It’s been an increasingly conflict-filled end of this past decade when it comes to race and gender conditions.
It’s not like racism and sexism just started, but pushback to #ToxicMasculinity and #WhitePatriarchy [white + male supremacy] has increased, forcing male people and white people to misguidedly try to defend the rigged systems we have benefited from for millennia.
But you know me, we shouldn’t be defending these sick social, political and economic structures. Male people make more than women, while white people and non-visible minorities make more than visible minorities.
So how do we fix that?
And especially as white people and male people we can’t just keep sitting around, profiting from our demographic condition and a rigged system, and hope that “things” change and other people can simply make what we’re making.
We can’t just be feminists and anti-racists and allies to those fighting for equality. We need to get way better at understanding how #intersectionality works all around us!
I personally didn’t design the system all those millennia ago that made it so I got to where I am. I can’t rest on my laurels and say that meritocracy is real and I earned everything I’ve accomplished.
I can’t know all the ways my privilege has led me to success over other people.
I only found out on International Women’s Day in 2018 that my dad’s mom wasn’t a French-Canadian woman from Gaspé, but that one of her parents was French and Abenaki and the other was French and Mi’kmaq. So I’m around 1/16 Abenaki and 1/16 Mi’kmaq.
That sure hasn’t hampered my success as whatever. Ever. Whew. Or is it whew?
Emotional Labour
So being an ally isn’t enough. People with privilege, especially white people and male people, need to dig in to be accomplices and co-conspirators in dismantling the systemic discrimination that plagues everyone but us.
Even plagues is the wrong word. That’s like sending troops into harm’s way. Like some passive thing like gravity or weather is happening to people.
Systemic discrimination thrives on the tacit support of white people and male people who do nothing more than clicktivism when it comes to Toxic Masculinity and the White Patriarchy.
So, it’s time to stop letting victims expend their emotional labour on solutions. WE need to start creating solutions and new worlds.
So if you’re a feminist and an ally and you think race and gender discrimination should go away, that’s great.
- How do we do that?
- How do we change our workplaces when we might not be in charge?
- How do we confront racism and sexism at work and in our communities?
- How do we create a new kind of masculinity that isn’t toxic, that empowers us and others, that frees us from the traps and stereotypes that limit us?
- How do we create equity in all areas of our lives?
- What other questions and hurdles do we need to list and address?
No small questions. But good starting points!
Let’s Get Busy!
So we are starting in February with a Vancouver-based meetup. All men are welcome, if they seek equality and know men with privileges need to be doing more. Our mission is to fight Toxic Masculinity and the White Patriarchy.
So please share this with your male peers, friends, colleagues and neighbours.
- We are starting an EventBrite event page here.
- We are starting a Slack channel for planning: EquityMasculinity.slack.com. You need to contact me for an invitation. E-mail: beata@ebStrategy.org Phone: 778.803.7337
Let’s dig in!