"People like you" is a very insidious dog whistle, not the least because it's flexible: When said to the (or in reference to) WWCHO-C crowd, it's meant as "*good* people like you"; when said to marginalized people (and I think especially POC and Muslims), it's a marker of second-class (at best) status. In both cases, it's fucking oppressive and reinforces the "us" of WWCHO-C vs. the "them" / Other of everybody who isn't in that demographic.
Privileged folks just don't get how pernicious these micro-aggressions are. I mean, I was part of a bible study session a few weeks ago and the topic turned to disability and mental illness. I kid you not, the rector's warden – essentially chairman of the board of directors of the church – who is a wealthy white temporarily-abled cis gay man, said that Jesus' "lesson" to mentally ill people is that we need to get over ourselves and "man up" – yep, he used those exact words, "man up". It was very difficult to keep my anger in check after that one. He managed to roll ableism, cissupremacism, and misogyny into a two-word ball of shit.
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-21 09:00 pm (UTC)Privileged folks just don't get how pernicious these micro-aggressions are. I mean, I was part of a bible study session a few weeks ago and the topic turned to disability and mental illness. I kid you not, the rector's warden – essentially chairman of the board of directors of the church – who is a wealthy white temporarily-abled cis gay man, said that Jesus' "lesson" to mentally ill people is that we need to get over ourselves and "man up" – yep, he used those exact words, "man up". It was very difficult to keep my anger in check after that one. He managed to roll ableism, cissupremacism, and misogyny into a two-word ball of shit.