i took too many sleep meds and broke my âno social media argumentsâ rule and went off on some white lady on facebook last night, and i thought of an interesting analogy.
so imagine youâre a farmer; like born and raised, youâve been getting up at dawn to check the chicken coops and milk the cows since they day you learned to walk.Â
now imagine someone thereâs someone who has lived in the city all their life. straight nyc, has never stepped foot in rural land ever before, and they come up to you, and they say, âi know what itâs like to be a farmer.â
of course your immediate reaction is, âum, i think the hell not?â right?
but the city slicker refuses to let up. they insist, âno, i know exactly what itâs like to be a farmer, and you telling me that i donât is prejudice against me.â
so you say, âhow can you possibly know what itâs like to be a farmer? have you ever done morning farm chores? have you lived somewhere thatâs completely cut off from other people? have you ever even planted a plant?âÂ
and they say, âno, but iâve seen movies and iâve heard of farms, so i know what itâs like to be a farmer,â and if you try to explain that, no, you donât know what itâs like to be a farmer, that knowing about farms and living on a farm are completely different things, they just get angry at you, and refuse to believe that they couldnât possibly know what itâs like to be a farmer.
but then thereâs another person, another city person, who comes, and maybe theyâre from a slightly smaller city, and theyâve actually visited a farm or two, and they tell the city slicker, âno, there are differences between cities and farms and i will explain them to you, since thereâs no one else to do it.â
so of course youâre like, âyou know, iâi can actually tell them what itâs like to grow up on a farm, since i actually live on a farm, and youâve only visited a farm, soâŚâ
but the one whoâs visited a farm talks over you, and tells the city slicker some things about what itâs like to live on a farm, and sure some of it is right, but itâs not completely right, because they still donât actually, you know, live on a farm.Â
but now the city slicker is like, âoh, yes, now i understand completely, and i now i really know what itâs like to live on a farm. in fact, iâm going to be an advocate for farmers, since farmers canât speak for themselves.â and then the city slicker goes on and tells other city slickers this third party information about what itâs like to live on a farm, meanwhile youâre still trying to insist that, no, youâre still missing some key aspects of what itâs like to live on a farm!! but no one is listening.
and while this is going on, there are some people around you who are saying, âactually, i donât see terms like âruralâ and âurban.â i think weâre beyond that. isnât it actually worse for society for us to categorize like that? why canât we just see that cities and farms are exactly the same?â
and youâre like, no!! that doesnât make sense!! because they arenât exactly the same!! the experiences of a farmer vs the experiences of a city person have fundamental differences, and itâs not wrong to recognize them, itâs just true!!
and then of course there are the ones who are just like, âi think we should just burn all farms to the ground, fuck farmers.â
and at that point, you just develop a drinking problem, because theyâre just never going to get it.
thatâs what itâs like to be a person of color. yâall are city slickers refusing to believe that you may not actually know what itâs like to live on a farm.
itâs okay not to know things.
the problems arise when you refuse to admit that you donât.
open your city slicker mind.
and most of all, realize that farmers are always going to know more about farms than you,
janainaart
annaxmalina
baratheonpilled
kianamaiart
blakekathryn
snowghoul
