Racebending.com

The following is taken from some slides presented at an educational workshop held at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs called “Overview and Myths of Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking and survivorship.”   It was helpful to conceptualize and I think can be applied to a number of other scenarios and movements.

BEING AN ALLY

What is an ally?  To be an ally is to unite oneself with another to promote a common interest.  People who are allies are not only helpers, but also have a common interest with those who have different identities. In an alliance, both parties stand to benefit from the bond or connection they share.

“Master Status” is the idea that one part of a person’s identity (being a woman, a survivor, a person of color, etc.) defines and explains everything about that person.  It doesn’t.  Acknowledge the complexity of survivors and take our cues from the individual themselves.

Know and Tell Why  If you need to ask something that seems invasive or insensitive, acknowledge this and explain why it’s necessary information to obtain.  This is not a way to educate yourself about “those people” or to satisfy  your curiosity.  Do your homework; take your curiosity elsewhere.

Action.  Survivors need to be central to any awareness/prevention effort.

• If a survivor can’t stay through an event or participate fully in the action you are making (usually on their behalf)… then there’s a problem.
• Non-survivor allies sometimes create well-intentioned prevention efforts that totally miss the mark by objectifying survivor’s experiences.  (eg. super graphic accounts of oppression with hardly any focus on prevention.)
• Overlooking survivors altogether (in other words, focusing solely on perpetrators, which sometimes leads to over-sympathizing with their “plight.”)
• Keeping survivors centered in our efforts helps us stay on track.

Racebending.com: So maybe think, for a moment, about why you’re saying this

racebending:

I am tired of people explaining that because a franchise was created 1960s or 1970s—“when there were fewer people of color than there are today”— that’s why the franchise isn’t diverse today.

I mean, really.

Sure, there were more “white” people living in America in the 1960s and 1970s. That…

Also, P.S.: Attention to all of those people who continue to argue that since people who are “non-Hispanic white” make up the majority of the American population, “naturally” this group deserves to have the majority of entertainment media feature them (as befitting their majority status or whatever.)

Again, please stop and give half a thought to how a land that was populated by the indigenous peoples of America currently has a majority-white population today. (eg: the indigenous people were slaughtered for land, people of color were stolen from their families and socialized to become white, immigration of people of color was bottlenecked while immigration of white ethnics was widely encouraged, people of color were forcibly sterilized to prevent them from reproducing, all these different forms of social control, etc. No wonder people who are white make up the majority of Americans today.)

When you prop up the percentage of white people in order to justify why discrimination exists in Hollywood, also think about what’s providing you with this stat you can wield to silence dissent.

(via ispyanapple-deactivated20130421)