"Well, the way things are going you'd be fired soon enough, anyway…"

Alize Wallace-Hadeeb, Safe Space Inspector:



"I am here to discuss the Space you create with your University Facebook page."

"We're ready. We have put a lot of effort into making our Page inclusive and welcoming."

"Is that why you have a picture of white students carrying text books?"

"But we have photos of students of color, too."

"Yes, but none of them are carrying textbooks. Are you intending to insinuate that black students don't study? That they're academically lazy? That maybe they can't even read like a white student?"

"Of course not! We have a picture of a black person in a chemistry lab."

"Yes. And he is dressed in a blue lab-coat and wearing goggles, denying his identity in the name of White Science."

"I don't think Chemistry has much to do about race…"

"So you're saying that the Black Experience has no influence on the World of Chemistry? That chemistry can safely exclude minorities?"

"No, no! Maybe it was a bad idea. We'll replace that picture with another one of a black student."

"Let me guess: an athlete. Because that's all blacks are good for at College -- playing for the Patriarchy's Sports Teams."

"Well, we have Women's Sports Teams, too."

"We've noticed. You do realize that you use a lot of male-privilege wordage to describe their games: "Win". "Lose", "Battle," "Defeat," "Success."

""Success" is a bad word? I mean, the sports ARE competitions."

"Yes, we acknowledge that is how the Patriarchy defined the games they created to perpetuate outdated norms of winners and losers. To acknowledge success the White Power has to define others as unsuccessful: that is NOT comforting NOR welcoming."

"Maybe we can just leave Sports out of it."

"Except for Woman's Basketball."

"Woman's Basketball?"

"Women's basketball celebrates lesbians of color."

"But don't they still win or lose?"

"Yes, if you insist on using that Viewpoint of Privilege. But what is more important is how playing the game makes them feel about themselves."

"Maybe we can use a photo of the women's basketball team smiling and hugging each other. In Unity."

"If you want to be dismissive of their athletic skills I guess you can do that."

"I'm at a loss. What SHOULD I do?"

"Isn't the answer obvious?"

"It is?"

"Of course. You need to replace yourself with someone of color. They'll know what to do."

"I need to quit?"

"Well, the way things are going you'd be fired soon enough, anyway…"


I am Laslo.


http://althouse.blogspot.com/2016/05/women-used-warmer-gentler-words-in.html