textualdeviance (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
textualdeviance) wrote2010-06-18 11:05 pm
textualdeviance) wrote2010-06-18 11:05 pm
Entry tags:
Status symbolism
One of the most difficult things about being in a hated minority is that it doesn't even matter if you like yourself, or if other people in the same group like you. Because you're in that hated minority, your opinions--especially of yourself--just don't matter. The only people whose opinions matter are the ones in the dominant group. So unless you have a lot of people in the dominant group who like you, you're screwed.
This is not to say that it's OK for people in the dominant group to come riding in like white knights trying to feel noble about saving the poor downtrodden. We don't need pity or charity. What we do need is people who honestly give a shit about us as human beings standing up to our oppressors when we're not able to do so, or when our efforts fall short because we're accorded so little worth in the first place that our fight for our own rights is rendered toothless.
It's great when people in the dominant group choose not to be a part of our oppression. It's even better when they choose to turn and fight back against it.
This is not to say that it's OK for people in the dominant group to come riding in like white knights trying to feel noble about saving the poor downtrodden. We don't need pity or charity. What we do need is people who honestly give a shit about us as human beings standing up to our oppressors when we're not able to do so, or when our efforts fall short because we're accorded so little worth in the first place that our fight for our own rights is rendered toothless.
It's great when people in the dominant group choose not to be a part of our oppression. It's even better when they choose to turn and fight back against it.
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