I reject your assertion that group membership is more important than individual conduct.
I beg your pardon? Are you seriously unable to distinguish between "group membership matters" and "group membership matters more than anything else"? Because I did not for one moment "assert" the latter.
by allowing yourself to make judgments based on group identities, you are in fact supporting the very system we all agree should be overturned.
Oh gods, not the old "if you perceive race (or class, or whatever) at all, you're just perpetuating racism (classism, whatever)" argument. Look, we can pretend all we want that oppression doesn't exist and that nobody therefore has any need for safe spaces, but pretending doesn't make it true.
Are you tired of educating the public? So am I!
Then why don't you think anyone should ever be allowed to take a break from doing so?
Just because it's your job to educate yourself does. not. mean. that it is ANYONE'S job to teach you. Part of your job is to find people who are willing to teach you (directly or indirectly) rather than sit on your ass whining that everyone should be willing, let alone that everyone should be willing at every moment of every day.
No one is entitled to my time and energy. If I choose to spend some of my time in spaces where I don't need to explain myself to anybody, I may be doing just what I need to refresh my energy enough that I can actually do some educating when I'm outside those spaces -- or I may be doing what I need just to survive spending the rest of my time outside those spaces. Either way, I have the right to keep some of my energy for myself.
Do you really want to get into the business of comparing suffering?
No, I don't. It certainly seemed to me as though you did, and unlike you, I don't mean that rhetorically.
As I said, I see the lure of this sense of security, but I think that in the end it makes the world darker and less safe.
Darker and less safe, perhaps, than it would be if we spent all our time actively reaching out to others. But since spending all our time reaching out to others is not and never will be feasible, it behooves us to ask whether safe spaces make the world darker in themselves, rather than whether they make the world darker merely by preventing us from spending all our time educating others, since they aren't in fact what prevents us from doing so. I'm inclined to think the answer to the question we should be asking is no, but on that point I'm a little more open to being swayed. But don't tell me that safe spaces are a bad idea because no one should be allowed to take a break from helping people who mostly don't even want to be helped, or because oppression only exists when oppressed people think it does.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2011-06-29 11:37 pm (UTC)I beg your pardon? Are you seriously unable to distinguish between "group membership matters" and "group membership matters more than anything else"? Because I did not for one moment "assert" the latter.
by allowing yourself to make judgments based on group identities, you are in fact supporting the very system we all agree should be overturned.
Oh gods, not the old "if you perceive race (or class, or whatever) at all, you're just perpetuating racism (classism, whatever)" argument. Look, we can pretend all we want that oppression doesn't exist and that nobody therefore has any need for safe spaces, but pretending doesn't make it true.
Are you tired of educating the public? So am I!
Then why don't you think anyone should ever be allowed to take a break from doing so?
Just because it's your job to educate yourself does. not. mean. that it is ANYONE'S job to teach you. Part of your job is to find people who are willing to teach you (directly or indirectly) rather than sit on your ass whining that everyone should be willing, let alone that everyone should be willing at every moment of every day.
No one is entitled to my time and energy. If I choose to spend some of my time in spaces where I don't need to explain myself to anybody, I may be doing just what I need to refresh my energy enough that I can actually do some educating when I'm outside those spaces -- or I may be doing what I need just to survive spending the rest of my time outside those spaces. Either way, I have the right to keep some of my energy for myself.
Do you really want to get into the business of comparing suffering?
No, I don't. It certainly seemed to me as though you did, and unlike you, I don't mean that rhetorically.
As I said, I see the lure of this sense of security, but I think that in the end it makes the world darker and less safe.
Darker and less safe, perhaps, than it would be if we spent all our time actively reaching out to others. But since spending all our time reaching out to others is not and never will be feasible, it behooves us to ask whether safe spaces make the world darker in themselves, rather than whether they make the world darker merely by preventing us from spending all our time educating others, since they aren't in fact what prevents us from doing so. I'm inclined to think the answer to the question we should be asking is no, but on that point I'm a little more open to being swayed. But don't tell me that safe spaces are a bad idea because no one should be allowed to take a break from helping people who mostly don't even want to be helped, or because oppression only exists when oppressed people think it does.