One of the groups there is called “Rainbow Racism.” It’s made up of Gay and straight folks of all racial/ethnic communities.
I’m hoping that in sharing this it will shine a light not just on an issue but get the gears turning in our collective heads. I’ve shared this with folks who describe them selves as “radical queers” and have yet to have one say something like, “That was interesting. There were things said that I hadn’t thought of before.” I have however heard such statements from liberal/leftist heterosexuals.
I figured that I haven’t made enough of an effort to get this into more hands. That the more people who read it the more likely this will spark what I feel is an important discussion.
Pedro Angel Serrano
May 20, 2005 - 05:40 PM
How walls are built.
The names Pedro and I'm a homosexual man of
Puerto Rican decent. I'll be 46 in a week and a day.
In New Jersey I've been doing radio program for the Bisexual, Gay Male, Lesbian and Trans communities for over a decade.
A few years ago I started producing for another progressive Queer radio show. This collective is small right now but we're in the middle of a campaign to get more members.
The white male members are especially concerned with diversity.
As a step towards developing a relationship with the local communities of color, fliers were made and sent out to local community groups asking that they let us know of any events that they were going to do.
An announcement came from a queer Asian group about there fund raising event. The member of the collective whose job was to receive these announcements didn't want to announce it on the show. I asked why. He said "Because it's competition."
The Queer Asian group was putting on a beauty contest. No seriously. That's why he didn't want to announce this event by a queer Asian group to raise money for Tsunami relief. It was for TSUNAMI RELIEF!!!
He disapproved of an event that promoted competition as well as "...reinforced a narrow definition of beauty." I asked why he felt the need "...to be judgmental." He said he felt we "had every right to be judgmental." I was starting to get hot under the collar. I won't go into the arguments I gave. The announcement did go over the air but it was just read. No production treatment was made for it though.
I want to point out that this man defines himself as a "radical-queer."
He is not a racialist. But if that announcement had not gone over the air due to the political dogma of a group of (at the time) mostly white gay men, would that have seemed racist? I think it would have.
I've noticed over the last 7 years how a lot of intelligent, committed and passionate white gay activists unknowingly build walls between themselves and communities of color, not over racism but through dogma.
reply to this post
May 21, 2005 - 02:18 PM
Alexandra
Re: How walls are built.
>> The white male members are especially concerned with diversity.
I've been there, another place, another time, another radio station. They seem to be surprised that communities of color and women's communities aren't running to join their club, be it "progressive", "radical" or whatever dogma they impose.
Reply to this post
May 21, 2005 - 02:22 PM
Michael
Re: How walls are built.
As a person of color I notice at "Radical" events there are certain things that might inadvertently reduce the number of people of color participating --like an event being scent or deodorant free, or serving only vegan food.
In your situation Pedro, if the group in question was one of a small handful of people of color putting on events, it might be perceived as racist. Otherwise, if word got around about why its event was rejected, it would still make your organization look bad--petty and overly dogmatic. Sometimes I wonder why the left often seems to lack an organizational pragmatism ("we don't want to work with them---they wear leather!"), which prevents it from really building success full infrastructures and coalitions.
Reply to this post
May 21, 2005 - 02:27 PM
Alexandra
Re: How walls are built.
good examples too, Michael.
reply to this post
May 21, 2005 - 02:30 PM
Alexandra
Re: How walls are built.
I have explained to groups like that that their process is enforcing their own privilege and they get defensive. Like their group/institution isn't NBC or Time/Warner so how could they have privilege.
reply to this post
May 21, 2005 - 03:22 PM
-robin
Re: How walls are built.
having a scent free environment is for the ever increasing number of people for whom chemical scents make them sick. I have a few friends like this who put a lot of work into things, but their chemical sensitivities are such that a person wearing scents (especially perfumes and colognes)
can cause asthma attacks and migraines. Studies show that these scents are also responsible for emotional outbursts in people and for triggering worse ADD behaviors. chemical scents can also aggravate fibromyalgia and CFS and IBS.
if POC will not attend an event because of this "dogma" which is all about making the space safer and healthier for participants I can not understand why?
also what is wrong with vegan food? I know lots of POC who are also vegan. i have not generally met many POC who hate vegetables. vegan just makes it accessible to all. making the event such that you can never bring in your own food (including mea or dairy, especially half and half) goes too far i think, but supplying a simple basic common denominator food like vegan food, that pretty much everyone can eat, seems to make sense to me.
-robin
Reply to this post
Monique
Re: How walls are built.
robin--
We could sit here all day and debate the utility of creating scent free/ meat free/ dairy free/ organic only, etc. spaces. But prior posts are apt to point out that these types of spaces bear a
symbolism that is often distinctly construed as white and privileged. "Vegan" is associated with much more than eating habits; it's symbolic of elitist culture. This is a very interesting discussion.
How do organizations employ cultural relativism without compromising their core values?
Reply to this post
May 21, 2005 - 10:24 PM
angel
what is the sound...
of a nail being hit on the head? Because I just heard it. Monique, thanks for saying this so succinctly. I was trying to figure out how to say it correctly without resorting to stereotyping. I try to be empathetic to those folks who want to/need to have things a certain way, but honestly I see it as more exclusionary than not. i personally don't know too many poor vegans or other poc who don't at least have a snort for the scent free ideology. Seriously though, when it comes down to holding space for one group without pissing off another, well....maybe, um, compromise IS the answer? scent-free areas? vegan options? Everybody not being so uptight? I don't know
maybe I am starry-eyed just suggesting such a thing...
reply to this post
May 22, 2005 - 02:55 PM
Michael
Re: what is the sound
kudos to Monique for her eloquence.
I totally agree there is room for compromise on all these issues. When it comes to scents: have a scent free area, encourage people to use natural scents, encourage those who don't wear scents to bathe, etc. When it comes to food, have vegan, vegetarian & meat dishes. Also, make sure whoever is cooking the vegan dishes knows how to cook--there are plenty of Indian, Mediterranean, and Asian vegan dishes that are plenty good--bulgur tofu loaf with parsley probably won't cut it.
Reply to this post
May 24, 2005 - 11:54 AM
Pedro Serrano
Re: what is the sound
I think understanding is a painful process. I'm looking for any suggestions
that can make it less painful for progressives
to do some self examination.
reply to this post
May 24, 2005 - 06:31 PM
Monique
Re: what is the sound
Hey Pedro, If you have a few groups in mind that would like to work collaboratively
with your cooperative, maybe orchestrating some sort of panel
discussion between members could help elicit self examination, and
determine ways of promoting that are beneficial to everyone.
BTW, thanks Angel and Michael for your responses to my post.
Glad to see others feel the same way.
The Thread ended there. So, when does compromise, become being compromised? How do organizations employ cultural relativism without compromising their core values? How conscious are we of our priorities? When do our politically correct values come between us and those we want to be of service too? I know that some of the folks reading this will take up the discussion. It won’t happen over night but I can see a future where people who are committed to unity between all people, will go beyond forging a common language for themselves and learn the skills necessary to translate our human values and ethics to others and hear there's more clearly.
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