Since I didn't went to wikimania and other people were already making the points I wanted to make I tried to stay out of the conversation, but now I need to answer something.
***Men (add well-educated, straight, able-bodied, wealthy if you wish) from whatever ethnic group is most prominent in the country they live in have a different experience of life to everyone else.
Harassment, bullying and various other forms of discrimination are much more frequent , even normal, for women, people from ethnic minorities, LGBT people, and others who don't match that description.***
First of all, let's not forget that the incident that started all of this happened to a white straight man from Europe, and so far the only people who were "disqualified" from the conversation for their identity (and trus suffered harassment for something they CAN'T Change) were white males. So if we are going to town identity politics into this, I would say with the basis of this conversation that they are MORE likely to suffer discrimination not less.
Second, no. Every man (or woman) is an island. Each experience is different. Telling someone that all white people thinks the same is like saying <insert racist stereotype here> (I can give exemples but if I do this thread will devolve into a discussion of the stereotype and we done want that).
The best thing that come up of the suffragete and civil rights movements are that we should listen to the ideas not the person who has them, and we should uphold to that if equality is what we want.
PS. : Because I know people will say stuff about if, let's preempt all of it: for those who don't know, I'm Latina and a woman, but that SHOULDN'T be the reason why you listen to me.
On Jul 30, 2018 3:13 PM, "Chris Keating" chriskeatingwiki@gmail.com wrote:
Probably the best thing that can happen to this thread now is that it dies off, but I did just want to respond to this point by Pine, because it's really important:
- How, exactly, are white males unqualified to discuss the Friendly
Space Policy because of their/our identity as white males?
Men (add well-educated, straight, able-bodied, wealthy if you wish) from whatever ethnic group is most prominent in the country they live in have a different experience of life to everyone else.
Harassment, bullying and various other forms of discrimination are much more frequent , even normal, for women, people from ethnic minorities, LGBT people, and others who don't match that description.
So a conversation mainly conducted by white men about something like a Friendly Space Policy is mainly being conducted by people who do not experience the issue that the Friendly Space Policy is designed to address. Or if they do experience it, it's an unusual thing that's easy to laugh off.
Therefore this kind of conversation is much more likely to conclude that there isn't a real problem, or the policy isn't working, or other things are more important (e.g. being REALLY TRANSPARENT ABOUT EVERYTHING), or whatever has happened in a particular case isn't an issue. Which, predictably enough, is *exactly* what has happened in this conversation.
Regards,
Chris
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