sparkindarkness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sparkindarkness) wrote2009-10-15 04:01 pm
sparkindarkness) wrote2009-10-15 04:01 pm
Entry tags:
Accepting bigotry - Ignorance, Audience and Messages
I wasn’t going to mention the case of Dave Burk, an arsehole teacher of Consumer Education (as an aside... consumer education? What?) who spouted homophobic drivel in his class. After all, if I scouted the world for homophobic arseholes my blood pressure would go through the roof and I’d have little time for little else.
But his case does highlight something. Now, this arsehole asked - in multiples lessons it seems - "How would you feel about your tax dollars going to pay some black fag in New York to take pictures of other black fags?" Yeah he’s a special kind of repellent that guy. One of his students, an openly gay man, objected.
Yeah he’s an arsehole, but there are 3 things that struck me about this that I feel the need to ramble about
Didn’t mean to cause offence - ignorance
One of the things he has said in the fallout is that he didn’t intentionally offend anyone. Now, I can think of only 2 excuses for how you can possible say such drivel and NOT intentionally offend someone. The first is ignorance.
Ignorance is a tricky thing. I’ve said before that those who do not share a marginalisation may not realise when a thing that is said is prejudice and offensive (which is why I’ve said it’s bloody stupid to tell a marginalised person what they should and shouldn’t be offended by) and it follows that occasionally, even with the best will in the world, if you are privileged you will occasionally insert foot into mouth and wonder why various marginalised people around you are looking at you like you’ve just violated a small goat. It happens. Usually it’s a matter of how graciously you recover from these little errors that counts.
However, ignorance is not a blanket excuse. And I call bullshit that ANYONE in the western world, with English as a first language who has not been living in cave somewhere can possibly not realise that “fag” is offensive when used to refer to a homosexual. I call bullshit on anyone believing that saying money going to black and/or gay people is somehow worse than giving it to straight and/or white people is not offensive. This ignorance is inexcusable. It is either a lie and should not be accepted or evcidence of such utter contempt and disrespect to both gay and black people that offending them in a blatantly offensive manner doesn’t even register in his mind. Both are inexcusable.
Ignorance can be an excuse - but when it is this extreme then the ignorance is either willful or a lie. Either way, inexcusable, unsupportable and fully worthy of condemnation.
Didn’t mean to cause offence - audience
The only other way I can see him assuming he wouldn’t cause offence with his vile statements is he assumed his audience wouldn’t care. Because if you know that your words are offensive and say them thinking no-one will be offended then the only way you can do that is if you think your audience ISN’T of the targeted group and/or doesn’t give a damn about the targeted group.
Which brings me to another point - homophobia, racism, sexism et al won’t disappear if the privileged only scrape their tongues clean when they think the marginalised are listening. If straight people are merrily spouting homophobic bullshit when the GBLT folk aren’t around then little progress can be made. If white people feel that all those racist slurs are perfectly acceptable so long as no PoC are around, then we have precious little chance of working against racism.
These terms are offensive - and they should offend all people, not just the people they target. These terms show that the speaker is a bigot who views section of humanity with withering contempt. That should be offensive to everyone, not just the victims.
More, everyone who hears those words and stays silent because it’s not about them are sending the message that such attitude and language is ok. It’s ok to be homophobic, no-one really cares so long as there are no sensitive gay people around. It’s ok to be racist, we’re happy with racism, so long as there are no PoC to get huffy about it. Sexism is fine, so long as there are no over-sensitive women around we’re happy with sexism.
It’s not ok. It’s not right. It’s not acceptable. And if we‘re sending that message, we have to stop. We have to say “that’s not right” “that’s not funny” and even “you’re an arsehole” when we hear such filth spouted even when it is not aimed at us. Because if we don’t we’re saying “we accept this” and if we accept it, we’re part of the problem.
And finally - the response
The school has made a decision how to deal with Dave Burk. He has been warned.
No, I didn’t forget to keep typing that sentence (I know, I do that too often). That’s it. He has been warned. He’s a naughty boy and they told him that. Bad bigot. He may even have been denied a cookie but probably wasn’t send to bed with no supper.
He has been warned.
This is problematic. This is exactly the same point I made with the audience. If we give the message that bigotry is acceptable, to be taken lightly, a minor nuisance at worst then we will make no inroads against it. What message has been said by the school here? What have they told their students? That flagrant bigotry is a minor problem? Probably less serious than running through the corridors? That dehumanising and denigrating your fellow human beings is barely worthy of comment and certainly not worthy of action? That vile hate speech is treated as less serious than, say, smoking behind the bike sheds?
And what have they said to the GBLT students and the black students? Yes, a teacher treated you as if you had less worth than straight/white students and the school’s pretty ok with that? The school is happy with prejudice against you. The school thinks prejudice against you isn’t particularly a problem. The school is TEACHING that BIGOTRY isn’t worth acting on, that it’s minor, that devaluing marginalised bodies isn’t all that bad.
Yeah, that’s messed up. That’s a horrendous message to send and a gross indictment of the school. Again, if we want to oppose bigotry, if we want to fight against it, we have to treat it as the serious blight it is. No brushing it under the rug, no dismissing it, no ignoring the hurt and pain and damage it causes.
Bigotry is not trivial. If you treat it as such, you are part of the problem.
But his case does highlight something. Now, this arsehole asked - in multiples lessons it seems - "How would you feel about your tax dollars going to pay some black fag in New York to take pictures of other black fags?" Yeah he’s a special kind of repellent that guy. One of his students, an openly gay man, objected.
Yeah he’s an arsehole, but there are 3 things that struck me about this that I feel the need to ramble about
Didn’t mean to cause offence - ignorance
One of the things he has said in the fallout is that he didn’t intentionally offend anyone. Now, I can think of only 2 excuses for how you can possible say such drivel and NOT intentionally offend someone. The first is ignorance.
Ignorance is a tricky thing. I’ve said before that those who do not share a marginalisation may not realise when a thing that is said is prejudice and offensive (which is why I’ve said it’s bloody stupid to tell a marginalised person what they should and shouldn’t be offended by) and it follows that occasionally, even with the best will in the world, if you are privileged you will occasionally insert foot into mouth and wonder why various marginalised people around you are looking at you like you’ve just violated a small goat. It happens. Usually it’s a matter of how graciously you recover from these little errors that counts.
However, ignorance is not a blanket excuse. And I call bullshit that ANYONE in the western world, with English as a first language who has not been living in cave somewhere can possibly not realise that “fag” is offensive when used to refer to a homosexual. I call bullshit on anyone believing that saying money going to black and/or gay people is somehow worse than giving it to straight and/or white people is not offensive. This ignorance is inexcusable. It is either a lie and should not be accepted or evcidence of such utter contempt and disrespect to both gay and black people that offending them in a blatantly offensive manner doesn’t even register in his mind. Both are inexcusable.
Ignorance can be an excuse - but when it is this extreme then the ignorance is either willful or a lie. Either way, inexcusable, unsupportable and fully worthy of condemnation.
Didn’t mean to cause offence - audience
The only other way I can see him assuming he wouldn’t cause offence with his vile statements is he assumed his audience wouldn’t care. Because if you know that your words are offensive and say them thinking no-one will be offended then the only way you can do that is if you think your audience ISN’T of the targeted group and/or doesn’t give a damn about the targeted group.
Which brings me to another point - homophobia, racism, sexism et al won’t disappear if the privileged only scrape their tongues clean when they think the marginalised are listening. If straight people are merrily spouting homophobic bullshit when the GBLT folk aren’t around then little progress can be made. If white people feel that all those racist slurs are perfectly acceptable so long as no PoC are around, then we have precious little chance of working against racism.
These terms are offensive - and they should offend all people, not just the people they target. These terms show that the speaker is a bigot who views section of humanity with withering contempt. That should be offensive to everyone, not just the victims.
More, everyone who hears those words and stays silent because it’s not about them are sending the message that such attitude and language is ok. It’s ok to be homophobic, no-one really cares so long as there are no sensitive gay people around. It’s ok to be racist, we’re happy with racism, so long as there are no PoC to get huffy about it. Sexism is fine, so long as there are no over-sensitive women around we’re happy with sexism.
It’s not ok. It’s not right. It’s not acceptable. And if we‘re sending that message, we have to stop. We have to say “that’s not right” “that’s not funny” and even “you’re an arsehole” when we hear such filth spouted even when it is not aimed at us. Because if we don’t we’re saying “we accept this” and if we accept it, we’re part of the problem.
And finally - the response
The school has made a decision how to deal with Dave Burk. He has been warned.
No, I didn’t forget to keep typing that sentence (I know, I do that too often). That’s it. He has been warned. He’s a naughty boy and they told him that. Bad bigot. He may even have been denied a cookie but probably wasn’t send to bed with no supper.
He has been warned.
This is problematic. This is exactly the same point I made with the audience. If we give the message that bigotry is acceptable, to be taken lightly, a minor nuisance at worst then we will make no inroads against it. What message has been said by the school here? What have they told their students? That flagrant bigotry is a minor problem? Probably less serious than running through the corridors? That dehumanising and denigrating your fellow human beings is barely worthy of comment and certainly not worthy of action? That vile hate speech is treated as less serious than, say, smoking behind the bike sheds?
And what have they said to the GBLT students and the black students? Yes, a teacher treated you as if you had less worth than straight/white students and the school’s pretty ok with that? The school is happy with prejudice against you. The school thinks prejudice against you isn’t particularly a problem. The school is TEACHING that BIGOTRY isn’t worth acting on, that it’s minor, that devaluing marginalised bodies isn’t all that bad.
Yeah, that’s messed up. That’s a horrendous message to send and a gross indictment of the school. Again, if we want to oppose bigotry, if we want to fight against it, we have to treat it as the serious blight it is. No brushing it under the rug, no dismissing it, no ignoring the hurt and pain and damage it causes.
Bigotry is not trivial. If you treat it as such, you are part of the problem.