4thletter! » Blog Archive » Beyond Outrage

I spent some time in LA over 4th of July weekend getting my west coast on. I came back to the world on Monday after a great weekend, only to find that the comics internet had melted down over an ill-conceived hashtag and was busy stomping up and down on the heads of people who were no threat to them.

This isn’t about that, or the hashtag. It’s about all the other times comics has faced controversy and replied with scorn.

The short version is “you don’t have to like it, but please respect it.” The long version is through the link. Comments are off until I get back from lunch, but hopefully you get something out of this.

(via iamdavidbrothers)

This is really fucking important.

(via shulkiesmash)

So on point.

(via katrinastratford)

So here is the thing for me (and fwiw, that title is misleading in a few ways but let’s let that go).

Yeah, I jumped on the tag and here is why – traditionally the comics industry has never listened to me or people like me so when I get angry I’ve used up all my empathy and politeness and ‘proper tone’ about twenty years ago. Now, that’s on me a bit but it is also on comics and on the way those that are in power don’t have to and frequently actively shut down people who they don’t want to listen to and aren’t like them.

I do a lot of intersectional work. I do a lot of diversity, inclusion and equity work and as a self identifying cishet college educated white woman in the western world I have a hell of a lot of priviledge. I have discretionary income. I have the internet at home. I have a steady fulltime job with benefits.

I also am a single mom of a biracial kid. I work in non-profit. I live in a marginal neighborhood because that’s what I can afford. I have debt because that’s how you make it from month-to-month. But that’s not the point.

Here is the point. When you’ve used up all of your ‘but could you maybe’ and ‘what about something a bit different’ and your ‘you know this is problematic and here is why’ and you’re told that you are wrong? Over and over and over. You get angry and sometimes when you get angry you light a match instead of trying to once again be polite and see if re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (and your letter to the editor) will make a difference this time.

I fuck up a lot. I have learned to keep my mouth shut and listen when someone says ‘no, this is a problem and I don’t care how good of an ally you think you are, this is my turn to talk’. It sucks. You want to speak up and talk about how you meant well. How you are doing better than you were last year/month/yesterday. How they don’t understand how hard it is to do this work. Then you remember that for you it is work and for them it is the daily existence of living. Of not seeing your voice reflected anywhere around you.

Remember that the next time someone gets outraged. Remember that there is a person behind the words and that they probably don’t look like you. Remember when you were misunderstood and no one would listen. Do that before you shut them down.