Where are all the allies, and where do we go from here?
During the last few months, I’ve either witnessed or been a part of several fatosphere discussions/arguments that involved discussion about race, racism, and the points of intersection with fat.
I’ve been meaning to write a piece about what good ally behavior might look like in these situations, but life got in the way. Unfortunately, the lack of (until now) a widespread critical discussion about the 1000 Paper Cranes project jolted me into the harsh reality that either folks still don’t fundamentally get it, or that people aren’t actually interested in thinking about more than a single-issue politic in their writing and activism.
I won’t presume to know the race of Anonymous, but I have seen several white folks reply to that post and other posts about the project with some variation of, “You know, this did make me uncomfortable, but I didn’t say anything.” There was only one dissenter to the project on the Fat Studies list, one objecter on the fatshionista livejournal community, and zero criticism when Big Fat Blog posted about it. (I’m also curious to know if the person who accused “tara” (not me) of being an “FA troll” on FatGrrl was referring to me.)
Many many many people (POC and white) have pointed out before that racism isn’t *just* the overt stuff. It is complex, nuanced, and far reaching because it is interwoven into every nook any cranny of this white supremacist culture. It can take a whole lot of time and thought and effort to recognize this if it’s not something you experience firsthand, and even those of us who *do* see racism on a daily basis are taught to question ourselves and our judgment when we think something we see or hear or read is racist. This is a function of modern white supremacy: it is built into the foundation of our culture, and we are trained not to see it just like we don’t “see” the air we breathe.
Which is why it was so devastating to me that I saw such little dissent over the 1000 Paper Cranes project. I had only heard about it about a week ago, but I did a search on it and could hardly find anything on it. And I was outraged. Surely, I thought, this is such a plain and simple example of inappropriately racist hyperbole and a clearcut form of the worst kind of appropriation, that it was boggling how few allies were speaking up.
This particular situation, I believe, relates to what I wrote about Beth Ditto awhile back. Maybe people don’t want to speak out against their fat s/heroes (i.e. Marilyn Wann) or hesitate to hold them accountable when they fuck up. And, for the record, I believe that Marilyn fucked up in a major way, both in the execution of the project and her justification for it (citing that two of her Japanese friends said it was ok). But you know who else fucked up? White allies. And not just in this situation, but again and again. Jumping on the “yeah, that’s racist!” bandwagon after someone else says it is not enough. Even when you have an unsettling feeling in your stomach about something, but don’t quite know why, it is quite easy, especially with this medium, to do an informal scan of the fatosphere to see what perspectives other folk might bring. Being an ally isn’t just about supporting the voices of POC speaking out against racism; it is also about taking that risk, doing that work, and putting out your own thoughts when you see or hear or read something that you believe to be racist. White supremacy was not created by POC, we are not in positions of cultural, political, or institutional power to end it, and this means that this shit will never end unless white folks do most of the fucking work.
So this is me, holding community leaders and our allies accountable for your silence. During the original discussions about the waistline policy, and in Anonymous’s recent post, several people accused “the Japanese” (as if they are a monolith!) of discouraging dissent. How ironic is this accusation when almost the entire fatosphere chose to stay silent about something they they themselves knew was probably wrong?
To end this critical post on a creative note, I’d like to do my own informal poll of what you think constitutes good ally behavior. And further, how can we hold each other accountable in such a temporal, transient space?
Tara, Tara, Tara. Have I told you recently how much I dig you? If not I really do. I was just thinking about this subject myself. After I’ve consumed enough coffee I’ll be writing about it myself.
Isn’t there an infamous FA troll who also goes by tara, who shows up every once in awhile to stir shit? That’s who I think the poster on FatGrrrl was referring to, not you.
As for the crane project, I didn’t see the potentially racist implications until they were pointed out to me. I think a lot of people were the same way. I’m not saying that the racism isn’t there, but my white privilege got in the way.
That was me, and no, I wasn’t referring to you, though after I left the comment, I realized that it might have been you, and then proceeded to worry about it all day. There is a troll, tara, who goes around trolling FA blogs, and pretty much everyone has been hit by her (myself included), so I tend to have a kneejerk reaction to the name.
That being said, it took someone pointing out in the Fatshionista livejournal community the racist implications of the project for it to get through to me. I had little interest in the project, but as someone who is white, and doesn’t deal with racism in her daily life, it didn’t really occur to me how offensive this might be to the people of Japan.
On being an ally; I try to be one, but I get the feeling that I tend to be oblivious to things around me (not just race related, a lot of things), so I feel like if I don’t recognize the racist implications of things, I’m not being a good ally. I can do things like call my family on obvious use of stereotypes, and things like that, but I feel like I need to start being more aware of what is going on in order to be a good ally, and be able to not only spot the more subtle racism that is so common in society, but be able to call out those who perpetuate it.
I agree with Harveypenguin. Several of the people responding to the post with acknowledgments that they’d heard about the project mentioned that it made them uncomfortable, but they didn’t know why. I had the same response of “that’s… weird” without having a name to put to the odd vibe. Maybe that means I didn’t examine it hard enough– it probably does. But honestly, I’m not sure even if I’d thought it out I’d have been able to put a name to the “that doesn’t seem kosher” feeling. I thank Anonymous for putting out there what I felt but didn’t have the word for– I have a hard time discussing something in a critical way when all I can say is “It just seems wrong.”
Maybe other white allies had the same experience. They saw that there was something wrong and strangely ethnocentric (I think my first response was “why would Japanese politicians care about what a tiny group of US activists think about this?”) but couldn’t find the words to expound on WHY it was wrong.
Heh, glad to know I’m not the troll in question! I’m going to start signing things as Tara Shuai, since that will leave little question about who is writing.
And, to both harveypenguin and LiHu, if not enough information about the way that racism works is the problem that prevents people from being able to identify it, then the solution is a serious dedication to educating yourself. Even though I am POC, I am half white, was raised in mostly white suburbia, and hence it took me a shitload of reading and learning and listening before I got to where I am today. The same with fat stuff. So, I would tell you what I’ve told allies before - be as serious in your study of race and racism as you are in your study of fat and fatphobia. Devour the many books, articles, and blogs whose central topics are the study of race, and then you will begin to be able to spot the blatant and the banal racism of everyday life and how it plays out in the FA community.
Also, looking forward to your thoughts, Nudemuse! And thanks!
I understand with and agree with your points that people need to trust their instincts and speak up when they feel something is very wrong. I agree that we shouldn’t let star power interfere with our criticism of even those activists we otherwise admire and respect. I especially agree that if we do not speak out against racism, we are passively endorsing it. But to dismiss “white allies” as merely jumping on the racist bandwagon isn’t really fair, either. It may be the strong tone of this post and the fact that it is an online and not personal correspondence, but it strikes me as incredibly shaming of white activists for not speaking out on this issue. Shame can be a powerful motivator, but it can also serve to distance people and can itself be used as a tool of domination.
Like you, life gets in the way for many people. In an alternate world, we have boundless time and energy to pursue all that we are passionate about. In the real world, we have jobs, families, obligations. Nor is everyone at a point in their own self-journeys where they feel comfortable or capable of speaking out. I spoke out with an unpopular stand recently in subversion of a movement celebrity in one of the very same venues you link to above and I found it to be a very lonely and demoralizing place – and this coming from someone whose mother says she would argue with Jesus. So, I understand why others, especially those for whom fat acceptance and privilege are relatively new concepts, may hesitate and fear to tread similar ground. There is also that additional fear held by white activists that by speaking out on issues of racism they many inadvertently “speak for” POC. When in doubt, many don’t.
These are not excuses for not speaking out on racial issues nor do I want to invalidate the very valid points you have raised. I just think the tone in which you presented this could have been, well, less accusatory. Instead of holding people “accountable” for their silence, we should instead question the reasons for the silence itself.
Some slightly random thoughts from someone who tries to be an ally:
1. In the fatosphere, there’s not been a history of great, substantive discussions on these things. That means that allies and PoC end up doing a lot of 101 educating, which is important, but not always interesting or rewarding. (At least for me. Others may have more patience than I do.)
2. Because we’re still at the 101 level, I tend to roll my eyes and click to a different site when I see something racist or obnoxiously privileged, rather than speak out. Because I feel that speaking out will either require me to glue myself to the computer for several days and play nice as I try to bite back my sarcasm and answer 101 questions (as I did, a lot, for my guest post at Shapely Prose) or else will subject me to a lot of nastiness from people who claim I’m “tearing down” someone else instead of engaging with the actual issue (as I saw, a lot, for my guest post at Shapely Prose).
3. I’m not proud of ignoring the problems I see in FA, but I am demoralized in addressing them. The discussions tend to spawn a lot of “How DARE you accuse anyone of RACISM! Being called a racist is the WORST THING EVER!!!” hyperbole, which basically functions to protect white people’s feelings at the expense of everyone else, and because there doesn’t seem to be much conscious or expressed awareness that this is happening, it works. Which leads to…
4. The fatosphere is really *nice*. Which is great, in some respects, but sucks when problems arise. I’ve felt again and again that there’s an underlying assumption that “This is where I won’t be challenged,” which leads to complete freak-outs at anything perceived as a challenge or criticism. I certainly don’t want the movement to turn into a hotbed of nastiness, but it’s annoying, and limiting, to have to be “nice” all the time.
rachelr-
I don’t apologize for my tone. I *am* angry about this, because it is not just this one time, but what I see as a consistent issue in the fatosphere. It’s true that peoples’ lives, mine included, get in the way of responding in the way that we’d like to, but there are hundreds and probably thousands of people who frequent these FA spaces, many of whom have claimed to care about racism. So, did *everyone’s* life get in the way? I certainly saw folks engage in other discussions while this was going on. Because I am not targeting one ally’s lack of response, but a whole host of them, I don’t think it was inappropriate of me to feel anger and disappointment that so few spoke up. You may feel comfortable and justified with your own reasons for not speaking up, which is fine, but that doesn’t let everyone off the hook.
And, I would rather have someone at least attempt to vocalize what they think is racist about XYZ and risk that they might not get it 100%, but still have at least made the effort and taken the risk. Which is the point - being an ally is not easy and you will not be right all of the time. In fact, it is likely that you will misstep and someone will be frustrated/angry/disappointed that you did, but the point is that being an ally is worth it because without each others’ investment, oppression in any form will never end.
occhiblu-
2. Because we’re still at the 101 level, I tend to roll my eyes and click to a different site when I see something racist or obnoxiously privileged, rather than speak out. Because I feel that speaking out will either require me to glue myself to the computer for several days and play nice as I try to bite back my sarcasm and answer 101 questions (as I did, a lot, for my guest post at Shapely Prose) or else will subject me to a lot of nastiness from people who claim I’m “tearing down” someone else instead of engaging with the actual issue (as I saw, a lot, for my guest post at Shapely Prose).
Hey, I agree. Engaging in comment threads is so freaking exhausting. I get sick of it too, and sometimes ignore the stupid shit that people have said in response to my own posts. But the idea is that there should theoretically be enough people to pick up the slack when folks burn out or are tired. It’s disappointing that this is not the case.
3. I’m not proud of ignoring the problems I see in FA, but I am demoralized in addressing them. The discussions tend to spawn a lot of “How DARE you accuse anyone of RACISM! Being called a racist is the WORST THING EVER!!!” hyperbole, which basically functions to protect white people’s feelings at the expense of everyone else, and because there doesn’t seem to be much conscious or expressed awareness that this is happening, it works. Which leads to…
I’m trying not to be too snarky here, but *you* are demoralized? Fucking tell me about it. I reconsider my participation in fat activism almost daily because it is so fucking demoralizing. Being not only a fat person of color, but a fat east Asian of color who sees Asian culture (which of course is mostly treated as a monolith) both exoticized and demonized as the MOST! FAT! HATING! EVER! is just…well…I am tired.
4. The fatosphere is really *nice*. Which is great, in some respects, but sucks when problems arise. I’ve felt again and again that there’s an underlying assumption that “This is where I won’t be challenged,” which leads to complete freak-outs at anything perceived as a challenge or criticism. I certainly don’t want the movement to turn into a hotbed of nastiness, but it’s annoying, and limiting, to have to be “nice” all the time.
Agreed. I have gotten criticized for my “tone” (*clears throat*) more than I care to admit. Thankfully, I just roll my eyes and move on with it, because I won’t even entertain the possibility that my tone invalidates my points anymore.
Anyway, thanks for writing in. Also, I didn’t comment on your SP post (except for maybe twice, I think) because the comments were a hot fucking mess, but I appreciate what you wrote and am glad that you’re trying.
I’m trying not to be too snarky here, but *you* are demoralized?
Heh, yeah. I tried to post a follow-up pointing out that my being able to just roll my eyes and click away was completely a luxury that I’m slightly ashamed for engaging in, but my clicky trigger finger sent that follow-up into the comment thread for the anonymous guest post.
But, for the record: Yes, I completely understand that my demoralization is pretty lightweight here. But I fought for so long against misogyny in very male-heavy online environments, and burned out so completely, that I’m trying not to run up the same savior complex elsewhere. But that, of course, brings up all the other issues you’re talking about…
Basically, I guess, I agree so wholeheartedly with this:
But the idea is that there should theoretically be enough people to pick up the slack when folks burn out or are tired. It’s disappointing that this is not the case.
I am a straight, white, fat female. When I came across the project, I thought it was a great idea. I personally have spent my whole career learning Japanese culture and language and living among Japanese people, and the idea didn’t strike me as negative on any level. I thought it was a clever way to send a message and maybe make a few people take a second glance at what’s going on there. I think the comparison of paper cranes to swastikas was more than a bit farfetched. I agree with the comment on the other entry that said paper cranes are mostly thought of as granting a wish or as a symbol of peace. I can understand how some may think about the historical significance of it and someone could potentially be offended (besides the fact that whoever it goes to will probably believe strongly in their waistline rules and think we’re just crazy fat people), but I simply don’t find the idea of it harmful. I think you have to dig way down deep to find the racism in it, and I don’t think many people will. So I’m breaking MY silence here. In the middle of all these people coming out and saying they thought it was racist all along, I am saying that I never thought it was and I still don’t. You can call me ignorant if you like, but I don’t think this is a black and white issue. I’ll still be making my cranes and sending them along to Marilyn, and I am excited to see the project progress.
@passerby
I don’t think your individual, personal silence was what Tara is referring to; on the contrary, there have been numerous posts all over the blogosphere discussing how excellent this project is, in an uncritical way. I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that people would NOT be complimentary toward a project they thought was candidly racist.
The silence Tara refers to is the complete lack of critical analysis in the blogosphere of the project’s appropriative aspects. So far as I know, the Anonymous post preceding hers was the first public piece of writing addressing these concerns.
…I simply don’t find the idea of it harmful. I think you have to dig way down deep to find the racism in it, and I don’t think many people will.
You don’t necessarily have to feel personally harmed by this idea. I’d have to stretch to say *I* was personally harmed by this, because I’m white and being white means unanalyzed racism tends to turn the tide in my favor and not against me. It’s not your place, however, to tell people of color what they can or cannot perceive as racism.
Also, just because the majority of people engaged in this project (the majority being white and probably having no personal motivation or impetus to think of this in any other way) fail to see any racism in this project - that doesn’t mean the racism others see is not real. Truthfully, I’d have to call that line of thinking “black and white”, since it seems to suggest that the feelings of POC on the subject are illegitimate.
I expect this isn’t what you meant. But that’s how it sounds.
occhiblu-
I feel like maybe I should have clarified in the original post that it really is about the failing of a collective movement and not of individuals. Of course, no one can fight every fight ever time! Like you mentioned, that is the quickest path to burnout and does no one any good. But yeah, the choice to be able to walk away relatively unscathed by some of the stuff that goes down is a privilege I don’t think most people realize they have.
Hello, all. I’ve been lurking for some time but just now registered. I am nervous about jumping in on such a sensitive topic, but here goes.
About the “fat cranes” project specifically: There are activists of all kinds in Japan. I know because I met a few and heard of others when I lived there years ago. My information is old and obviously limited, but I don’t see this effort going over well. There is a worldwide sensitivity to American interference, especially in areas where the U.S. obviously needs to get its own house in order. It would be great to support people in Japan who are fighting the waistline rules, but I don’t think the Fat Cranes will be effective. Puzzling and perhaps insulting, yes, but not effective.
As for what makes a good ally, I can’t say. I’m a hypersensitive, white, middle-class person who has stopped visiting a number of “progressive” blogs because I am tired of seeing Body Acceptance treated as absurd, unnecessary, and destructive. I have been hurt to the core by some absolutely hateful remarks by so-called feminists who don’t seem to realize that fat people include women. These remarks weren’t directed at me, specifically, just the kind of person I am. Yet I don’t feel my hurt was inappropriate or misplaced. Given that, how can I possibly object or protest when POC choose to leave the fatosphere for similar reasons? I believe in safe places (like I said, hypersensitive), but I don’t want to be a part of a movement in which “safe” equals smug and insular.
I say this, but I really have no solutions - just the fear that the Fat Acceptance movement is imploding.
I feel like maybe I should have clarified in the original post that it really is about the failing of a collective movement and not of individuals.
I definitely got that that’s what you meant, but at the same time, collective movements are made up of individual actions, so I think it all kind of gets us to the same place. Which is that, in my opinion, we *all* need to be more willing to speak up.
I think, too, that allies (and potential allies) all need to be more willing to tolerate a bit of conflict and discomfort as we all work through some of these issues, too. The guest post asked why there hasn’t been much critical discussion on these issues, and from my experience, it seems like any time things veer toward the uncomfortable, people with good intentions start tiptoeing out of the (metaphorical) room because they don’t want to say something that will offend; that silence ends up looking like (a) lack of interest in the discussion, (b) lack of empathy for PoC, and (c) lack of support for people who are willing to speak up.
So the fear of saying the wrong thing ends up silencing everyone, because it leaves the people who *do* speak up feeling like they have no back-up — and also like they’re dominating the conversation, which brings us back to the “be nice” rule that tends to operate in the fatosphere.
I feel like I’m rambling a bit here, but I guess I’m trying to get at an answer to your question of “What does good ally behavior look like?” And I think for me it’s generally:
* If someone’s anger is making you uncomfortable, step back and try to understand where they’re coming from before stepping in to “make nice.” While no one should be subject to personal attacks, conflict is not always bad, and criticism is not always (or even often) a personal attack. Glossing over conflict or outrage allows unfair situations to continue.
* If you believe in something, say something, rather than letting your silence be taken as consent with wrong-headed views or as shunning of people who do speak up.
I work as a grief counselor, and one thing that comes up a lot in grief work is this problem where friends and family don’t know what to say to someone who’s grieving; they want to fix it, and they can’t, so they say nothing or else they try to minimize the problem, and that awkwardness and silence and minimizing becomes extremely isolating to the griever. I think racism (and other -isms) can be the same way, where well-intentioned people want to “fix it” for the person complaining, but they can’t most of the time, so we’re left with awkward silences or condescending head-pats (”Oh, it can’t be that bad”).
And I think the suggestions are probably the same for both situations: Say “I’m sorry” or “I don’t know what to say” and then *listen* to the other person without trying to fix anything.
That may not work for all situations, and there are certainly situations that *can* be fixed, but the fixing won’t happen until *after* the listening, anyway.
Thanks for the suggestions, occhiblu. I especially appreciate the analogy about your work as a grief counselor, because it feels to be a pretty apt parallel to me.
Coming back to respond to the original post: I am personally frequently slow in responding to these issues, and I acknowledge that. I blame my lingering Grad Student Syndrome - that is, the need to assemble and organize my thoughts meticulously, formulate my words with the utmost care, make certain I can reference appropriate citations to support my arguments as necessary, and clarify that any metaphors I might use are appropriate and not exacerbating the problem. (Part of this, I’ll allow, is the tangible horror a lot of grad students I’ve known, including myself, feel at the prospect of being WRONG, of saying something wrong, of mis-speaking or misrepresenting, of offering an inadequate defense for our position, and essentially losing a battle.)
In real life situations, this actually serves me really, really well, since typically by the time I address whatever is making me uncomfortable, the confrontation is not happening in the same moment as the offending event, and thus it’s much easier to have a conversation that is actually productive and doesn’t just drive the other party into a defensive posture that make progress impossible. Coming at whatever the problem is with more distance, and with my arguments nearly-perfected, usually results in a lot more understanding passing between me and the person(s) in question, even if we never come to complete agreement.
Online, it’s actually a bit of a liability, since internet communication has this attendant sense of urgency and immediacy that I don’t so much run across in day-to-day life (this is my experience, I’m sure others feel differently). Frequently by the time I’ve formulated my position, folks have already moved on to something else. I still share it, though online it doesn’t often lead to the same constructive end that real-life situations do.
Is my specific experience and approach common in the fatosphere? I don’t know. I do know there is always a palpable and widespread fear on behalf of many would-be allies of making things worse by speaking up and saying the wrong thing. I second your frustrations, and tend to think our (meaning fat activists) primary failure on a movement level is in not cultivating an environment and a culture within FA (and within a lot of anti-racist circles, I would argue as well) in which trying and saying the wrong thing - about race, about fat, about whatever - is ALWAYS encouraged and supported and more highly valued over saying nothing at all.
What baffles me about this situation is that most FA bloggers get outraged when they find themselves outside the fatosphere and are told by non-FA people (doctors, family members, coworkers, just for a start) that we’re all wrong, that fat acceptance is a joke, that we’re all lying to ourselves, and that fat prejudice is either nonexistent or well-deserved.
How the fuck is that different than telling a POC within FA that their perception of a certain action as racist is wrong, or worthy of LOLs, or “ridiculous”, or that racism is nonexistent or well-deserved?
How the fuck is that different than telling a POC within FA that their perception of a certain action as racist is wrong, or worthy of LOLs, or “ridiculous”, or that racism is nonexistent or well-deserved?
It is in no way different. The weird thing, to me, is that refusing to acknowledge/work on eliminating racism from the FA movement hurts everyone. People from non-dominant cultures end up feeling let down and alienated again and again, and people from dominant cultures end up losing the input and experience of people who have much to contribute - and not just on the issues surrounding race. How many bloggers have left the fatosphere this year alone? There is absolutely no benefit to anyone in having POC in the fatosphere act as The Lone Voices of Anti-racism.
So… for what it’s worth coming from a non-blogger who rarely comments on anything, I support you, Tara. I’m also in a position to fight in my job, and I give it at least give it a shot every day.
As the first person who commented on the post from Anon on the 1000 Cranes project, I’m sure I’m one of the white bloggers who “jumped on the bandwagon” rather than posting my own thoughs when I first had a negative reaction.
I’m left feeling torn — on one hand, I did wish I had said something in the first place, when I first heard about the project, and spent some time wondering why I didn’t. On the other hand, I think that by reading closely and responding to Anon’s post, I might be more likely to speak up the next time. Baby, baby, baby step, I’m sure.
Am I as crappy an ally in real life? I hope not, but maybe I am.
I can aim to do better in the future — I can’t fix the fact that I didn’t speak up. I can keep doing what I have been doing periodically — when I come across something that speaks to intersectionality, I try to highlight it on my blog. And I’ll keep trying to read with an open heart and mind, and not let my own feelings get in the way of what needs to happen.
“as someone who is white, and doesn’t deal with racism in her daily life, it didn’t really occur to me how offensive this might be to the people of Japan.”
Ditto. I have to plead pure ignorance on this one, but I was definitely interested in and fascinated by Anonymous’ criticisms.
I do think there are a couple potential ways of intepreting Marilyn’s project: there’s the “chastising the Japanese for size discrimination” aspect, but also the “expressing solidarity with the Japanese citizens disadvantaged by the legislation.”
Wild optimist that I am, I guess I preferred to focus on the latter more than the former. Guess I’ve got some rethinking to do.
Lesley, your challenge has been similar to my own! I am so wedded to the desire to be “right,” that it’s hard for me to post about things before I’m certain I can win the argument. I’ve definitely realized, however, that the tyranny of Rightness is not necessarily the best place to operate from. It really stifles our voices and at least for me, leaves me with regrets later when I haven’t spoken up.
Thanks for your thoughts! I always appreciate them.
Tara wrote: Because I am not targeting one ally’s lack of response, but a whole host of them, I don’t think it was inappropriate of me to feel anger and disappointment that so few spoke up.
I’m glad you clarified this, because it seemed to me as if you were lying in wait for anyone who commented in agreement on Anonymous’ post to single them out in this post. It was this perceived shaming of individual activists — “white allies” — that struck me as incredibly unfair. Even more unfair when you consider that your voice, and that of other non-white activists, were among those noticeably absent.
I’m not asking you to “apologize” for your tone or anything else. What I am saying is that there are many reasons why someone — even one who had a gut feeling that this campaign was somehow wrong — may not have felt able or comfortable in speaking out. Instead of assuming the silence to be a case of white ally apathy, I think we need to explore the myriad of reasons why others did not speak up, so that we can better work to provide them with the necessary arsenal of tools to speak up in the future. If you hire an employee and do not provide them with any training, tools or resources to perform the job at-hand, is it really fair of you to fire them (”hold them accountable”) for their performance later?
I wanted to clarify my last comment above; I didn’t articulate it as clearly as I should have. I don’t think it is the responsibility of POC to teach white people how to recognize and/or eliminate racism. What I meant is that white privilege is so deeply ingrained in our culture that it often goes unnoticed by whites. As James Baldwin wrote, “Being white means never having to think about it.” Many white people may need it pointed out to them how they benefit by what are to many white people, often invisible structures of privilege. For so many people, issues of privilege and intersectional politics are new and novel concepts. I think that others more enlightened about such concepts — regardless of race — have a responsibility to help teach others both to recognize white privilege and how to work to eliminate it.
This is a hard one for me. I feel like I’m always coming in with: But wait! I’m a White Person Making it About Me! And I have decided that that’s all I CAN do, here, because to deny my white context is to be dishonest. In this case, I didn’t speak to the crane project because I am having a hard time getting free of my own white-race constructions to know what’s appropriate.
I’ve always reacted badly to what could be framed appropriation or could be framed cross cultural dialogue: I grew up with white hippies, and I get really reallly wary around dream catchers and cranes and aryuvedic medicine (sp?) and ‘the wisdom of the ancients’ as spoken by … white hippies. In some ways, I am an apostate of the church of new age melting pot. But that’s my reaction to a LOT of white culture right now, and I’m inconsistent. I have to bite my tongue at bellydance but not at karate: I’m not hearing a POC outcry from bellydance, so my race-dar is jigged wrong, and scads of people I respect are bellydance, so what do I know?
I don’t really understand where my lines are. I’ve been working at it - it’s something in romanticism that bugs me but I’m more comfortable with utilitarian sharing of ideas.
If I were to speak to cranes, I’d speak to bellydance. Which I don’t, because who is bugged by bellydance except me? Obviously, POC can’t be the only ones to call foul on racism — but having me riding about with my childhood in the side car yelling racism where no one else sees it is also no help. And I’m an unbalanced source: yoga used to bug me but now doesn’t. This is suspicious, because was the corporate rebranding of Yoga to Lululemon and Yuppies somehow *good*?
And I have an opposing force, too: because of growing up around Appropriation Commune, I was an often invited friend by many of my friends’ moms because I could help make the chapattis or tabouleh or the rice paper salad rolls - everyone really does bond over food. There’s a simplicity about the use of food: you eat it. Food rituals are different, of course, but people are pretty forgiving about missteps in food rituals, and to me it seems Universally Polite Thing To Do as a host is to offer food, and the Universally Polite Thing To Do as a guest is partake with thanks and enjoyment. (I grew up pretty poor, too: it seems to me that people are generous with food maybe more when it is tight, because it is a gift of significance.) That to me felt a lot like cross cultural dialogue.
But I’m a FAT white woman. I, like many white and portly people, am completely suspicious of my own food thoughts. Did food work for me because I am a Piggy Moo, and my Piggy Moo means I don’t Grok Cranes? Am I made cold by white use of Japanese iconography because I can’t EAT it?
My philosophical leanings are also more influenced by eastern philosophies - I grew up with ex-Christians and in a Christian society but personally have about the same direct formative contact with the Upanishads than with the Bible. Which means that something in my thinking is different on certain issues, BUT DOES NOT give me any experience with the day to day life of a Hindi person any more than a Catholic one. I have not grown up in a culture of Hindi weddings, for example. Or songs. Or all the other things that, like food, are the simple daily repeated acts of who we are. I may have made chappatis and had heard the Upanishads, but I am a White Girl, and that was really damn obvious to me on sleepovers. So coming home from sleepovers was always confusing.
Anyway, this isn’t to mean “some of my best friends are …” but rather I am very aware of being white, and my experiences suggest I’m untrustworthy to call foul on some of this.
What I CAN say in support is this:
NO ONE should call foul when someone expresses feeling left out in the cold by something, or feels like it’s another in a big pile. I don’t even know if or how cranes are used in Japanese society, or if it’s a perception we have - I’m Canadian, and have been asked if I live in an Igloo, so I am aware we’re easily confused about other places in the world - and in popular icons there is history and memories and lives lived. Christmas Trees, for example. There are certain contexts for the message of peace in a dead conifer.
I had misgivings about the 1000 Fat Paper Cranes Project from the get-go, for all the same reasons you and Anonymous have them. I chose not to speak up– at least not in the blogosphere. I’m a white woman who lived in Japan a few years ago, and if anything is clear to me, it is that a) any attempt to remedy social injustices in Japan have to come from Japanese sources, and operate in a specifically Japanese cultural context, and b) a bunch of Westerners intervening on behalf of Japanese people, without their consent, in a manner that might be conceived as mocking, is not going to do anybody any good.
I never spoke up about those misgivings– not online, anyway. I told a couple of my fat activist friends about my misgivings, and one of them posted in Fat Studies shortly thereafter.
I’m not defending that decision. I’m not proud of it. I was shocked that no one else brought it up immediately, and instead of opening up the space for dialogue on the subject, I let my fear of challenging Marilyn Wann keep me silent. And then I let my friend take the heat in Fat Studies by not commisserating with her, and when I saw the posts in Fatshionista, I was relieved that someone else was speaking out.
So while my silence came less from a lack of personal responsibility and more from fear of ostracism in a movement I’m just beginning to get involved in (and also the Grad Student Syndrome Lesley mentions above), I acknowledge that it had adverse effects, and aided in reproducing the same ol’ marginalizing hierarchies. In short: I’m sorry, and I’ll endeavor to just suck it up and take the heat from now on.