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womenby @hexbear.net
Angel [any] @hexbear.net

#notallwhitewomen

Unfortunately, this problem she is talking about represents a major problem on the left that my intersectional ass is noticing way too damn much.

It really seems like, for many leftists, justice is either:

  1. supported for the sake of selfishness (people only care about supporting pro-justice causes that they'd personally benefit from, but they'll gladly be oppressive in other contexts)
  2. taken as a performative gesture to make someone look noble, righteous, inclusive, and "woke" without any genuine care or concern for marginalized people

I feel this is seldom ever addressed because, like I said, it seems like this issue is so common that many leftists aren't even realizing that it's an issue. If you just drown out the voices of intersectional people, why would someone even have to care?

The fact that leftists lacking intersectionality is the norm and not the exception has been one of the scariest things for me when it comes to interacting with much of the left.

4 comments

  • How prevalent, would you say, is this problem here on Hexbear?

    • That is an excellent question, and the best answer I can think of is that it certainly is to a much lesser extent here than it is in your average leftist space, but I still feel like Hexbear has this problem in some instances.

      In fact, very recently, I basically took a fairly lengthy break from using every community except c/mutual_aid over something I saw on this site that embodies this problem. It was so hurtful to me that I felt that the break was the only thing I could do so that I wouldn't feel any more unexpected anguish from using this site. I was in extreme distress after seeing it, and this is the first time a Hexbear post has caused me this problem to this extent at all. Something that scares me is that I'm not sure if your average Hexbear would know why something like this could've been so distressing to me., so you could say it's a real Hanlon's razor moment. I only very recently consider myself to have ended that break.

      I don't like bringing up just what it is because it hurts me to even type the specifics out and explain why it bothered me, but one thing I can say is the idea that the rhetoric of the post could deeply disturb a marginalized person who uses this site is likely an afterthought of most Hexbears.

      That all being said, one way that Hexbear differs from your average leftist space is that self-crit seems to be taken a lot more seriously. Many leftists on other sites have doubled down hard and have gone mask-off bigoted against me in some cases, but I don't see that happening from most Hexbears.

      Privilege, overall, really blinds people in general, and since I check so many "oppression checkboxes," most people I interact with will be privileged in one way or another relative to me, and I think that could explain why my sensitivity to things that demonstrate a lack of intersectionality may be higher than it is for many other people.