At some point, solidarity has to be the key
Salty Current said something that caught my attention in a comment on that discussion of whether or not we have to give up our “cherished right to self-expression” if we want to be allies of marginalized groups.
people who want to be allies of marginalized groups
But I’m a member of a marginalized group. We’re talking here about relations between and among marginalized groups. At some point, fucking solidarity has to be the key. And solidarity is not a one-way street.
Yes, that’s true. It’s not a matter of us non-marginalized people keeping silence in order to be allies to marginalized people – it’s marginalized people and other marginalized people. Solidarity is important. It’s far better than being “allies” in my view – there’s something both patronizing and impertinent about claiming to be allies. Solidarity, though, doesn’t need permission and doesn’t condescend. Let’s have less talk of allies and more talk of solidarity.
The not mentioning things idea isn’t working well, as far as I can see. There are a lot of feminists and lesbians (to name two marginalized groups) out there who are choking down what they want to discuss, but they’re not happy about it. I don’t think that will work out well. I think we should be able to talk, while still being in solidarity.
You’re fully on it, I think… the title of ally is effectively just an “honourable mention” award, and not worthy of being chased at the expense of furthering ones own goals as a marginalized group.
Quite right. Solidarity. I think “allies” sounds puny.
Indeed, as I said back on the FTB version of B&W, Allied rather than Ally. Standing solidarity seems like a good thing to me.
I agree with all of the above. I just want to mention that when i was in high school and college in the 1980s some of the teachers’ classrooms and offices had stickers on their windows with pink triangles which said “LGBT Ally” and “Safe Space/ GLBT Allies” and it was *appreciated*. Back then, it seemed so important to know that we weren’t going to be mistreated by a prejudiced teacher, and that if we were being harassed by some students we would know there were teachers who were our allies and they’d stick up for us. Now decades have passed, and that isn’t the most ideal way of framing the situation for today’s language and today’s attitudes and today’s popular perceptions, but it did have an appropriate time and place which was largely helpful.
As a trade unionist, solidarity is my touchstone and it’s a word and concept that gets lost in our highly individualistic world. It’s often rejected as a foolish, antiquated notion but it is the only way forward for our society.
The thing is, our lives ARE tied together. My justice IS dependent on the justice of every other marginalized group. We succeed in achieving fairness when we work together. That hasn’t changed but people are blind to it and wrapped up in who they are instead of what they do.
And who are some of the most vocal of the “allies”, identity-wise? They often can’t exactly claim solidarity as members of marginalized groups, but claiming ally-ship of one group gives them a nice pass for abusing other groups. (I know that’s implicit above, but I find it important to keep in mind.)
This is something that’s been on my mind through this whole thing… I mean, I hardly feel marginalised, personally, but I’m aware of societal expectations of someone of my bodily configuration, and of the assumptions that people make when they notice how few of those expectations I live up to – things are only uncomfortable if people decide to dig into it. I also don’t have anybody telling me that I’m a terf or trans antagonistic because of anything I’ve personally expressed, but some of the things that I’ve seen cited as evidence of your terfdom are simply instances of questioning gender and those kinds of questions are kind of central to my experience of gender… so if asking those questions is trans antagonistic, then surely my existence is trans antagonistic too? At least, by their apparent understanding – obviously not in the world in general, because I’m pretty sure that neither my existence nor theirs invalidates the other’s. But, I mean, what am I supposed to do? Just sit down, shut up, and deny my sense of self in order to be a trans ally? I’m not sure I could do that even if I didn’t consider it to be counter-productive to support the denial of my own existence and that of people like me. I don’t think it should be necessary, I don’t think it is necessary, and I don’t think taking a stance that makes it ideologically necessary can be good for any progressive movement.