I think tumblr in particular, and progressive spaces in general, have overadopted the idea that being a member of a marginalized group means that you a) understand all of their issues and b) won’t have that particular bigotry. I have met misogynistic women. Antiblack black people. Psychotic people who specifically hate other psychotic people. As this is tumblr, I presume people are fairly familiar with how transmedicalist trans men went viciously after other trans men.
I refuse to call this internalized because though they do apply it to themselves sometimes, a lot of the time it’s about not being like “those” people. Once the bigotry is something you’re hurting other people with, it’s no longer just internal- it’s a weapon you’re wielding against others.
I think that “All people in the oppressing group are automatically socialized into bigotry and need to confront that.” was a good step. I think the next step needs to be “We all are socialized in the same society to the same bigotries. Being a member of a marginalized group just means that you are more likely to do the work to unlearn bigotry against you.”
Yes, go ahead.
We all are socialized in the same society to the same bigotries. Being a member of a marginalized group just means that you are more likely to do the work to unlearn bigotry against you.
As an add-on, you’re also more likely to have easy access to evidence to counter that bigotry. If you are a woman, then you have your internal experiences to look at against the prevailing misogynistic stereotyping. If you’re black, you know your own internal experiences and can contrast them readily against the stereotypes held of your race.
And not only can you use your internal experiences, but you’re also more likely to have in-depth access to other members of the same marginalized group with whom to compare experiences.
It’s not foolproof, obviously. But it does make doing the work to unlearn the bigotry that society tries to teach you easier, when you have those tools readily at your disposal without having to ALSO do the work of seeking out people who are willing to share their perspectives and describe their internal experiences to you, despite perhaps not readily trusting you because you belong to the same demographics as their oppressors.
Yeah. This is something I’ve been saying for a long time.
The easy evidence effect is also FAR more pronounced the longer you’ve been (or known you’re part of) a marginalized group. For things like being a POC - that’s something you’re born with, that is something you usually know you are from birth to death, something you usually know your FAMILY is composed of for your entire life. For congenital disabilities, or ones acquired in early childhood? For being a woman, if you’re cis? Same thing, you’ve had your entire life to look at the stereotypes and go “wait…that’s nothing like my life, this is bullshit, this is a scam, fuck this”.
But for being queer, or suddenly being diagnosed with or acquiring a new disability, or other things like that - a lot of the times the stereotypes are so ingrained in you after a lifetime of simmering in them you’re still convinced the rest of the community is The Other and you’re The Good One. You’re not a creep who cares about nothing but sex like all the other queers! You’re not a lazy hack just looking for freebies like all those other disabled people!
But, again, even if you’re in the former group, you are not immune, just more resistant - I’ve run into a lot of super misogynistic cis women, a lot of very ableist people who have been disabled since birth, a lot of super racist POC.
But also, I would like to point out that this is the appropriate use of the word “internalized” - it doesn’t exclusively mean “directed at yourself”; it also means “deeply accepted”. As in, you don’t have to lie to yourself and refill on the rhetoric regularly to keep up the illusion, like you might with the more bugfuck wild QAnon type shit. It means, this is just part of your framework because you’ve never seen an alternative. This just has a LOT of overlap with “directed at yourself” because it has to be pretty deep to remain in spite of the easy counter-evidence effect.
