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Laura Anne Gilman

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Thinking About Boats and Life Preservers

Laura Anne June 2, 2020

This weekend, I was pointed toward an essay called “Detour-Spotting,” about the ways white people can start to unlearn negative reactions to race and racism.  It may not be the most beautifully-written essay (I found myself mentally editing bits of it) but there were a lot of sharp pointy bits I found myself getting poked with.  Which was uncomfortable, but good – I was there to get poked.

And while I was able to look at some of the things discussed and nod and say “yeah, weeded that out, working on that,” there was a section that stopped me cold and forced me to take a long walk with it.  And that was the discussion of the hierarchy of oppression.  Or rather, the lack of hierarchy, and how that can tangle our responses.

As a Jewish person, I understand the weight of oppression.  I’ve felt it on my own back more than once,  plus the ever-present ghost of antisemitic history shadowing me.  So my first reaction is and always has been, “yeah, I understand, we are on the same side/in the same boat.”

But the truth is that I can’t understand, not entirely.  My skin shades olive, not black or brown.  My features are Eastern European.  I not only can pass, I do, unless I make a visual or vocal point of who I am.  When I’m out on the street, American cops see a white woman, not a Jew.  And none of that takes away from the very real risks I face from antisemites, but it means – to continue the earlier metaphor –  that I’m in a different boat than my darker-skinned friends and neighbors, both Gentile and Jews of Color; one perhaps equally precarious, but equipped with (literal) life preservers.

And it’s not a life preserver I can easily toss to them.

In that knowledge, there’s both frustration, and guilt. And that’s what I’m walking with, now – not the feelings themselves, but the knowledge that these feelings are actively damaging to my ability to be a good ally, because those feelings focus on me, rather than them.  There is no hierarchy of oppression, the dangers my people face are no less real than what Black people face – but it has a significant difference.  I have that life preserver already to-hand, and I can’t ever let myself forget that others do not.

 

These are thoughts, not conclusions.  The process, and processing, continues.

 


With thanks to the friends who “foot-proofed” this, and the understanding that any remaining foot-in-mouth is entirely my own failure.

 

 

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Posted in Latest News, the (alleged) real world
Tagged black lives matter, race, religion
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Thinking About Boats and Life Preservers
  • I Have Strong Opinions
  • Laura Anne Gilman

        • The Complete Sylvan Investigations
        • The Collected Cases of Duchess, PI

        • Finder’s Keeper
        • Lightning Strikes: Stories of the Cosa Nostradamus
      • The Complete Sylvan Investigations

        • An Interrupted Cry

        • Miles to Go
        • Promises to Keep
        • Work of Hunters
      • The Devil's West

        • WEST WINDS’ FOOL and Other Stories of the Devil’s West
        • Silver on the Road
        • The Cold Eye
        • Red Waters Rising
        • GABRIEL'S ROAD: a novella of the Devil's West

      • Paranormal Scene Investigations

        • Hard Magic
        • Pack of Lies
        • Tricks of the Trade
        • Dragon Justice
      • The Vineart War Trilogy

        • Book 1:Flesh & Fire
        • Book 2:Weight of Stone
        • Book 3: The Shattered Vine
      • Retrievers Series

        • Retrievers #1: Staying Dead
        • Retrievers #2: Curse the Dark
        • Retrievers #3: Bring It On
        • Book #4: Burning Bridges
        • Book 5:Free Fall
        • Book 6: Blood From Stone
      • The Portals Duology

        • Heart of Briar
        • Soul of Fire
      • Other Works

        • Short Fiction

        • Darkly Human
        • From Whence You Came
        • Dragon Virus
        • Practical Meerkat’s…
  • L.A. Kornetsky

      • The Gin & Tonic Mysteries

        • Collared
        • Fixed
        • Doghouse
        • Clawed
  • Recent Comments

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    Copyright © 2021 Laura Anne Gilman.

    • Home
    • Books
      ▼
      • The Devil’s West
        ▼
        • Silver on the Road
        • The Cold Eye
        • Red Waters Rising
        • GABRIEL’S ROAD: a novella of the Devil’s West
        • WEST WINDS’ FOOL and Other Stories of the Devil’s West
      • The Cosa Nostradamus Stories
        ▼
        • Lightning Strikes: Stories of the Cosa Nostradamus
        • Retrievers Series
          ▼
          • Retrievers #1: Staying Dead
          • Retrievers #2: Curse the Dark
          • Retrievers #3: Bring It On
          • Book #4: Burning Bridges
          • Book 5:Free Fall
          • Book 6: Blood From Stone
        • Paranormal Scene Investigations
          ▼
          • Hard Magic
          • Pack of Lies
          • Tricks of the Trade
          • Dragon Justice
        • The Complete Sylvan Investigations
        • Cosa Nostradamus F.A.Q. (updated 5/2019)
        • Excerpts…
          ▼
          • EXCERPT: Staying Dead
          • EXCERPT: Curse the Dark
          • Excerpt: DRAGON JUSTICE (PSI #4)
          • EXCERPT: Burning Bridges
          • EXCERPT:Free Fall
      • L.A. Kornetsky
        ▼
        • The Gin & Tonic Mysteries
          ▼
          • Collared
          • Fixed
          • Doghouse
          • Clawed
      • The Vineart War Trilogy
        ▼
        • Book 1:Flesh & Fire
        • Book 2:Weight of Stone
        • Book 3: The Shattered Vine
      • Other Works
        ▼
        • I Have Strong Opinions
        • Finder’s Keeper
        • The Collected Cases of Duchess, PI
        • Darkly Human
        • Dragon Virus
        • The Portals Duology
          ▼
          • Heart of Briar
          • EXCERPT: Heart of Briar
          • Soul of Fire
        • Short Fiction
        • Practical Meerkat’s 52 Bits of Useful Information for Young (And Old) Writers
        • From Whence You Came
      • Foreign Edition Information
      • Where The Books Are (direct buying links)
    • Signings and Appearances
      ▼
      • 2019 events
    • Contact Info & Publicity
      ▼
      • About the Author
      • Publicity/Publisher Inquiries
      • Mailing List
    • Social Media
      ▼
      • On the Blog
      • Twitter
      • Tumblr
      • Facebook
    • Links
      ▼
      • LAG @ Curious Fictions
      • D.Y.M.K. Writing & Editorial Services
      • Where The Books Are (direct buying links)
      • Sundry Silliness
        ▼
        • Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)
        • A Contracts Line: The Musical – “One”
        • Under Deadline
        • Number One on the New York Times
        • “She’s Tired (agent’s remix)
        • The Hunting of the Catnap Vibe (with apologies to Lewis Carroll)
        • Written on the Occasion of a Book-Birthday
        • The Writer’s Psalm
        • The Tasty Goatherd
        • Sonnet 139 (the Cannabis Remix)
      • 9/11 Memories
        ▼
        • Observations and Trauma
        • Aftershocks
        • Giving Blood
        • Visiting Ground Zero