madame thursdayCis straight white people are trying to shut Arkh down.
Because they’re singling out people for being cis, white and straight. Singling out people for these things is meant to be everything this is standing against, is it not? You don’t mention these things for no reason. They can’t deliberately bring attention to these things and claim that they are irrelevant.
No. They’re singling people out for trying to shut down Arkh, and describing them using (some of) the vectors of privilege those specific people possess. Those things aren’t irrelevant, they’re incredibly relevant. But it’s not a generalization and unless you ARE the straight cis white guy who’s trying to shut down Arkh then it clearly has nothing to do with you.
If your name is Bob and I said, “My friend Bob makes annoying sounds when he eats.”, would you assume I’m “singling out people named Bob”? No. “Bob” is a relevant identifier in my story but it’s clearly not about you.
We live in a world that thinks nothing of using minority status as a descriptor for individuals (“This gay guy in my class…”),(“A couple of Black women…”),etc. The fact that you feel “singled out” by a sentence that clearly in no way applies to you is a function of your privilege. Using such a descriptor is not always making a generalization, but if you insist that no one can ever talk about other people in terms of identities that you happen to share, you’re making sure generalizations can only ever be made about other people and not you.
A+ response. Reblogging for context- and for anyone following who needs white privilege explained for the millionth time.
(Source: thearkhproject)
