And this is exactly why crap against women and minorities continues. Because straight, white men still get bent out of shape when they get "insulted" by the people who are the ones truly being insulted and assaulted.
Oh, good grief, do you actually believe that racial oppression is because people don't like being insulted? Like, for real? This is the corrosive nature of that mindset on display. Any argument or criticism of the message, however warranted, is met with hot anger and calls of 'you're exactly why people are marginalized!' It's absolutely stupid to even being to suggest that holding both sides to the same standard -- don't marginalize groups, don't paint with broad brushes, don't engage in -isms -- is somehow detrimental to the cause of reducing inequity or, god forbid, an actual cause of inequity.
I reject your mindset as harmful. I stand up for people that are being attacked due to their race, sex, or nature, regardless of who's doing the attacking. This usually means that I stand up against behavior directed at minorities and women, but it doesn't mean that because that's the majority of the behavior that I should or must ignore the same towards non-minority men. If the cause is just, it's just no matter what direction it flows in.
Also, to be perfectly clear, the only comments I've made about the OP article is that what she went through was terrible and I'm glad she's bringing it up. My comments otherwise are directed at the people in this thread who are telling other people that they're offense isn't worthwhile because of their race or sex.
Guess what? Being "nice" about it hasn't gotten women or minorities JACK SHAT thus far. Because all us straight white guys have had the... yes, PRIVILEGE... to not have to worry about it. So when they've said for years "Hey, this crap is going on!", we've just nodded and went on our way whistling. But now that they've stepped up and begun flinging the MILDEST of insults back at us (in comparison to what they've been suffering through for decades/centuries)... all of a sudden we're now all bruised and mad.
A gross mischaracterization of my stance. Of course their mad, and of course they have the right, even duty, to stand up and speak their anger. I'm not telling anyone to sit down and shut up. I'm certainly not telling the oppressed that they must limit their anger over their treatment and carefully select their words so as to not offend me. I expect that people in bad places are mad about it and speak angrily and intemperately. What I do say is that it's also a valid criticism to point out all -isms, and, while I accept that anger drives angry speech, that the goal here is to achieve less -isms all the way around, not just in one direction (although the most work is certainly needed in one direction). It's about having an ideal, and expecting it to be met, not about defending my imaginary privilege.
[quot]"Hey... you don't need to say that! Why you have to use hyberbole and be insulting like that?"
Because it's the only F-ING WAY IT SEEMS WE'LL LISTEN! That's why.[/quote]
Again, bullcrap. Leveling criticism is how things get better, and mine is against the calls from the non-offended in telling others that they can't be offended because the offender had it worse. I've been listening without being called a terrorist because I'm male. I'm pretty white as well, but legally American Indian as well. That's a pretty damn oppressed people, but I'm not going to shout about it in terms that increase -isms with the idea that it's so one sided that that's a good balancing technique. We don't need to balance -isms by spreading them onto people that don't suffer them. That's a false start.
And yes... if your ego can't stand the idea of being yelled at that people ARE DYING because we are members of a large pool of asshats who have not and are not doing enough right now... then you need to suck it up. Sorry. It's true. So you've been insulted. Oh well. JOIN THE DAMN CLUB! The straight white male demographic is ONLY NOW... after CENTURIES... finally feeling a SMIDGEN of the hate and fear that women and minorities have been experiencing this entire time. So we don't now get to get all bent out of shape about it. Instead, we suck it up... we deal with it... and maybe... JUST MAYBE... instead of complaining about it we all as an entire demographic of people... we continue to work to change things.
I would wager that I do as much as you to correct things. I also take time to point out that if we engage in -isms in our arguments, we're falling into the same trap. After all, power shifts, and establishing that something is okay in one direction between races or sexes will result in issues when that happens. I reject that pointing out bad behavior, even if much less bad or less impactful that other behavior, is a negative. So long as that pointing out doesn't come at the expense of other problems, it's a net good. Since I strongly advocate for equality and take action when I notice inequality, I'm not ignoring the problem in favor of whining about a smaller one. I'm noting that it's an issue and it shouldn't be condoned while strongly taking a position against the kinds of injustices in the OP article. This isn't a binary position where I'm either 100% for one side or 100% against it. I'm for the side of stopping the crap that happened to the OP article writer while also against the -isms she chose to use in her anger. The latter is merely at the level of noting that it's an issue and pointing out the ridiculousness of becoming angry over that statement while the former is in the 'I curbstomp to stop.' Degrees matter, man.
And really, just get over ourselves if our egos are hurt. We owe it to them to stop screaming about the splinter in our toe while everyone else is having their feet cut off.
Ignoring harm to one group because you don't rate that harm as equal to the harms suffered by another group is a poor situation. You shouldn't act to harm any group, even while fighting for the better treatment of another. While the relative harm is, as you note, vastly separated, so is my response. For the harm in the OP, I would not stand by and would engage in violence to stop. For the harm of a poor choice of words while expressing anger, I note that it's not helpful and move on. The intellectual position that any criticism of a oppressed group is tantamount to the oppression is bunk. Privilege theory is bunk as an applied theory. Useful in some ways theoretically, but it's application is full of the same kinds of -isms that it aims to correct. I can be a staunch ally to the oppressed and act as I can to limit that oppression while, at the same time, criticize the dumb ideas of my allies.
