no subject

[lotesse]

When you see yourself having to work to hard to self-soothe and you see that your self-esteem is for some reason no good but you know that's all rubbish, but your somatic body is still so upset: it is so hard to live.

I guess that means we should all give ourselves a lot more credit.

(I heard the anti-semitism when I went to that talk of Alice Walker's this summer. Not hugely loud, or anything, but I heard it. I think people aren't consistently grabbing at the right root, there -- that it has less to do with the current turn toward fascism and more to do with the long historical enmeshment of the Civil Rights, Black nationalist, Black Islamic, and Free Palestine movements. During my undergrad postbac year, there was an eruption of this tension on campus. The Jewish feminist professor in the lit department with whom I'd been studying Virginia Woolf, and my best mentor in the women's studies department, a Black woman, had an extensive schism over Israel/Palestine, and everyone took sides, and it was awful. I didn't know what to do about it, then, just walked lightly and tried to respect all these women, and don't know that I'm any better equipped now. I understand more about the stakes of resisting anti-semitism, given the aforementioned rising fascism thing.

Either way, Walker's "poem" is fucking awful.)

Comments

[starshipfox]

That poem is dreadful on so many levels it's hard to even parse it. I was not aware of Alice Walker beyond having read "The Color Purple", but it's horrible the way people turn out to be so anti-semitic and, these days, have no problem talking about it. Thanks for providing a little historical context.

[lotesse]

I read The Color Purple obsessively as a girl growing up in rural Michigan -- it was one of the first works of Black literature I ever encountered, and occasioned some significant sexual and personal awakenings. I've thought that my early love of Alice Walker was one of the things that best prepared me to accept the jolts that came with learning Black feminist theory. So she's a big deal for me. But that doesn't mean that I don't see her, in this critical and moral failure.

[starshipfox]

Yes, it's possible to find a work really important and moving for you, while also being aware of the writer's own failures and cruelties. It's hard to realise how people can write things that seem like they evoke something for you, personally, while they are actually against who you are.

BTW, I don't recognise your username and I was wondering if we know each other on Tumblr?

[lotesse]

I followed you over via a shared connection with idionkisson! With everyone back here on dwidth, it's been fun finding new folks.

[starshipfox]

Oh OK! Good to know! :) It's nice to meet you.

[havocthecat]

I just want to say "Oh, Alice Walker, no!" in the same way that we do with John Ringo, only WORSE.

(I think I'm at least partly up on that long historical enmeshment myself. But holy FUCK, Alice Walker. Holy FUCK.)