege of not having to worry about police harassment for Driving While Black. One’s mental capacity is not a factor in this.
‘"I don't need to be a carpenter to know that's a poorly built chair."’
Looking at the chair and seeing that its joins are poorly fitted will not give you an understanding of what it’s like to have a fractured coccyx because the chair fell apart when you sat in it. Having a fractured coccyx as the result of an automobile accident will not give you an understanding of what it’s like to have a fractured coccyx because the chair fell apart, e.g. the other person may only sit on futons in the future. Telling them that there’s no reason for them to be avoid chairs because you had a fractured coccyx once and you weren’t afraid of chairs afterwards would constitute invalidating their experience and treating your own as the only one that matters.
The discrimination your friend faced certainly can hurt you, and no one has claimed otherwise. However, the pain you feel for it is not the same pain your friend feels, particularly if your friend can’t make rent because she was discriminated against.
Further, not all forms of discrimination operate exactly the same. For example, there’s a fundamental difference in the discrimination I face as a bisexual compared to the discrimination a person of color faces because I have the option of a closet and unless they have the physical characteristics to let them try to pass they do not. Note that this cuts both ways.
“So with that point out of the way, permit me to briefly explain that the real "fail" that brought this about was little more than internet drama.”
Funny, I thought the real fail that brought this about was decades-old issues around how institutionalized SF/F publishing is informed by and reinforces our racist society; the impact that has on participation in SF/F fandom by people of color; and the lengths to which some people who are invested in the privilege they hold are willing to go to defend that privilege – ranging from TNH’s threat against critics of EBear to Will Sh*tt*rly outing someone to you dismissing it all as “little more than internet drama.”