Thursday, October 16, 2014

From On High

Those who have power never see what it looks likes from below…

Master: I don’t understand why they want to be free, they are out there singing in the fields and they get three meals a day.

Boss after he gets a ten million dollar bonus: I don’t understand why they aren’t happy; I gave them a 25 cents raise.

Gay man:
But there are too many progressives and liberals who take it to the next level. I can't speak for everyone, but when one takes something that is not offensive to begin with (e.g. the Silverman video), sprinkles it with accusations of bigotry or ignorance, and then condemns it publicly, it comes across as self-serving and self-righteous. It's almost a way to say, "Look at how enlightened and socially conscious I am!" It serves no constructive purpose and only works to split hairs and as self-promotion.
[…]
But within activist and social justice circles, there's a tendency to find problems and bigotry where none exists. Whether it's accusing LGBT ally and liberal comedienne Sarah Silverman of being insensitive to trans issues in a comedic PSA or calling someone who critiques a religious doctrine "racist," the result is the same: ego stroking disguised as awareness.
Those of privilege do not see the injustice that their privileges create, when you look at any marginalized community their oppressors just don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Sarah Silverman is right, wage discrimination is wrong but you don’t go about correcting that discrimination by poking fun at another minority.

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It is not just the trans-community that is under attack it is other oppressed communities that are also under attack for speaking up,
Feminist Critics of Video Games Facing Threats in ‘GamerGate’ Campaign
New York Times
By Nick Wingfield
OCT. 15, 2014

Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist cultural critic, has for months received death and rape threats from opponents of her recent work challenging the stereotypes of women in video games. Bomb threats for her public talks are now routine. One detractor created a game in which players can click their mouse to punch an image of her face.
[…]
The malice directed recently at women, though, is more intense, invigorated by the anonymity of social media and bulletin boards where groups go to cheer each other on and hatch plans for action. The atmosphere has become so toxic, say female game critics and developers, that they are calling on big companies in the $70-billion-a-year video game business to break their silence.
The oppressors see nothing wrong in the way games treat women. They are clueless about what the games are doing to women by marginalizing them.

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