Re: RAT cop outs and other out things

["Donna Sherritt" <ohbelladonna@hotmail.com>]

A beautiful response.  A peaceful one, well-thought out.  Reading it put me 
in a good mood.  Thank you.

donna


>From: "Kensington Smith" <smith@avn.com>
>Reply-To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com
>To: <rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com>
>Subject: Re: RAT cop outs and other out things
>Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 12:38:46 -0800
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Donna Sherritt <ohbelladonna@hotmail.com>
>To: <rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com>
>Sent: Monday, February 14, 2000 4:17 PM
>Subject: RAT cop outs and other out things
>
>
> > Over the weekend, I responded to Jonathan's comments in a private e-mail
>out
>
>queer-identified bi gnostic mysticist. teetotaler. in spirit. ha ha.
>vegan. no, ovo-vegetarian.
>s/m-id'd pro-porn feminist. spiritualist pagan. Hmmmm.
>Hummmman.
>
>I've got a lot of labels at my disposal, you see. I've acquired these and
>more, I've applied and discarded identitystratifiers, I've railed against
>them, I've fallen back on them, I've tried them on for size, I've outgrown
>them. I've changed my mind I've changed my mind I've changed my mind I've
>changed my mind (Lori Carson). I try to explain myself to myself and to the
>world, I've tried to codify and sort out and explain the world to myself.
>we most of us seem compelled to do this. I don't really know why it's not
>enough to just be.
>
>because of 1. My Labels and 2. This Urge to Label and 3. Fear of Conflict
>and 4. The Involvement of People Who I Like and Respect in an Argument and
>after a lot of time and careful consideration I'm going to respond to this
>thread, this way (even tho I'm sure everyone else is done with it/it was 
>all
>a big misunderstanding/it was just a joke. sorry. no sense of humor.)
>this is from www.salon.com, their lead today: "I started speaking out
>against the casual, mindless anti-white racism I had always ignored. We're
>not talking Klan violence here. The vast majority of the people I worked
>with weren't racist. But there was a fairly common, reflexive use of white
>as an epithet -- white politician, white funder, white teacher -- without
>modifier or qualifier. White had become shorthand for 'arrogant, ignorant,
>out of touch.'"
>
>Replace "white" with "christian." Or, you know, mexican or transgendered or
>epileptic. This is not right. That's all. It's so convoluted and turned 
>back
>on itself, the "marginalized" reflecting the exact genus of hate they have
>been subjected to, mirroring vindictive against another group
>("christians"), kicking the dog, as it were. We all deserve to be
>individuals first. These identifiers we choose and apply to inform others 
>in
>a general way about who we are would, in the best of all possibles, be
>regarded as secondary; and how responsible we make individuals for crowd
>mentality must be tempered with an understanding of uniqueness and human
>frailty. This, of course, is almost impossible, being that we are bears of
>very little brain and we've all pretty much agreed to make this society
>thing, this civilization thing, work, even if our consent is only inferred
>by virtue of us continuing to kick about the planet, alive. It's hard work
>to allow every person a clean slate, when they come to you queer, when they
>come to you black, when they come to you christian and it's so much easier
>to assign them to a group, to your previous experience of the thing they
>purport to be, and be done with it. This is sociopsychology and it's 
>normal.
>And it's often lazy and hateful, no matter who's dishing it out, ofcolor,
>het, President, prole.
>
>Then there's all the stuff about The Other ("four white chicks'll kill a
>black one,"-Samuel Clemens), but I think the above's quite enough. Thanks
>for a thought-provoking exchange, goddamnit.
>
>sign me read the expiration date before you buy the milk
>or something
>xox rebecca gray in l.a.
>p.s. please see the similarly disturbing article at www.salon.com
>

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