Mastodawn

Now that I am home again, I want to elaborate on that last post.

I grew up in the middle of fucking nowhere.
I used to say that I could count on one hand — and have fingers left over — the number of overtly racist incidents I experienced up there, but it's also where I learned that there's a critical mass factor to racism.

One or two Black families, and you're not enough of "them" to be taking their jerbs. And they make a little exception in their pea brains, because fuck knows, it's not that they're wrong about what's connate to Black people, it's just that you're somehow "not really Black."

The difference is Canadians have a sense of self-preservation enough not to say that out loud, unlike Americans, so you just walk around thinking that these are some weirdly decent people.

Nope.
Then maybe 10, 20 years later, you look around at the ones that are left in your life from that era, and you go on a blocking spree with:

"Guess what! I am not your Black friend anymore!"

And you sweep them all into the bin and then you forget they exist.

And I suspect that Brenda wasn't even around for that, having been long since binned. I speak to all of 2 people from that era, and those, very infrequently.

Which is funny because I really loved that era of my life, and it deeply influenced my love of the woods and teaching young anarchists how to forage, do bushcraft, and be self-sufficient.

But that's the place, which to me is very distinct from the people.

#Blackness #GigiThoughts

Gigi 🍄‍🟫Nov 12

It's strange to me that no one has figured out a system into which I can put x amount of dollars that gets distributed to the various news outlets that I visit monthly.

I.e. there are some sites that I will only ever visit once. I am absolutely not in need of a subscription for that site. Surely it would be in their interest to collect even $0.15, $0.25, $0.50, or some other amount from thousands of people when a story goes viral than to receive nothing.

I always feel a twinge of guilt when I get sent a link to really good journalism on a site I have no need of a subscription.

#RandomGigiIdeas #GigiThoughts

Gigi 🍄‍🟫Oct 12

I was mulling over the enraging phenomenon of Black cops (and judges) and how HARD they cape for white supremacy, and it brought me to mulling about the conclusions people draw around the concept of "whiteness" and the myriad ways in which it is NOT about skin colour.

Black people who fervently desire acceptance within white supremacist structures and systems rightly understand that Black people are not afforded individuality, the way white people KNOW they are.

That is, the negative actions of one white person are not held to be representative of all white people the way the negative actions of one Black person are considered magically connate to the entire race, while the positive actions/contributions of one white person are magically connate, and those of a Black person are considered the exception.

But the conclusion they draw is that they must stomp out any "bad" behaviour in their kin much harder because it "reflects" back on them, rather than the system is fundamentally, critically flawed.

They will NEVER attain whiteness, no matter how hard they may punch or punish a young Black person.

Never.

I have more thoughts on this subject, but this bus ride is almost over. I am deciding how to consolidate these thoughts into something that can be used to affect change.

#philosophy #TransitThoughts #GigiThoughts