*******
Last night I was watching the tv show "Shameless" and there was a beautiful vingette, a blond white school representative leading a meeting for Downs kids and their parents. One of the kids stands up and says that he wants to reclaim the word retard like the word queer was reclaimed.
The nice white lady looses her shit. She cannot allow this. It will lead to... she must protect these kids. She is incensed. The kid stands up and repeats his comment.
Someone in the crowd agrees that they should be allowed to reclaim the word, just like other groups, just like blacks reclaimed n******
At this point a black guy stands up and gets serious "that is our word"
Through this the white woman is quivering. She has lost control. Her voice is ignored. This is not a comfortable conversation going on. The lens of privalage has been pulled away, she cannot pretend that everything is ok and everyone is happy. Not everyone wants her help.
It is clear that she does not care about the needs of this group, but that she wants the meeting to go smoothly and to stay in her control.
It made me think about how we label ourselves and the space that we are given (or have to take) to have those conversations. How these conversations can pull at the comforts of privalage. Government calls indians Aboriginals. What do you call yourself? Are you able to have that conversation? How do we check our own privalage when it comes to the labels others want to use for themselves? What is my responsibility to enter into these spaces, create these spaces, step back and recognize that things might be uncomfortable for me and I might lose control? What labels am I willing to/need to take on to build an inclusive space for everyone?
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