k_crow

So, I've got one person on my friends list who is participating in National Poetry Writing Month. This has been making me think... I haven't been writing poems much, but they used to be my major creative expression.

I keep feeling vaguely envious of my creative friends and acquaintances, and lord knows there are many of them. So, I decided I'm going to try writing one poem a day for the next month. I make no promises about quality, but if you are interested in seeing them, I'll be adding a tag for napowrimo, and placing them behind cut-tags. Prompts and kind words appreciated. Criticism can wait for later when I'm not just trying to get back in touch with my creative side. Thank you.

If I had to choose an overall theme for this collection of stories, I’d have to say, the unexpected. It’s an amazingly diverse group of stories, and each one plays with expectations in one way or another and turns them on their collective heads.

Below the cut, I wrote short thoughts about each of the stories. I didn't include thoughts about the songs, because I've loved them for long enough that I don't have anything simple to say about them. :)

( Here there be SPOILERS! )

So, our internet at Gestalt is currently NOT WORKING. I *think* this will be fixed by sometime on Saturday, but I'm not sure. I will only have reliable 'net access through about 3pm today. If you want to make any plans with me, or let me know about something for this weekend, please either comment here *BEFORE* 3pm today, or call my cell phone. I will screen comments on this post. Thanks!

I first started hearing about RaceFail 2009 through posts from rosefox, and seeing other links about it through shadesong. I've barely dipped my toe in, as far as the number of posts there are to read. dianthus has also posted links, and mentioned seeing very little on her friends list about this as well.

My silence on the matter up until this point has been composed of two pieces: awareness of how little I know when it comes to facing and discussing racism, and fear of doing it wrong.

The home I grew up in included the adults around me using racist terms and slurs. I've excused this in the past as, Oh, my father is an equal opportunity racist, because he uses slur words for everyone, including the race/culture/gender/etc he identifies as. I work to not repeat those words, and I work to be aware, but I know there are vast gaps in my knowledge base.

I hate confrontation, and will go out of my way to avoid it. This ties into the fear that if I get talking about this wrong, then I'll be confronted about it.

However, i hate being ignorant and letting fear rule me more than anything else. So I have been reading posts on RaceFail itself, when and as I can. Beyond that, I've been focusing on reading and thinking about various Racism 101 articles and posts that people have been linking to. It's my responsibility to educate myself, and I want to share what I've been finding with my friends list. I will periodically be updating this post with other links that speak to me.

The first link is White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh. It gave me a good place to start examining what privilege means, how it is used in discussions on racism. It made me start thinking about and really seeing some of the ways that I am privileged.

The second is IBARW: Your Science Fiction Twin by rydra_wong. This one is an excellent thought experiment for taking a deeper and more personal look at what I face as a privileged person.

The third is "Check my what?" On privilege and what we can do about it by Andrea Rubenstein. I'd almost call this one a 102, and highly recommend you look at the first one I linked to before this one. It's an excellent resource and is helping me wrap my head around not only more of my blind spots on racism and ways I could talk about it, but how to actually discuss sexism with Sar. (We've tried, it goes badly, despite both of us identifying as feminist in our outlooks.)

I'm willing to learn, and I'm willing to get this wrong, and to keep trying.