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African American
In reply to the discussion: The oldest 1% trick in the book [View all]Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)6. Allies don't patronize and attack the people they claim to support.
Activists who wish to decrease oppression should avoid replicating the system of oppression created by the white male cis straight 1%.
http://tempest.fluidartist.com/sometimes-allies-are-bad-actors/
Even the most hardcore social justice warrior (or paladin, cleric, rogue ) can fail to be a good ally to someone from a different group or identity at some point. What matters, what always matters, is how you deal with your fail. Did you apologize? Did you sit with yourself and examine what happened and why? Did you think about what being a good ally really means? Did you recommit yourself to being a better ally in the future?
Or did you double down with the idea that youre an ally, not one of those bigots out there, and you marched with King, and you supported some feminists in 1973, and youve done all this work, and therefore you didnt do anything wrong, you find nothing objectionable in what you did (or failed to do), and so the problem must be with the people youre allied to, and not with yourself. In other words: did you center yourself?
The kind of people who say Stop Attacking Your Allies are the kind who tie their allyship to specific behaviors from the group theyre supposedly interested in helping. They, the ally, want to dictate the terms of the relationship and want to be the one to say Now its the time to address this thing, instead of allowing the marginalized and oppressed folks to make that determination. The ally wants to set the rules for what is appropriate discourse, to determine the parameters for politeness, and the conditions under which they will use or set aside their privilege. Do I need to explain the problems with that?[2]
Are we really driving away our allies, or are we making it clear that we wont accept an ally relationship that is about the needs and comfort of the allies above everyone else? Yes, we might be making that clear with harsh language. And yes, in making that clear we might hurt some feelings. That happens when allies dont listen to the polite, patient words that come before the yelling.
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Exactly. But why should they give up on a playbook that's always worked for them?
villager
Sep 2015
#1
You're absolutely right. Because racism has only ever been perpetrated on people of color
Number23
Sep 2015
#2
And like I said, because only rich white people have ever perpetuated or BENEFITED from racism
Number23
Sep 2015
#7
I literally could not disagree more with your premise. Hard to believe you are having so much troubl
Number23
Sep 2015
#9
Thank you! I checked out the links and they confirm that your group is being targeted.
yardwork
Sep 2015
#23
I'm really not interested in this line of thinking particularly as it doesn't seem to encompass much
Number23
Sep 2015
#43
so how do attacks on 1 percenter black people like the tennis guy work into all of this ?
JI7
Sep 2015
#4
If you'd actually spent any time here, or in dozens of threads aimed at POC here- you'd know this
bettyellen
Sep 2015
#25
A year ago when a rightwing prick on another board told me they were going to be able
randys1
Sep 2015
#29
I agree with the RWers using DU to try and split the party. No one I know in RL is stupid enough to
bettyellen
Sep 2015
#35
If you're going to try to teach people something 1) do your homework 2) don't cut and paste crap
bettyellen
Sep 2015
#45
which is why it is on people like you and me to support BLM and our brothers and sisters -
bettyellen
Sep 2015
#46
think twice before you get behind any conspiracy theories. there is a lot of paranoia on the net,
bettyellen
Sep 2015
#51
Perhaps you should spend some time reading a bunch of threads here yourself? The expectation that
bettyellen
Sep 2015
#66
So start a thread asking questions! Would't that be a reasonable alternative to doing research?
bettyellen
Sep 2015
#68
That is awesome! I think it is important to realize how complex the issues are- and it truly is
bettyellen
Sep 2015
#70