8:43pm March 27, 2013

➸ Special Snowflake Queen: "White privilege," "POC," "cis-sexism," etc. aren't trendy catch phrases teens on tumblr made up - this is the language...

In my QPOC class I started seeing the language I’d see on tumblr all the time: “white privilege,” “cis-sexism,” “microaggressions,” “POC,” “WOC,” the definitions of racism and sexism as only targeting POC and women respectively, etc. And I discovered the community organizers and woman studies…

Okay first off don’t even dare calling me SJ or anti-SJ.

But my entire problem with this language all along is that it’s the language of academia and anyone who can’t won’t or doesn’t use it is seen as ignorant. Academic elitism anyone? I can’t learn half this crap. Can’t. Language disorder. Feels like explosions in my head if I even hear half of it. I use some of it sometimes but other parts I can’t.

Treating people as ignorant who for whatever reason (don’t, won’t, can’t be bothered, can’t) learn this shit…. THAT IS THE ENTIRE FUCKING PROBLEM I HAVE WITH THIS STUFF. Sorry for all caps but my tumblr program won’t let me bold things easily. Anyway. I knew it was academic language all along. I knew it was academic elitism that elevates people who use it and trashes those who don’t. This is why I can’t stand when people see you as stupid if you can’t use it. Or not real enough. Not good enough.

But on the other hand I’m fine not being good enough for academia. I don’t have the time to waste learning all this even if I could. And it’s not because there’s something wrong with me. Lots of people don’t have the time energy ability or inclination and those people are just fine and please stop making them out to be bad or wrong or stupid or whatever comes along next to trash perfectly decent people who can’t do your academic shibboleths.

And I can’t even imagine a community organizer in my housing project for poor people who mostly don’t have an academic background, getting two inches with most of us if they insisted on using this as the best enlightened way to say things. Not because we are stupid but because we wouldn’t have a clue what they were saying, many because of disability, many because of total lack of exposure to academia. WTF seriously WTF.

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