Reminder that people in this mess have over and over attempted to erase ace and aro PoC from our communities, declaring all or almost all aces/aros white and privileged in every way, because that would be more convenient for their ‘arguments’ about how we’re all horrible and have oppression fantasies born from a lack of Real Problems in our lives.
Reminder that ppl have loved telling aces/aros of color upset about this and other racist shit to be quiet, and called us ‘tokens’ and generally been nasty to us to shut us up, or just randomly assumed we’re white even when it was perfectly clear and easy to find we’re not. Bc we’re ace/aro and won’t let them shit on us
Reminder that white ppl who loathe aces and aros will frequently try to exploit the pain of PoC by acting as though racism is an ace/aro thing, and as though white aces/aros (or even ace+aro PoC) are more racist and have more white privilege than them and ppl they like.
Reminder ppl in this mess who hate aces and aros continue to give zero shits about how sexualizing aces/aros hurts ace and aro PoC and adds to racism we experience
No, please don’t call these people “fans.” They’re not fans, they’re racists who want to start shit. Real Star Trek fans have no issues with diversity. This is the SAME show that gave Nichelle Nichols the role of Uhura in an unprecedented show of social progress. This is the same show that featured one of the best, strongest female characters and captains of all time (Janeway), etc. Don’t call these ugly racists “fans,” because fans of Star Trek appreciate it almost ENTIRELY for its progressive imagining of a society with equality for all people, with a sense of community, with scientific progress, with a complete absence of capitalism, racism, and sexism.
Call a spade a spade: these are ugly white racists who don’t know shit about Star Trek.
Like, I don’t wanna hear a SINGLE PEEP from these racist, nationalist douchebags about my perfect Socialist-Utopian-Future-Humanity-With-Equality-For-All show.
They can SIT THE FUCK DOWN! Y’all ugly racists ruined this nation, but y’all ain’t fucking ruining Star Trek too!
Deep Space Nine starred a black man, a black child, a brown man, a bunch of aliens, and exactly one white man.
Voyager starred two white women, a native man, an Asian man, a half-Latina woman, some aliens, a hologram, and exactly one white man.
This was over 20 years ago. What franchise have they been watching?
Exactly!
I.D.I.C. , Mother Fuckers
Fake geek boys
Someone needs to make an “IDIC Motherfuckers!!” pin or badge or something!
If you’ve spent any time discussing or reading about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I guarantee you’ve heard some variation of this statement:
OMG, Jews think any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic!
In the interests of this post, I’m going to assume that the people who express such sentiments are acting in good faith and really don’t mean to cause pain to or problems for Diaspora Jewry. For those good-faith people, I present some guidelines for staying on the good side of that admittedly murky line, along with the reasoning why the actions I list are problematic. (And bad-faith people, you can no longer plead ignorance if you engage in any of these no-nos. Consider yourselves warned.) In no particular order:
Don’t use the terms “bloodthirsty,” “lust for Palestinian blood,” or similar. Historically, Jews have been massacred in the belief that we use the blood of non-Jews (particularly of children) in our religious rituals. This belief still persists in large portions of the Arab world (largely because white Europeans deliberately spread the belief among Arabs) and even in parts of the Western world. Murderous, inhumane, cruel, vicious–fine. But blood…just don’t go there. Depicting Israel/Israelis/Israeli leaders eating children is also a no-no, for the same reason.
Don’t use crucifixion imagery. Another huge, driving motivation behind anti-Semitism historically has been the belief that the Jews, rather than the Romans, crucified Jesus. As in #1, this belief still persists. There are plenty of other ways to depict suffering that don’t call back to ancient libels.
Don’t demand that Jews publicly repudiate the actions of settlers and extremists. People who make this demand are assuming that Jews are terrible people or undeserving of being heard out unless they “prove” themselves acceptable by non-Jews’ standards. (It’s not okay to demand Palestinians publicly repudiate the actions of Hamas in order to be accepted/trusted, either.)
Don’t say “the Jews” when you mean Israel. I think this should be pretty clear. The people in power in Israel are Jews, but not all Jews are Israelis (let alone Israeli leaders).
Don’t say “Zionists” when you mean Israel. Zionism is no more a dirty word than feminism. It is simply the belief that the Jews should have a country in part of their ancestral homeland where they can take refuge from the anti-Semitism and persecution they face everywhere else. It does not mean a belief that Jews have a right to grab land from others, a belief that Jews are superior to non-Jews, or any other such tripe, any more than feminism means hating men. Unless you believe that Israel should entirely cease to exist, you are yourself Zionist. Furthermore, using “Zionists” in place of “Israelis” is inaccurate and harmful. The word “Zionists” includes Diasporan Jews as well (most of whom support a two-state solution and pretty much none of whom have any influence on Israel’s policies) and is used to justify anti-Semitic attacks outside Israel (i.e., they brought it on themselves by being Zionists). And many of the Jews IN Israel who are most violent against Palestinians are actually anti-Zionist–they believe that the modern state of Israel is an offense against God because it isn’t governed by halakha (traditional Jewish religious law). Be careful with the labels you use.
Don’t call Jews you agree with “the good Jews.” Imposing your values on another group is not okay. Tokenizing is not okay. Appointing yourself the judge of what other groups can or should believe is not okay.
Don’t use your Jewish friends or Jews who agree with you as shields. (AKA, “I can’t be anti-Semitic, I have Jewish friends!” or “Well, Jew X agrees with me, so you’re wrong.”) Again, this behavior is tokenizing and essentially amounts to you as a non-Jew appointing yourself arbiter over what Jews can/should feel or believe. You don’t get to do that.
Don’t claim that Jews are ethnically European. Jews come in many colors–white is only one. Besides, the fact that many of us have some genetic mixing with the peoples who tried to force us to assimilate (be they German, Indian, Ethiopian, Italian…) doesn’t change the fact that all our common ancestral roots go back to Israel.
Don’t claim that Jews “aren’t the TRUE/REAL Jews.“ Enough said.
Don’t claim that Jews have no real historical connection to Israel/the Temple Mount. Archaeology and the historical record both establish that this is false.
Don’t accuse Diasporan Jews of dual loyalties or treason. This is another charge that historically has been used to justify persecution and murder of Jews. Having a connection to our ancestral homeland is natural. Having a connection to our co-religionists who live there is natural. It is no more treasonous for a Jew to consider the well-being of Israel when casting a vote than for a Muslim to consider the well-being of Islamic countries when voting. (Tangent: fuck drone strikes. End tangent.)
Don’t claim that the Jews control the media/banks/country that isn’t Israel. Yet another historical anti-Semitic claim is that Jews as a group intend to control the world and try to achieve this aim through shadowy, sinister channels. There are many prominent Jews in the media and in the banking industry, yes, but they aren’t engaged in any kind of organized conspiracy to take over those industries, they simply work in those industries. The phrase “the Jews control” should never be heard in a debate/discussion of Israel.
Don’t depict the Magen David (Star of David) as an equivalent to the Nazi swastika. The Magen David represents all Jews–not just Israelis, not just people who are violent against Palestinians, ALL JEWS. When you do this, you are painting all Jews as violent, genocidal racists. DON’T.
Don’t use the Holocaust/Nazism/Hitler as a rhetorical prop. The Jews who were murdered didn’t set foot in what was then Palestine, let alone take part in Israeli politics or policies. It is wrong and appropriative to try to use their deaths to score political points. Genocide, racism, occupation, murder, extermination–go ahead and use those terms, but leave the Holocaust out of it.
In visual depictions (i.e., political cartoons and such), don’t depict Israel/Israelis as Jewish stereotypes. Don’t show them in Chassidic, black-hat garb. Don’t show them with exaggerated noses or frizzled red hair or payus (earlocks). Don’t show them with horns or depict them as the Devil. Don’t show them cackling over/hoarding money. Don’t show them drinking blood or eating children (see #1). Don’t show them raping non-Jewish women. The Nazis didn’t invent the tropes they used in their propaganda–all of these have been anti-Semitic tropes going back centuries. (The red hair trope, for instance, goes back to early depictions of Judas Iscariot as a redhead, and the horns trope stems from the belief that Jews are the Devil’s children, sent to destroy the world as best we can for our “father.”)
Don’t use the phrase “the chosen people” to deride or as proof of Jewish racism. When Jews say we are the chosen people, we don’t mean that we are biologically superior to others or that God loves us more than other groups. Judaism in fact teaches that everyone is capable of being a righteous, Godly person, that Jews have obligations to be ethical and decent to “the stranger in our midst,” and that non-Jews don’t get sent to some kind of damnation for believing in another faith. When we say we’re the chosen people, we mean that, according to our faith, God gave us extra responsibilities and codes of behavior that other groups aren’t burdened with, in the form of the Torah. That’s all it means.
Don’t claim that anti-Semitism is eradicated or negligible. It isn’t. In fact, according to international watchdog groups, it’s sharply on the rise. (Which sadly isn’t surprising–anti-Semitism historically surges during economic downturns, thanks to the belief that Jews control the banks.) This sort of statement is extremely dismissive and accuses us of lying about our own experiences.
Don’t say that since Palestinians are Semites, Jews/Israelis are anti-Semitic, too. You do not get to redefine the oppressions of others, nor do you get to police how they refer to that oppression. This also often ties into #8. Don’t do it. Anti-Semitism has exclusively meant anti-Jewish bigotry for a good century plus now. Coin your own word for anti-Palestinian oppression, or just call it what it is: racism mixed with Islamophobia.
Don’t blow off Jews telling you that what you’re saying is anti-Semitic with some variant of the statement at the top of this post. Not all anti-Israel speech is anti-Semitic (a lot of it is valid, much-deserved criticism), but some certainly is. Actually give the accusation your consideration and hear the accuser out. If they fail to convince you, that’s fine. But at least hear them out (without talking over them) before you decide that.
I’m sure this isn’t a comprehensive list, but it covers all the hard-and-fast rules I can think of. (I welcome input for improving it.)
But wait! Why should I care about any of this? I’m standing up for people who are suffering!
You should care because nonsense like the above makes Jews sympathetic to the Palestinian plight wary and afraid of joining your cause. You should care because, unfortunately, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has correlated to an uptick in anti-Semitic attacks around the world, attacks on Jews who have no say in Israeli politics, and this kind of behavior merely aggravates that, whether you intend it to or not.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a real minefield in that it’s a clash between oppressed people of color and an ethnoreligious group that is dominant in Israel but marginalized and brutalized elsewhere (often nowadays on the exact grounds that they share ethnoreligious ties with the people of Israel), so it’s damned hard to toe the line of being socially aware and sensitive to both groups. I get that. But I think it is possible to toe that line, and I hope this post helps with that. (And if a Palestinian makes a similar list of problematic arguments they hear targeted at them, I’d be happy to reblog it, too.)
So, TL;DR version:
Do go ahead and criticize Israel.
Don’t use anti-Semitic stereotypes or tropes.
Don’t use overly expansive language that covers Jews as a whole and not just Israel.
Don’t use lies to boost your claims.
Do engage Jews in conversation on the issues of Israel and of anti-Semitism, rather than simply shutting them down for disagreeing.
Do try to be sensitive to the fact that, fair or not, many people take verbal or violent revenge for the actions of Israelis on Diasporan Jews, and Diasporan Jews are understandably frightened and upset by this.
I’m a qpoc, This is what I’m talking about when white people straight wash POC.
@hijabby may I hop on this post to make a point? You’re quite a bit younger than me, which isn’t a problem or a bad thing, it just means you will have still been in kindergarten or not even born yet when the events I am about to discuss took place and given the nature of queer history, it’s totally possible I learned stuff that’s faded into ephemera for your generation.
QUEER WAS THE ACCEPTABLE, ACADEMIC TERM FOR “LGBTQIA” IN THE EARLY-TO-MID 2000s.
I took classes in Queer Literature. We discussed Queer History. Some of my professors–who were themselves gay, lesbian, and bisexual, mind you–referred to historical figures as queer on the basis that those figures did not exist in societies that had a modern-day understanding of sexuality, and so trying to box them into modern labels is an exercise in futility. I went to marches where we screamed “we’re here, we’re queer, we want our civil rights.”
All of this, by the way, spawns out of the Genderqueer and ACT UP movements of the 1990s; they’re the ones who invented the chant on which the above chant was based, the one you may have heard elsewhere: “we’re here, we’re queer, get over it.” I’m proud of my own part in queer history, but those people, the ones who created the AIDS quilt and the die-ins and the fierce demands for same-sex marriage so they could visit partners dying in the hospital, they’re the real heroes. And they called themselves queer.
And?
Most of them were not white.
I am. The radical activism of my generation looks very different from generations past because, I’m sorry to say, white queer folks sat back and let queer folks of color do the hard part, and then we grabbed the baton and charged over the first big finish line while the sportscasters talked about the stunning race we’d run. I’m not sorry to be an activist or to be working in my own generation, but I’m very deeply sorry that queer activism en masse has widely ignored the nonwhite, noncis people who got us where we are.
“Queer” has more uses than just being a slur that was reclaimed 30+ years ago. Queer is a useful term if, say, you’re 15 and you’re not sure if you’re asexual or a late bloomer, but you don’t want to just say “oh yeah, I’m gay/straight.” Queer is a useful term if, like me, you escaped a fundamentalist church and your whole life has been defined by strict labels, and you just want out. Queer is a useful term if you’re from a country where gender doesn’t fit a Western binary but you want a quick term to describe yourself to Western people.
And do you know what else queer is?
Queer is hated by TERFs because it encompasses trans people.
Because it embraces aroace people.
Because it says “you are here, you are welcome, you belong” to people who say “I know I’m not straight, but I don’t know what I AM.” What you are is queer, and queer is enough. Queer is the place you can sit, rest, and figure it out at your own pace.
TERFs started the narrative of “queer is only a slur, has never been anything else, and was never reclaimed and you should never ever say it ever” in order to gatekeep our community. When you try to deny this term, YOU ARE DOING THE WORK OF TERFS.
Queer is not a slur. Queer is a reclaimed word that is of huge help to people across the community, but most especially to our fellows who aren’t “just” LGB, and to the nonwhite members of our community who do not fit into the gender binary.
Stop. STOP. Stop listening to TERFs who pretend nothing of queer rights existed between 1880 and 2015. Stop being ahistorical and disenfranchising.
We’re here, we’re queer, get the fuck over it.
Also, if the logic here is that “some people have been using it as a slur today” …well sorry to break it to you but ANY term for an identity that the speaker does not like, can and has been used in an attempt to be what the speaker thought was derogatory.
Some people use “feminist” as if it were a slur. Many people use “lesbian” or “gay” as a slur (did you not notice the slang use of “gay” for “stupid/lame”, that arose by the late 1990s?), some anti-Semitic people sling “Jew” around like it’s a dirty word, and hell, even “woman/girl” has been used as an insult (”you screamed like a woman/you hit like a girl”).
It’s always used THAT way, by people who want us to think there’s something wrong with being…feminine. Or Jewish. Or feminist. Or, yes, “queer”, in any way.
We are not “wrong” simply for being who we are. We’re different, not wrong; that’s the whole point of accepting “queer” as an identifier as we have for so long, that you’re not wrong to eixst the way you are, but you’re a little different, and that’s okay.
Those holdovers who do use it like a dirty word, as they do any other identity they don’t like, use it that way simply because to them, we are a dirty word. Because to them, they hate us enough that simply being ourselves seems like it should be an insult. They will steal even our own terms to use as an insult, simply because they thing being like us is a bad thing.
Fuck what bigots think. I’ll take decades of actual internal queer community and academic use over any random bigoted fucker’s usage any day.
if u cant draw brown people without being racist ur banned from art
and chances are ur art was shit from the get go
This is honestly the most annoying thing ever. If you can only draw white people, you’re not a good artist. Period. If you’re gonna make a career or a following out of making fan art, you better fkn know/learn how to draw and color poc correctly. “It’s just my style” isn’t an excuse. “It’s just the lighting” is not a viable excuse. No source of natural lighting is going to make a dark skinned character pale. Just stop making art if you’re going to be racist and unwilling to be a good person in general.
Cisgender LGB people: I see a lot of you speaking about ‘the cishets’ with some kind of bitter taste behind it but never acknowledging your own cisgender privilege and how much transphobia there is in the LGBT community and I want you to know that you’re not fooling anyone.
Ewwww… cis people using the term cishet like that is awful, why would they do that? It’s a term for people who are both queer and trans to talk about our oppression, not for cis queers to distance themselves from their transphobia and transmisogyny.
Yeah, the reasons:
–
to distance themselves from their transphobia and transmisogyny.
– to replace the way they have talked about ‘the straights’ as a coherent group when they didn’t want to consider that other people might face any kind of oppression
Pretending that ‘lgbt’ and ‘cishet; are coherent blocks that have all experiences in common is a convenient way to ignore their own transphobia, transmisogyny and cisgender privilege all while providing a tool to exclude people.
Vocal acephobes do this the most, accusing asexual and aromantic people of being ‘cishet’, resisting any kind of solidarity with other issue groups because it would bring the lgbt community in contact with ‘the cishets’.
It’s gross and it is so obviously holding lgbt/queer movements back, keeping them trapped in debates about who is ‘cishet’ when they so desperately need to be building a strong wide resistance to the rise of neofascism.
I wanted to add:
if you create a strong enough ‘us vs. the evil irredeemable cishets’ mentality
this can be used to avoid all accountability ever.
Don’t like being confronted with your racism? Target all your racism at a cishet POC who did something homophobic once. If a POC from the lgbt community calls you out on it you can call them ‘divisive’, you can accuse them of collaborating with the evil ‘cishets’, you can ask them why they hate gay people, etc. etc.
If enough white lgbt people with a similar mindset support you, you can create a culture where racism is okay as long as the target it not lgbt, and this will drive away persky lgbt POC who might talk about white privilege and other uncomfortable topics or who might at some point catch you just being plain old racist to everyone.
Don’t wanna be confronted with your ableism? ditto.
“Oh… yeah. Fair point yeah. My bad.” Shorten said in response to criticism scratching his head. “How did we not see that one earlier?”
He looked back at the ad. “Man… this really is harder than I anticipated. You put only one Asian woman in an ad and suddenly people are like “whoa, that’s not enough. What are you trying to say?” If only politicians were so scrutinised over what we said or did or spent tons of money producing to broadcast on TV…”
Liberal MP Craig Laundy was about to accuse Shorten of xenophobia before a flock of birds flew right into his mouth and stopped him from speaking as if the universe itself was not about to let the Liberal party have the moral high ground. They simply just don’t deserve that.
It was suggested that the ad was designed to target One Nation voters according to another Liberal MP,
Arthur Sinodinos.
“That’s mistake number one,” he said. “For starters: that’s our tactic and we do it way better than Labor.”
“The allegations of kidnapping were found to be invalid by a court! They came with me voluntarily! Sure, there was mentions of cutting fingers and we took their shoes, but they agreed to come with us in the end so it technically not kidnapping!” he said in reference to that time he, as a police officer, left 3 indigenous children stranded 12km out of town in 1994, which was only 23 years ago and so when he says “a 30 year old incident” we can only assume he’s getting confused about which of his multiple alleged kidnapping incidents he is meant to be defending himself against.
“Could be worse though,” he continued. “People could be focusing on how I mowed a swastika into my backyard and saluted it, then posted it on Facebook. I’m glad that one’s getting far less media attention.”
“But to be fair there’s just so much to choose from. The kidnapping incident, the nazi stuff, or the death threat I sent to a former employee. How can the media choose one aspect of me to focus on when I am such a complex and diverse piece of shit?”
It has become a long standing tradition for One Nation candidates to have their horrible pasts brought up to be used against them to prove their worth as controversial and despicable human beings.
Pauline Hanson has defended this selection process stating: “our voter base only wants the toughest of scum to represent them. Each candidate must prove they’re both a terrible enough person to receive massive amounts of scorn online and to be tough enough to not let it get to them. Mr Ellis unfortunately complained about the “pathetic haters” and realised the job was too hard on him and has resigned. But don’t you worry, we will continue to find the very worst of society to represent our party in the future.”
“Cadbury is no good! I personally prefer Lindt, for they don’t cave in to this PC Lefty bullshit of making halal Easter eggs. They make sure there’s pig’s blood in every single one! Just like how my mother used to make.”
She bit into one. Blood and nougat burst from the core.
“Mmmm… delicious.” She reached for a chocolate bunny and, with one swift bite, severed its head clean in two. “Oh my, this one is particularly bloody. How very Australian.”
“Have a safe Easter,” she said as blood dripped down her horrifying snarl of a smile. The red mingled with her already red sweater, creating a horrific drip pattern. “Be safe,” she repeated, softer, bloodier, as she stared deep into the camera.
🍓🧀 (archive) 