Vancouver Morris Men in blackface. Pic by Cecily Walker.

Here’s her blog post on the matter: http://cecily.info/2013/02/23/on-the-tyranny-of-traditio/

It’s already gathered a buzz, including among some of my more radical activist friends. Some folks have hit the political road, and are initiating conversations with city officials. Some are planning other angles of complaint and/or education and /or dialogue. I mightily suspect the fallout shall NOT stop here.

I essayed an initial, polite post on the Facebook page of the Vancouver Morris Dancers www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=260253464109685&id=110584735623802

Here’s Cecily on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skeskali

The morris dancers are doing a kind of dance from way back when before the dawn of time, which involves obscuring the features with burnt cork. They ain’t pretending to be Black folks. But they said they’re aware of people’s reaction to the blackface (which looks just like every other blackface) but have decided to keep on with the blackface because they want to honor the tradition.

Okay there’s a few things to say here.

1) When we look at your blackfaced self dancing and playing, we don’t feel a strong emotional reaction to y’all needing to disguise yourselves from your Gael/Celt(?) landlords back in the day of Shakespeare because Morris dance was so revolutionary then. No, we see a bunch of white folks doing blackface, which is racist. And the strong emotion pulled up by seeing racist behaviour is much, much more recent. Because it’s still happening today.

2) Jeebus Cripes, please forgive me, because I’m gonna make an analogy here, and its not because I’m trying to get all hysterical on the hyperbole, and it’s not because I feel like I’m losing an argument and this is my last-ditch attempt to make an imaginary point, and it’s not about belittling the suffering of millions of people. I’m gonna say it because I really think that this is an analagous situation, and that this particular instance is most illustrative because so many folks will understand it. Ready? Here goes:

Once upon a time, the swastika was a (traditional, even) symbol of good.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika. Yessireebob, it was an auspicious symbol. Folks had it painted on their heads, on their churches, and used it as a good-luck symbol. Then, right about the time that my mother was a tiny school-age child in war-torn Scotland, terrified to go to school each day because she might, as did so many of her schoolmates, come home to find a bombed-out shell where her house and family once were… right about that time, the Nazis took that symbol and made of it such filth that it will be a thousand years before someone can innocently say “Oh, a pinwheel!”

Blackface is like that. It’s been used historically to ridicule, lampoon, and dehumanize Black folk. It is a symbol of a history that is not properly history, because it has not gone away. We’re still living in a world where White folks hate and fear and despise Black folks (and other non-white people) because of the colour of their skin, and use the privilege and power of being White in a White dominated society to make that shit stick. Blackface is a big, powerful symbol of the racism that harms Black folks in ways that range from indifference to ridicule to death.

And that’s why you should retire your filthy symbol, Morris dancers, I don’t care if you’re not meaning to be racist. Blackface is racist. You can do better.

And finally …

Traditions change over time.

Not all traditions are good.

Knowingly doing something hurtful while claiming the right to do so because someone else used to do it that way a long time ago… well, it’s a nasty bit of unexamined privilege, isn’t it?

Please go examine it.

And maybe try blue. Blue is nice.

- Elaine

ps http://elainemiller.com/sorting-hat-says/racism/

Coming from here: http://elainemiller.com/blog/2013/blackface-racist-stereotyping-and-other-sophisticated-humour/

and here:  http://elainemiller.com/sorting-hat-says/racism/

There’s an honest wondering that many folks have, wherein they embrace the ideal of “everyone should be able to express any view they have or else we’re on the slippery slope to Orwellian censorship”, and then wonder to themselves whether it’s okay to say “shut up with your racist/sexist/etc-ist people-hating public words”.

What I’m saying ain’t “Shirley Q we’re coming to lynch you (see what I did there?) and make sure that none of your funny ways will be heard ever again.”

What most folks are saying is “Portland Eagle, you are a gathering space for the gay and leather community, why would you book an act full of unimaginitive and ancient hate, thus fertilizing and encouraging the casual acceptance of racism, a thing which hurts, harms and even kills our fellow humans.”

And what I’ve been saying , is “Allies, be educated, be mindful, speak up against racism, and don’t feed the backwards drag of barbarism and xenophobia with your money or your approval.”

Me, I’m not looking for philosophical gradations of grey. In this culture, one does not *learn* rasicm (or any of the other isms), in the way that one may learn algebra. One absorbs it through the poison soup of the culture we swim in. So we have to unlearn it the hard way, by picking at the unexamined foundations of our thought patterns.

And we humans aren’t good at examining our unconscious assumptions, which is why -even for goodhearted folks willing to start – it’s so easy to get tired along the way and just plump ourselves down any old where and declare that we’re done.

Please, everyone, consider anything I write to be an encouragment to get up and keep going, keep learning. I don’t have any definitive answers (I’m a student, not a teacher) but I do know that using a position of power to mock folks less privileged is not the path to the society I want to live in.

and here:  http://elainemiller.com/sorting-hat-says/racism/

Allies, gather round!

I would wish for any of us who have not been steeped in race theory (like medical students being steeped in anatomy) to step gently away from the public discussion of race and do some solid reading on the topic. (Heck, even if we have done a bunch of homework on the matter, there’s always something new to learn.)

It’s exhausting for POCs (and allies too) who are doing outreach and education to be doing impromptu Racism 101 over and over, for folks who say beginner stuff like

- “but if you’re Black and have blonde hair, isn’t that like blackface?” or

- “if you do race play within a consensual relationship framework, isn’t that the same as having a public career mocking Black women with the most extreme of stereotypes?” or

- “I’m white and striving to be forever colourblind, now can we stop talking about this?” or

- “You  people complained about a comedian and now we can’t see the funny racist show. This is reverse racism(TM).” or

- “Explain to me in careful details exactly why you’re upset about this thing you call racism. I’d like to try to logic it all away while ignoring what you’re saying”

and so on. These are all paraphrases of things I’ve heard or seen being said to Mollena Williams and other POCs on the topic of race in the last five days. No, honestly, I cant make that shit up.

No-one wants to think of themselves as racist or colluding  in rasicm, so it’s all too easy to get defensive (read: offensive) over the topic. But honest, its such a more nuanced conversation if you come to it prepared with some education under your belts. Even a day’s worth of reading will get you started.

Like this: Some great places to start.

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

http://www.amptoons.com/blog/files/mcintosh.html

Privilege parable — the dog and the lizard

https://sindeloke.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/37/

About Blackface

http://black-face.com/

EDIT to ADD: Derailing for Dummies

http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/resources/mirror-derailing-for-dummies/

And for those of us who love the occasional smart youtube video,
Jay Smooth of IllDoctrine talking about how to talk about racist shit and “what you did vs what you are”

The above video with accurate captions: http://www.amara.org/en/videos/LMLZksHBoDci/info/how-to-tell-people-they-sound-racist/

Friends and neighbours and community members, be the allies I know you wanna be, and take some pressure offa the even-superheroes-get-frayed-edges edumacators. Increase your savvy on the subject.

Then we can get to the next step together.

ps. Everyone please feel free to gimme your favourite online resources for unlearning racism, race theory, and privilege.

I’m not addressing the ‘Blackface is racist” topic directly. My friend Mollena covers it nicely in the following article: so drop over there to get some background of the situation. Don’t worry, I’ll wait here ’til you’re done.

Blackface: Still racist, y’all – by Mollena

Back already? Great. Okay, I’d like to talk to the folks who defend blackface acts.

ps. Trigger warning for all sorts of hard stuff, including cruelty to people and animals. Also swearing.

“Why are you upset? It’s a comedy act. It’s ironic. It’s funny. You people are too sensitive. You’re ruining our fun.“

That’s a boiled-down-the-bare-bones paraphrase of what I keep hearing from so very many places within our leather community. But here’s the thing:

I would like to live in a civilized society, and in a civilized community.

By that I mean, simply, that I want the institutional isms and ‘phobias to fuck right off and allow for some equality of privilege, and I want everyone’s personal isms and ‘phobias to fuck right off and allow for some kindness and understanding between us individual humans. (1)

EDIT: Commenter Rebecca points out below that the word “civilized” has been much used historically by whites to justify colonialism over other cultures. She’s got a damn good point. I’m looking for a suitably large-scale word that does not carry the same colonial baggage, and once I find it, some edits will occur.

It takes work to get civilized

Let’s take racism for instance. Learning how to respect our fellow humans (this is the personal race-based prejudice part), and finding and rooting out the ways in which our larger society institutionalizes power imbalance (that’d be the racist culture that gives us such an uneven playing field) takes a lot of work. It’s not like planting a dandelion on your well-watered lawn in the summer and then coming back in the fall to a swath of pretty flowers, oh no it isn’t.

It’s like rowing a boat upstream.

In this analogy, the greater society is the boat. We are all in it, every one of us. White folks and POCs, gays and straights, kinksters and your grandparents who say those hideous things about Chinese drivers and children and everybody. You can’t swim to civilization or lapse into barbarism by yourself. We all go together, whether you like that or not.

The goal is civilization (3)…  a shining city of gold and skylights where the power isn’t in the hands of any one group or class of people, and where folks aren’t scared or contemptuous of each other, no matter their skin colour or gender or orientation or age or body shape and every door can pass two motherfucking wheelchairs at once, that’s how accessible it is, and you can tell me this is silly, but it’s my analogy and there’s room in here to dream. This is where I wanna go.

We’re rowing upstream. It’s tough because we’re on a river of entropy. Any inspired ideal that isn’t passed on will die with its thinker. Kindness and fairness is more work than cruelty or indifference. Knowledge is fragile, and civilization much more so. It needs to be taught, and taught, and retaught. (2)

Okay, okay, I’m in a boat. Upstream lies civilization. Now what?

Well, three things. You’re either rowing towards the goal, or you’re just sitting there letting it slide, or you’re rowing in the goddamn downstream direction, back towards the less-civilized yesteryear.

And look, I know the row-the-boat-to-civilization analogy doesn’t take into account how hard it is to know which way to exert effort (Hmm… how about I fight with my feminist sisters about sex?), or to tell if what you’re doing is making any fucking difference at all, but that’s the nature of analogies.

Speaking of analogies, let’s head over to the point

Now let’s pick up racism, blackface acts, and comedy… and apply them to the analogy.

Think about one of the archetypical racists, let’s use the ones who are closest to cartoons: the “white power” bunch, who spew hatred, work to make the lives of people of colour miserable, and use violence as a tool of terror. These fuckers are setting up damn outboard motors and trying to drag us all back downriver into the dark ages. What, you’re not one of them? No, I didn’t think you were.

But someone is. And that person is sitting beside you in the bar, I mean boat, listening to you laugh.

Okay, what about the white hotel manager in multifuckingcultural Vancouver, doing his nasty part to make sure that POCs ain’t hired on as doormen for his hotel, because the management is (secretly) making sure than visiting European tourists will be greeted by a white face in a uniform and not a brown one? Oh, you’re not that kind of systemic racist? No, I didn’t think you were.

But someone is. And that person is sitting beside you, listening to you laugh.

Here’s your cheerleading uniform. Put it on and pick up the racist pom-poms.

Har har hee hee, barbarians, you are so funny! Do that thing to make your lips look big again. Oh! Did you see what he did there? Hilar!

What, did I feel the forward progress of our societal boat to civilization fail just a beat? But it can’t be my fault, I’m not rowing backwards. It must be those humourless POCs, activists and feminist lesbians (4), because they’re taking away all our comedians.

And we arrive at the point

If you’re helping create an environment in which racism flourishes, or if you pitch in to make it seem okay, you’re hindering my trip to the golden city of civilization and I want you to turn around and help row upstream instead, please. I speak here to everyone on the societal boat with me; that is to say, every human alive and on the planet.

But I really think blackface is funny and so do my friends. Surely that means it’s okay?

Pretty sure that’s not a good yardstick, nope.

Here’s an interesting (bone-chillingly awful) things about crowds and what they think is funny. Not so very long ago, the height of great good public-spirited fun for some people was to set live cats on fire and gleefully watch them until they died.

Do you imagine that this abhorrent nastiness went away on its own?  Maybe the first few cat owners’ objections were shouted down

Ho ho ho hee hee, people. I don’t know why you’re upset. Look how many of the people around this bonfire are laughing and cheering at these dying cats. Can’t you see that this is funny? Lighten up.

but eventually the pushback of people working towards civilization prevailed, and now people who torture animals just don’t get the same backslaps of approval from the general public as they used to. Dog-fighting is still a hobby, though (Hoo ho hee! Dog entrails are so amusing!) so we’re not too far up the civilization river yet. Keep rowing.

Well, what do you want me to do? I’m just one oar. I mean person.

I know you meant that as a rhetorical question, perhaps because you feel insulted that I said you were retarding civilization by cheering on the racists, or maybe you feel powerless in the face of the juggernaut of the task ahead of us, given that you can’t even help settle the discord in your strata council meetings… but I’m going to take it seriously.

Allies of civilization, here’s what you can do around racism.

1) You learn as much as you can, so you don’t slip into the common pitfalls of illogic. Examine your life and unpack your privilege, and don’t ever forget that it’s a process, and not a magical place where you arrive and are henceforth blameless.

2) You speak up, just as much as the number of ears you have available. Have three friends? Tell each of ‘em you don’t like racist behaviour. Have 500 acquaintances? Tell ‘em all. And if you’re a community leader? Roar like a fucking lion.

3) Act civilized. You’re the example everyone’s looking at.

I sure wish I had some more things to read

NEW ADDITION:  Andrea Zanin says it better than I do. Read this.    some dos and don’ts for white perverts in our efforts to not be racist: http://sexgeek.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/some-dos-and-donts-for-white-perverts-in-our-efforts-to-not-be-racist/

A brilliant argument against cheerleading rape culture, which I feel is directly analogous:  http://dbzer0.com/blog/feminists-dont-think-all-men-are-rapists-rapists-do

This is about racism, and is much more in-depth than anything I’ve written here, is written more kindly, and has a bunch more smarty smart links. Read it even if you skipped mine:  A Guide to Racism 101 for Clueless White People, Written by a Slightly Less Clueless White Person

Derailing for Dummies:  http://birdofparadox.wordpress.com/derailing-for-dummies-google-cache-reconstruction/

Oh, of course there’s footnotes. Fucking lesbians.

(1)There are a great huge lot of isms (like racism) and ‘phobias (like homophobia), and even if you’ve experienced one or more of them, that doesn’t mean you’re an expert on the others, or that you get a free pass to act any of them out, because you, of course, understand.

(2) One interesting point is that each child must travel essentially the same path to being a civilized adult as the culture as a whole must. If the culture ain’t too civilized, the child generally stops there too. This is a great big topic to mention in a passing sentence, but do go forth and Google that shit. It’s kind of the Civilization of Children theory that parallels Recapitulation Theory.

(3) which might be an inaccurate analogy because civilization is a process a society goes through after its members go through it and then in turn teach others how to be civilized.

(4) Folks are always asking plaintive questions about why feminists are so humourless. Well, here’s the thing. If you didn’t act like a child needing patient teaching, we wouldn’t end up having to act like your elementary teacher. But don’t worry about us. When we’re not trying to point out that some shit ain’t civilized, we’re laughing until we pee a little. Mostly at kittens playing. Live ones. Un-immolated ones.
I just thought about softening that statement but… fuck it. As my dear friend says, this “Oh, blackface acts are just so avant garde like Lenny Bruce” shit is working my last nerve.

More here:  http://elainemiller.com/sorting-hat-says/racism/

–

This set of opinions is by Elaine Miller, a cisgendered white middle-aged fat kinky poly feminist dyke who is simultaneously ill-educated and well-read, and who will never, ever be done either learning or unlearning, depending.

- Elaine

A Weekend of Leather: Heart, Spirit & Mind

with Master Skip Chasey & slave Rick ~~ November 16-18, 2012 – Vancouver, BC

A full three-day weekend of advanced education and exploration of consensual power dynamics and the non-technical aspects of Leather Life. A few extra events are available to the eager, such as a candlelit dinner with the presenters (and a cameo appearance by two special guests), and a field trip to a dungeon party.

All genders, orientations, identities, roles and relationship configurations welcome! Past or present experience with power relationships is strongly recommended for all registrants.

Register Now!

http://www.facebook.com/events/421023347912375/?fref=ts

Elaine Miller is a leatherdyke pornographer and leather store owner
who’s been elbow-deep in the SM community since the early 90s.

—

Elaine Miller is a Vancouver leatherdyke who has been passionately involved in the leather/queer/sexuality community for 20 years through writing, education, and creating gathering space. A writer of both fiction and non-fiction, Elaine has been frequently anthologized, and spent four years as the regular kinky sex columnist for Xtra West. She runs a wee brick-and-mortar store selling consignment leathers to bikers and leatherfolk alike. http://ElaineMiller.com   

When in late 2010 I asked the group if they would mind me going on hiatus for a bit to work uninterruptedly on the beginnings of a business venture that became my brick-and-mortar leather store, East Side Re-Rides, the group responded with their typical generosity and let me off all the worky part of organizing, and I just got to come to the parties and volunteer to sit at the front door and smile at everyone coming in. Definitely the best job in the house.

Nowadays, however, Mayhem the group has shifted in membership, is working on some changes, and moving towards another conference, and I think it’s time for me to come right out and admit that I’m so dang busy being a small business owner that I’m not coming back to Mayhem. With regret, it’s time for me to cut that cord, and to leave room for others to get on with whatever great plans are in the offing.

Guys, I’ll miss almost everything but the heaving around of dungeon furniture until all hours. Thanks so much for all those shared memories, and your loving support.

respectfully
- Elaine

http://rerides.ca/news/events/2012/04/bootblacking-at-east-side-re-rides-april-29th-2012/

Saturday
7:30pm until 10:30pm

THIS IS A PUBLIC EVENT

8th Annual Sexy Sauna & Kinky BathHouse
for Women and TransFolk
(incidentally celebrating Kona and Elaine’s birthdays too)

Saturday, April 21st, 2012
Hastings Steam & Sauna
766 East Hastings, Vancouver

$20 at the door

2 sauna rooms
& 2 shower rooms
& video area (queer porn!)
& lockers & six semi-private cots,

free snacks & free non-alc drinks
& byo towel & sandals
& toys & safe sex gear

anything consensual+sanitary goes
& you don’t haveta if you don’t wanna
& we don’t care what you wear!

NOTE: we reserve the right to refuse admittance

COME CELEBRATE WITH US!

It’s time to gather your towel and sandals and come bust a sweat with us as we celebrate the springiness of Spring!. Come naked, nude, wrapped in a towel, wearing your swimsuit, jean shorts and Tshirt, or rubber bondage gear! (eg. We don’t care what you wear.) If the last few years are any measure, expect there to be plenty of hot times, and lots of hawt women of all shapes, all sizes, all colours and sexual orientations.

We’ve rented over 2000 square feet of privacy for us all to sweat, play, shower, fuck, talk, and laugh. The space contains a video area (who’s got great dyke porn?), 25 lockers, two large dry saunas (hot and hotter), two large shower rooms (ever eat melon in a shower?), and 6 semi-private areas with cots.

Do it clean and sweaty, or make it mild to wild – there’s lots of room and anything goes! This ain’t no ladies spa though. It’s grotty and rugged and perfect! Flip flops, sandals, combat boots or other footwear encouraged. Don’t forget your towel (and maybe some old sheets if you think you’ll need ‘em for back-up)!

THE SPACE

This space is, unfortunately, not wheelchair accessible. Entry to the building is at street level. The event takes place in the basement down a long, narrow set of stairs.

THE DETAILS & SMALL PRINT

Due to the nature of this event, we retain the right to refuse anyone entry for our own reasons.
Space is limited to 60 guests so get there early to avoid disappointment!
We’re covering our costs for the space rental, free beverages and free snacks by selling tickets — $20 per person at the door while they last.
where:: Hastings Steam & Sauna – 766 East Hastings, Vancouver, BC
tickets:: Tickets will be sold at the door for $20
Bring your own towel and sandals

(A NubianImp.com Project by !Kona and Elaine)

There were so many whole different chunks of conversations starting, plus very good comments for folks, that I figured it needed a multi-page format like a wiki (a public multi-page  site that allows random strangers to type smart things into it).

Go here. Be gentle with each other:   Once Bitten… Abuse within the SM community, a wiki

He’d been sick for some time, with thyroid, kidney and heart problems. We’d been medicating him and giving him IV fluids but in the last short while he had been losing yet more weight and getting steadily worse.

Random and me

The night before he died, when I went to bed, just like always he barely waited for me to settle before he climbed a bit unsteadily onto my pillow, purring and kneading, turned a few times and curled up. That night he ended up lying with his fur up my nose and his tiny, bony elbow on my face. I let him. I’m glad I did.

When he died he weighed only about six pounds, but the hole he’ll leave in my life will be so much greater. A huge percentage of my last decade and a half, both waking and sleeping, has been spent with Random either sitting somewhere upon my body or somewhere underfoot and I have no words to describe how much I’ll miss him; his Siamese opera singing; his paw patting my cheek; his terrible breath when he insisted on licking my nose. I know Vanessa’s going to miss him too.

Random was the best cat I ever met, and the most chock-full of love. As cats and humans go, we loved each other well.

G’bye, my best furry buddy. I wish you could have lived forever.

Workshop by Elaine Miller

http://elainemiller.com

East Side Re-Rides

Used Leather and Consignment Motorcycle Gear
7105 Victoria Drive, Vancouver, BC, Canada

604-327-7433 (RIDE)

(At 54th and Victoria, on the #20 bus route)