I was going to move on today, so as not to be a big mean ol’ bully to the Global Secular Council, but then I read yet another of its Twitter responses to me and found that moving on would not be possible.
It was alternating between rebuking me for judging them “by the color of their skin” and saying they are working hard on diversity. Well that’s unclear. What do they mean by “working hard on diversity” if it has nothing to do with “the color of their skin”? “Diversity” is simply a (very stale by now) buzzword used for the purpose of avoiding the mention of race (aka “skin color”) or sex or national origin etc etc. The Twitter account seemed to want to have it both ways – to sneer from a great height at talk of “skin color” while still patting itself on the back for “working on diversity.” (Then there’s a separate question of why it didn’t do this “working on diversity” before it went live instead of after – a question I also asked and got no real answer to.)
So I asked.
@SecularCouncil Which is it? You hate judging by skin or you work hard on diversity?
Secular Council @SecularCouncil 15 h
Both! They are not mutually exclusive. We hate exclusion or hate based on skin-color. We love inclusion across the board.
Ophelia Benson @OpheliaBenson 15 h
So you’re accusing me of exclusion or hate. On what grounds?
Secular Council @SecularCouncil 15 h
Nope! Not accusing you of anything, except poor word choice in describing what you don’t like about our Council members.
Ophelia Benson @OpheliaBenson 15 h
What’s wrong with it? I said you need to add “some people who are NOT pale US/UK males” – point being that’s not global.
Secular Council @SecularCouncil 14 h
We already discussed our use of the word Global, Ophelia, and we’re still very sorry it offends you.
See why I had to give up the idea of leaving the Global council alone? That reply is so clueless, so rude, so patronizing, so off the mark, so petulant, so stupid – that leaving it alone just isn’t an option.
This is our “movement” too after all. It’s our “community” too. Ridiculous clueless arrogant shit like this gives us all a bad name. If we all look the other way they’ll just keep at it.
But cheer up, there’s also a bonus hilarity.
Ophelia Benson @OpheliaBenson 15 h
Do you have a list of approved euphemisms?
Audra LA @Audra_LA 14h
Are you serious? Pale is not a slur and accurately describes your lack of diversity.
Secular Council @SecularCouncil 14h
We already discussed our use of the word Global, Ophelia, and we’re still very sorry it offends you.
Corvus Whiteneck @CorvusWhiteneck 12h
“We love inclusion across the board” … unless we’re talking about a publicity photo. @OpheliaBenson
Secular Council @SecularCouncil 11h
Unfortunately, you can only take photos with people who are currently at dinner with you.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha really? That’s the only time and place you can take photos? I did not know that!
No, I’m kidding, that’s wrong. Secular Council is wrong. You can take photos at other times and in other situations. Especially publicity photos. Especially especially publicity photos for your shiny new Global group that you’re setting up. You know what you can even do? You can arrange to do that photo specially. You can do it not as part of dinner with some of your pals, but as a special appointment that you set up and meet because it’s that important.
But clearly this is part of their problem. Their idea of who this Global Council should be is…their pals. The people they have dinner with. The gang. Oh and then it turns out they’re mostly men and they’re all pale and they’re not Global…and it turns out a few people ask them rude questions about that…so it turns out they have to do something about that before more people notice…but surely while they scurry to do that it will help to explain that they simply set up their Global Council with people they like to have dinner with. That way everyone will understand, surely. Surely.