Tyler Gaca aka ghosthoney. ~10 min meticulously absurd videos on youtube; short ones on tiktok (you don’t need an account, just click). I found him through Dori Midnight’s newsletter which I really love: explore / subscribe
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Reading the piece on "White Women Doing White Supremacy..." has set me thinking about the way we fractionalize our interconnectedness. I hesitate to even comment because my voice "is not necessary" at this point in time. White woman as a class benefit from institutional racism regardless of how successful they might be on an individual basis. Just as do the wives of powerful men in any dominant culture patriarchy. White woman only occupy those leadership positions because of the overall push for equity in the workplace. As dominant culture/ ?white males concede economic ground, it is reflected first in the lower earning categories. Non-profits less earning capacity (like teaching and clerical) The characteristics displayed are adaptations that many women display, regardless of ethnicity, in fields previously reserved for white males, then males then white woman, then women of color. Mitigating, reparating (yep, i made that up) and healing the harm of 400 years of slavery in this country is incredibly important work to effectuate social justice. But ( i am sorry about this but) recognizing the roots of patriarchal/hierarchical harm extend far beyond the inception of this country and lie in understanding how and why dominant cultures perpetuate themselves. Its just that the hypocrisy of this country stings so much.
b) reading this comment makes my chest feel achy and swirly, because of the last bit, about the how-long and how-much of harm. One thing I read recently that feels connected, so I will offer it, is an except from Paul Kivel's (who wrote the excellent Uprooting Racism) Living in the Shadow of the Cross, which is about the origins and effects of Christian hegemony.
It made me really mad, and it also went some distance towards grounding me in a bigger history that I think you are inviting in.
I feel an urge to underscore for myself the connection between two sentences--"White woman as a class benefit from institutional racism regardless of how successful they might be on an individual basis" and "The characteristics displayed are adaptations that many women display, regardless of ethnicity." Like...women, femmes, nonbinary folks of color may indeed use these as tools for survival, and their very existence and survival is a resistance to the systems aiming for their destruction. But when white women do so, even for survival or what feels like survival, it simultaneously props up a system from which they(I!) also benefit, and so continuing to do so has a complicity to it.
that achy swirly feeling in my heart as I struggle is what prompted me to write. i am going to think on the last, i just realized that insisting there is a bigger picture to be seen obscures the present reality of so many, as in whitesplaining
really grateful to get to think+feel about this with you. I am also curious a bit about you and where you are located, how you came to this space...may feel odd to put here but maybe you can reply to the email?? <3
oh and another PS: i think this is another good tool in thinking about how these characteristics may be grounded in surviving white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and how the danger of that system is different for BIPOC womxn:
microaggression social dynamics and power and control. very hard to redefine in terms of compartmentalization of solidarity - what does disproportionate impact mean to me? My feminist tradition is grounded in commonalities and universal truths. thinking... and yes I "enjoyed" the excerpt from Living in the shadow. .. reinforced my antipathy for organized religion as the root of all evil. hhhm as I write that I fear a patriarchal boogeyman
Whew - that Chilean song! <3
god I know. It gets in my head and then I just carry it around with me in a way I love.
There's something about seeing women united in songs of joy and protest that makes me swoon.
Reading the piece on "White Women Doing White Supremacy..." has set me thinking about the way we fractionalize our interconnectedness. I hesitate to even comment because my voice "is not necessary" at this point in time. White woman as a class benefit from institutional racism regardless of how successful they might be on an individual basis. Just as do the wives of powerful men in any dominant culture patriarchy. White woman only occupy those leadership positions because of the overall push for equity in the workplace. As dominant culture/ ?white males concede economic ground, it is reflected first in the lower earning categories. Non-profits less earning capacity (like teaching and clerical) The characteristics displayed are adaptations that many women display, regardless of ethnicity, in fields previously reserved for white males, then males then white woman, then women of color. Mitigating, reparating (yep, i made that up) and healing the harm of 400 years of slavery in this country is incredibly important work to effectuate social justice. But ( i am sorry about this but) recognizing the roots of patriarchal/hierarchical harm extend far beyond the inception of this country and lie in understanding how and why dominant cultures perpetuate themselves. Its just that the hypocrisy of this country stings so much.
ok HI! Wow!
a) always comment, it's what this is for.
b) reading this comment makes my chest feel achy and swirly, because of the last bit, about the how-long and how-much of harm. One thing I read recently that feels connected, so I will offer it, is an except from Paul Kivel's (who wrote the excellent Uprooting Racism) Living in the Shadow of the Cross, which is about the origins and effects of Christian hegemony.
excerpt: https://collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Shadow-of-the-Cross.pdf (through page 130 is what I read)
The book: http://paulkivel.com/books/living-in-the-shadow-of-the-cross/
It made me really mad, and it also went some distance towards grounding me in a bigger history that I think you are inviting in.
I feel an urge to underscore for myself the connection between two sentences--"White woman as a class benefit from institutional racism regardless of how successful they might be on an individual basis" and "The characteristics displayed are adaptations that many women display, regardless of ethnicity." Like...women, femmes, nonbinary folks of color may indeed use these as tools for survival, and their very existence and survival is a resistance to the systems aiming for their destruction. But when white women do so, even for survival or what feels like survival, it simultaneously props up a system from which they(I!) also benefit, and so continuing to do so has a complicity to it.
that achy swirly feeling in my heart as I struggle is what prompted me to write. i am going to think on the last, i just realized that insisting there is a bigger picture to be seen obscures the present reality of so many, as in whitesplaining
really grateful to get to think+feel about this with you. I am also curious a bit about you and where you are located, how you came to this space...may feel odd to put here but maybe you can reply to the email?? <3
oh and another PS: i think this is another good tool in thinking about how these characteristics may be grounded in surviving white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and how the danger of that system is different for BIPOC womxn:
https://issuu.com/blackfeministfuture/docs/understanding_patriarchal_violence
pg 6-7 especially <3
ps sharing links is one way I show love but it's not what everyone wants ...just acknowledging that reality here.
microaggression social dynamics and power and control. very hard to redefine in terms of compartmentalization of solidarity - what does disproportionate impact mean to me? My feminist tradition is grounded in commonalities and universal truths. thinking... and yes I "enjoyed" the excerpt from Living in the shadow. .. reinforced my antipathy for organized religion as the root of all evil. hhhm as I write that I fear a patriarchal boogeyman
I live in San Diego and Rosemary told me about this. I am a generalist with a love of life and maddening ideals.