(This is me venting.)
Dec. 15th, 2023 10:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kiki_engWhen Donald Trump was elected in 2016 I stayed up into the early hours of the morning, drinking wine and Skyping with a friend of a similar level of investment and an increasing amount of despair as the evening wound down. Next day's morning transit felt isolating, funereal, but as that day and all of the days progressed there was this thing that kept happening: people would make asides and vent.
The same thing happened when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022: people kept making asides about it. There was this assurance that other people also thought that it was fucked up. There were suddenly Ukrainian flags everywhere. There still are.
There aren't any Palestinian flags where I live. Nobody's talking about this, and it feels incredibly awful. The only acknowledgement I've seen has been in the queer and leftist spaces that I frequent, with unsurprisingly much more support in the leftist spaces. In the general spaces of my life there are crickets.
This week Canada voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire", so there is some progress, nationally, but: children are dying, people are being bombed in the places they are told by their bombers to go to be safe, sanitation and medical care have collapsed or are collapsing, people are dying.
I don't feel that "no, really, you should stop killing people" is a particularly complex or controversial statement, and yet. (Crickets.)
Having the place that I see the most support for Gazans be social media is deeply unpleasant. My meatspace-linked instagram feed is full of posts and reels about the conflict from too few people and organisations, and it's also a format that is designed to be absolutely terrible with links (have fun finding sources for anything ever), so it's incredibly susceptible to propagandizing and stirring further division.
My Dreamwidth is quiet in general, and I've cultivated a reading list over the years that leans heavily fandom rather than meatspace-focused. I don't see a lot of political content in general. I also don't see those asides that were happening 7 years ago.
The people who I see speaking up are - not exclusively, but - overwhelmingly women of colour. And, you know, wow, it is so weird that there seems to be this, like, racial correlation happening here.
There are all of these cricket-filled spaces in my life right now that feel racist and awful. Though, to be fair, it's also Christmas time, so the experience of going, like, most places, is like being bludgeoned repeatedly by a tinsel-covered baseball bat wielded by the dominant culture.
The same thing happened when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022: people kept making asides about it. There was this assurance that other people also thought that it was fucked up. There were suddenly Ukrainian flags everywhere. There still are.
There aren't any Palestinian flags where I live. Nobody's talking about this, and it feels incredibly awful. The only acknowledgement I've seen has been in the queer and leftist spaces that I frequent, with unsurprisingly much more support in the leftist spaces. In the general spaces of my life there are crickets.
This week Canada voted in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution for an "immediate humanitarian ceasefire", so there is some progress, nationally, but: children are dying, people are being bombed in the places they are told by their bombers to go to be safe, sanitation and medical care have collapsed or are collapsing, people are dying.
I don't feel that "no, really, you should stop killing people" is a particularly complex or controversial statement, and yet. (Crickets.)
Having the place that I see the most support for Gazans be social media is deeply unpleasant. My meatspace-linked instagram feed is full of posts and reels about the conflict from too few people and organisations, and it's also a format that is designed to be absolutely terrible with links (have fun finding sources for anything ever), so it's incredibly susceptible to propagandizing and stirring further division.
My Dreamwidth is quiet in general, and I've cultivated a reading list over the years that leans heavily fandom rather than meatspace-focused. I don't see a lot of political content in general. I also don't see those asides that were happening 7 years ago.
The people who I see speaking up are - not exclusively, but - overwhelmingly women of colour. And, you know, wow, it is so weird that there seems to be this, like, racial correlation happening here.
There are all of these cricket-filled spaces in my life right now that feel racist and awful. Though, to be fair, it's also Christmas time, so the experience of going, like, most places, is like being bludgeoned repeatedly by a tinsel-covered baseball bat wielded by the dominant culture.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-16 08:38 am (UTC)I've abstained from writing about it on DW and online in general because of mental health reasons. Speaking to you about this simply so you can maybe feel less alone. I hear you.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-16 07:26 pm (UTC)Thanks.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-16 05:08 pm (UTC)It is fucked up, and we really should stop killing people.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-16 07:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-16 09:53 pm (UTC)I do think that the bulk of the willful ignorance/denial is rooted on racism. Which is a disgusting thing that permeates every aspect of our lives. Doubly so if you're a person of color.
On top of that, there are decades and decades of purposefully created misinformation in order to support racist ideologies. Once you realize how many things (specifically with the Gaza genocide) connects to that, it becomes a little easier to spot things and push back. Something I've done with friends and family. There have been, ngl, some intense arguments. So I changed my approach a little to do as much active listening as I can in order to meet them halfway. And also help them understand why it's important to support Palestine.
My shift in the approach happened once I saw that it was more effective to start at giving most folks a measure of grace. Everyone is still surviving thru an ongoing pandemic AND all of the health and financial consequences from that. I donate when I can, boost as much info as possible, and try to keep informed (via reports from Palestinian journalists and whatever independent (but not, like, the fringe stuff) media there is out there.
The people who I see speaking up are - not exclusively, but - overwhelmingly women of colour. And, you know, wow, it is so weird that there seems to be this, like, racial correlation happening here.
Oh, for sure! It's extremely telling that there have been a lot of protests at a global level from Black, Brown and other non-White folks. NGL, it gives me hope.
Also that, for once, Hellscape (Twitter) and its cousin Chaos Land (Tiktok) are two platforms that post reports abt what's really happening. I feel that's something that a lot of regular media (in addition to the Israel and US gov'ts) hadn't counted on. Everything the latter post gets debunked v. fast.
Oh, and I deliberately keep my DW page focused on fannish stuff. For a variety of reasons. Including, sadly, the fact that a lot of folks over here are white and racist (w/r/t the latter, usually in a v. passive way--which makes it even more insidious, but there we are.) As an Afro-Latine, I only have so many spoons to battle it out on every front. ┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘
(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-17 08:26 pm (UTC)I think that if you're familiar with the playbook of the oppressor or what oppression looks like - through study, lived experience, or a combination of the two - you'll be able to spot it, the situation in Gaza will set off alarm bells in your head. That kind of education is actively discouraged by people invested in maintaining the status quo - they don't want to be called on their shit ever. People aren't taught to think for themselves, and they don't. They learn to give lip service to DEI and they try to keep up with the vernacular - what slurs they can't use and so on - but they never really learn why, or how to actually listen to or support other people. With respect to this conflict I swear the thinking goes: antisemitism is worse than Islamophobia (because the Jews are more like me than the Muslims, and anyway I learned about antisemitism in school so it must be worse) and, anyway, there are always wars in the Middle East and it's complicated. A news outlet can run a picture of a dead child cradled in their parent's arms and that emotional hit will not land for someone who has never learned to empathise with someone of that skin tone. There are a lot of ways that privilege and racism play out and are playing out with Gaza.
You have to meet people where they are, because you're never going to get anywhere with them any other way, and you have to be optimistic, because despair is a tool of the oppressor. And you have to take care of yourself so that you can keep fighting.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-18 07:29 pm (UTC)The good thing (if there's anything to hold onto) is that the boycotts and the pushback against the racist messaging are working. It's taking a lot of community work both online and offline/IRL. And it can be exhausting, so yes, breaks are needed.
OTOH, even during the most heartbreaking moments (of which there have sadly been too many to even pinpoint one), I find strength in seeing ppl working together. Be it marching or calling/emailing/faxing their gov't reps or even something as simple as explaining to folks why Starbucks is doing the most to lure back customers who don't agree with their anti-Palestine stance (and why it's important to keep boycotting them.)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-12-19 03:27 am (UTC)Yeah, the speed with which ubereats about-faced was nice, even if, like, nothing else about its actions was.
And, yeah, the community-building is key.