My first and last political post

[O Senhor Leetz]

I have been more than fortunate in my life. I was born white, male, healthy, middle class, hetero. I have never had to deal with any substantial obstacle in my life. My whiteness, my straightness, my middle-class-ness have paved an easy path that I was not always aware of.

Now, at the very least, I know that I know nothing. For that, I have to thank numerous professors, teachers, classmates, and friends that have lived lives much more difficult than mine. I cannot express my gratitude to these people. I won't name you, but I hope that you know who you are, and how much you've challenged my perceptions of the world, and, at the end of the day, made me a better person.

I know little about being any shade other than white, about being anything other than hetero. I wasn't raised in a religious home by any stretch of the imagination, but that is no substitute for dealing with the shit and suspicion piled upon faiths other than Christian here in these United States of America.

I know nothing about the struggle for basic healthcare and reproductive rights because I am a man. I can buy condoms at a gas station. I can blow my load and disappear. Birth control is not our responsibility, nor, ultimately, are children: that is the sad, terrible fact.
I personally know nothing of the sexual violence that quietly, malevolently, pervades and perverts our society. Yet, I have known beautiful human beings, women and men alike, that have not been so lucky, that have suffered the most vile and indescribable violence against their bodies and against their souls.

I have worked my fair share of shitty jobs, but I have never had to support a family on minimum wage, or struggle to find a job because of my past, my color, or where I come from. I've had my run-in with the law, but I was not Tasered, nor beaten, nor shot. I was assured that it was no big deal and I would be out in the morning.

I realize that this is just a forum, an ephemeral, quick thing. Yet, for what it's worth, for those not born white, male, healthy, middle class, hetero, for those not born in alignment with our new, great America, you have an ally in me.

[Pareidollhouse]

Well, as a black, bisexual, essentially disabled and probably unemployable young man from Georgia, I'll just be gracious and say "I appreciate the sentiment, but it's totally, utterly unnecessary".

And leave it at that. Because a forum post like the one above is a huge pandora's box of controversy, and the last time I tried (rather incompetently) advocating my contrarian and rather illiberal positions on this board it was a complete disaster. (Remember that, anyone? What a circus!)

[sparkletwist]

I think that "totally, utterly unnecessary" might be going a bit far. For what it's worth, I personally appreciated the sentiment of the post, if that adds any degree of "necessity" to it. I also didn't personally find it controversial, though I suppose the essence of controversy is people seeing different things different ways.

[Pareidollhouse]

Conversely, I found something major to disagree with in every paragraph of that post but the second; so when I say that it is totally, utterly unnecessary, I mean that as someone who is neither white, nor healthy, nor middle class, nor "born in alignment with our new, great America", that post did nothing whatsoever for me. I speak only for myself, and to the extent that I may speak for myself, the sentiment completely misses the mark.