Smittened by Smitty
The politic and social commentary, art and happenings of Smitty S. Buckler. I post a lot here but there are also other ways to stay informed about what I am up to so check out my website if you are overstimulated here. ;s) http://smittened.com
Response to Hard French: (Rewind) Attempt #2 »
Hard French attempt #2- I am reposting this Hard French Article with additional commentary because it was brought to my attention that it is important that I show that i have a critical analysis of this situation by providing commentary on what I posting. Skin Privilege is a very complicated issue and when I only posed questions about this post (I am under the understanding that) I came off as a lazy privileged armchair activist troll who did not actually do any research on the contents of the post. Since i actually put a lot of thought and time reading through most of the comments I could stomach on the event page as well as double checked my understanding of cultural holidays and foods, I am now reposting these thoughts here for you. Take them or leave them, mostly I am posting about this because I think this topic and discussion is important as well as I think it is important to take responsibility for making someone upset and to make amends by reposting this in a way that is verbalizes accountability and also has been reformatted in the way which was recommended to me.
My biggest concern about this is there is a lot of comments that made me super uncomfortable and lots of derailing and silencing of qpocs on the event thread. I have never been to hard french, truth. But my point is that I am really tired of the lack of accountability in the queer community which is something I could see in the comment thread on the vent page. I deeply believe we need to have more discussions about lateral oppression and how everyone is racist because we live in a racist society. We need to get over silencing and hurting each other and start talking. The fact that I am reading such blatantly racist and derailing comments on a queer event page disheartens me greatly.
I would like to point out that naming a party pico de gallo for cinco de mayo by a party called hard french, since i am not sure how to outright say this so I will quote my favorite source wikipedia: ”while the tomato-based condiment is better known as salsa picada, which means minced or chopped sauce, salsa bandera or salsa mexicana, because the colors – red (tomato), white (onion), and green (chili) – are the colors of the Mexican flag… a fruit salad (watermelon, orange, jícama, cucumber and sometimes melon and papaya) tossed in lime juice and hot sauce or chamoy and sprinkled with a salty chili powder is also known as pico de gallo” -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_de_gallo But moreover, “In the state of Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862” -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo and From the comment thread: “Hey y’all, can you change the theme to something that’s not as problematic pico de gallo? You know, I kinda feel pretty awkward and all having my culture and heritage reduced to foodways. It’s not like this shit doesn’t happen all the time or anything.” which cool they changed it to fruit salad but if one goes back and reads the wikipedia above it will show that pico de gallo is more commonly used phrase to describe a fruit salad with chilli pepper sprinkled on it which is kinda clever but might leave anyone who knows this information and spoke up feeling even more silenced. Speaking of which I am not even going to post the response to the person above asking for a different name.
Furthermore, if HF knows the history then why hasn’t that been stated? IMO, it seems like that would be an important part of the process. As for it possibly being a internal joke, mocking racists? I have lots, probably most of my friends who often make jokes about some part of their identity, I do it myself. Its still racism or some other ism and they/I will acknowledge it outright. If HF was making joke then say that when people call you out. Instead of making another one that was probably a bit harder from most folks to ‘get’. It is also problematic when organizations make ‘jokes’ because they are not seen as individuals with races so thus they are seen as the dominant paradigm, white and thus white people ‘learn’ that it is ok to make that ‘joke’. (In other words it is okay for me to throw a party for white and light skinned pocs on cinco de mayo and call it some mexican food as long as I don’t wear a sombrero. Sweet I am going to call mine Hot tamale and let girls in free <—total sarcastic joke which is yes in fact horribly racist and sexist at the same time and hopefully makes a point.)
I also originally spoke up about the DJ named Brown Amy. I don’t know anything about Brown Amy except they didn’t look very brown in the picture and that the comments about the appropriations of music is something I have heard a lot. I don’t think just because someone is a poc it makes it okay for them to appropriate another poc’s culture. I think this is why the term: anti-black racism has come about.
Additionally, maybe we should we look at how much spanish, french, native mexican, and other ancestry the organizers have because this is going to affect the way someone thinks about and reacts to this whole situation as well as how much skin and class privilege they have. Thus we would need to also dialog on the cultural appropriation and colonization of native mexicans by the french, spanish and then english and what terms like white and person of color mean in our “melting pot” where multiracial folks are getting completely erasured as well as how this day of celebration might have different meaning to different people from within the same culture. Additionally we should also include into this ‘debate’ what the post addresses: lateral racism from this particular p.o.c. click towards the black (& the p.o.c. community in general) via cultural appropriation…
Maybe it is because I am in academia now or something but I keep meeting a plethora of p.o.c.s that have assimilated into white culture. They talk like white people, dress like white people and even oppress other people just like white people do. So, I have been thinking a lot about what does white mean? Especially when often these p.o.c.s have some serious skin privilege. Portland is so racist that it puts a hierarchy on skin tone whilst it tokenizes folks. So, certain p.o.c.s that look and act more white become the poster child for all p.o.c.s, they are given power and social standings and thus seem to think it is okay to abuse that power to oppress other people. To me, I was super frustrated when I saw this same thing happening in the mission. I mean, of course, this subversive racism would not just be found in Portland. It was just an eye opener for me whom believed all the stories about the bay a bit more aware of racism and more on top of anti-oppression framework.
What I heard was that a lot of mexican/latin@/chican@(s) were upset about a cultural celebration being reduced to a food. From what I can tell via the internet the poc/mexican/latin@/chican@(s) community in the bay is also very divided about how to feel about this. I think the important part for me is looking at the hierarchy of coolness (read: power via social standing) that exist here and in SF that censores and erasures anyone who doesn’t agree with the cool kids. And honestly I have ran out of fucks to give. I am 33, high school was a long time ago for me and I am over these popularity contests and weird clicky social hierarchies that see people as fades and disposable. For me this was about the abuse of privilege to erasure, appropriate and silence other people and their cultures. Lateral oppression is still oppression and it can happen within the same cultural groups and across cultural groups. It is important to remember that we are all racist because racism is systemic and we live in a system built on racism so just because someone might have more Melanin in their skin doesn’t mean they can’t be racist. The opposite is also true, just because someone doesn’t have a lot of Melanin in their skin doesn’t mean that they have absolutely no grasp of racism. As the saying goes to assume is to make an ass (out of) u (&) me. We never know about a person’s background until they tell us. And in this multicultural society where there are p.o.c.s that are oppressive like white people and white people who have known nothing but the streets and the p.o.c. community; I really want to see us push into why we are still using these us/them terms to talk about these issues. There are a lot of cultures who have a lack of Melanin in their skin and there are a lot of cultures that have Melanin in their skin. Privilege is not a black and white issue (pun intended); it is a complex lateral issue that is based off a archaic system based on capitalism and classism which uses skin tone as one of many ways to discriminate against people. If we are going to go into this us vs them paradigm can we at least include all the disenfranchised in the us because the them has a lot more power and we seriously need everyone we can get. In my opinion, all parties need to push into the uncomfortable and try and assume positive intent, learn to use nonviolent communication, learn to hold multiple truths, recognize power they have in situations and learn to listen especially when angry… this one is important because sometimes when we are angry and not listening it is our words that hurt but moreover that being silenced stings even more especially if you are being silenced by someone you thought was an ally that really burns and makes folks jaded about the world and get burnt out on activism and trying in general. Everyone’s truth is valid, even if you don’t find it factual, it is still valid and very real for them. Holding this complex but seemingly simple ideas really works wonders in working through our disagreements and being more cohesive as a community. And now I encourage you to do your own research on the issue and come to your own conclusion.
http://smittened.tumblr.com/post/22408657610/weve-all-messed-up-at-some-point-ive-learned
http://smittened.tumblr.com/post/22408565886/dominator-culture-has-tried-to-keep-us-all
http://smittened.tumblr.com/post/22405658092/brendan-shucart-i-am-about-to-drop-some
Qu33riousity: Race, Power, & Responsibility: An Open Letter to Hard French
http://qu33riousity.tumblr.com/post/22333670019/race-power-responsibility-an-open-letter-to-hard
Absolutely, I’ll clarify.
To return the comment y’all so ungraciously deleted, what I said was this:
Clarifying question: Does this mean y’all are also officially enacting a ban on fake afros too? Or is it just simply not ok to appropriate Mexican culture but ok to appropriate Black…
Poster Time
