Sunday 1 June 2014

You really need to stop doing these things:


The following actions are how I define toxic social justice as performed by minority people:

1. You spend two years telling members of one minority that a site and you as a poster constantly posting slurs/bigotry that impacts them isn't a problem, then have the cheek to complain loudly that "nobody ever listens to us" the one time the site features someone whose bigotry impacts your group.

2. You can tell everyone exactly how much more likely someone with privilege over you is less likely to be oppressed in a specific manner, but still don't know how much your privilege benefits you over others and get angry when asked if you do know.

3. You tell people not to report abuse if you think it will negatively impact your group, and hold them responsible for the authorities actions if they do. Sorry, but people should not be pressured to not report an attempted rape simply because the perpetrator has a minority identity and you think the police might oppress people who happen to share that identity.

4. You say "I believe her" but what you really mean is "So long as I like her and she's part of my group".

5. You constantly expect the abused to not suffer problems because of being abused by people who are minorities as well as privileged over the person they abused. Someone was raped by someone belonging to a specific minority group? How dare they be nervous around that group. You also think that shouting at someone that they're a bigot for PTSD related fears will magically fix their PTSD because apparently you think shaming people for irrational fears will totally help them not to have them.

6. You have multiple privileges but act like they don't exist, and act like any oppressions you don't have don't matter if the person who has them has a privilege you don't have.

7. You think being angry justifies saying bigoted shit that impacts a minority you don't belong to. When called on this, you cry "Tone policing" as if being asked to not use slurs and/or not say bigoted things is the same as "you're too angry about your oppression so I won't listen to you".

8. You not only do 7 but you also actively tone police people who ask you to knock off saying bigoted shit.

9. You can name folks with your level of privilege and oppression who suffer violence, but have never heard of high level cases surrounding who share your oppressions and have others on top of it, and certainly you don't know of any case relating to a minority you have privilege over.

10. You constantly say "oh people with privileges I don't have aren't interested in my oppression" but are never ever interested in the oppression of people in areas where you yourself have privilege.

11. You can list everything you expect an ally to do. But never find the time to do any of those actions yourself for other minorities. This is especially egregious if you have privilege in that area.

12. You can list what someone needs to do to be acting in solidarity with you, but you've never even considered what you need to do to act in solidarity with others.

13. You readily complain about other movements being lead primarily by the most privileged individuals, but ignore that your own movement is yup, headed by primarily the most privileged individuals.

14. You talk about atrocities that included a wide variety of oppressed groups, but only mention those groups you're part of and act like any group you're not part of wasn't really there. When told that hey X group was also impacted by that atrocity, you shout they're derailing.

15. You never listen to the experiences of others who share an oppression but not all your privileges with you and frequently talk bollocks about their oppression in areas where you have privilege.

16. You say people should only talk about their oppression, then demand to know why those who don't have your oppression aren't talking about your oppression. You never realise that you're expecting two mutually exclusive things from them.

17. You make it clear that other oppressed groups can go fuck themselves as far as you're concerned, especially ones you're privileged over. But should anyone with privilege over you have a similar attitude to your oppression, you're quick to decry them as horrible people.

18. You readily talk about how X movement excludes you, and in the same breath completely exclude a group you don't belong to, you never realise this at all.

19. You constantly legitimise that the only voices worth listening to in a movement are those with the most privilege by only paying attention to those people with the most privilege.

20. You attack the most privileged people in a movement for being privileged, unfortunately you do so by using slur terms that splash hate all over more oppressed people as well. ie you slut shame privileged women for saying bigoted things about groups they have privilege over, which is really amusing (not!) when you're slut shaming them for something like being disabilist, did you forget disabled women exist?

21. You hand privileged people cookies for attacking other minorities and policing them. So long as they claim they were doing it to support you, it's all good apparently.

I'm sure people can add more. In summary, this is toxic, stop this shit.