#privliege

Ego or Eco, where does your heart lie? Deep Ecology, Privilege, Empathy

This will be kind of hard, but I’m proud of my decision. The panel is Thursday, I’ll probably write about it

This article, from 2010, does not NEARLY go far enough in my opinion, however it might be a compelling way to explain privilege to those who are so far from understanding it.

Why part 1? Because really, they probably will find a way to annoy me again. This is going to be a angry vent post, i love my relatives however their perception of certain things just drives me up the wall and i need to get it out some way. EVERY. YEAR. Every year i have to sit there while we watch Donald ducks christmas and listen to my relatives bitching about the edits that were made. Specifically it begins with the disney cartoon which is seen first “ Santas Workshop “ from 1932. In the original version has a “white” doll with golden locks falls down and says “mama” this means that it´s functioning properly and it gets an OK stamp in the butt from Santa. It walks off. Next a doll clearly adorning a blackface jumps in and exclaims “ mommy! “ It then jumps on the ok stamp. Shows the OK stamp to the audience ( It´s butt ) and then goes off swinging it´s arms. Now a couple of years ago, i think it was 2012, Disney decided that this obvious Pickaninny ( A racist way dark skinned PoC were portrayed in media, they were usually dumb, children and immune to pain. Therefore it was okay to show them getting inflicted with pain, cause they don´t feel anything anyways hahahahahah!!!! ...God damn ಠ_ಠ ) were to be cut out along with the golden locks doll and a doll which stereotypically portrayed a jewish old man doing a jewish dance. AND OF COURSE all of my relatives start complaining about it. The normal ones are: “ Tradition hurrdurr “ “Who the fuck gets offended by that“ “ It´s more racist to take it away “ and the most beautiful of them all “ Well, *I* don´t see a problem with it “  One time i was even used as a prime example of “ Well i have a friend/relative who doesn´t care... So everyone else is just sensitive, they are an X so clearly all X must be ok with it. I´m not racist. “ When this happened I was at the grand age of 15 and didn´t want to ruin the mood.   I don´t even know where my rage starts and where it ends. 1. The entitlement; the fact that a tv program changed a little bit and people are still bitter about not seeing a character, who let´s be honest neither adds or takes away something without it´s presence. Except for YOU KNOW, the negative historical and cultural symbol it represents for dark skinned PoC. 2. Their conclusion on the subject; We WHO ARE CLEARLY EDUCATED IN THIS SUBJECT don´t see anything wrong in it so we want it in, just because it always is.  Christ these people would still be stuck in the 40´s where women were tools and PoC were lesser people because that´s how it always have been!!! They are also completely ignoring all of the connotations that character holds for dark skinned PoC and reduces it to being about them and their wants and needs. “We who are in no way affected by this, think our opinon on the matter, when we have done no research on the subject whatsoever should overrule the opinions of those who are affected by this and or know more about the subject. “ Their opinions are valid. They however willingly or unknowingly refuse to see it from a different angle and research the reason. Instead they lash out and blame PoC for this change, making rude comments / slurs all the way. 3. The upholding of tradition; This one is really funny to me because they say “That it should always be what it always has”. My grandma are around her early 70´s and my mom and aunt in the middle of their 50´s. If you look up Donald ducks christmas you can see that the schedule of cartoons have shifted over the years, there are more cartoons which have been shown than other but it has never had a consistent schedule over all the years it has aired.  It by the way, couldn´t had the same schedule because some cartoons which are now considered “classics” weren´t even made yet. The first Donald duck Christmas aired 1958 in America, and first came to Sweden 1960. The jungle book and robin hood were made around the 70´s. Plutos christmas tree, and Ferdinand the bull weren´t even stables until the 80´s.  http://www.magicmovies.se/texter.asp?id=11 <  Here is a link, in Swedish showcasing all the times certain programs been on air. Scroll down and you can see a picture describing the details. This point is however mostly bathed in Nostalgia and “I want it to be the same from when i was a kid.” Which i can get, nostalgia is a powerful feeling it  shouldn´t however overrule logical thinking. Like, my childhood shows are still awesome but i´m still able to see when it sends out questioning morals, horrible implications, has awful story telling or is just downright sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic etc. Things that you like or things that hold nostalgic value does not live in a vaccum free of criticism just because you enjoy/enjoyed them.   My cousin added in when Ferdinand the bull came on that they were contemplating on cutting it off because Ferdinand himself were racist. Now this sounded fishy, everyone else swallowed it but i checked the sources and guess what i found.  http://www.expressen.se/noje/ferdinand-finns-kvar-under-sin-korkek-i-jul/  ( All in Swedish ) But it basically explains that this is a bald faced lie created by social medias. I think this and my cousins ignorance of the subject sums it up.  They don´t understand racism. They think that anything which has the color black or the color itself are automatically considered racist and think that it´s ludicrous. And it is, because that´s not racism. Racism is way complicated than that, i´m unfortunately not educated enough to explain it, i can barely understand it myself...  But they are using this above example in every situation to undermine PoC suffering to “ They are just sensitive “. Just like the Ferdinand is racist news they just want to find a reason to justify their hatred, xenophobia and racism toward dark skinned PoC. No shitstorm about the stereotypical Jewish man being cut, in fact they didn´t even realise he was gone, it was all about their right to see the Pickaninny. And the absolute worst is that i can´t retort with any of the things i have listed. I am horrible at articulating myself when it matters, i´m an extremely shy introvert among a bunch of extrovert people. If i were able to somehow say these things they would probably just say the same arguments with different words. That´s why i just needed this to get off my chest. Anyway i´m just going to sign off now because this became waaaay too long. 

http://www.activistclasscultures.org/whats-your-class-path/

So powerful