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A tiny, tiny mini-rant
I just came across someone complaining about the Racism 101 comm on LJ being "moderated by white women".
Same person complains about the universality with which non-white folks are granted superior authority in matters of race, by the way.
The thing is this:
Racism 101 is basic shit. That's the whole point. You do not need Authentic Non-White People to run it, to give their Brown Seal of Approval to things. Moreover, expecting non-white people to busy themselves with watching over the education of clueless white people is dear God what is wrong with you people anyway?
Think of it like this: a non-white person has a Ph.D. in Racism And Associated Crap. They may also, in fact, be wrong about some things. They may, in fact, be a fucking moron who needs to be smacked in the head with a chair. However, the discussion of their stupid-ass wrongness is not one a high schooler who's read, like, one primer on Racism And Associated Crap is going to be able to enter without being annoying and even more wrong. Odds are that if you think they're stupid and wrong, you just don't understand what they're talking about.
A Clueless White Person is someone who's in, like, year ten. Thinks they know everything, actually knows jack. If this were science, we're talking about someone who may possibly have a decent understanding of Newtonian physics and elementary geometry, but thinks relativity is e = mc2 because that's the Einstein thing, right?
Racism 101 does not need people with a Ph.D. in Racism And Associated Crap. It needs high school teachers. People who can teach Newtonian physics and don't find it aggravatingly basic and a painfully reductionist approximation of reality. This is the kind of crap that Somewhat Clueful White People can handle. And should.
Non-white people can get involved if they choose. Some people do teach high school even though they have a Ph.D. Sometimes because that's what they really want to do. But expecting Racism 101 to be taught by non-white people so you can have a more Authentic Experience in your Very Special Learning is, in fact, a branch of fail all its own.
Non-white people/people of colour are not required to teach you. They have no obligation or reason to hold your hand and walk you gently through the mists of your own ignorance to the bright sunny dawn of Clue. And you are probably the five hundredth person to ask them to do so.
If I'm getting irritated by the recurring cycle of "Teach me! Teach me! YOU have to explain stuff to me or it's YOUR FAULT if I'M RACIST", it is way, way past the point of seriously uncool.
Same person complains about the universality with which non-white folks are granted superior authority in matters of race, by the way.
The thing is this:
Racism 101 is basic shit. That's the whole point. You do not need Authentic Non-White People to run it, to give their Brown Seal of Approval to things. Moreover, expecting non-white people to busy themselves with watching over the education of clueless white people is dear God what is wrong with you people anyway?
Think of it like this: a non-white person has a Ph.D. in Racism And Associated Crap. They may also, in fact, be wrong about some things. They may, in fact, be a fucking moron who needs to be smacked in the head with a chair. However, the discussion of their stupid-ass wrongness is not one a high schooler who's read, like, one primer on Racism And Associated Crap is going to be able to enter without being annoying and even more wrong. Odds are that if you think they're stupid and wrong, you just don't understand what they're talking about.
A Clueless White Person is someone who's in, like, year ten. Thinks they know everything, actually knows jack. If this were science, we're talking about someone who may possibly have a decent understanding of Newtonian physics and elementary geometry, but thinks relativity is e = mc2 because that's the Einstein thing, right?
Racism 101 does not need people with a Ph.D. in Racism And Associated Crap. It needs high school teachers. People who can teach Newtonian physics and don't find it aggravatingly basic and a painfully reductionist approximation of reality. This is the kind of crap that Somewhat Clueful White People can handle. And should.
Non-white people can get involved if they choose. Some people do teach high school even though they have a Ph.D. Sometimes because that's what they really want to do. But expecting Racism 101 to be taught by non-white people so you can have a more Authentic Experience in your Very Special Learning is, in fact, a branch of fail all its own.
Non-white people/people of colour are not required to teach you. They have no obligation or reason to hold your hand and walk you gently through the mists of your own ignorance to the bright sunny dawn of Clue. And you are probably the five hundredth person to ask them to do so.
If I'm getting irritated by the recurring cycle of "Teach me! Teach me! YOU have to explain stuff to me or it's YOUR FAULT if I'M RACIST", it is way, way past the point of seriously uncool.
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tl;dr for everything past the first two paragraphs: Starship Troopers GEEK SQUEE
You know, I can't find an explanation for that EBearish "bad behaviour on both sides" tone-y argument that isn't fucking racist. Odd, that.
In less aggravating topics: OH, DUDE, I just caught up on your blog, and DUDE DUDE I had no idea there was a CGI series of Starship Troopers that wasn't made of fail like the movie. (Which I haven't seen and refuse to see because I could tell from the trailer that the things that made me love the book are SO not in the movie.) Sami WANT.
I also suddenly want to reread the book. Heinlein's politics suck as a final objective and he is the king of the straw men but that's not the POINT. It's still an interesting thought exercise, politically, as well as a cool story (imo).
Added to that, I think it was the first novel I ever read with a seriously multi-ethnic cast of characters. He didn't do that anywhere near perfectly, but it's there - a range of names, a range of *people*. Combat training that included both karate and savate. And Rico's native language is *Tagalog* - I can't think of a single other mainstream novel where the main character is Filipino, even if that's a surprise twist at the end. Which I suspect was deliberate - the reader is supposed to identify all the way through with Johnnie, and almost on the last damn page Heinlein tells us that the guy we've been identifying with all this time ain't white. When you think about his target audience of sf geeks, that's a really interesting choice.
Oh, and his pilot friend, Carmen Ibanez? The girl who's the brilliant mathematician and totally hotshot pilot potential, who's smarter than anyone else you meet in the whole book and lovely in looks and personality as well?
She did a lot to help me forgive Heinlein for the hideously awful female characters in Space Cadet. (Which is one of his juvenile-audience books that tells you that it's important to be honest, and to try hard, and to be loyal to your friends and to your ideals... but that girls are kind of stupid and can't possibly understand anything involving space or maths and they're really over-emotional and silly, too. That pissed me off.) Because Carmen is awesome, and a woman - but you don't have to think that she's Too Too Perfect, because it's from Johnnie's perspective, so it's not that she's a flawless person, it's that she's his friend, who he knows is brilliant, and so that's what he tells you. She's no doubt a full and complex person, but he's not telling you her story, he's telling you his, and in his story, she's just a friend of his he thinks is pretty amazing.
Ahem: Roughnecks - I Pitch You Some Woo
Then BUY it!
I do not promote the 3 disc all ep package because it has no commentary and the commentary on both the story creation, arc and bug decisions and the technical stuff is SO worth it. (Especially to get how the team had planned to wrap things up for a proper ending)
Carmen continues to be awesome! And there is Dizzy!
The series will diverge enough from the book that you will notice since you didn't see the movie. To me, it redeemed the best parts of the movie (Carl, Dizzy as a girl, uhm - I think that might be it).
Re: Ahem: Roughnecks - I Pitch You Some Woo
I note that despite divergence I don't see you recommending I *do* watch the movie. *g* I don't think Dizzy is going to be too disconcerting, mind you, since Dizzy Flores is only in the book for about five seconds.
Re: Ahem: Roughnecks - I Pitch You Some Woo
ETA: It doesn't have the Roughnecks ethos, btw. And if you were to watch it, I'd suggest watching Roughnecks first. It would help you see parallels and possibilities. Otherwise it's just a sci-fi space opera movie with evil alien bugs.
Re: tl;dr for everything past the first two paragraphs: Starship Troopers GEEK SQUEE
Reminds me of the ending of the original Metroid game, and may have been created with similar intentions.
Re: tl;dr for everything past the first two paragraphs: Starship Troopers GEEK SQUEE
Re: tl;dr for everything past the first two paragraphs: Starship Troopers GEEK SQUEE
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Obviously. Because the difficult part of overcoming racism should, naturally, fall upon the victims
Obviously.
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Of course, I do have a Phd, so for me the metaphor comes more literally from realising that the extreme annoyance I got from strangers assuming that the fact that I had the knowledge to explain difficult maths problems to them meant I had an obligation to do so (For free. Whenever was convenient to them(*)) was like a teeny niggle compared to how POC must feel. Since people not understanding group theory doesn't actually cause me or anyone else any real harm. Any time I find myself thinking "But this race stuff is hard! Why won't someone explain it to me?" I think "Sophie, you are being like those annoying 3P3 students only much worse" and I am suitably chastened.
(nb in case it's not clear: I am TOTALLY not saying that maths ignorance=racism. Because no. It just helped me understand racism better)
(*)Though none of them said "Well then my lack of understanding of maths is YOUR FAULT".
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I can see myself asking you for maths help. But that would be on the basis that we are friends. And if it took you a lot of time, I would make you very-carefully-ingredient-assessed cookies or something. In much the same way, I'll give history/linguistics/beta services to friends, and spend as much time as necessary explaining things to friends, and so on... and get distinctly irritated when people expect the same privileges my friends get when they're not my friends.
This actually caused DRAMA in World of Warcraft, with someone in my guild getting seriously annoyed that I cheerfully handed valuable resources and thousands of gold to
I actually had to explain to her that being my friend for a number of years, including little things like sitting up with me in hospital until three in the morning when I had to be taken to emergency, that sort of stuff, means that
You wouldn't think it would be that hard to understand, but apparently, for her, it was. :rolleyes:
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And if you insist on flaunting your privileged sense of entitlement by demanding free education anyway, well, don't be surprised if the lesson you get isn't the one you asked for. Getting firm, unbudging "NO"s and being subjected to scathing mockery are teaching moments too!
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>.>
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buffaloblogging platform!no subject
But the tagging system!
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It's not just "PoC should teach white people," which concept has some validity. On our own, there's some aspects we just can't figure out; the problem with blind spots is that you don't see them. But it's not like there's any shortage of PoC who've decided to spend their energy educating whitefolks; it's not like we lack videos and blog posts and funny-but-touching cartoons and sarcastic bingo cards and careful analyses of every point on those cards.
I don't have a problem with "I should be learning about racism from the people most affected by it." The problem kicks in with, "...and this one right here in front of me, in my journal, is the one who should teach me." Because that's usually tied into "I don't want to read stuff from strangers, because they might not be nice to me and tell me I'm basically a good person even if I have some skeevy race issues. In fact, I don't want to think I have any skeevy race issues; I want someone to tell me I just need to polish my vocabulary a little bit and then I'll be wonderful & enlightened."
Racism 101 does not need people with a Ph.D. in Racism And Associated Crap. It needs high school teachers.
I'll posit it needs middle school teachers... people who are willing to go over the same basic shit, again and again, even with the same students who obviously weren't paying attention the first time. "Teachers" who know that they're sliding over some of the nuances because those are too subtle to be recognized, who have to keep saying, "oh, and there's more, and we can discuss that when you're ready for it."
High school students are presumed to have some competence in their subjects; middle school students are still absorbing the idea "this is a subject worthy of study."
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We don't have "middle school" in my country.
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First-year students at most Australian universities are called freshers, or something similar, but once you get past fresherdom there aren't terms for years thereafter either.
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Some schools are actually starting to move toward a formal Middle School structure, or even toward four schools (MLC and Shenton College are local examples).
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And MLC, at least, I'm not sure about Shenton, is all years. I know they have subdivisions within the years, but it's still the same school...
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I can't find an exhaustive listing of JHSs in WA, but Schools Online does show a few at a quick glance - Beverley, Bruce Rock, Cunderdin, Darkan, Donnybrook, just on a quick click through the first few.
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