I’ve grown up in seemingly progressive environments my entire life. I was born and raised in Los Angeles, in a state that is primarily liberal in a handful of coastal cities than its entirety, contrary to popular belief. My middle/high school was pretty progressive too as far as a predominantly white space goes: we had openly gay administrators and some of my favorite teachers were feminists who made me read Simone de Beauvoir and people of color who helped me think about race and culture critically for the first time. I’m positive that nearly all of my friends that I know personally and online are left-leaning individuals who are offended by conservative ideology.
However, no matter how left-leaning some people or spaces are, they are not automatically exempt from an incredibly irritating phenomenon that I’m going to call “the pseudo-progressive culture of false equivalencies.” What is that? Well, let me offer an example: A black person creates a blog dedicated to black women in fashion, since the number of black women the industry is severely lacking to say the least (the racism doesn’t help). Cue disgruntled white person asking why the blog is only about black women. “Why can’t you celebrate all women in fashion? Why just black ones? Someone wouldn’t dare make a blog dedicated to white women in fashion because that would be seen as racist! It’s not fair!”
This hypothetical individual would go on to espouse on the nuance of celebrating humanity instead, arguing that marginalized people celebrating the successes and acknowledging continued tribulations of their own merely makes society more divisive. Yup, to them marginalized people have themselves to blame for their continued subjugation.
This is the pseudo-progressive culture of false equivalencies, consisting of people claiming that marginalized people should embrase “humanity” as a whole instead of their own groups that continue to be oppressed in mainstream western society. This behavior is rampant in progressive spaces, from seemingly innocuous conversations over coffee to the internet, especially around months dedicated to marginalized people (Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Gay Pride Month, etc). For some reason, people who aren’t marginalized in some category feel an overwhelming need to claim that these months are unfair and hypocritical. The cynical part of me thinks they must see oppression as a fun, edgy club that all the cool kids are invited to. It really seems that way based on how incensed people get about not being invited to the annual party. Most of the time these bold declarations about the unfairness of holidays, publications, and the like dedicated to marginalized people include the following assurances: They support equal rights for all marginalized people, have gay friends, love Mexican food, dated an Asian girl once, or have seen Do the Right Thing five times. This is said out of fear that they might offend (and yes, it’s offensive). All in all, I’m left seeing red by the end of their oh so progressive suggestions that we all need to hold hands and think positively and ignore bigotry, othering, and other systematic, institutional prejudices and it’ll all go away. I guess the power of loving humanity will lessen my chances of being followed around in a store by an employee who thinks I’m going to steal something because my skin is brown. Who knew!
What people need to realize is this: No, having a History/Pride month, organization, magazine, etc dedicated to marginalized people is not as offensive or divisive as having one dedicated to men, white people, straight people, or other people of privilege. Those people are celebrated and are seen as “the norm” every single day in everything we consume, from history lessons to television advertisements. In the name of openness, equality, and the rampant urge to point out “double standards”, people seem to forget historical and societal context. Think about the world we live in and think about what groups are still oppressed, degraded, and treated unfairly on a daily basis. When people claim that we, as a society, are so progressive and have moved past racial bigotry or misogyny and having pride in those things is no longer necessary, I feel more marginalized than ever. That is an erasure of continued strife that I feel as a black woman. We are not in a post-racial society, and sexism isn’t a thing of the past. I’m reminded of that every single day in one way or another.
In conclusion, marginalized people should be able to celebrate themselves and recognize the continued struggles in their communities without privileged, progressive “allies” telling them that they are acting unfairly. If they’re truly as progressive as they think they would support us, not fight us.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Stunning.
Fanks
This. & when white people who are struggling ask, “Where is my Native American hospital? Where is my oil money? My scholarships?” Oh lawd I don’t even bother.
Yes, I really wish that privilege was something that is taught properly in schools to be honest. This “me too-ism” is so counterproductive.
I know I’m more than a month late to the party, but I thought I’d comment on this anyway.
Great post! The ignorance of some people knows no bounds. It’s not even as though they stop teaching white history during black/latino history month, and you *can* get “white scholarships.” My school offers a pretty sizable “Irish scholarship,” which is especially sad given that I go to a Catholic school. Guess what the *overwhelming* majority of our students already claim as their ethnic background? Other than that, I can’t really speak to this issue on race, so I hope you don’t mind if I just rant about the sexism/homophobic side of things.
How many times did I have to explain last fall that “Yes, it is awful that straight kids get bullied and people absolutely should do more to help straight kids who get bulled, but THAT’S NOT THE POINT JUST NOW, mkay?” And there’s that awful “Segregating yourselves is INVITING discrimination!” crowd that you run into whenever the issue of queer-majority schools and Churches comes up. Ugh.
“In the name of openness, equality, and the rampant urge to point out “double standards”, people seem to forget historical and societal context.”
The really ironic thing about it all is that when you *do* dare to treat privileged people equally, they *still* get upset with you. Those people are so used to the world being one giant double-standard that they perceive *actual equality* as an insult.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve joked that I’m against straight marriage/adoption, and *inevitably* the people who are always telling me that “It’s just politics” and I should “just let everyone believe what they want to believe” when it comes to gay rights are the very *first* people to start insisting that I’m an awful, hateful person for saying that straight people cheapen marriage/the same shit straight people have been saying about me for years, that everyone tells me to get over. It’s gotten to the point where I do it once in a while just to see if whoever I’m hanging out with is a major hypocrite or not.
And oh my god, don’t *ever* suggest that men and women should *both* have the right to wear what they want, while *both* having the responsibility not to rape people. Apparently that counts as misandry in Colorado. o_O
“The cynical part of me thinks they must see oppression as a fun, edgy club that all the cool kids are invited to.”
I love his line, because yes, I really think that some people do! They think that oppression has just vanished (or never really existed, in the case of queer people), so now all PoC/queer people/women are just living it up and getting “special treatment” for fun.
“In conclusion, marginalized people should be able to celebrate themselves and recognize the continued struggles in their communities without privileged, progressive “allies” telling them that they are acting unfairly. ”
Can I just say that I really really hate the fact that “ally” is a label (particularly a self-granted one, apparently)? You should need a label to fight oppression. You just DO IT because IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO. At it’s worst, all the label does is make privileged people feel like they can make all of the problematic things they do go away just by *calling themselves* an ally, and at it’s best, the “ally” label turns into an emotional reward system in the mind of the so-called “ally” and the focus is on how the “ally” is perceived rather than what the ally is doing.
I really appreciate this blog post. I am an African American woman who was raised in a predominately white neighborhood and under a Eurocentric school system. I definitely held the belief that special days/months dedicated to minorities were racist because they essentially excluded white people. I was always embarrassed with MLK Day and Black History Month because the schools would finally decide to focus on the positive impact minorities had on America, and white people would complain about not feeling included on that ONE day or ONE month. I would always be thankful when these holidays were over and we could get back to our “normal” studies of the European influences that we usually learned about. I am college freshman now and I am just now gaining exposure to all sorts of racial injustices. This viewpoint really made me think twice about why we as minorities deserve these holidays/special moments, why we should ultimately be proud of them, and why the “this doesn’t cater to white people so it’s not fair” argument just doesn’t make sense. (My favorite line: “The cynical part of me thinks they must see oppression as a fun, edgy club that all the cool kids are invited to.” I thought this was worded BRILLIANTLY and captures my sentiments perfectly.) I know I’m probably super-late to this post as I just discovered your blog via Tumblr, but I just wanted to thank you for sharing your opinion and helping to expose the racism veiled by America’s narrow-minded “idea” of equality.