Racefail 09

[lunabee34]

kita0610 suggested HERE that "Silence is loud and mysterious . . . A post that simply says "I am not okay with this" can speak volumes. Don't assume people know where you stand."

I am a 29 year old, bisexual, white English professor who was born into a fundamentalist Baptist, middle-class home. I am a privileged person. I have to struggle against (sometimes on a daily basis) the racism I internalized in my upbringing. I often fail.

Because I am a new professor, my schedule is very busy. Most of you have noticed that I have been posting or commenting on lj very little this semester. I have been trying to catch up on Racefail, reading links from metafandom and from the flist whenever I can but I still have not read probably even a tenth of the posts yet. rydra_wong's journal is a great place to go for a compilation of links to different aspects of the discussion; this is where I am getting my information.

I would like to end this post with a note about my role as a teacher. I consider it one of the highest obligations of my calling to expose my students to ideas and concepts and realities that may be far outside their own experience. For that reason, the reading lists in my classes always include works by those people who have been marginalized. I also do my utmost to make my classroom a safe place, a place where ageist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, and ethnocentric commentary is examined and acknowledged as inappropriate. Often my students say and write things that they do not realize are hurtful and damaging and welcome the realization; sometimes, of course, they mean every racist word. In my real life endeavors to combat racism, I often fail.

Comments

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I just didn't want anyone to take my silence for complicity (or intentional complicity, rather). The first commenter to Kita's post had a good point that silence on this issue could mean a lot of things including absence from lj (which is largely the case for me), but even so, I didn't want to use that as an excuse.

[ana-grrl.livejournal.com]

For that reason, the reading lists in my classes always include works by those people who have been marginalized. I also do my utmost to make my classroom a safe place, a place where ageist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, and ethnocentric commentary is examined and acknowledged as inappropriate.

I love you.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I love you too, sweetie.