medievalpoc:

I’d also like to take this moment to contrast the above with some people’s responses to my refusal to tolerate backhanded compliments meant to degrade other bloggers and anti-racist activists. Notice that the derogatory term “SJW” or “Social Justice Warrior” is being used quite freely in regard to MedievalPOC.

In fact, I still receive these kind of “compliments” from those who perceive this kind of response, as in, my response to harassment, as “logical”, “rational” or even “sane”.

To make this clear, the following commentary from a tumblr user is in regard to my behavior and their perception of it:

That’s why I try to differentiate between social justice advocates and social justice warriors. Social justice advocates go about their social justice advocacy in sane and rational ways, and would be happy with a compliment that they are being sane and rational, and would agree that too many social justice people behave in insane and irrational ways. Social justice warriors behave in those insane and irrational ways like the OP and their commenters, are offended at being expected to be sane and rational, and make the mistaken assumption the OP did that people who dislike SJW behavior must have somehow deserved the bad behavior. Enjoyably Crazy’s ask could only be construed as a backhanded compliment if the OP considered themselves one of the insane and irrational members of their movement. Which the OP obviously is. Especially when the OP proudly says that many people don’t consider them sane and rational the way the asker does and acts like they’re happy that the asker is wrong about them being sane and rational. Or that they’re offended that the asker is only open to people who behave in sane and rational manners. Because, obvs people are totes supposed to care what someone behaving like a crazy dumbass thinks, right? By that logic, everyone should be open to the ideas of Tea Partiers and Fundamentalists, too, because it’s obvs totes unreasonable to expect things like facts and logic and common decency. Equal treatment means being held to equal standards, folks. If you wouldn’t pay attention to a majority person who was behaving in an insane and irrational manner, why do you expect anyone to care about a minority person behaving in such a manner?

“Why do you expect anyone to care about a minority person”, indeed?

I think I have made it pretty obvious by now that not only am I a disabled person, but that my day job involves making accessible curricula and teaching materials for disabled college students?

That I believe in equal access to education for everyone, in all ways?

This blog is an extension of what I have dedicated my life to. I provide accessible college education for a living, and I do a great deal of unpaid activist work, in community-directed organization, non-profit advocacy organizations, and in-person advocacy education, as well as online via this blog. Is it “irrational” to spend as much of my time and energy on unpaid projects as I do? I suppose, if your only measure of worthwhile time is financial compensation.

This is my own time and energy spent, and I will conduct myself as I see fit, whether or not other perceive my behavior as “insane”. The repeated use of this term by the above commenter as a pejorative is just another facet of just how hard I have to fight every day at my paid job to provide equal access to education for ALL college students, including those with mental illnesses.

I work with every fiber of my being to intervene of behalf of students with anxiety disorders, depression, cognitive disabilities and neurological conditions, including military veterans with TBI and PTSD, to get the educations they paid for, deserve, and are entitled to. I do this in part because I had to struggle without many of the accommodations I should have had in order to receive my education as a disabled student, and I do not want anyone to have as hard a time as I did.

Did anyone really expect me to take a message that more or less says “you’re not crazy like the rest of social justice people” as some kind of compliment?

This message from someone with the url “enjoyablycrazy” :

gotta admit I’ve had nothing but bad experiences regarding social justice people but the way you keep your cool and focus on calmly explaining your point of view using facts is pretty admirable and is making me a lot more open to your ideas

does nothing but reinforce everything I fight each day in order to provide accessible education without discrimination to ALL college students, regardless of ability status.

Anyone who would set me above the people I work so hard to help feel empowered, especially considering I am one of them, is working counter to what I do here, and what I do with my life. It is using me as a weapon against others. Putting conditions on your willingness to recognize the agency of people who are marginalized to speak for themselves does nothing but demonstrate your willingness to dismiss them and refuse to recognize their voices as full members of the community.

This is especially relevant in the context of slurs aimed at Black people being sent to me, considering that I am not Black, yet many white supremacists would be happy to use my blog as a vehicle for harm and/or violence against Black people and communities.

The resistance, racism, ableism, and erasure I see here and in responses to MedievalPOC are absolutely no different than my interaction with professors who seem to think they are doing students a favor by complying with federal law in regard to accommodations. There are plenty of educators who call providing captions on videos or respecting students with anxiety disorders needs for alternate testing venues “crazy” and “irrational”.

The continued focus on “credibility” and “respectability” in activism, both online and face-to-face, does nothing for people who are marginalized, because they do not have access to these social ideas by mere virtue of being who they (and we!) are.

There is a very fine line between documenting research and integrating that into creative, transformative, and academic works, and pandering to people who demand them endlessly, refuse to read sources, or arbitrarily “discredit” some sources because of who the writer is, including because of their race or education level.

I’ll draw your attention once again to the words of the above commenter on my behavior:

Why do you expect anyone to listen to a minority person behaving in such a a manner?

Whose standards, exactly, are these? The same standards as those who still call John Lawson an authority on Native American peoples and cultures? Who think that calling Native peoples thieves, perverts, and murderous barbarians is a kind and accurate portrayal?

Is the article I wrote biased because I am Native American, or is the writer of this article on Lawson’s trial and execution biased in believing Lawson’s descriptions of Native peoples are accurate?

Who do YOU think is more likely to be viewed as “credible”, merely by virtue of who they are? My perceived “calm” response to overt, racist harassment is complimented, and yet, my reaction to the same sentiment framed as a false “compliment” is reviled and condemned. Who is my response a threat to? Or, what is challenged by responding to a backhanded compliment negatively, that is not challenged by being “gracious” in the face of overt hate? What is the double standard there?

Why DO you expect anyone to listen to a minority person behaving in such a manner? Maybe THAT is a question some of my readers should be asking themselves.