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IBARW 3: Intra-POC education
This is a post for Intl. Blog Against Racism Week.
My terms, definitions, and disclaimers.
I've been struggling with this issue for a while, and I wanted to see how other POC were dealing with it.
I grouse a lot about the power of common knowledge and how often POC are written out of it. And while I know I probably know a fair amount about Chinese culture and history given my education and background, I always feel like I could know more, particularly when I visit Taiwan and realize once again how many gaps I have in my knowledge. I want to know more about minorities in China, more about clothes, more about Taiwan, more about Chinese feminism, more about the Chinese diaspora.
Yet, I'm constantly confronted by how little I know about other cultures as well. I know nearly nothing about Korea, which embarrasses me, given that I have a degree in East Asian Studies. But even more, I worry about how little I know about South and Southeast Asia, about the Middle East, about Africa, about Latin and South America. I'm still trying to get a more complete history of POC in the US to better understand what standard US history obscures and overwrites, even as I struggle to be less US-centric, to get a better grasp on issues for non-white people/POC in other countries, both when they're the majority and when they aren't.
And all this goes with the desire to know more about the history of white colonialism and imperialism, albeit in a manner that's not focused on the white people, but rather on the effects that it's had on communities of color and nations of color, and how those effects are still shaping our world today.
This isn't even going into issues of intersectionality, as race of course works differently when it comes to classism, ablism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and etc.
It's easier for me to start out with issues that affect me directly (i.e. Chinese women and feminism), but I feel the need to balance that with being too self-focused. How do you all work this out with yourselves?
My terms, definitions, and disclaimers.
I've been struggling with this issue for a while, and I wanted to see how other POC were dealing with it.
I grouse a lot about the power of common knowledge and how often POC are written out of it. And while I know I probably know a fair amount about Chinese culture and history given my education and background, I always feel like I could know more, particularly when I visit Taiwan and realize once again how many gaps I have in my knowledge. I want to know more about minorities in China, more about clothes, more about Taiwan, more about Chinese feminism, more about the Chinese diaspora.
Yet, I'm constantly confronted by how little I know about other cultures as well. I know nearly nothing about Korea, which embarrasses me, given that I have a degree in East Asian Studies. But even more, I worry about how little I know about South and Southeast Asia, about the Middle East, about Africa, about Latin and South America. I'm still trying to get a more complete history of POC in the US to better understand what standard US history obscures and overwrites, even as I struggle to be less US-centric, to get a better grasp on issues for non-white people/POC in other countries, both when they're the majority and when they aren't.
And all this goes with the desire to know more about the history of white colonialism and imperialism, albeit in a manner that's not focused on the white people, but rather on the effects that it's had on communities of color and nations of color, and how those effects are still shaping our world today.
This isn't even going into issues of intersectionality, as race of course works differently when it comes to classism, ablism, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and etc.
It's easier for me to start out with issues that affect me directly (i.e. Chinese women and feminism), but I feel the need to balance that with being too self-focused. How do you all work this out with yourselves?
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I kept posting reviews of all these Asian books I'd read, & part of me was like, am I going to look like a jerk who only cares about "her people"? And of course I was also thinking how much I don't know about "my people" & how much I have to catch up on.
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Well really more based off a post I saw on someones blog (but in comment on IBARW, but not for IBARW), will you be cross posting this and your definitions in Mandarin? In a English as not necessarily communication default sort of way.
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Then I thought about the people I care about. If I want to support and be there for them, immediately I'm having to deal with feminism, lesbian, gay, bi, black, NDN, african, carribean, filipino, indian, iraqi, japanese, korean, viet, mexican, lao, thai, khmer, fijian, hawaiian, samoan etc. issues. Just the people I care about.
That's certainly not universal, but it is a lot. I talk to them, I read stuff they give me, I may not find full education, but I work my way outward as I go...
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