We Probably Don't Exist But That's Fine

The original push behind naming cultural appropriation and having these conversations were so that we as a society could evaluate why we were punished for our heritage while white People were not. It was supposed to be about seeking solutions. The idea was to create a society where we could celebrate our cultures with impunity. It was never about telling white people that they “weren’t allowed” to do certain things. We did ask that white People stop doing certain things because they weren’t doing them respectfully and were not invited to do them, but the primary reason we asked them to desist was to reclaim the things they had stolen and to reassign them culturally back where they belonged.

White “allies” saw these conversations happening and instead of trying to aplify our own voices or even try to learn about the complexities behind why we were saying what we were saying, they instead began screaming over us and creating a narrative that was hardly even the bones of what we originally set out to say. It was like they took the conversation we were trying to have, completely decontextualized it, and stripped it of all it’s nuance in order to gain social currency by seeming progressive.

So the conversation around cultural appropriation went from “This aspect of our heritage belongs to us and we find it egregious that we are shamed for it. What steps can we take to address the racism that’s creating this situation as well as rehome the things that have been stolen” to “you’re not allowed to do that because if you do that you’re racist, we don’t really understand why that’s racist but you’re not allowed to do that and if you do that you’re a klansman no exceptions. So you’re not allowed because because”

At the end of the day, did I like the fact that sally was wearing dreads? No. But my primary concern was not that sally was wearing dreads but rather that sally could wear dreads and I couldn’t. THAT was the intended focus of those conversations. It was about addressing the inequality. It was about us. Now the conversation is just about sally and were completely forgotten.

My Jewish ass:

(Corvids are the family that include crows, ravens, and blue jays.)

Crows and ravens are loud, ominous, traditional harbringers of omens, psychopomps. Fuckin’ love shiny things. CLEVER AS FUCK. Vengeful, vindictive, but can also communicate “hey, this person is nice, be nice to them” to others in the same species and may give gifts to favored humans. CARNIVORES. (Some of the shit they eat, man. Yikes.)

And then there are blue jays, which are very pretty assholes.

I learned that the more I protested, the more convinced people became that I was in fact interested in romance.

Sometimes it frustrated me so much I'd cry and would get told to stop being dramatic, but I think that would happen to any kid(and sometimes adults too). If they're being sincere and no one believes them, that's hurtful and frustrating!

Literally nobody could fathom that I just didn't want romance and was okay like that, and that, in part, made me stop expressing my feelings to others. I was sick of it.

tagging

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Tagged by @hersheythegaybean!

@greenchemicalpilotss @seance-down-below

Mostly Void and Partially Star