Disabled. Grrl. Femme. Queer. Dyke. Activist. Gendertrash. Working class. Survivor. Slut. Freak. Cunt. Ally. Anti-racist. Feminist. Humanist.
I think identity is a pretty radical concept. To identify allows community, solidarity, and the ability to relate to shared experiences. Too often though, people who will relate to you in one category of identity will spew oppressive attitudes toward other identities. For me personally, I have experienced this most profoundly in a queer context–indeed some of the harshest ableism I have faced has been from fellow queers. Such an idea is certainly not new or limited to a queer/disabled context though; I am reminded of a friend’s telling of the story of this years Women’s Studies conference in which bell hooks spoke about how there was no cohesive womanist movement and that women should be focusing on the feminist movement instead. It angered me to hear this, that someone who was supposedly so progressive in gender politics was at the same time so regressive about race politics. To quote Audre Lorde, “There is no such thing as a single issue struggle because we don’t live single issue lives.” In other words, we must be allies to each others’ struggles. We must not step on each other to fight to the top, nor must we play the “oppression olympics”. Indeed all issues and struggles have importance.
Happy Thursday.
hey – wanted to float something by you. been reading your blog for a few days, not sure if this is entirely presumptuous, but i find that white people often don’t identify their race as being a salient feature of their identity. i find that troubling, as though there is no need to mention it unless you’re a poc. i disagree, and i’m curious as to what you think, as you identify as antiracist, and have various other facts about you (which are also axes of oppression, obv) listed together.