19 July 2017

Unpopular Social Justice Opinions, or Why I’m Going On Hiatus

A lot of frustration has been building up inside me lately. I recently deleted my Facebook account, mostly because I decided that I distrusted Facebook more than I enjoyed keeping up with people, but also because my timeline constantly made me upset. I’m starting to feel similarly about Twitter, but instead of deleting my account, I’m going to take a hiatus from the main source of my problems: online social justice.

If you are interested in why I’m so upset, then read on.

1. It’s become too negative and visceral.

Virtually every time I open up Twitter, I am immediately greeted with a ton of negativity. I see sarcasm, personal attacks, and angry rants about a particular word that a random person used. I admit that I’ve contributed to this negativity in the past, but I’m making an effort to stop. I don’t think that any of it helps.

1a. Saying, “Don’t @ me” does nothing to advance any struggle.

I’m starting to see this a …

13 November 2016

"You Need to Talk to People You Disagree With"

A depiction of the famous Burr–Hamilton duel

[PHILIP]
Pops, if you had only heard the shit he said about you
I doubt you would have let it slide and I was not about to —

[HAMILTON]
Slow down

[PHILIP]
I came to ask you for advice. This is my very first duel\
They don’t exactly cover this subject in boarding school

[HAMILTON]
Did your friends attempt to negotiate a peace?

[PHILIP]
He refused to apologize, we had to let the peace talks cease

- Blow Us All Away by Lin-Manuel Miranda

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States, I have done a lot of reading. I was shocked, and I needed to figure out what was going on. A common theme I’ve been seeing is criticism of liberals from other liberals who – with a dose of hindsight bias – claim they saw this coming. There are a number of people who put the blame on liberals who are supposedly unwilling to talk to people whom they disagree with, and have enclosed themselves in a bubble as a result. “You can’t just call people racists …

20 July 2015

Melting in a Salad Bowl

A still of the 1961 film West Side Story

When I was born, my mother was torn crazy
They nearly gave me away to the wrong lady
Doctor said, “Sorry we didn’t see that comin’,
But there’s no way in the world that he came from a black woman”
I guess I been fightin’ since birth
I barely had life on this earth
Already subjected to people and how they judge
Little fair-skinned baby, resentment was in my blood

- Who I Am by Locksmith

Before I begin, I would like to throw out a quick disclaimer:

This post is all about my life and experiences. It comes from the perspective of a very privileged, upper middle class, white passing, cisgender, heterosexual male. I am in no way trying to speak for anyone else.

When I was a child, I fell in love with the film West Side Story. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched that movie, but I’m sure the number is in the dozens. I would sometimes watch it multiple times in a month, and I have the lyrics of almost each of the musical’s …