Via Jamelle Bouie’s twitter feed, Asam Ahmad at Briarpatch Magazine:
Call-out culture refers to the tendency among progressives, radicals, activists, and community organizers to publicly name instances or patterns of oppressive behaviour and language use by others. People can be called out for statements and actions that are sexist, racist, ableist, and the list goes on. Because call-outs tend to be public, they can enable a particularly armchair and academic brand of activism: one in which the act of calling out is seen as an end in itself…
In the context of call-out culture, it is easy to forget that the individual we are calling out is a human being, and that different human beings in different social locations will be receptive to different strategies for learning and growing… One action becomes a reason to pass judgment on someone’s entire being, as if there is no difference between a community member or friend and a random stranger walking down the street (who is of course also someone’s friend). Call-out culture can end up mirroring what the prison industrial complex teaches us about crime and punishment: to banish and dispose of individuals rather than to engage with them as people with complicated stories and histories…
The whole piece is just six paragraphs, and Ahmad says more in those paragraphs, and more fluently, than Jonathan Chait and all his defenders in that notorious cover article on “political correctness”. If you can’t be arsed to read the whole Briarpatch piece, you are lazy and/or willfully less informed than you could be, and I feel sorry for you.
Keith G
In which AL calls us out….
Okay, okay, I’ll click the link.
Corner Stone
Maybe. And maybe that’s a proscription for the death of these here tubes.
Corner Stone
Damn you, Keith G. Shouldn’t you be asleep by now?
Corner Stone
Hey-o here comes the danger up in this club
When we get started and we ain’t gonna stop
We gonna turn it out till it gets too hot
Everybody sing, Hey-O
Tell’em turn it up till they can’t no more
Lets get this thing shakin like a disco ball
This is your last warning, a courtesy call
Laertes
What happens? That person wins.
PsiFighter37
There was an NYT article recently that caught up with people who had been publicly shamed on Twitter and other social media outlets for saying stupid shit on Twitter. It poses an interesting question about how ‘calling out’ people in this day and age can get a lot more personal and get much more widespread attention than it would have in the past.
I felt bad for the people who had their lives ruined, got fired as a result, etc. – but at the same time, the moral of the story is this, IMO: don’t say or do anything on the Internet that would be extremely problematic saying if you had your real name out there. Absolutely zero reason to do something that would get yourself into a world of trouble for any reason.
Villago Delenda Est
Then again there are all sorts of exceptions to this, like The Dark Lord, the entire Bush Crime Family, anyone who took classes at Liberty University, etc.
Corner Stone
@PsiFighter37:
Mrs. Silence Dogood completely agrees with you.
Kropadope
It’s not as though people on sites such as this one have each other’s email addresses at their fingertips.
I think humor is very helpful to developing understanding, however it seems important that one know his or her audience. That can be difficult when posting on a website. Anyone from anywhere can read most anything. Even a remark that may seem funny or at least within the bounds of decent discussion by a reasonable person may cause offense to some. Who is to judge what is a reasonable objection? A person’s experience may legitimately lead to different conclusions. I say just let people say what they want and never censor, except perhaps in cases of extreme obscenity. Outside that extreme case, if people disagree they can hash it out like adults /perfectworld
Perhaps precise, non-emotion-driven critique instead of name calling and over-rationalizing.
Keith G
@Corner Stone: I will be soon. Just finishing a winter’s night snack of Laphroaig and granola (consumed separately, serially?).
From the link…
As with the prison industrial complex, call-out behavior allows for some to exercise a level of aggression and dismissal of the other that they think that they are better than.
Good night, CS.
Roger Moore
@PsiFighter37:
I think the big problem is that we’ve blurred the lines between private and public communications. A bunch of the things that got people in that NYTimes article in trouble were intended for a small audience of their friends, who would be able to understand their personal context and know when they were being facetious, but were broadcast to a much wider audience who didn’t understand that. Forcing people to use only their public face and assume that whatever they say might wind up publicized, even if its intended as a private communication, chokes off a lot of the value of the medium. I think it’s more important for us to learn to treat people charitably and not jump immediately to the conclusion that they’re monsters based on one statement that might be lacking critical context.
SiubhanDuinne
Energyist.
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
God damn, son. President Stuck isn’t here with us any longer to incoherently respond to this kind of on fleek ethering shade being thrown.
Anne Laurie
@Keith G: Tongue firmly in cheek, my dear.
I grind my teeth every time another lazy commentor demands I answer some point or question which is clearly addressed in the original article — sometimes even in the chunk I quote!
different-church-lady
Ask a psychologist and they’re likely to say that constantly moving the target is one of the hallmarks of the psychological manipulator.
We may not have a word, but we do have a phrase: psychological manipulation
But calling in would mean the caller would have to acknowledge the callee as a peer worthy of respect. Psychological manipulators are not interested in peer-to-peer interactions. To them, the entire world has only one kind of interaction — that of manipulation. They cannot conceive of a world where people have respect and trust. In their minds everyone in the world has intent as ill as their own.
max
Ahmad says more in those paragraphs, and more fluently
Well, Chait was workin’ the old TNR ‘hate the fucking lefties’ schtick – sole target you know who. Ahmad there is getting at the continuity between assorted trolls, assorted right-wingers and certain kinds of people on the left.
Nicely done.
max
[‘Won’t do much good though; the virtual gang bang is an evolving phenomenon.’]
jl
I read it, OK? More thoughtful than Chait’s piece.
We’ve just been treated to some kind of public show trial over whether Rand Paul clapped and stood up often and hard and fast enough at Netanyahu’s campaign speech performed at the US Congress. So, no complaints about liberal PC, please.
Woodrow/Asim
The problem is not one that will be solved simply by telling “our side to play nice”. Tone arguments are just old, old and the provenance of — yet, privileged folks. And as a Black Man, I can talk to both sides of that.
There is a lot of changes to how we communicate, to how to talk, that modern tech is creating. Rather than trying to stiff-arm very real anger, it might be of far more use to:
1) Figure out why people are expressing anger over systemic issues, and
2) Focus energy on solving the issues in our society.
I know, a fella can dream. :)
PsiFighter37
@Roger Moore: This is fair, but at the same time, folks should know that what goes on Twitter is accessible to anyone. And as Mr. Huma Abedin knows well enough, you click the wrong button and your whole career ends up in the shitter (although he deserved it).
The kids growing up nowadays don’t understand this either. My wife, back when she was applying for colleges, had posted her credentials on College Confidential and asked what her chances were of getting into a certain school. Some snot-nosed shithead picked up a dead thread 8 years later and posted a smart-ass response saying there’s no way she would get in (which she did, on scholarship no less). Based on the info he had put online, it took us all of 5 minutes of Internet sleuthing to figure out this kid’s name and where he lived, and my wife sent him a PM (to my mildly gleeful delight) calling him out by his full name and reading him the riot act. The kid was shitting bricks when he wrote back and apologized profusely – my wife is still involved as an alumni in her program and probably could have killed this kid’s chances of getting into this program if she wanted to based on something that was seemingly innocuous but, at least to me, reflected a pretty poor and very entitled attitude.
It’s also why I don’t understand why the young’uns these days send around naked pictures of themselves around all the time. The Internet never fucking forgets anything.
Botsplainer
@PsiFighter37:
I don’t think people have as many fucks to give anymore.
Plus, if you are in the prime of life, flaunt it…
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37:
In a few years, no one will give a shit. Enough people have done/are doing it that it will be impossible to discriminate against them.
ETA: Consider what shouting for those damn kids to get off your lawn at your age bodes for your future.
PsiFighter37
@Botsplainer: Maybe, but I feel like it’s a step towards what Huxley imagined in ‘Brave New World’ (a great novel, but not what I want the world to end up like at all).
Francis
@jl: Just because our political opponents suck doesn’t mean we’re all that great. And what’s funny about your comment is that the whole point of the piece is that liberal PC culture can suck too.
Violet
@PsiFighter37: Saw something on the news about Curt Schilling posting something on Twitter about his daughter doing something or getting some award or something like that. Then he was deluged–maybe she was too–with horrific tweets by Twitter trolls about what they were going to do to his daughter. Apparently he figured out who a lot of the people were who tweeted that stuff and posted some of their actual identities.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Roger Moore: I’m certain (mostly) I saw the NYT piece, but I can’t recall enough details to look for it to read again. Can you help?
Botsplainer
@PsiFighter37:
The definitive song on flaunting it…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBfVrJ2UiY
msdc
@jl:
This implies that we’ll never have to examine our own flaws so long as the other side is worse.
That’s a fallacy. We have to examine our own flaws, and do our best to correct them, precisely because the other side will always be worse–and we can’t afford to spot them any more advantages than they already have.
I appreciated the piece for its constructive suggestions on how to do that.
Baud
@Francis: @msdc:
I don’t disagree, but it’s offensive to say this:
As if only those groups “call out” things they don’t like.
Perhaps it was unintentional, but I can see how it can be taken the wrong way.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus:
Future? Isn’t he like 60 or some shit?
Pogonip
@Anne Laurie: So, what is call-out culture?:D
RSR
A guy I only know on social media, but he’s a good friend of a good friend, just posted this, and I love it:
PsiFighter37
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m going to make a great cranky old bastard, if I make it to that age.
Scratch that, probably a drunk cranky old bastard.
Baud
@Pogonip:
Who is Anne Laurie?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@RSR: Raylan Givens, Justified
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Is so, he should still consider what it bodes for his future.
Pogonip
@Baud: John Galt’s long-lost sister?
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: One should always strive for better. “Get off my lawn” is so easy.
Kropadope
@jl:
Point taken, but I would like to think we have higher standards than the Rs.
ETA: I should read to the end before responding, darn it msdc
msdc
@Baud: Are we pretending that this isn’t a tendency on the left now? Let the right tend to itself, if they can; we have some shit we need to work on.
And anyway, pointing at the other guys and saying “both sides do it”… I thought we frowned on that?
PsiFighter37
@Omnes Omnibus: Maybe I should send drunken naked selfies of myself. At that age, I better not care!
BillinGlendaleCA
@Corner Stone: He’s younger than my car.
RSR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: ah, thanks. It’s an excellent quote, and I’ve heard good things about Justified. Adding it the queue of things I might someday get to.
Pogonip
I want to see this applied to Star Trek.
Guest Star: Klingons are mean eggcrate-heads!
Worf: I’m calling you out for that racist, speciesist, eggcrate-ist statement!
Guest Star: Ferengi are greedy little poopyheads!
Quark: Thank you!
Rom: NO, thank you! I’m calling you out for your racist, speciesist. greedist
Baud
@msdc:
The left is crap. But the language of the article implies that the “culture” is only a problem on the left. This has nothing to do with “both sides do it,” which is about pretending both sides do things that only the right does.
Jack the Second
I’d like to add my own advice: Don’t say anything aloud that you wouldn’t tweet.
People seem to think there’s still an “off the record”.
Pogonip
FYWP cut off the end of Rom’s line, but I hope you see how this call-out concept would liven up Star Trek scripts.
Cervantes
There’s this:
Nothing wrong with it, especially given the following:
Omnes Omnibus
@PsiFighter37: I don’t think it is an either/or situation. Don’t forget what it’s like to have been young. And tap into it once in a while. That’s all I was saying.
Or as a former boss and mentor once said, “You are only young once, but you can been immature forever.”
RSR
btw, and totally off topic, but soonergrunt is a new favorite follow on twitter. ebbs and flows, but when it flows, very enjoyable.
Hildebrand
Jesus Christ on a pogo stick! This blog is nothing but nanny-states-r-us, ‘eat your vegetables’, ‘read this article (the whole thing, dammit)’. Enough! I won’t! I shall petulantly not do things that may actually be good for me! Or learn things!
Woosh. Sometimes it feels good to channel one’s inner toddler/Republican.
Pogonip
@Omnes Omnibus: Kid: Hi, I’m Jane Doe, here to interview for the job.
Interviewer: Come in! This is the first time I’ve ever seen you on your feet! You’re taller than I imagined. And your suit looks great. You should consider wearing clothes more often; they really do something for you.
KG
Sorry to derail the thread, but…
I’m sitting in my neighborhood pub drinking a rum and coke for the first time in I don’t even know. It’s sort of a memorial drink because tomorrow we are burying my Cuban grandfather. He was 92, lived a long full life, saw his grand kids grow up, got to meet his great grand kids (or at least some of them). And while it was quick (two weeks ago he had an infection went to the hospital on Monday or Tuesday and by Thursday was in hospice, I was lucky enough to see him before he passed), it wasn’t completely unexpected – honestly the last few years were playing with house money since he broke his hip and made it another four or five years. But something about the service tomorrow and having to do a reading is making it a lot more real.
My one regret is I never got a chance to really talk to him about a lot of the family stories. Being Cuban there is a lot of confusion about what was fact what was fiction and what was complete bullshit. His story probably would have made a good book. I might just have to try and collect them anyway and try to do it justice
trollhattan
In case it’s not been referenced previously, TNC on the federal Ferguson report.
Baud
@KG: No apologies needed. My condolences.
GregB
In some ways the internets have turned large swathes of Americans into hecklers.
Hecklers are by definition total wankers.
Omnes Omnibus
@Pogonip: If every qualified candidate has the same pics out there it doesn’t matter. Look at drug use and the presidency. Pot nearly sank Clinton, but everyone remotely sane was blasé about Obama’s coke use. Ubiquity normalizes.
Omnes Omnibus
@KG: My condolences.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: Look at Scott Brown. (Or better yet, don’t.)
Tractarian
I think it’s incredibly insensitive of Ahmad to call out the call-outers in public like this.
Are the callers-out not human beings, too?
And so forth.
Cervantes
@KG:
My condolences but, as you say, he lived a long full life, so celebrate it!
Sounds like a great way to celebrate.
KG
@Baud: thanks. I’m not much of a sharer, but it’s just a weird feeling and the relative annonumity of BJ seemed better than Facebook or instagram
Heliopause
Dare I name the erstwhile BJ FPer who gave this piece a shout out a few days ago?
Baud
@KG: It’s what we’re here for!
different-church-lady
@Heliopause: Was it… Freddie?
Joel
Call-out culture has its merits.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: EDK?
Socrates
And the call-out culture also assumes that you are right about everything, that you have all of the correct moral positions, and that everyone who disagrees with you is morally deficient.
So you may want to consider that you might be wrong about that as you dish out the insufferable lectures about privilege and “problematic” language.
Omnes Omnibus
@Socrates: Oh, drink some hemlock, you moral reprobate.
ETA: Too soon?
Heliopause
@different-church-lady:
I’ll tell you for a shilling.
Luthe
@PsiFighter37: If I’ve hit the ripe old age of 30, do I still fall into the “kids these days” category? Because I grew up with the Internet and almost NEVER post anything under my real name or photo attached. I’ve got a LinkedIn and a Twitter with my name on them (I never joined Facebook) and that’s it. Any and all swearing, porny fanfic, morbid/offensive jokes, personal TMI, and anything else I wouldn’t want an employer to find is posted to Livejournal or Tumblr under usernames that have nothing to do with my meatspace life and everything to do with fandom.
I know anecdotes are not data, but I’m far from the only one of my generation savvy enough to keep our real names and identifying details separate from our internet shenanigans. Not everyone wants to the be Internet (in)famous, at least not as themselves, anyway.
Tree With Water
Reading history is a great way of drawing a bead on the (so called) “call out culture”. That, or putting yourself in another’s shoes. Or adhering to the golden rule, as best you can, in your every day life. A decent sensibility of your own faults and foibles will also do the trick.
Omnes Omnibus
@Luthe: Based on my theory, people who do searches about you and find nothing will just assume that you did really weird shit and posted it under a pseudonym.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tree With Water:
Tree With Water
@Omnes Omnibus: You’ve got that right.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tree With Water: Scott Fitzgerald did, not me.
Luthe
@Omnes Omnibus: Hence the LinkedIn and Twitter. Gives them something nice and sanitized to find while misdirecting from the rest. Besides, someone smart enough to hide their weird shit under a pseudonym is probably someone a company should hire. The chances of a horrible PR disaster blowing back on them are far reduced that way.
As for maturity, the wisdom of age is knowing when one is allowed to be immature. I wouldn’t wear them to the office, but no one cares if I wear Stitch ears in public on my days off.
Tree With Water
@Omnes Omnibus:
Q: “Who’s Tom Jefferson”?
A: [pause] “Some fella back east”.
From the movie, Missouri Breaks
Omnes Omnibus
@Luthe: Are Stitch ears something I should know about?
ETA: Less weird than I had thought (hoped).
Luthe
I wouldn’t think a headband with furry blue ears on it would be considered that out there. I get a lot of compliments on them, actually.
jl
@Francis:
@Kropadope:
@msdc:
I thought it was a very thoughtful piece and it made excellent points. Well worth reading.
I don’t mind people discussing and criticizing liberal PC. But I am tired of the attitude expressed by some that PC issues are unique, or uniquely bad, among liberals.
Omnes Omnibus
@Luthe: I just asked what they were. No aspersions were cast. Well, aspersions were cast a bit. I did expect weirder from your first comment.
BruceFromOhio
@SiubhanDuinne: Holy cats, you win the thread with a single word. Very efficient. *bows*
Tenar Darell
@KG: my condolences on your loss. Time with the people you love is still never enough time, but what a life, in stories, you’ll have to collect.
Luthe
Apology accepted. I save the true weird for my taste in fanfic, so I went with the best real world example I could think of. Though I’m sure I could live up to your expectations of weird if I made an effort. ;)
David Koch
Photos of Harrison Ford’s plane crash – it looks terrible.
BruceFromOhio
@Omnes Omnibus: Lilo and Stitch is required reading. Check the syllabus.
Omnes Omnibus
@Luthe: To whom are you responding?
Joseph Nobles
OK, OK, dammit, but I don’t have Hillary’s private phone number, now, do I?!
BruceFromOhio
@KG: I am sorry for your loss. If there is a way, listen. Tomorrow you will read, and people will see you, hear you. You will be known to them. Use that to seek what you want to know. When the tears and the laughter come, breathe it in, and listen, and feel. These are the things that go to make up a life. What has passed before us remains, that we remember it, and you will know that you are not alone in wanting to know, wanting to remember.
May Gaia bless your lives, your lands, and your love.
Luthe
@Omnes Omnibus: You, sorry. Forgot to reply directly because the site looks different when using my phone.
Anne Laurie
@KG:
First, my condolences; the death of my grandmother actually hit me harder than the death of my parents, since my relationship with her — while thorny — was less complicated.
Second, by all means collect those stories, and write them down right now. Truth or fiction or a mixture (as all the best stories seem to be), the great-grandkids will thank you for it!
Omnes Omnibus
@Luthe: When have I ever apologized?
Kropadope
@jl:
Not only would I say that it’s more common on the right, but it takes on a far worse character. Liberal PC is asks you to be more precise and less a-hole-ish. Republican PC (I would never deign to call it conservative) is about fealty to a lie they constructed. Without it they can’t maintain the integrity of the Big Lie.
Anne Laurie
@Luthe:
One of my favorite movies! But how many people think they’re nekomimi?
I’m just glad my own fanzine days were pre-internet. It’s not so much that the evidence has/will disappear… but if I’d been able to feud with people at the speed I could type, rather than through the mail/over the phone, there’d probably be minor blast craters eroding all over the midwest…
ruemara
My only issue with this is the presumption that call-outs occur without an attempt to dialogue. This sudden rush of insight into the dangers of language policing and discussions of privilege (and the fact that this is what is getting some on the left’s goat is a cynic’s delight) stems from the Patricia Arquette brouhaha. The problem with describing what happened as a call-out is the fact that when it posed that “hey, there’s a problem with the further comments she gave, here’s why” it was met with “Yeah, but you need to realize that it was inferred”, despite her not really inferring it. Sure, some people will always take it past the limit on their responses, but I find it fascinating that liberals are upset with a subset of liberals for daring to insist that language is problem, privilege is a problem, we need you to listen in the hopes that you can understand so we can start to move past this and feel the unity our invisibility to you led you to believe we actually had. Instead, it’s a bunch of think pieces on the problems of either PC culture or call-out culture. Not that there isn’t a problem with a social media mob, just that it’s just as dangerous to consider that ALL OF IT IS BAD SEE I TOLD YOU SO, which most of this stuff devolves into. You know, nuance.
Anne Laurie
@Kropadope:
I don’t care what kind of fools the Reichwing wants to make of themselves, except insofar as it complicates others’ lives / gives me something to mock.
But the online hectoring by those, as St. Molly would say, whose mouths pucker tighter than a chicken’s [cloaca] while claiming to be on the same side are an perennial snare…
Kropadope
@Anne Laurie: Hey, I think so too. I just thought the right wing habits wore worthy of (dare I say it?) calling out because, as jl correctly pointed out, there is very often a false equivalence drawn. That’s if we’re lucky, the comparison generally cuts more sharply against the left thanks to the divinely received conventional wisdom.
Again, my outlook on the matter is “Ra! Ra! Freedom of speech. Say what you will and let god sort it out.” If someone goes on a shaming jag, I won’t tell them to shut up but point out that thought/language policing runs counter to the ideals of a free and open society. But I can’t just ignore the fact that this type of behavior is used as a cudgel against the left.
Linnaeus
@ruemara:
Good points here, and that sums up to a considerable extent as to how I’ve been feeling about the issue lately.
The linked article is a good deal more thoughtful (in a much shorter form) than Chait’s piece was, but I think that’s because its objective is different. I agree that compassion can get you far in the situations that the author describes, and it’s an attitude that I try to take myself whenever possible. I’ve seen situations where call-out culture really did get quite bad, such as at certain blogs that I will not name here. In those cases, I think all participants would benefit from taking a step back and thinking about what they’re doing and why.
Having said that, I can also see why accusations of “political correctness” (a loaded term to say the least) can and are used as a shield to deflect self-scrutiny. I can also understand why some folks get tired of always having to be the ones who display compassion and understanding while their interlocutors continue to be defensive and do not partake of the opportunity to genuinely dialogue, despite their professed desire to do so. Sometimes one has to confront some uncomfortable truths about themselves and the society in which she or he lives and that’s not easy work. But it still needs to be done and that means taking seriously the opportunities to do so, even if at the time they don’t look like they are opportunities.
mtiffany
I’d say that the Village is missing their idiot but I saw Friedman on the tube a couple days ago — so maybe they’re missing their bootlicker?
bjacques
I think Ahmad’s right about how to calling, in or out. It’s about not being a dick about it. I object to “callout culture” because it sounds like it’s angling to be this generation’s “political correctness,” and both smack of resentment of the democratization of public censure, which used to be the prerogative of the traditionally powerful. That would work through direct rebuke by a leader or moral exemplar, a public shaming campaign, stereotypes in the mass media, campaigns of civil and/or criminal harassment, leaks to the gossip columns, or a combination of the above.
In my lifetime, I’ve seen progressives graduate from gaining the power to publicly complain, in the 1960s and 1970s, and even daring to judge, from the 1980s on. That last coincides with the rise of the “politically correct” epithet, largely through college newspapers, most of them named [$UNIVERSITY] Review.
The Internet has democratized censure still further, to the point that any troll with a keyboard and a connection can join the pileup. It’s direct democracy in action, sometimes tending to mob rule. Sure it’s messy, but it’s a part of modern life, and all the laments from the likes of Chait or calls to humility from David F. Brooks won’t change that. The Right will never control censure again. Sorry.
What can change the nature of the calling out (or in) is people not being assholes, and articles like Ahmad’s help with that. You don’t have to comment all the time, nor do you have to comment right away. Sometimes a quiet word afterward will do, other times a swing of the sledgehammer or a shanking is called for. Or even strategic placement of a rake.
brantl
Condescend, much?
Elizabelle
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I think this is the NYTimes article. You can find it among the most emailed list for 30 days.
How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life
Denali
This is the reason I don’t tweet. It is mind blowing to me to “call someone out” over a misconstrued comment. Where is the perspective?
There is no doubt that we are all “judgmental” at times; what we need to do is exercise restraint before we all start looking really silly.
andrew
This touches a lot on what I was trying to express with my three responses to Chait’s article.
The gist of which may be summed up as “I grew up Southern Baptist, and if I approved of ostentatious public displays of virtue and in-group boundary policing as means of advancing one’s own social status, I wouldn’t have left.”
lol
This article is the liberal version of “NO U teh real racist for pointing out my racism!”
Being called out is *supposed* to be deeply uncomfortable. Otherwise, you’re simply not going to change.
Monala
@ruemara: Good point. The article by Asam Ahmad actually links to another article on the topic of “calling in”: http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2013/12/calling-less-disposable-way-holding-accountable/
The original article makes the point that we all f*ck up, we need to recognize that we all f*ck up, and so we need to figure out ways to be compassionate to one another while still addressing our f*ck ups. It is not a call to ignore the f*ck ups.
That’s why some of this debate has been frustrating to me, because there were people who tried to compassionately explain why Arquette’s comments were problematic, and yet so many people lumped it altogether with people calling Arquette a b*tch on Twitter. It makes it feel as though some liberals don’t want to ever accept that they might be called on anything, whether it’s called out, called in, rude, compassionate, or whatever.
Visceral
@Roger Moore:
“Forcing people to use only their public face” is arguably the goal. Overturn every rock and shine the light into every corner and hole where bigotry may lurk and destroy it once and for all.
The assumption is that one’s private face is their “real” face, so we can’t allow sexists, racists, ableists, etc. to fake their way through life by saying all the right things in public, while being sexist, racist, ableist, etc. in private … especially in all the closed spaces where real power is wielded and real decisions made.
The hope is that everyone will become the mask. Where tolerance and compassion are consciously affirmed and practiced at all times and in all situations, they will become second nature: forcing out or at least psychologically blocking hate. And the next generations will never see or hear anything else.
fidelio
I found Ahmad’s piece thoughtful and challenging, and it addresses one of the problems I think Call-out Culture (as opposed to the act of calling an entity out–person, business, institution) sometimes overlooks: the possiblility of change and improvement on the part of the offender. I know I’ve seen this happen more than once. Someone says or does something problematic, and is called on it publicly. They consider the issue pointed out to them, strive to addres it–and yet, because we are now living in the age of the internet, they will never ever be able to move forward, since there is always someone out there waiting to nail them over something from 1999 or 2008, without any thought or consideration for whether they’ve learned to do better as a result of their experience.
I think one important thing to consider is the relative assymetry between the callers and the callee–for a public official, or a person with a high public profile (or access to a Great Big Public Platform), and especially for a corporation on institution, the more attention they get the better–the powerful are very good at deflecting and burying the things they’d like us to forget about, and so the more who call them out, and the more publicly it’s done, the better. But the same standard may not be the best move–if what you really want is progress and improvement–for J. Random Somedude. We have few alternatives to hitting General Motors, Walmart, or the officials of the City of Ferguson or the Detroit water utility with the entire Internet. We can calibrate things for J. Random Somedude and dial it up only as needed.
There are times when you might as well and start shouting as early as possible, and then there are times when declaring Defcon Two is overdoing it.