Ami Angelwings wrote a really great post on oppression judo and how it benefits nobody. She wrote it in response to the fall out from a racist video rant by UCLA student, that then generated a lot of sexist abuse from supposed progressives, criticising the student for being racist. I highly recommend that you Ami's post.
The student is very deserving of criticism, because racism isn't ok, but when you criticise someone for being racist, when you point out to them that they are in actual fact racist (and that this isn't a desirable thing to be), it doesn't help your cause to sexually harass them and reduce them to their body parts. Doing so doesn't make you better than the racist person, in fact it makes you as bad as they are. It also doesn't reduce oppession and discrimination, which surely, by calling the racist out on their views, is what you wanted, right?
Anyway, Ami says this much much better than I and the piece is a joy to read. So go read it already. Or I'll get John Stewart involved:
The student is very deserving of criticism, because racism isn't ok, but when you criticise someone for being racist, when you point out to them that they are in actual fact racist (and that this isn't a desirable thing to be), it doesn't help your cause to sexually harass them and reduce them to their body parts. Doing so doesn't make you better than the racist person, in fact it makes you as bad as they are. It also doesn't reduce oppession and discrimination, which surely, by calling the racist out on their views, is what you wanted, right?
Anyway, Ami says this much much better than I and the piece is a joy to read. So go read it already. Or I'll get John Stewart involved:
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