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I really appreciated Elizabeth Bear's second-to-last two posts in the current discussion of racism. I'm sure they're not entirely problem-free, but they are thoughtful, sensitive, apropos, and well-intentioned. So I don't mean anything negative about Bear to refer specifically to Bear when I say,
Isn't it funny how both her posts received far more quick laudatory comments - cookies, I will go so far as to say - than the meaty, brave, and potentially inflammatory posts from fans of color involved in the same discussion?
Now, there's plenty of reinforcement for POC and their allies in this discussion - in fact, in most of their meta posts on the subject, there are many voices who obviously agree with them in the comments; although often as not, the post and the comments are joined in shock, pain, or anger about things said by the other side elsewhere. The "cookies" - ie "Thanks for posting this!" and "Good job" and "This is so smart!" - make up a somewhat lower proportion.
Now, this is particularly poignant in light of the constant racist refrain of "I'm so tired of working SO HARD to not be racist and the mean people of colour are just BLAMING ME instead of giving me cookies!", which has also come up more than once in the current debate.
And certainly positive reinforcement for people working through their own issues, working to understand and dispense with prejudice and priviledge, is good. It probably does help them. But maybe as you watch these debates go by and feel yourself moved to give out some support, you should think about who you're giving the cookie to, and whether it might not be better spent supporting POC's voices elsewhere.
Isn't it funny how both her posts received far more quick laudatory comments - cookies, I will go so far as to say - than the meaty, brave, and potentially inflammatory posts from fans of color involved in the same discussion?
Now, there's plenty of reinforcement for POC and their allies in this discussion - in fact, in most of their meta posts on the subject, there are many voices who obviously agree with them in the comments; although often as not, the post and the comments are joined in shock, pain, or anger about things said by the other side elsewhere. The "cookies" - ie "Thanks for posting this!" and "Good job" and "This is so smart!" - make up a somewhat lower proportion.
Now, this is particularly poignant in light of the constant racist refrain of "I'm so tired of working SO HARD to not be racist and the mean people of colour are just BLAMING ME instead of giving me cookies!", which has also come up more than once in the current debate.
And certainly positive reinforcement for people working through their own issues, working to understand and dispense with prejudice and priviledge, is good. It probably does help them. But maybe as you watch these debates go by and feel yourself moved to give out some support, you should think about who you're giving the cookie to, and whether it might not be better spent supporting POC's voices elsewhere.
