No Whining Allowed

Now, I’m not one to put up with whining (unless it’s my own – I love to whine), and definitely I do not put up with people who are professional victims.  I believe that knowledge, and especially self-knowledge, should be used as tools for change, not as excuses for inaction, and I’m likely to call someone out when they do it.

But I can’t call Renee out here, because she is most definitely not a whiner or a victim.  Renee takes her knowledge of the world and racism, and she tells it like it is.  The problem, of course, is that most people don’t want to claim their own privilege. 

While I have my own areas of oppression (I’m a fat, frumpy, middle-aged woman with multiple health problems/physical challenges and a background of abuse), I am also a product of the privilege of my white, mostly middle-class upbringing.

Naming Our Privilege

I was privileged to be raised in a neighborhood with a relatively low crime rate.  Privileged to walk to school every day without fear.  Privileged to attend a school with good teachers and decent libraries.

I was privileged to grow up in a family where everyone worked because work was always available and was privileged to learn how to find a job, budget my time to get ready and commute to work just by watching my parents, because they were privileged to have jobs.

I was privileged to see someone of my race as the hero of every television show, every movie and every book.  I was privileged to see every relationship in public as that of my sexual preference. 

We didn’t have a lot of money, but we were privileged not to ever go to bed hungry (at least not because of lack of food).  I was privileged to always have wholesome food on the table, a place to live, clothes to wear and books to read.  I was privileged to have health insurance and available health care (even if the doctors were arrogant assholes).

I was privileged to see police as someone to help me in times of danger.  I was privileged to never see my father pulled over for no reason, assaulted for no reason, murdered for no reason.  I was privileged to never see my mother abused or raped because of the color of her skin, or feel her helplessness because she had no one to turn to when it happened, because police were something to be feared, not someone to turn to in times of need.

I have the privilege to pretend that none of these things matters in todays world, because I’m privileged to not have it happening to me or mine.  If you seriously think that you don’t benefit from your privilege, regardless of the types of oppression you may also have endured, then you are more privileged than you can even understand.

Own Your Privilege and Work Against It

Wake up, boys and girls, and smell the privilege.  Just because you’re so immersed in it that you can’t see, hear, or feel your privilege, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.  Stop hating people for pointing out your privilege and understand why they’re pointing it out to start with.  Understand the systemic oppression in our society, and work to end oppression now!

Post from: Maritzia's Thoughts

Claim Your Privelege, People

photo credit: TheTruthAbout…

If you buy a used car, not only may the dealer not tell you about a previous accident, they may not have replaced the airbags!  In a report on Airbag Fraud, NPR revealed that some repair companies and used car dealerships have replaced used airbags with paper, beer cans, or packing peanuts.  Some just rolled up the old airbag and stuffed it back in.

A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Report released in January revealed that out of 1446 fatal traffic accidents they investigated, in 255 cases, the airbags had not been replaced after a previous accident.

See NPR’s story How To Recoqnize and Avoid Air Bag Fraud for tips to avoid the same.

Post from: Maritzia's Thoughts

Buyer Beware

Seriously, go check you tires!

Post from: Maritzia's Thoughts

Are your new tires 6 year old ticking time bombs?

So, why are we not seeing this on the front page of every paper.  If this many white people had HIV or AIDS, it’s be blasted about everywhere and there would be serious money being devoted to help these individuals.  I just happened to be scrolling through some health stories on CNN when I saw the link to this report.

We hear all the time about AIDS in Africa, and that’s an important story.  But why do we not hear about the black in our own country whose families are being devastated by this disease?  Because they’re black.  Who cares what happens to black people, right?

Look, I know that discrimination is alive and well in America.  It’s just that sometimes it blindsides me when I’m not expecting *shakes her head sadly”.

This will be going on the top of my list of things to harass my representatives in Congress about.  Look out, Rick Larsen, my eye is on you!

Post from: Maritzia's Thoughts

“AIDS in America is a black disease.”

For anyone masochistic enough to be interested, here’s the link to my NaNo profile which includes an exerpt of the novel so far: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/151099

Warning, it is very bad writing which has had zero editing. Don’t blame me if your eyes bleed.

One of the reasons I’m so far behind is that NaNoWriMo is that our agency’s main annual fundraiser is this month, so work is crazier even than normal. If anyone out there actually has money and is interested in a worthwhile organization for your charitable giving, you won’t find one better than Northwest Youth Services. I know most of you are as poor as I am, but still, you never know *grins*.

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It’s NaNoWrimoTime…

Post from: Maritzia's Thoughts

Another recommended link

Another blog I’d like to offer up for your perusal is Joseph’s Left One.  He’s an ex-mormon who writes of his disillusionment in such a way that you feel everything that he feels.  I highly recommend it if you like good writing.

We ran the roads a good bit yesterday.  We went to Marilyn’s Yarn Store (if you’re in the Bellingham area, I highly recommend them.  Very helpful and informative, especially if you’re new to knitting), and I got a nice skein of blue lambs wool with a skein of red silk for accent for a project I’m planning to felt.  I’ll let you know how it turns out, since I’m pretty much winging this.  There’s not really a pattern so I have to figure it out as I go along.

Then we went to the bookstore where I picked up The Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, as well as some gardening/cooking/crafts book that were on the bargain shelf.  After all, you can never have too many books.  And to underline that concept, I stopped into the library to pick up 6 books I reserved.

Really, isn’t the internet a wonderful thing?  I can go on-line, search the library’s card catalogue, reserve the books, and when I go in, the books are sitting on the shelf waiting for me, and I can check myself out at a self-checkout station.  I love technology, especially when it makes it easier for me to get books!

Lastly we went to a Futon store, but my goodness is their stuff way overpriced.  If I’m going to pay $1500 for a sofa that turns into a bed, I’ll go buy a reallly nice hideabed sofa for that money.  We’ll keep an eye out on garage sales to see if we can find a futon cheaper.  I’d really like to get something better for the mother-in-law to sleep on when she’s visiting us.  At the moment, all we have are a couple of foamies that we put on the floor for her.  But since we actually like for her to visit, we’d like to encourage it with a better place for her to sleep.   Hence the search for a futon.  Someday, we’d like to have a small house out in the country with enough land that she can have her own little cottage right there.   That would be our ideal.  I’m very lucky that I have such a great mother-in-law.  I’ve heard so many MIL horror stories, and mine is just a doll.  Her lifestyle and ours really mesh well, so that when she’s here, it’s not much different than when she isn’t, except that we get to play Canasta!  Which, unfortunately, she usually wins *laughs*.

When we got home yesterday, I set Wiebke up with a blog on my domain.  She’s always wanted to write, and I thought this might help encourage her to do so.  I don’t know if she’ll make it public or not, but I do hope she writes *nudge, nudge* (yes, I’m pretty sure she’ll read this *laughs*).

Well, that’s all that’s fit to print.  Have a beautiful and blessed day, all.

Post from: Maritzia's Thoughts

Carnival of blogging chicks #2