Thoughts

[eredien]

So I was up at 4 am--thanks, insomnia!--and I was thinking:

I need to keep my white privilege in conscious mind more, and be a better ally to people of color, especially my friends. Obviously, from the justifiably angry comments, I am doing it wrong.

I think I have a lot of studying/thinking ahead of me. I don't think that education is going to be the entire fix to the problem, but for me right now, it's a good start.

I am not going to help bring the movie to the Brattle; I don't have either the time or the awareness/ability necessary to take on such a large, complex, multifaceted project as that would be right now--to give the controversy and issues surrounding the film the attention they deserve, and to surround the film with the controversy it should be surrounded with.

Comments

[friode.livejournal.com]

Watching all of Spike Lee's movies might be useful if you haven't done that yet.

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

stand, step, stumble, fall, get up, repeat
living / learning has such moments always
discussing before overt action worked things out some
scuffed mental knees a bit learning, no worries

finding odd the comment: "keep white privilege in conscious mind more..." seeing more not representing another culture / identity other than your own. Learn from yes, finding those sharing are numerous and quite generous, so many perspectives separate from my own.

viewed from the sidelines this, seeing but not knowing
just reading through truly, finding many meanings

[greylander.livejournal.com]

There's loads to choose from in terms of self-education. I've found blogs to be quite useful in this respect, since they tend to be responsive to current events and allow bloggers scope to voice their opinions (which formal news publications do not).

I think it's healthy that you're looking beyond education, and accepting that conflict and disagreement is a part of the process of addressing racial issues. Sometimes there are no hard-and-fast answers, but committing to a just, agonistic process can help overcome the anxiety that uncertainty over race relations generates.

[kaypendragon.livejournal.com]

My husband would tell you that the fact that you're thinking about "white privilege" is the start of your problem. He believes that the solution to race relations is to teach our children to actually be color blind.

I would suggest a trip to somewhere where you (as a middle class white girl) are a serious minority. It helps give you perspective.

[greylander.livejournal.com]

You might find the current major discussions within SF fandom interesting. SF writer Elizabeth Bear made a post about 'writing the Other', which a number of people have commented on.

deepad: I Didn't Dream of Dragons
Avalon's Willow (witchwillow: Open Letter: To Elizabeth Bear
yeloson: Othered Only Because You Say So

Also, the International Blog Against Racism Week delicious feed has a lot of links about race, representation, and SF writing/media production.

[eredien]

Thank you; a friend was talking about these at dinner just yesterday. I will definitely have to check them out.