Um. Wow.

[tielan]

The Global Hierarchy Of Race by Martin Jacques.

Definitely required reading for everyone no matter the colour of their skin or whether or not they're racist. System and individual, privilege and power, politics and personal, written for the public in a simple, easy-to-understand way.

Just...wow.

Comments

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

He 's pretty much spot on, especially when it comes to how it all gets twisted when you reach a country that isn't majority white.

The kicker is, there are more people who will listen to him because he's white and not an "angry" colored person. That's to be expected but if what he's written gets people to notice, I'll take it as a win.

[tielan]

I remember seeing a panel for Wiscon that talked about male allies in feminism and whether feminists still give their words more weight.

Still, if the results are good, then I agree - who said it can be left for the moment. It is frustrating to see an confirmation of the inequalities of system even in the messages used to try to equalise it, but better that the message get through than we shoot the messenger before they've even started out.

The other thing, for me, is that this guy learned from his experiences. He went from not even knowing there was racism inherent in the system to seeing it in his own life through his wife, to understanding it on a global scale in all cultures.

If he can, others can to. Some won't, of course; but some will.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

This reminds me a lot of a situation that I muse quite a lot about in regards to Indian cinema. There at the moment, most top female stars earn less than the top male stars, with the argument that stories starring a male star usually make more money than a story centered around a female star (because both men and women flock to the moves of a male star, but not everybody bothers to see a female centered movie).

There was a lot of talk how earlier, 50/60s there was an era of the divas where the female stars were much more important and famous than their male counterpoints. And that era also had a lot of movies about women, particularly tragic women and people watched them. Those movies were usually made by males who adored these divas and wanted to showcase them. But if I compare those movies, even if they have a feminist message, highlighting how women are slighted by the system, their tone is very different from the kinds of movies that women make.

It made me think a lot about the value of translators. That different groups (whether men/women or white/non-white) just have different ways of communicating. That maybe sometimes it needs a man to explain to other men what women mean. Because he can explain what thought process he went through, he can put it into terms that they'll understand.

But that doesn't mean that they can't miss the point (like, it's nice to see movies about the sad tragedy of women/black people/homosexuals, but wouldn't the people who are part of these groups rather see movies NOT about how these groups are cruelly broken by the system, moving us all to tears, but are instead more interested in stories where they survive, get to be happy and find a way to negotiate their lives?). Like, it's a very useful tool but it doesn't really free us from needing to find a way to properly communicate with each other and relate to each other.

[lilyoftheval5.livejournal.com]

Well written, coherent and interesting article. Hope you don't mind, I put it on my LJ.
Thank you for recommendation.

[tielan]

Go for it - by all means! The more who read it, the better. I suspect that most of my f-list skip anything race-related now. You might have more interested people over on yours. :)

[ladyjax.livejournal.com]

He 's pretty much spot on, especially when it comes to how it all gets twisted when you reach a country that isn't majority white.

The kicker is, there are more people who will listen to him because he's white and not an "angry" colored person. That's to be expected but if what he's written gets people to notice, I'll take it as a win.

[tielan]

I remember seeing a panel for Wiscon that talked about male allies in feminism and whether feminists still give their words more weight.

Still, if the results are good, then I agree - who said it can be left for the moment. It is frustrating to see an confirmation of the inequalities of system even in the messages used to try to equalise it, but better that the message get through than we shoot the messenger before they've even started out.

The other thing, for me, is that this guy learned from his experiences. He went from not even knowing there was racism inherent in the system to seeing it in his own life through his wife, to understanding it on a global scale in all cultures.

If he can, others can to. Some won't, of course; but some will.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

This reminds me a lot of a situation that I muse quite a lot about in regards to Indian cinema. There at the moment, most top female stars earn less than the top male stars, with the argument that stories starring a male star usually make more money than a story centered around a female star (because both men and women flock to the moves of a male star, but not everybody bothers to see a female centered movie).

There was a lot of talk how earlier, 50/60s there was an era of the divas where the female stars were much more important and famous than their male counterpoints. And that era also had a lot of movies about women, particularly tragic women and people watched them. Those movies were usually made by males who adored these divas and wanted to showcase them. But if I compare those movies, even if they have a feminist message, highlighting how women are slighted by the system, their tone is very different from the kinds of movies that women make.

It made me think a lot about the value of translators. That different groups (whether men/women or white/non-white) just have different ways of communicating. That maybe sometimes it needs a man to explain to other men what women mean. Because he can explain what thought process he went through, he can put it into terms that they'll understand.

But that doesn't mean that they can't miss the point (like, it's nice to see movies about the sad tragedy of women/black people/homosexuals, but wouldn't the people who are part of these groups rather see movies NOT about how these groups are cruelly broken by the system, moving us all to tears, but are instead more interested in stories where they survive, get to be happy and find a way to negotiate their lives?). Like, it's a very useful tool but it doesn't really free us from needing to find a way to properly communicate with each other and relate to each other.

[lilyoftheval5.livejournal.com]

Well written, coherent and interesting article. Hope you don't mind, I put it on my LJ.
Thank you for recommendation.

[tielan]

Go for it - by all means! The more who read it, the better. I suspect that most of my f-list skip anything race-related now. You might have more interested people over on yours. :)