Melodramatic confessions

Hi everyone! This month I’m looking to do guest posts for people of colour. Please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment or messaging me on my Facebook page if you’d like to do a guest post and share your story. Why guest posts?

I am certain Carla Louise’s heart is in the right place. I have allowed her to reblog. And I fear what she does is terribly objectionable. She is a white woman with a husband. She speaks from a position of straight privilege and white privilege. She seeks to act as an ally, fighting racism, cissexism and heteronormativity, as well as a feminist fighting sexism.

Here, she publishes this meme:

then comments, a white rapist? He has a nice school photo used in the newspapers, not a mugshot. A black kid buying food who is murdered? We’ll do our best to make him look like he deserved it. But, to whom? A white boy wears a tie and a smile, a black boy wears a hoodie. This only makes the black boy look like he deserved it if you think black males in hoodies look like criminals, or white males in ties and jackets do not- remember Enron? To me, the meme is more racist than the media- as if putting the black boy in a tie would make him look more innocent than a hoodie does. The rapist is Brock Turner, whose victim’s statement is so beautiful and powerful, and amazing at his psychopathy. That is what psychopaths look like! We need to know that!

Here’s the ally thing. I am being an ally here, the white person Speaking Up for Persons of Colour. We allies have to be careful. Don’t make the middle-class straight white person the default, so that how such a person sees things is how they are, or how that person presents is the proper way to present. And- that picture of Brock Turner does engender sympathy for him, in more people than I would wish. And- I think it is because Brock Turner is a jock rapist, a Stanford athlete. White mugshots get published.

Here, she comments on Malala Yousafzai: her burqa empowers her. A nude selfie or slut walk would be too much. Except the picture shows a hijab, only covering the hair and chest, rather than a burqa, which is the Afghan normal, even covering the eyes behind a grille. Malala is breaking the oppressive rules of her country within limits often accepted in her religion. I am not certain Carla Louise understands what rules Malala breaks or keeps. She points out that oppressed people should pick our own ways of resistance, and not be judged for not using alternatives privileged people might use; should this need saying?

You see, I did not realise. I do want my story heard. I took the opportunity; but my need to be heard and understood- my vulnerability- comes from my queerness, my Otherness. If I felt normal, I would not need so much to be heard. This Normal person picks out the Others, who need the support of her blog- first LGBTTQ (sic) then Persons of Colour.

We have places where our stories may be heard. We queers have high profile websites, like Pink News, and oodles of blogs. Queer people write our experiences from a position of equality, more or less, in mainstream straight publications such as The Guardian, one of the major British news sites.

I am not sure. Does a straight person publishing a queer person’s story count as oppressive? If always, then we can only be published by other queers, and are stuck in the ghetto. If the audience is interested to hear another’s experience, and sympathise, rather than to gawk at the weirdo, that will take away a lot of my objection.

Positive discrimination? More is published by the privileged, so a special effort should be made to hear the underprivileged-

I am uncomfortable, and cannot fully articulate my objection. I am always glad when someone seeks to be an ally. I respect anger at allies. Oh, and Carla is Australian! I assumed she was American.