devmonster

diariesofaboy:

…

Before I say anything, I just want it to be known that I’m not trying to start shit with Diariesofaboy.

I used to think like that. Before I even came out, I had decided I wasn’t going to be a stereotypical gay and in some ways, I’m still not, but I didn’t think I would ever…

You are absolutely right, my friend. I used to have the same opinion about Pride, but fuck that noise. Am I right!

Annoying trashbags can be anything: gay, straight, trans, bi. So writing off Pride because of some campy, scantily clad queens isn’t something I can do in good conscience. It goes without saying that we queers haven’t reached the mountaintop yet. And when you live in a world full of people determined to invalidate your personhood, wave your flag that much higher, be as femme as you want, gay the fuck out all the fucking time, wear as little as you want, and have all the butt sex you can. The queenier the better. The queerer the better.

Over-the-top queens are some of the bravest people I know.

I may have to find an adequate substitute this weekend. 

sickmainstreamdream:

ryking:

tart-tart:

skirtonfire:adailyriot:

[Note: This article appeared in the Baltimore Sun newspaper and was written by a Caucasian professor of journalism at the U of Texas. A followup piece can be found here. ]

Here’s what white privilege sounds like: I’m sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college admissions, which he opposes and I support. The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that being white has advantages in the United States. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white privilege. So, if we live in a world of white privilege – unearned white privilege - how does that affect your notion of a level playing field? I asked. He paused for a moment and said, “That really doesn’t matter.” That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the ultimate white privilege: The privilege to acknowledge that you have unearned privilege but to ignore what it means…

Pretty, pretty please read the entire thing at the source. It is fantastic.

This is good. But I actually like the related entry More Thoughts… more than this. Especially these two points:

1. White privilege doesn’t exist because affirmative action has made being white a disadvantage. The simple response: Extremely limited attempts to combat racism, such as affirmative action, do virtually nothing to erase the white privilege built over 500 years that pervades our society. As a friend of mine says, the only real disadvantage to being white is that it so often prevents people from understanding racial issues.

2. White privilege exists, but it can’t be changed because it is natural for any group to favor its own, and besides, the worst manifestations of racism are over. Response: This approach makes human choices appear outside of human control, which is a dodge to avoid moral and political responsibility for the injustice we continue to live with.

It’s important to realize that things like affirmative action, free health care, reduced-cost lunches, welfare, what have you, are not—or at least should not—be about reparations; they are about the fulfillment of the moral and political obligation that the privileged and owe to the un- or underprivileged. Injustice is injustice is injustice, and whether privilege comes from being white, or a man, or wealthy, or an American, or whatever: those of us who benefit from the arbitrary ways we divide ourselves from one another owe acknowledgment, understanding, and support to those who do not.

I’ve read and re-read Mr. Williams’ letter, and I don’t get it, either.