Okay, so, I tried the meme that's going around.

I kept coming up with David Foster Wallace for pretty much anything I wrote.

But then I started plugging in random stuff to see what authors it would give, and every answer I got was a white man.

...even when I put in Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and got James Joyce.

...and Margaret Atwood's "Sekhmet, the Lion-headed Goddess of War" and got Dan Brown.

...and part of N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn and got J.R.R. Tolkien.

...and several paragraphs of Toni Morrison's Sula and got James Joyce.

Did anyone who tried the meme get any result that listed an author who wasn't a white male?

I don't have a problem with my writing being most similar to a white man's, but I do have a problem if there weren't any women or people of color included in the database of famous authors for my writing to have been compared to.

This post is open to the public, but as I am not a governmental entity, constitutional amendments do not apply here. Play nice.

This is International Blog Against Racism Week.

Edit to add the actual post, due to PEBCAK error.

Something well-written: Open Letter to SF Community

Something I wish more people would read: Derailing for Dummies

If you've spent any time at all on the internet, you've probably encountered at least a reference to some of the conversations that have been and are happening -- people are spending a lot of time and effort discussing marginalization and privilege, and some people are learning, and some people are teaching, and some people are ignoring it, and some people are continuing to condone marginalization.

Me, well, the easy part is I'm cis-female, and decidedly heterosexual.  The part I don't often talk about in public is the part where I don't identify with a mainstream religion.

The part I can't even get a good handle on, myself, is my racial identity.  Yes, I know, there are probably people on my f-list who just said to themselves, "Wait. I thought you were white?"  Well, yes, I am pale enough to get sunburned by flashlight.  I have flaming red hair and usually blue eyes.  I have freckles, and a lot of them, and a perverse inclination to describe my skin tone as "spotted and countershaded" when asked.  I look like all my ancestors come from Ireland (though the European ancestry also includes German and possibly Dutch and a bit of English).  I also have a not-insignificant amount of Native American ancestry, along two and possibly three branches of the family.

The problem I'm having is figuring out a way to acknowledge and own heritage that I am proud of but that I was not raised to identify with, without appropriating something from a group to which I technically belong, but which has had so very much taken from it already.  Because of my appearance, I absolutely and without question benefit from white privilege.  Because of my appearance and my family, I absolutely and without question benefit from cisgendered and heterosexual privilege.  I am clearly in a marginalized religion/philosophy group.  I clearly do not benefit from male privilege.

I do use that privilege I have as a point of entry in discourse with similarly privileged people, because marginalization can't be undone from the position of the marginalized.  I don't do it for cookies or credit or pats on the back.  I do it because I am slightly more likely to be heard in the privileged groups I am part of than those marginalized from/by those groups, and because marginalization hurts people.  If my voice can be raised far enough to be heard and help reduce privilege and marginalization, then as a member of society, I feel that I have a responsibility to use it to that end.

It's not easy.  Confrontation is stressful and there is often confrontation.  Sometimes, it's a friend who does not see their own privilege.  Sometimes, it's an anonymous stranger on the internet making people uncomfortable on a public forum, and who delights in trolling by pulling out all the derailing techniques in the link above.  And that's just where it's not easy for me.  Where I have privilege, I also have the privilege to put it down, walk away, and stop engaging in the discourse.  The person in the marginalized group does not have that luxury, because at the end of the day, until we all get this right, they're still marginalized.  Compared to too many, I have it quite easy -- the only marginalization that I can't put down and walk away from is that of women.

I still get it wrong sometimes.  I mostly hope to get it right more often than I screw it up, and check out of this place at the end of my run with a greater amount of good than harm done.  Not for recognition, but because it's the right thing to do.

Anyone whose initial instinct is to post and deny that marginalization continues to be a problem, first please read this: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack  Make sure you've unpacked your backpack before you post.

I'm going to open this up to the public.  That does not mean that I am offering a platform for prejudicial or marginalizing comments -- there are other platforms for such unpleasantness.  I remain the final arbiter of what is or is not acceptable here, and I reserve the right to delete posts that do not comply with that standard.  Anonymous posts will be screened.

As a final thought, Bill and Ted got at least one thing right.  If we're not being excellent to each other, we're doin' it wrong.

Due to an increased instance of non-persons following my journal, all posts save this have been locked down.

If you want to read my ramblings, and I have not already friended you, please comment here or send me a message by some other method indicating your actual personhood, whether I know you (and how, and by what name), and if I don't know you, why you want to follow my journal.

I don't automatically friend everyone I know.  Don't take it personally; take it as an invitation to get to know me better outside of journal space.  You might know me in an area of my life that the personal nature of my journal is not appropriate for our relationship.  For instance, I like my colleagues, but I don't want them reading about the parts of my life I don't talk about at work.  It makes things weird.

I don't automatically not friend everyone I don't know.  I have a fairly random personality, and I have friended total strangers for various reasons, such as the recommendation of a mutual friend, or a chance encounter in the comments of a mutual friend's journal.

I don't do drama in my journal.  I don't mind if people have a civilized debate in the comments, but if someone brings the HWFO, I will drop them like a hot potato.  I also don't do drama about my journal.

Those of you already on my friends list need not do anything to remain there.

Spam bots and spiders need not apply.