[twelve] ways to ponce

Sometimes, it seems like anti-race/sex/class-ism movements are in a large race to the bottom, that black people are fighting for position among hispanic populations, that white men think that women and minorities are against them, that men and women treat others as objects in which the darker side of our personalities can be projected, and transwomen/transmen are vigorously attacked by cisgendered people, be it feminists or anti-feminists. Everyone’s calling foul and not opening up to each other.

But I’m not that one. I’m not going to erase someone else’s experience and what that means for them, just as much, I’ll be dead before someone simply erases mine. My experience isn’t necessarily the typical black experience, or the typical lower-middle/middle class experience, or the typical gender experience. Not much about me is considered mainstream. But I know a lot of people connect to the mainstream, which I respect and am open to.

I know one thing, though: I’ll be damned if I let stand in my spheres of influence, the erasure, violence, and willful intolerance, that comes from being close-minded and ignorant about the interconnectedness of the basics of the human condition. We’re all fighting against the darker forces of fear and complacency that are fed to us everyday. To care isn’t easy, but when you do, and seek to understand, even if you don’t agree, everything becomes easier.