5 responses to “Racial Equity Anti Hero: Rose McGowen”

1. 

   Emily Holzknecht

   February 23, 2021

   It fits that white people would harm one thing in the process of advocating for another since white supremacy is so entrenched in zero-sum thinking.

2. 

   Emily Holzknecht

   February 23, 2021

   Looking at all these famous white people trying to defend themselves and distance themselves from their own racist actions and thereby show their white supremacy a little more and dig themselves a little deeper into a hole, I wonder what consequences white famous people think they would face if they were vulnerable and teachable instead. And what consequences they actually would face if they did that.

   For me, a not famous white person, the consequences when I am vulnerable and teachable are mostly facing my own discomfort. To a much lesser degree when I am vulnerable and teachable I have had the experience of other white people coming out of the woodwork to defend themselves because MY vulnerability about MYSELF has made them uncomfortable about themselves so then there is the “consequence” of dealing with them. And famous people would confront that to a greater degree because of their reach and maybe that would be a few less sales? But all in all it seems like there is really no major consequence to them either. I realize that I have not included the consequences that dismantling racism would have to all white people because of losing the ways in which we benefit from the system.

3. 

   Emily Holzknecht

   February 23, 2021

   This reminds me of old advice to help people hear sexism. I don’t know the source of the advice, but it suggests that you replace “girl” in a phrase like “You throw like a girl.” with “Jew” because people (at that time, I suspect it might not be the case anymore) hear anti-semitism better than they hear sexism. So when in their heads they say the phrase “You throw like a Jew” they supposedly have a cringe reaction and know that’s a wrong thing to say and therefore can identify that “You throw like a girl” is also an offensive thing to say. While this old advice was never meant to compare the experiences of different marginalized groups, I could believe that it has been applied that way. I also think it wasn’t good advice then because it was supposed to help a person be less sexist, but it doesn’t ask the person to confront their sexism. It asks them to access their knowledge of anti-semitism and use this to avoid having to confront their sexism while at the same time helping them sound less sexist. It is particularly bad advice now because these days we are much less connected with what anti-semitism is and looks like, and we are very well versed in pivoting to white feminism and not good at pivoting to race. Lace’s methods of having people ask themselves “How do you think this lands with Black and brown people?” works better than just changing out words in a phrase to try to find the cringe because it requires us to do some internal work, to use our fictive imagination of Black and brown people and hold that up against our own internal racism so that we can become less racist as well as sound less racist. Additionally Lace has us practice pivoting from discussions about sexism to race which is an antidote for white feminism in which we are used to pivoting everything to gender and positioning ourselves (white women) as the victim.

4. 

   Rebecca McClinton

   February 20, 2021

   Comparing womens rights to the fight for Black liberty is not, like one article I read said, “a comparative tool in the struggle olympics”. Using that as a comparison not only alienates Black individuals who have been victim to sexual assault, but it significantly minimizes the violent physical and emotional trauma experienced by Black people at the hands of white and white adjacent people. I also read that in response to what she did, Ms. McGowan tweeted blaming her words on being high, and then issued a short spray on bandaid apology. Not reparative. As a liberal, I think it’s something I need to be particularly aware of when advocating for one thing, to make sure I’m not harming another in the process. It seems to be a place liberals most commonly cause harm.

5. 

   Clare Steward

   February 20, 2021

   Reading on this and McGowan’s initial non-apology after being called out on her extremely ignorant and cringeworthy tweet that dismisses the pain Black people feel, specifically the pain that Black women feel as they are discriminated against on multiple fronts. She tried to make her dehumanizing and false equivalency tweet into a joke…blaming making a “weird” analogy on “smoking a late night J” which further showed that she did not get the amount of harm she was inflicting.

   To personalize, when I am speaking and acting in the world, I have to be very aware of how my words will land on marginalized groups and when I am called into account, I can not try to divert the responsibility of what I did away from myself and dismiss the harm I inflicted in an off-hand manner. I have to face it head on, taking full responsibility and then work to repair the harm I have caused. I have to do better and be better, it is not ok to be flippant and dismissive.