Speaking as a minority, I’m more than happy for any of my White relatives to use references to me in any argument to attack White supremacy. It doesn’t take away from my dignity or respect in any way, regardless of what TedX woman thinks.
It’s not about a need to humanize minorities, it’s about exposing the dehumanization done by racists. The kind of people who will happily dismiss the truths of entire ethnic groups as “anecdote”.
And BTW, fuck “fact based” in its Dis-Enlightenment-widened arse. Discussions of racism aren’t fucking physics exercises. They’re about telling human stories and owning our own narratives, and excluding talking about real people from that discussion is fucked up.
It isn’t particularly useful if it’s just a way to say “see, I care too!” like your examples of politicians bringing up their wives/daughters. But it can be useful as a way to indicate that you have some level of understanding of the topic at hand.
If a conversation is about how to discipline teenagers, I’m going to pay more attention to someone who says they have a teenager - their opinion will carry more weight than someone who has never raised a kid. If the conversation is about the challenges faced by Black students in school, I’m going to listen more to my friends with a Black child than one with no direct experience.
Just FYI, I’ve seen that argument used about men as well. “That is someone’s son/brother/father/etc.” It’s not a gender-based thing. There was even a song based around that idea. It could be argued that the rhetorical device is used more often about women and that might have something to say about misogyny and/or patriarchal ideas in society, but it’s certainly not exclusive to women. Often when I see it referred to men it’s to humanize them, particularly someone with a criminal past (especially a violent one).
This isn’t meant to be a MRM plea (shudder) but just pointing out the flaw in the original argument. Not only is it not a situation exclusive to women, but it’s one I see used very often for men.
Yeah, I was mildly amused by the “JFK” curse, so I used FDR for “For Da Record”, and then used a nonsensical LBJ on another post. I thought the LBJ might be taking the joke too far, but then y’all picked it up and started a whole relay race with it, which, cool beans.
[Moderating]
The use of “cracker” here to refer disparagingly to another poster is inappropriate, even in the Pit. I’ve previously granted a lot of latitude to this and similar terms, but have recently been convinced to moderate them more sharply. Since this was something that I had previously allowed, even if only tacitly, I’m only making this a mod note, not a warning.
While I’m at it, I’m also going to call out the interrogation of the racial structure of another poster’s family as crossing a line, and just being really gross in general. No warning issued on that count, either, but that stops now
[/Moderating]
When Pelosi’s speaker of the House
And Kamala aligns with Joe
Then peace will guide the Senate
And love will steer AO
This is the dawning of the age of Ocasio
Age of Ocasio
Ocasio
Ocasio!