We are really enjoying the conversations taking place on our post about race and gender. We look forward to having more of these conversations in the future.
I do want to point out a few things:
- The post was not meant to be definitive, canonical, or in any way an all-encompassing final word on such a subject. That’s not at all possible. It was meant to begin a conversation, which it did.
- We don’t have any answers.
- I failed to acknowledge in my initial post that everyone holds some kind of privilege at least here in the US and I think it is important to know that.
- Whenever the word “race” is mentioned, people seem to have a hard time reading the words which precede and follow.
- There may not be a way to discuss issues of race, gender, class, sexuality, etc, without getting defensive.
- Dicksizing when it comes to ways in which we are marginalized is not productive. Your experiences do not negate mine and vice versa.
- The writing always always comes first, editorially speaking. We are confident that is reflected by the work we publish.
As I read many of the comments, I was reminded of writer and performance artist damali ayo, who (in 2007, I believe) disseminated a really useful, clever handbook on dealing with racism in which she explicitly addresses both white people and people of color. I offer that PDF here, without additional commentary.