Ok, pissed off now

[oyceter]

Yup, this is public; I am that pissed off.

I wasn't going to get involved, I swear I wasn't.

And then...

http://liviapenn.livejournal.com/473180.html?thread=6512732#t6512732

Because what the fucking fuck? Don't fucking throw the RAPE OF NANKING in my face when I am talking about white privilege. I just. I cannot type because WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?! My grandfather was in the Chinese Navy then, fighting against the Japanese. I have friends with relatives who grew up not speaking Taiwanese because of the occupation. My family left the fucking country and moved to Taiwan because of that war. Don't throw that in my face as a counter to white privilege and just fucking assume I haven't heard of it for some reason; you have no fucking idea.

Comments by people not on my flist are screened; everyone else feel free to comment, but please note I am REALLY FUCKING PISSED OFF about this. Don't be stupid. I will repost asshattery under a filter and mock, and I don't fucking care if you somehow think that's unfair.

Comments

[oyceter]

Honestly, I don't care at all if he's well meaning or not, particularly at this point. And I don't care if he's purposefully an idiot or not; imo, after a lot of people tried to explain things on Livia's LJ, he wasn't listening, which makes his actions purposeful and deliberately harmful. It's one thing to be well meaning and make mistakes. But if you do that and people let you know that you are making a mistake and using an argument commonly used by others to shut down discussions of racism, continuing to use that argument is no longer making a well meaning mistake, it is deliberate.

I'm sorry, I'm not pissed off at you. But I am pissed off at how many people keep using the "well meaning" or "ignorance" excuse, the mods of the comm in question included. But frankly, it's not that hard to get educated about Racism 101, and even if it's his first time seeing an argument like this in fandom ... that's his privilege. Because there is a point after which good intentions mean absolutely nothing, and that's when people point out something is either flat out wrong or could be construed as a racist argument. After that, someone can have all the good intentions they want, but I don't care, because it's their actions that count, and I don't hold much by their good intentions when they're deliberately acting stupid.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

Because there is a point after which good intentions mean absolutely nothing

ooooh, and he's well past that point and has been for a long time. not just in this discussion or on this topic, either; i've tried to discuss accessibility issues with him and had to resort to suddenly changing the topic to the weather on the "think of all the paperwork if you killed him" theory.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

just so i am clear-- i think it's completely possible to be racist and have good intentions. i think that's the most common sort. but that doesn't make the racist actions any less harmful.

[oyceter]

I very much agree that most people don't intentionally mean to be racist. I just... the amount of people in the past few days who have been hiding behind that as an excuse is boggling.

[jesse_the_k]

Amen to that.

Since almost everyone is trained to be "nice to the poor cripples," visibly disabled people get "oppression with a smile" all the time. Makes. me. crazy.

It doesn't matter if a person "means well;" when they paste on a "kindly" smile and nod and say, "oh, we don't serve people like you here" I'm ready to roll over their toes.

A M Baggs at Ballastexistenz explains why "but he's a *good* person..." is worse than useless when it comes to calling a person to account for their oppressive beliefs and actions. (Warning: The comment thread reflects some long standing arguments in her particular community: instructive, but painful.)

[oyceter]

Thanks for the link! And I oh so fully agree.