“this information perpetuates a harmful narrative that–”
okay but is it fucking true?
“Is it true?” is an important question, but in some ways, it’s overvalued. The second question must be ”is it relevant?” Like when that immigrant accidentally shot that woman, and suddenly all the anti-immigration people could talk of nothing else. The fact he was an immigrant wasn’t relevant to why he fired the gun, but it was treated as relevant just because it was true.
Sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s what you don’t say. [The quiet part, not usually said aloud.]
A young woman was assaulted in the toilets by a transwoman! [Therefore all transwomen are dangerous predators.]
I was mugged by a black person the other day. [Therefore my racist fear of black people is justified, they’re all criminals.]
My female boss just passed me over for promotion again. [She’s reflective of all women being bitchy, bad managers.]
Oh, you don’t want to deal with that Jewish shop, they short changed me. [Cheating us, as they always do.]
When we add descriptors of people, we need to be careful of why they’re there. Sometimes it’s just adding a nice little detail about the person: my gay son, my Chinese son in law, my Jewish coworker. It might be relevant to the act you’re discussing (a Muslim coworker observing Ramadan for instance.) Sometimes, though, the inclusion of these identifiers isn’t necessary, and you’re using them to identify a group at large and pin the behaviour on the group, as in my above examples.
When someone does it, its well worth wondering: what is the quiet part they’re not saying?
There are people out there saying the quiet part aloud, and uh… Usually we don’t want to be associated with them, hence why people don’t say it. They dance around it, like the above.
some of this is on me for vagueposting, I understand. I was thinking about a 99% Invisible episode where they talk about Dafen, the Chinese village where they make copies of other art pieces, where one of the narrators claimed that articles about it perpetuate a “harmful narrative” about modern day China being a little weak on the creativity side, without addressing whether that’s actually true or not. Obviously you could not have known that.
Is it an issue that I didn’t degender the driver that almost hit me the other day?
Meh, despite all I have to say on the issue I am also of the opinion it’s not that deep. For the most part in person to person interactions, nobody is implying anything by adding a bit more information (usually people just do it for verisimilitude.)
It’s more when people are saying stuff online or in the press you should really wonder what they’re not saying.
Understandable.
>Like when that immigrant accidentally shot that woman, and suddenly all the anti-immigration people could talk of nothing else. The fact he was an immigrant wasn’t relevant to why he fired the gun, but it was treated as relevant just because it was true.
(Terms and conditions apply.)
It was absolutely relevant to the fact that he was released by a sanctuary city even though the cops wanted him, which allowed him to steal someone’s gun and shoot a random woman by accident.
And given that you left out “illegal” and call the other side “anti-immigrant”, I’d say you’re not exactly unbiased.
“Is it true” is the most relevant question. “Is it relevant?” is a second order question.
>Sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s what you don’t say. [The quiet part, not usually said aloud.]
Just say ’dog-whistles’, it’ll save everyone time.
>I was mugged by a black person the other day. [Therefore my racist fear of black people is justified, they’re all criminals.]
I find it interesting that you don’t contemplate the fact that such an incident could create a racist fear, even if the person knows it’s irrational and wrong.
Not only are you making assumptions about people’s ‘real’ meaning, you’re viewing them in the most uncharitable light possible.
If the black mugger shouted racial slurs at their victim during the crime, and the victim is non-black, the mugger’s race is actually relevant, because it might be a hate crime, and the victim may be warning their friend of the same race to stay away from that particular neighbourhood.
Of course, it’s ironic that you chose this, when the press made a big deal out of hate crimes against Asians a year ago (?) without mentioning how they were unusually likely to be committed by black people.
