I just want to say that although I've largely stayed quietly on the sidelines through the various discussions I've seen lately in various corners of my fat activism world about race, discrimination, and privilege, I've appreciated them.
I appreciate the work of activists of color who are enduring silently the racism within our movement; I know I cannot understand fully how hurtful it is, but I do feel sad about the hurt you endure. And I appreciate your willingness to hang in there in the face of ignorance and spite and other negative stuff.
I appreciate the voices of activists of color who are willing to speak their concerns about racism they feel, and face, and endure. I know you often get negativity back when you share your criticisms and concerns, and I feel so disappointed and angry when that happens. I appreciate that you share them anyway.
I appreciate the humility and grace of those who possess white privilege and are willing to be on a journey of dialogue and learning about what that means and how to best be a Fat Lib voice for justice, liberation, and positivity for ALL the members of our Fat Lib community and fat people everywhere.
I aspire, and strive, to be one of the latter. I know I'll fail sometimes, which makes it hard for me to speak up at all. And I recognize that not speaking up at all can, in itself, be a failure to be the activist I want to be. So I thank the folks who are willing to take the time, the energy, the patience to educate, or point towards education, or in any other way help those of us who are white, who do have privilege, and who want to understand it and try never to abuse it. Thank you for doing the work you do, so that I and others in my situation can take steps on the journey of an inclusive Fat Lib movement with less fear of making a hurtful misstep.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I've been finding these difficult conversations to be very useful and helpful for me in my learning and growth. As a Jewish person, I don't consider myself to be "white" but I know that on the whole, I enjoy white privilege based on my appearance (depending on who sees me and what they assume I am, ethnically). I also enjoy thin privilege, which is a bizarre concept for me to wrap my head around, since I've never thought of myself in those terms, but the reality is - I've never been denied anything or discriminated against based on my weight or size.
ReplyDeleteI work in the mental health field, my sister is an ASL sign language interpreter and my father was severely disabled before he died last year. All of these experiences, plus the exposure to the discussions about intersectionality and social justice are showing me just how inclusive, accessible, and "tolerant" (ugh, how I hate that word) the world can be ... and more often, how it falls short of being those things.
Thanks for posting this :)
Thanks, Amy. I appreciate your insight about the subtlety of "I don't identify as white, but I benefit from white privilege." Really interesting thought.
DeleteThis is a great post, I try to learn about intersectionality too since I am ostracized from most groups based on different parts of my identity, as a white person I think it's extremely important to listen to POC.
ReplyDeleteI'm a new reader of your blog and started reading about Fat Lib not too long ago because of a disability blog had a link about it.
Thanks, Alicia. I agree that from what I know so far, the best thing we as white folks can do is LISTEN to our colleagues of color about their experiences, concerns, critiques, preferences, etc. etc., and do our best not to get defensive about what we hear.
DeleteThanks for reading - I have to admit I'm not a very consistent blogger, but I love knowing that I have this place to write down what I'm thinking about. I encourage you, if you haven't already done so, to seek out the Notes from the FatOSphere feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/FatFuNotesFromTheFatosphere -- read it online or do like I do and have it delivered to your email inbox) to connect with other Fat Poz bloggers, many of whom post way more consistently than me!
Well said! I have also been quiet on the subject. Just feel like things are at least starting to be addressed. Yay! <3
ReplyDeleteThank you for being a white person who is willing to acknowledge that racial privilege exists. No attempts by activists of any color to talk about race can be educational if the listener/reader is stuck in "but I'm not racist" or "I don't see race" mode.
ReplyDelete