gradientlair:
Want to be an awesome blog subscriber to blogs that are partially or completely about critical theories, womanism, feminism, humanism or any anti-oppression theory and praxis? It’s not hard at all! Here’s some tips:
1) Don’t tell a writer what to write. Either subscribe or don’t. Unless they are employed by a mainstream blog and you are an editor, please, do not tell people what to write. This is especially true for sensitive topics (i.e. rape, domestic violence, street harassment, child abuse, poverty, unemployment, police brutality, prison industrial complex etc.) Realize that you might be triggering someone by emailing them and demanding they write on a particular topic and especially a specific news story. If you haven’t seen them post about it, consider why. (i.e. Don’t want to/don’t have to, no time, trigger etc.) Also, personal blogs are not newspapers. Writers have no obligation to chronologically address every single thing that happens. Finally, stop approaching people as on-demand opinion generation machines. The "your thoughts? [insert hyperlink]" question being sent to me up to 100 times a week gets tiring.
2) Don’t treat writers as “learning portals” and not humans. It’s great if you visit a blog and learn a lot. But realize that some people are often just discussing their day or an issue that impacts their lives directly. Their primary objective might not be to “teach” you or anyone. (Conversely, some do not come to learn anyway, but only to derail.) It’s not “abstract” “learning material” for you to “consume” without regard to their emotions. The same applies to Twitter. In fact, in reference to Whites doing this, I recently tweeted this:
White ppl, stop telling Whites to follow PoC b/c “they’ll learn a lot.” We aren’t schools. We’re humans. Not here just for you to “learn.”
— Trudy (@thetrudz)
August 11, 2013
Now if you say PoC are smart and also ______ (fill in other attributes) that’s fine. But “you’ll learn a lot” as reason to follow = loaded.
— Trudy (@thetrudz)
August 11, 2013
3) Your two cents isn’t always needed. Think carefully when you are in a privileged position and you decide to comment on an oppressed person’s post. Maybe your White, male, heterosexual, cisgender, middle class, able-bodied, thin, Western, Global North opinion is not fucking needed. Do not derail.
4) Respect how the person wants their content used. Many writers list some sort of copyright/creative commons type of license and/or have some sort of content use policy. (I have a Content Use Policy.) Just…respect that. This is not hard. Only ignorance, entitlement, privilege and greed makes this hard.
5) Don’t move from complimenting to tone policing. This is especially important for Whites and men, who seem to do this the most. No one marginalized is interested in how “articulate" you think they are compared to "other" people of their particular group. No one wants a pat on the head like some sort of exceptional sideshow. No one wants it implied that since they write in a way that is “acceptable” to someone privileged, only then do they have the right to share their message. That is tone policing. Also, consider that some compliments (i.e. "You should have a book, a show, a teaching job!") are reminders of inequality. Not everyone has access to these things.
6) Check your damn privilege and make sure that you have not fallen into the deep abyss of ignorance where you think that someone mentioning, deconstructing, critiquing, and rejecting oppression is the privileged being “oppressed.” Spare me. Like I tweeted yesterday:
Bullshit: reverse racism, misandry, heterophobia, cisphobia. The correct phrase is “privileged ppl who think critique is ‘oppression.’”
— Trudy (@thetrudz)
August 15, 2013
I’m not only a writer, I am also a reader. I never engage with people’s blogs in the manner that I critiqued above. I live what I speak. It’s not hard.
Related Posts: For People Who Derail The Conversations In The Safe Spaces Of Those Marginalized. Stop. Go Away., Allies Are Still Privileged; Don’t Forget It