Jan 30 2009
Claiming blog, a possible series
As people go, I’m pretty marginalized. I’m disabled, I’m black, I’m bisexual , female, and poor. I’m basically the most screwed person on the planet. The only majority identities I claim are adult and Christian.
Back to what I was saying, having to deal with being so screwed so often, it causes me to seek community amongst other people. One thing I absolutely can’t stand is when a person from one of my groups is biased toward another element of my identity. Take Dave Chappelle for example. He’s this amazingly funny black comedian; he’s also a rampant homophobe. When I learned this I was more horrified than I would have been had he just been some random white comedian. With him I felt like saying, “You’re on my team, I have to claim you whether I like to or not, why are you so stupid?” I have talked to other people of color about this and a lot of us feel the same way. We have to claim other people of color because the world screws us over so much whereas with white people who behave inappropriately, we don’t have to claim them.
Granted, I claim certain white people, certain able bodied people, certain men and certain heterosexuals. On a couple of occasions, I even claim a person or two who falls into all those categories, although that’s pretty rare But if one of them is homophobic or racist or some other poor behavior, it doesn’t bother me as much because I don’t feel obligated to claim them and their waywardness.
Am I all by myself, or do other people do this too?
I claim everyone and then just separate out the absolute idiots that I can’t stand next to for more than three minutes.
Easier and less discriminatory all around, but then I spend more time with idiots than you seem to.