Monday, November 22, 2010
Practice "voluntourism" and call it charity work
Ian Birrell of The Observer writes about the problems that arise when affluent tourists use their money to "make a difference" in the lives of the poorer people they ecounter in developing countries. Oh they make a difference all right. Just not in the sweet fantasy way that they were expecting.
Read the whole article at The Observer. And if that link no longer works, then you can access it here at ONTD_Feminism.
Truly a brilliant read.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Pat themselves on the back for being "Earth/animal conscious"
When large corporations pronounce themselves as "Green!" or animal/Earth conscious for the month... I don't believe them. I'm also not automatically convinced when individuals do the same thing.
"You shouldn't be running the faucet like that, you'll hurt the environment." One man told me as he was guzzling his third or fourth plastic bottle of water for the morning.
"I've become a vegetarian because we don't need to harm animals to maintain our way of life." One woman told me as I was eying what appeared to be genuine leather shoes on her feet.
I believe people like to say things about "helping the environment/animals" because they think it makes them look good, and it lets them feel better about themselves. I wonder why corporations would do something called "Green Week". What happens the other 51 weeks of the year? Is this a fad? Only something to try on before Green Fatigue sets in? Do they actually change some of their practices in order to be more "green"?
These are exactly the same questions I ask of people when they broadcast their intent to be environmentally friendly. If they care about the rainforests but still contribute to the massive consumption of paper goods, how is that helpful? How does a health guru who promotes drinking only the "special" water that they sell in 16 oz. disposable plastic bottles do everyone a courtesy by contributing to the giant plastic continent growing in the Pacific Ocean? What are some of the justifications a person makes for not eating a bucket of KFC chicken due to what they believe are animal rights abuses, but they blindly eat eggs from that same maltreated animal?
What about people who care more about their environmental or animal rights cause then fellow humans who happen to be marginalized in some way? Is it not counterproductive to ignore the plight of less fortunate people for the sake of maintaining the appearance of really caring about trees/chickens/toxic waste? In this mostly industrialized world, many of the issues we have with disappearing forests, toxic waste disposal, and treatment of animals directly intersects with privilege. There is a line that starts to appear between those that "have" and those that don't. For example, as a privileged person, I do not have to live in the same place that my waste is stored. I can either pay for someone to take it away, or someone will automatically clean it up for me in the public places that I frequent. For privileged people, that's where the line of awareness ends. They don't know who is doing the cleaning, and where the final storage place will be.
And yet, with our detachment from the environment, as we're reshaping and altering it with our actions, we are the first ones to dictate what it means to be be "environmentally conscious". How oxymoronic are we?
"You shouldn't be running the faucet like that, you'll hurt the environment." One man told me as he was guzzling his third or fourth plastic bottle of water for the morning.
"I've become a vegetarian because we don't need to harm animals to maintain our way of life." One woman told me as I was eying what appeared to be genuine leather shoes on her feet.
I believe people like to say things about "helping the environment/animals" because they think it makes them look good, and it lets them feel better about themselves. I wonder why corporations would do something called "Green Week". What happens the other 51 weeks of the year? Is this a fad? Only something to try on before Green Fatigue sets in? Do they actually change some of their practices in order to be more "green"?
These are exactly the same questions I ask of people when they broadcast their intent to be environmentally friendly. If they care about the rainforests but still contribute to the massive consumption of paper goods, how is that helpful? How does a health guru who promotes drinking only the "special" water that they sell in 16 oz. disposable plastic bottles do everyone a courtesy by contributing to the giant plastic continent growing in the Pacific Ocean? What are some of the justifications a person makes for not eating a bucket of KFC chicken due to what they believe are animal rights abuses, but they blindly eat eggs from that same maltreated animal?
What about people who care more about their environmental or animal rights cause then fellow humans who happen to be marginalized in some way? Is it not counterproductive to ignore the plight of less fortunate people for the sake of maintaining the appearance of really caring about trees/chickens/toxic waste? In this mostly industrialized world, many of the issues we have with disappearing forests, toxic waste disposal, and treatment of animals directly intersects with privilege. There is a line that starts to appear between those that "have" and those that don't. For example, as a privileged person, I do not have to live in the same place that my waste is stored. I can either pay for someone to take it away, or someone will automatically clean it up for me in the public places that I frequent. For privileged people, that's where the line of awareness ends. They don't know who is doing the cleaning, and where the final storage place will be.
And yet, with our detachment from the environment, as we're reshaping and altering it with our actions, we are the first ones to dictate what it means to be be "environmentally conscious". How oxymoronic are we?
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Redirect the focus from marginalized people... back to you
It's not all about you. M'kay?
The next time you get the urge to share "that one time that you almost kinda sorta *knew* what it was like" to live in said marginalized person's shoes... censor yourself.
There are all kinds of ways that people can be discriminated against: Fatphobia, transphobia, homophobia, racism, shadeism, misogyny, age-related, ableism, right handed bias, religious intolerance, height discrimination, lookism, classism... the list goes on for days.
Most folks would insist that they fit in at least one or two of the categories of discriminated populations, some people could fit in many more than a handful. Even if you are practically a card carrying member of one population that is routinely mistreated, your street cred does not carry over into another group in which you are not a part of. Let me repeat this: Your marginalization is not a 2-for-1 deal.
For example: An obese man knows what it's like to be a obese man operating in society. However, since he does not have the experience of an obese woman operating in the same society, he will not be able to empathize with said obese woman on an existential level. Sure he can sympathize because they both share in the attribute of their large size, but he cannot empathize with her on being a woman, much less, a large woman.
You feel me?
Whenever you try to make your form of oppression relevant in a situation that does not involve you, what ends up happening is that the people who, for once, had the floor are now silenced yet again, as you stampede your way into the spotlight. Privileged people tend to do this all. the. time. I will admit that I've done it in the past, although I continue to strive for heightened awareness in that aspect. Actually, I will share an incident that I should have and could have known better than to do what I did... but still did it anyway.
In a Saturday seminar class called "Queer Theory" taught by one of my most favorite lecturers, Dr. David Tripp, the floor was opened up to discussion, and somehow, I thought it would be an appropriate time to whine about how products geared for women are routinely priced higher than the comparable gender neutral (aka male oriented) products. I, a straight ciswoman, took time away from the other sexual minorities in the class, for what should have been time for them to speak about their experiences unhindered by extraneous rhetoric. The second the words left my mouth, I knew I just did what the title of this post is saying not to do.
I am a woman. A black woman. Who is straight. Who also has no business dominating a discussion created for those who do not and cannot live in this heteronormative world as a straight person. I learned a very big lesson that day. Yes, I have and do experience episodes of discrimination because of my black woman-ness, but I also experience the insidious privilege of being a straight woman who is married and has no social penalty for discussing it openly. I don't have to think twice about that stuff. But a lot of other people out there do.
So, at the end of all this, what I'm saying is, the next time you want to play Oppression Olympics... stop. Take a look at your audience, and then look back at yourself. Would you be depriving other individuals from benefiting in that space if you shared your personal story? Do your personal anecdotes add any value to the discussion, or is it dimply a derailment? We all have the itch to add a personal trinket to highly charged discussions from time to time, but it takes a lot of self control to check that privilege. We could all stand to exercise that kind of control a little more often.
The next time you get the urge to share "that one time that you almost kinda sorta *knew* what it was like" to live in said marginalized person's shoes... censor yourself.
There are all kinds of ways that people can be discriminated against: Fatphobia, transphobia, homophobia, racism, shadeism, misogyny, age-related, ableism, right handed bias, religious intolerance, height discrimination, lookism, classism... the list goes on for days.
Most folks would insist that they fit in at least one or two of the categories of discriminated populations, some people could fit in many more than a handful. Even if you are practically a card carrying member of one population that is routinely mistreated, your street cred does not carry over into another group in which you are not a part of. Let me repeat this: Your marginalization is not a 2-for-1 deal.
For example: An obese man knows what it's like to be a obese man operating in society. However, since he does not have the experience of an obese woman operating in the same society, he will not be able to empathize with said obese woman on an existential level. Sure he can sympathize because they both share in the attribute of their large size, but he cannot empathize with her on being a woman, much less, a large woman.
You feel me?
Whenever you try to make your form of oppression relevant in a situation that does not involve you, what ends up happening is that the people who, for once, had the floor are now silenced yet again, as you stampede your way into the spotlight. Privileged people tend to do this all. the. time. I will admit that I've done it in the past, although I continue to strive for heightened awareness in that aspect. Actually, I will share an incident that I should have and could have known better than to do what I did... but still did it anyway.
In a Saturday seminar class called "Queer Theory" taught by one of my most favorite lecturers, Dr. David Tripp, the floor was opened up to discussion, and somehow, I thought it would be an appropriate time to whine about how products geared for women are routinely priced higher than the comparable gender neutral (aka male oriented) products. I, a straight ciswoman, took time away from the other sexual minorities in the class, for what should have been time for them to speak about their experiences unhindered by extraneous rhetoric. The second the words left my mouth, I knew I just did what the title of this post is saying not to do.
I am a woman. A black woman. Who is straight. Who also has no business dominating a discussion created for those who do not and cannot live in this heteronormative world as a straight person. I learned a very big lesson that day. Yes, I have and do experience episodes of discrimination because of my black woman-ness, but I also experience the insidious privilege of being a straight woman who is married and has no social penalty for discussing it openly. I don't have to think twice about that stuff. But a lot of other people out there do.
So, at the end of all this, what I'm saying is, the next time you want to play Oppression Olympics... stop. Take a look at your audience, and then look back at yourself. Would you be depriving other individuals from benefiting in that space if you shared your personal story? Do your personal anecdotes add any value to the discussion, or is it dimply a derailment? We all have the itch to add a personal trinket to highly charged discussions from time to time, but it takes a lot of self control to check that privilege. We could all stand to exercise that kind of control a little more often.
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