On Ignorance & Malice

"…When someone is doing something out of ignorance and you ask them to stop, they stop. When they are doing it out of malice, they don’t stop." ~ bankuei (Tumblr)

Ran across this on Tumblr, & I thought it summarizes much of what I've tried to articulate about discrimination/oppression the last few years. I know these topics require nuance. We all are products of particular cultural circumstances, so we are not always intending to be racist/classist/sexist/ableist/homophobic etc. But sometimes you just have to call a thing a thing. At some point, your intentions don't matter: just stop being an ass. We don't have to make grandiose rhetorical treatises to avoid calling racism what it is for the sake of "diversity" or to avoid hurting people's wittle fee-fees. 

This is truly a classic oppressor tactic: Perpetually claim ignorance about why something is an issue so victims have to devote all their energy to educating bigots instead of working for justice. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. Yes, education is key to the work of liberation and equality. However, Google is available to practically everyone, so these folks on social media who continue to claim ignorance about street harassment or police brutality or living wages for months & years are, frankly, full of shit. You know the ones. They constantly whine, "How can I learn if you don't teach me?! I need you to spoon feed me exact sources, statistics, & concrete solutions before I even consider changing my hurtful behavior!!" These ostensible claims of ignorance are indeed malicious. 

I'm not saying everyone has to be a well-read scholar. (I'm certainly not one!) But I am saying that it doesn't take a genius to respect someone else's humanity. When a woman says she doesn't want to be grabbed or followed on the street, when a Black person says they don't want to be choked to death by police, when working poor people say they want to be able to pay rent AND eat, there's only so many times you can claim ignorance about misogyny, police brutality, & poverty before entering malicious territory. 

Nuance and subtlety are necessary and beautiful, but people are dying out here. If you don't want to learn or if you're comfortable being racist/sexist/whatever, simply say so. Just don't claim ignorance in an effort to force others to dance around these issues. It's cowardly, passive-aggressive, counter-productive behavior. Own your malice. Or at least fess up to the fact that certain issues aren't important to you. It will save all of us a lot of time. 

I know that on an individual level, this might not be true, but on a societal level all these forms of oppression are intentional and malicious in the 21st century. This nation, this world, was given the template for equality during the various liberation movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. WE'VE BEEN THROUGH THIS BEFORE! Those in power know that the prison industrial complex is wrong. They know police brutality is wrong. They know that gendered wage gaps are wrong. They know food deserts are wrong. They know education inequality is wrong. The United States can no longer claim ignorance about the way it mistreats certain groups. Until we confront that fact, nothing will ever be fully rectified. 

At some point, we have to be brave enough to call something what it is. Malice cannot forever be concealed by claims of innocence.