history 101

i am sorry for the blog-writing hiatus as of late; sometimes life takes us away from our computer screens, and as much as i hate to neglect the LOVE we’ve built here, i had to wait for the storm to settle a bit before i could cobble my thoughts together into something resembling a post.

thankfully, it hasn’t all been chaos and upheaval over here. some of my absence has been because of some great social justice events and conferences that have been happening in my neck of the woods. each time i attend one of these events, however, i am momentarily stunned by the fact that they are serving meat and dairy products. it would seem that the organizers of an event to benefit a feminist organization or to raise money to support LGBT youth mentoring programs would have an obvious interest in not piling the bodies of other oppressed beings onto the plates of the attendees, but time and time again i find that this is not the case.

it’s obviously important to convey our thoughts on these issues to the people and organizations putting together these events, but i often hit a brick wall in my attempts. in my experience, event organizers are so harried with the thousands of details that go into planning an event or conference that this “seemingly minor” concern from one or two people doesn’t warrant a solution. it can be really challenging — especially if you’re not a visible member of the community you’re approaching — to express the relationship between human and animal oppression and the importance of not participating in any of it in an e-mail that’s short enough to be guaranteed to be read.

i think that’s why i have had so much trouble with letter-writing campaigns or leafleting at churches/conferences/pride parades in the past. i find it incredibly uncomfortable to approach a group of which i am not a visible member or an active participant and purport to tell them how to run their events or lives. steven has talked about the use of the word “should” and how that can (intentionally or unintentionally) flaunt unchecked privilege — and i am struggling to find a balance between speaking up for the animals who are murdered by the billions and respecting the individual experiences and rights of the people to whom i’m speaking.

so do i have any suggestions or solutions? the one that stands out to me is to ensure that we’re standing in solidarity with everyone working on behalf of oppressed groups. there’s no point in hosting the oppression olympics — anyone facing any oppression on any scale deserves to have her voice heard and deserves to have that persecution ended. (at an LGBT event last night, a speaker talking about the importance of LGBT education said that she wished her daughter could learn about gay leaders and the gay rights movement the same way that students learn about black leaders and the civil rights movement “during black history month, in february, or whichever month that is.” really? you’re expressing the importance of gay history while being completely flippant about the struggles of black people to have their history recognized in the same way?)

this doesn’t mean that we have to attend every protest or participate in every legislative call-in session that comes down the pike, but yes, we can be aware and considerate of all of the struggles that are happening simultaneously with the one(s) we call “our own.” get informed! get educated about the history of oppression and how people’s lives are being affected by oppression today. go to the library, take a course at your community college, attend lectures and community events hosted by social justice groups that maybe you’ve never interacted with before. there are myriad commonalities between the different groups working to end oppression. i would love to see us pool our resources and use our energy to work together. all struggles are one struggle, my friends. what is your role in the fight?