Intent as Defense = BS

Awesome sauce from Genderbitch here.


Intent! It’s Fucking Magic!

23Jan10Crossposted to Questioning Transphobia

"Warning: This post is sarcastic to such a point as you may actually slip in the pools of sarcasm that are dripping off of it. Please walk carefully. The caution cones are there for your protection. Also, we totally didn’t intend for you to slip so we’re not responsible if you do.

Today, someone said a slur. It actually doesn’t matter what slur it was, because you see, he didn’t intend to hurt anyone and therefore it couldn’t possibly be a slur. Much like how intent magically protects the actions of all privileged fuckjobs, intent means that anything you say, no matter how many groups it hurts, what awful views it enables, no matter what systemic bigotries it props up through the usage of language that enforces social concepts that crush a marginalized group, it mystically negates all of that.

So if you out a trans woman? Your uncanny intent wraps around her and protects her from murder, harassment, degendering and objectification by the people you just outed her to! If you say something ableist, you’re not actually contributing to the system that demeans PWD because your intent will gird your words with alchemical shields, made of eldritch power themselves, that prevent the words from creating and furthering social associations between disability and being bad, wrong, broken or unwanted! I know? Isn’t it grand? I love magic!

See, the great thing about this thaumaturgy is that it protects anything a privileged asshole says! So it fits in line completely with that glorious sense of entitlement that privilege tends to confer, basically, the idea that you can say anything you want and should never have accountability for what you say! Because you see, all privileged people have this ancient eldritch power called “Intent”. In fact, intent is one of the primary elements of the world (see figure 1). Like fire, water, wood, metal, air and earth, Intent helps make up an important part of the very existence of the universe. So when you invoke its ancient might, its tendrils of ephemeral power shift in the very fabric of the ‘verse, creating a magic so powerful that you can manipulate thousands upon thousands of threads of fate, just to protect the person you just said or did something supremely privileged and horrible to.



So say, if you make a bunch of racist jokes, instead of contributing to the systemic oppression of POC, the bewitching might of Intent (I’m capitalizing the I now, to give it proper respect as a primary element) spreads out, blocking every single person from fully hearing the awful racist shit you just said, further preventing them from internalizing it and using it to justify actions. It also prevents it from creating an environment where racist behavior is seen as more acceptable, by twisting the very threads of fate there as well! And, the best part? If you say it in earshot of someone who’s offended or hurt by it, the occult powers of Intent change everything! Now, instead of hearing a hurtful slur or sentiment that reminds of past abuses at the hands of privileged fuckjobs, the marginalized person in question only hears the beautiful natural sound of birds chirping. Or whale noises! Because you see, Intent is just that powerful. It literally keeps anyone from getting hurt by your fuckery!

But you see, it goes further than that.

Intent is so unbelievably epic that it doesn’t just cover slurs. No, it covers actions as well! Because you see, the very threads of fate are not immune to this otherworldly flow of what you meant to do or say. So if you kick a trans woman out of a homeless shelter into the cold because she didn’t fit your views of what a woman should be and she didn’t want to be put in with the menz (who would likely rape and murder her, or at least harass her), your Intent literally changes the tapestry of fate so that instead of freezing to death in the cold, she actually is heated by an unexpected fire, lit by a lightning strike from clear skies, onto a pile of garbage that can’t spread the fire to anything else, right next to where she just happened to fall in exhaustion! I know! Isn’t it awesome?!

Intent is a power that you only have if you believe in it. Because so many marginalized people don’t believe in the power of intent when it comes to their/our marginalizations, few of us are able to call on its supernatural strength. Some rare marginalized folk are able to, but only in given situations and generally only in relation to themselves.

But you see, it isn’t even limited to the fuckery of kyriarchy, self applied -ism and/or privilege. It works everywhere else too! Made a really bad business deal that bankrupted your new business but didn’t intend to screw that up? Intent will magically negate the effects of the business deal on your finances! Drove during a foggy night while drunk as fuck and accidentally ran down a college student with your car going at high enough speeds to instantly kill him? Intent’s eldritch power will restart his heart and heal his wounds! Intent has the ability to change everything and anything you do and say to match your intent. That is simply how strong it is as one of the primary elements of the universe. It’s why we’re so darn unreasonable for being mad at the fuckery of privileged assholes, or for even calling them assholes. They didn’t intend to hurt anyone! They didn’t intend to do anything bad! And clearly, due to that Intent, to that thaumaturgic sorcery that spills forth from the mindset of the asshole who claims its power, any harm or bad shit they caused is magically negated!

Because you see, Intent is the ultimate alchemy. It doesn’t change lead to gold, it changes harmful, negative or damaging actions into happy, fun, “everyone hugs and no one is oppressed”, magical unicorn actions. It dips its eerie powers into the pools of time and space and counters each and every ripple of fuckery and pain created by the actions of an unthinking douchebag who was too privileged or self absorbed to see that their actions were a problem.

Isn’t that magical? I sure think so."

Haiti, ma pais

Thinking of Haiti right now after such an awful tragedy. I'm donating to the Red Cross. Please give what you can to help.

Of course he's racist

Rush Limbaugh is a disgusting human being. He's a misogynistic, gay-bashing race baiter.

And yes, he's a racist. Sure, there have been two recent fake quotes which were falsely attributed to the pile of crap that have been discredited, but they are hardly the only evidence. He's got a whole body of work.

These are a sampling...and they are verifiable.


"Take that bone out of your nose and call me back."

"Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?"

--These first two he admitted in a Newsweek interview.


“Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it.”

"You just gotta be who you are, and I think it's time to get rid of this whole National Basketball Association. Call it the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association, and stop calling them teams. Call 'em gangs. You have the Laker Gang, you have the Heat Gang, you have a Timberwolf Gang [distortions of official team names], and let 'em strap up out there, and let 'em market their CDs. Instead of selling concessions, sell CDs out there at the concession stand." Limbaugh later adds, "They're going in to watch the Crips and the Bloods out there wherever the neighborhood is where the arena happens to be, and be who you are."

“Obama's America, white kids getting beat up on school buses now. You put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety but in Obama's America the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, 'Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on,' and, of course, everybody says the white kid deserved it, he was born a racist, he's white.”

Speculating on why a Mexican national won the New York marathon, Limbaugh spouted, "An immigration agent chased him for the last 10 miles." (USA Weekend, 1/26/92)

"A Chavez is a Chavez. We've always had problems with them"

“Look. It's one thing to say you like it. It's OK. But to try to pass this off as something that you've intellectually examined and have assigned value you to -- ah, sorry, Senator [Kerry]. And I'm not going to believe this business that you don't like heavy metal. I mean, I think heavy metal's probably your anthem. You know, from the Vietnam era and all that. But here, again, don't stand up for white music. Associate yourself with rap.”

"Obama's entire economic program is reparations."

Referring to President Obama and Halle Berry as "Halfrican Americans."

--These can be found readily.

When Carol Moseley-Braun (D-IL) was in the U.S. Senate, the first black woman ever elected to that body, Limbaugh would play the "Movin' On Up" theme song from TV's Jeffersons when he mentioned her.

Limbaugh uses mock "black" dialect -- substituting "ax" for "ask"-- when discussing black leaders.



You have to be in serious denial to justify those quotes and actions. Those are just the more blatant ones. There are many more that read as white populist backlash against minorities, which I would argue are not much more than coded racism and defense of white privilege. And, I get that some quotes require the entire context, but if we allow that, then we must also allow the context of extreme misogyny and bigotry towards homosexuals. The verdict is in. Sorry, but he's a real, living, breathing racist.

Health Care Reform

Get Your Facts Straight

To the crazy-ass birthers

Please read

Sonia Sotomayor hearings

Today, Jon Cornyn basically asked Sonia Sotomayor why she did not consider the "hardships" of the firefighters in the Ricci case. Hey GOP, I thought empathy on the court was supposed to be a bad thing. I guess not when white dudes are "suffering."

Dealing with Racism in Children's Books

Nice article from Antiracistparent.com:

ANTIRACISTPARENT.COM:

Pa in Blackface: Confronting racism in our children’s books


written by Anti-Racist Parenting columnist Dawn Friedman

I’m a fan of the Little House books and have been since my mom gave me the yellow cardboard box set when I was seven so I was thrilled when my friend set up her Beyond Little House group blog. Amassing a team of Little House experts, the blog highlights tales from the real Laura Ingalls Wilder that give insight to the fictionalized stories of her life.

Recently one of the bloggers brought up the racism in Little Town on the Prairie when Pa dons blackface to play a “darky” to entertain the town. The chapter is accompanied by a Garth Williams illustration depicting Pa in his grease paint with his whiskers tucked into his collar.

Then up the center aisle came marching five black-faced men in raggedy-taggedy uniforms. White circles were around their eyes and their mouths were wide and red. Up onto the platform they marched, then facing forward in a row, suddenly they all advanced, singing.
…
The man in the middle was clog dancing. Back against the wall stood the four raggedy black-faced men.

… The cheering started; it couldn’t be stopped. Feet could not be kept still. The whole crowd was carried away by the pounding music, the grinning white-eyed faces, the wild dancing.

There was no time to think. When the dancing stopped, the jokes began. The white-circled eyes rolled, the big red mouths blabbed questions and answers that were the funniest every heard. Then there was music again, and even wilder dancing.

So how’s a concerned parent to handle it? Well, in her post, the author tentatively ventures that maybe it’s best to ignore it:

But if I’m going to prepare her, what should I say? This is where I get stuck. Until now, whenever I’ve been faced with educating my daughter on various aspects of How The World Is, no matter how much hemming and hawing I do or how cleverly I try to craft words in my head, ultimately I’ve decided to do and say nothing until she does. Kids don’t know that injustice exists until it affects them or it’s pointed out to them. Kids who are different from her — the overweight kid in fourth grade, her African-American classmate, the two kids in her school on permanent crutches — are simply part of her life. If she asks questions, I answer. But basically she doesn’t notice or compare or judge. It’s simply How Things Are. There is going to be a time where she hears or sees something that doesn’t square with this ideal. And that’s when we’ll have a discussion. I’m willing to wait.

I figured I’d chime in with my thoughts over here and kick the trackback to the blog entry.

I’d venture to say that the classmates mentioned here – the classmates different from the poster’s apparently majority child – are having an entirely different experience and their experience is part of that school’s (and her child’s) collective experience and it’s worth exploring critically even at six. One wonders if the aforementioned African-American classmate would have the same no-reaction reaction to Pa’s minstrel show or if this is part of the poster’s daughter’s privilege.

Although her daughter is missing the racism, the racism is still there and it still matters and it needs to be part of what should be an ongoing family discussion. Ignoring racism doesn’t make it disappear – even from our favorite books and stories.

It’s not easy to see our heroes fall. It’s confusing and painful and I can see why parents might want to avoid it. But there’s a difference between stomping on Pa’s legend with both feet (damning him and the books) and opening up a discussion (where the books help foster vital dialogue).

My son isn’t really a fan of the Little House books but he’s had his own heroes fall. A couple of summers past he became a fan of Mickey Rooney after catching TCM showings of Little Lord Fauntleroy and Captains Courageous. Eventually his movie roaming led us to Babes in Arms, which includes a rollicking number featuring Rooney crooning in blackface. Well, heavy discussion ensued, (including mention of Rooney’s yellow face routine in Breakfast at Tiffany’s).

Was it fun? No. Was it easy to answer his questions and witness his dismay? No. Did we both learn a lot? Hell yeah.

I know it’s easy for us white people to pretend like this racism doesn’t matter in the context of the times. You know, the old “but that’s just what they DID back then” justification. But really what we need to do is confront the context and ask our children to think critically about our heroes so that they are able to denounce racism wherever they find it.

We can ask our kids:
1. Do you think this kind of racism was ok back then even if it isn’t now?
2. Is it ok to act racist if your intentions are good? (Pa was just entertaining the townfolk after all.)
3. Can someone still be a good person if they are a racist? (Should we judge Pa on his best actions or his worst?)
4. If we are not the targets of the historical racism, we can ask ourselves how we might feel if we were. (Do you think an Asian person might feel differently about Rooney’s portrayal? Do you think a black child might be more upset reading about Pa’s minstrel show?)
5. What do you think about banning these kinds of images? There are some people who think people shouldn’t read the Little House books because of the racism. Is this a good idea or not?

There isn’t one right answer to these questions and where a family takes them will depend on the family’s perspective and values. But they’re important questions to ask and the dialogue is one that should happen sooner instead of waiting for the child to initiate it.

Ignoring the racism in Pa’s behavior (and in Laura’s pleasure in the performance) means missing a valuable opportunity to educate our children about our history and the complexity of our country’s continuing racial struggles (note that blackface isn’t just a part of our past). Our kids need our help as they learn how to critically examine their heroes; avoiding the issue doesn’t serve them as well as they deserve.

Other resources for parents:

■Here’s a short (very short) film about blackface from over at TCM.
■Wikipedia page on blackface
■The Legacy of Blackface from Tavis Smiley on NPR
■History of Minstrel Shows
Dawn Friedman is a writer and mother to two children. Her articles have appeared in Salon.com, Yoga Journal, Brain Child and the Greater Good and she is the op-ed editor at Literary Mama. She is also the founder of OpenAdoptionSupport.com and since the adoption of her daughter in 2004 has become passionate about the need for adoption reform. She blogs at this woman’s work.