Sometimes it makes me feel physically ill that I am young, white, able-bodied, cisgendered, essentially heterosexual and from a middle-class family.
God damn. My privilege is staggering.
I truly and deeply wish to maintain constant awareness of my privilege, and do everything within my power to end oppression, and at the same time respect boundaries and make sure I don't step on any toes or anything. I really can't come up with the proper word I'm looking for here, but if I think of it I'll edit the post.
I want to be an ally.
How the fuck do I become a good ally?
2 comments:
I think once you've realized your privilege, the best way to be an ally without feeling like you're being patronizing etc is to pull some bohdisattva shit and try and help others see their privilege.
Obviously, it's up to your discretion to decide how to do this in a way that will be sustainable for you, and for whom it is worth investing your time and effort (obviously most random bros at a bar are not going to be worth it...)
I think mostly people who are oppressed at various levels get tired of building their existences out of having to call people out in every interaction, and speaking from experience it can be really frustrating trying to navigate this both in situations where I'm oppressed and in situations where I'm trying to be a better ally myself.
dunno if this helps any...but it's something I've spent a while thinking about too...
no, it's totally helpful and I appreciate you commenting! (uh, don't know why we didn't talk about this during real life hang-outs, but whatever)
I found myself trying to explain privilege to a friend of mine a few weeks ago after he found out someone he considered to be a friend did some really sketchy shit to his partner. He felt frustrated and angry to be a cisgendered man while so many of them treat women in such terrible ways. We tried to talk about the best way for him to approach the situation and how to act going forward, but it's so complicated and confusing. I really don't even have the language for this yet.
unrelated, my "word verification" is "jojoy". Is that even a word?
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