A False Step

[poliphilo]

I got a savaging on a Feminist forum the other day. It was my own stupid fault. I'm too old to run with that particular crowd. Besides, I didn't study the subject at university and I don't use- or respect- the jargon.

I consider myself a feminist. If feminism means believing in the equality of the sexes, I'm enthusiastically for it. 

But I should have realised that the gnomic, slightly mischievous comments I go in for aren't going to wash on this particular site (with its ginormous rulebook)- and that you can't challenge someone (especially if if you're a white male) in that culture of victimhood without being accused of  "exercising privilege" and "silencing" them. 

A black American woman had accused a white European woman of racism. The white European woman had replied that the black American woman wasn't taking cultural differences into consideration and that her view was "US-centric". At least I think that's what had happened. The mods then intervened to rule that if a black person accuses a white person of racism that is gospel and no comeback is possible. The white person must take her whipping in patience and humility and afterwards kiss the rod.

I said I thought this was unfair- and that US-centrism is a real issue.  Are black American women really so fragile that they need protecting from all disagreement? Isn't it kind of insulting to assume they can't hold their own in debate?

I'll admit I didn't express myself as clearly or fully at the time. I spoke off the cuff. I should have been more careful- not that it would have made much difference if I had.

I thought I'd stir up a bit of controversy. I was wrong. The pack turned on me and tore me to shreds.

I am- among other things- a white, cracker racialist who likes to wave his dick around.

I'm talking about this here because after a while I realised there was no point in trying to explain myself over there. No-one  was interested in debate, only in parading their righteousness and calling me names. When you're in a hole it's foolish to go on digging.

I'll admit I felt a bit sorry for myself at first- but I'm over it now. I took a nice walk round a lake yesterday and had fish and chips in a garden centre and visited with my niece and nephew and that sort of cleared my head. 

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Hi, I had a look at your blog after reading the debacle on feminist. I've been watching that community for a while for the sheer entertainment of the constant rows they get into due to everyone's constant hypervigilance that somebody, somewhere is insulting them. I think these women are a set of rabid, humourless harridans who roam the internet looking for stray white people to remind them about their white privilege.

This is especially true if they are white themselves, in which case they will scream twice as loud. As if a white person condemning whiteness isn't the most egregiously privileged action I've ever heard of.

In fact if I were to randomly edit everything I wrote to add the words, "you should check your white privilege" at the end of every sentence I'd no doubt get a round of applause (or, alternatively, "just because you acknowledge your privilege doesn't mean you are not going to be flogged with a piece of barbed wire" or some such rubbish.

I call myself a feminist and I believe that white privilege exists. But I don't believe these people represent me. They're debating themselves into an ineffectual cul-de-sac and their tearing at each other achieves nothing.

I've seen them go for other people in other place (such as Hugo Schwyzer's blog) and they are absolute hyenas, particularly about race. Which is different in the US than anywhere else. Nobody is disputing that racism is de rigueur in Europe too, but in America it's different. The entrenched groups HATE each other - it is a totally segregated society.

I think part of it is jealousy and part of it is paranoia - there is a grain of truth in their accusations but so much anger and accusatory feelings have been dumped in on top of this that you cannot see their feelings as any more than merely another special interest group with vested interests.

Anyway you sound perfectly sane to me, and I wouldn't accord any concern or merit to these people's opinions, which equate to the worth of the people themselves.

just passing by

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your support.

It seems on this showing that it's very difficult for an American and a European to debate the subject of race. The history is different, the issues are different. To reduce it to basics- America had slavery, Europe had empire. In Europe race is one of a cluster of issues that include culture, religion and immigration. In America everything is starkly a matter of black and white. Over here we debate the pros and cons of multiculturalism. In America I doubt that that word even makes it onto the agenda.