Burn The Table.
Throughout her high school career, Elanor’s white English teachers and school admins, when we bring up the rampant misogyny and racism in the curriculum, use these words and phrases a lot:
“Diversity” (From WHAT?)
“Inclusion” (Of WHOM? Into WHAT?)
“Invited” (By WHOM? Into WHAT?)
“Multi-Cultural” (As opposed to WHAT?)
And perhaps the grossest of all:
“Invitation to take a seat at the table” (WHO’S table?)
We’ve been doing a lot of listening and reading and to sum up, here’s what we currently think these terms, used by white people especially in this context of education, translate to mean:
1. That white people will never stop centering whiteness. Ever. The heteronormative white patriarchy is, and always will be, the default standard ‘norm’.
2. For tokenism, and to shut up people like Elanor who want that bullshit dismantled, the white patriarchy will performatively ‘Invite’ selected ‘Others’ who represent ‘Diversity’ (from the assumed normal, standard, male whiteness) who, without said invitation for ‘inclusion’ by the white patriarchy, otherwise don’t have a right to exist equally as humans.
3. The American world is the white man’s table, and if he feels like it, he will graciously ‘make room’ and ‘invite’ ‘others’ to pull up a seat to ‘join’ (Read: Assimilate) him at said table.
That is a toxic fucking table. A BIOPOC woman alone, brought in as a token meaningless gesture to make white men look ‘Inclusive’? That is a violent, toxic situation for the ‘Invitee’. What do we do with this ghoulish, figurative piece of racist, misogynist furniture sitting in the breakfast nook of white supremacy?
In the words of Ijeoma Oluo (Author of SO YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT RACE & MEDIOCRE: THE DANGEROUS LEGACY OF WHITE MALE AMERICA) the only answer that makes sense:
Burn. The. Table.
Burn it. Toxic table, toxic fucking fantasy world the hetero white patriarchy lives in, wherein hetero whites are in charge of who gets ‘invited,’, who gets ‘represented’ and who doesn’t. It is assimilationist. Women and all BIPOC people are human beings with autonomy. Equality is the only option, not ‘Tolerance’. Seriously, fucking Tolerance? A person tolerates mosquitos on a camping trip. We tolerate discomfort for a greater good – the existence of human beings who don’t happen to be cis-het-able-bodied white men are not to be Tolerated; we are just as human as those dudes (Honestly, probably more human if we’re really going to get down to it) and this bullshit is exhausting to keep explaining for the people who have spent their lives trying to, especially when it is NOT their job. White people, it is OUR job to educate ourselves. Racism is OUR problem, not that of BIPOC people for whites to gaze at and express sympathy for. We are the cause, we don’t get to express sympathy, we are the reason it’s happening, we need to do the work of learning to stop doing this shit and be Anti-Racist, that is the only option. Men, misogyny is YOUR problem to solve. Can we all just get off our asses and DO. OUR. JOBS.
Schools (especially those that are mostly white, and have a mostly white student body) who keep embracing the same performative “Diversity” and “Inclusion” trainings year after year will never, ever change. All these ineffectual programs do is re-enforce the white patriarchy, it’s just talk to get people like Elanor and Leigh to shup up and be GRATEFUL for any EFFORT the school makes, for the magnanimous blessings of the token women/BIPOC authors offered by white male teachers GRACIOUS enough to MAKE ROOM in their precious all white male syllabus for the purpose of…what? Not equality. The opposite.
Schools cannot dick around with this half-assed do-nothing nonsense. They must be Anti-Racist. That’s it. That’s the only option. Burn. The. Table. Schools must be Anti-Misogynist.Anti-Homophobic. And for Fuck’s Sake, THIS CANNOT BE ON-THE-JOB TRAINING. As someone way smarter than us once said, “The best thing some teachers can do to combat racism, is retire.”
Because these are kids for fuck’s sake! They are not a petri dish to deposit racism and misogyny into just to see how many Brock Turners and Brett Kavanaughs we can grow from the spores. The old white man teacher who, in Elanor’s English class, casually used the N Word and said Black Women do not write ‘quality books’? That guy is NOT going to learn to not be racist and misogynist any time soon, it took many decades for his misogynist, racist existence to be crafted into the unsavory thing it is today, and he will NOT be allowed to try and figure his shit out on the backs of Elanor, or any of her classmates - not while Leigh and Elanor are still breathing, anyway.
There is a clear path, fellow white people; if we will only embrace humility, actually get on the path, take a step, and another, and one more - then pull out a gallon of gasoline, strike a match, and do the bare minimum of our moral obligation as human beings. We can do this. We can. Let’s follow the lead of the ones in Elanor’s generation who won’t shut up about this shit, who refuse to take it one more day. We cannot let them fight this alone. Let’s be human. Here are some good books to help start:
HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST by Ibram X. Kendi
WE SHOULD ALL BE FEMINISTS by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
ME AND WHITE SUPREMACY by Layla F. Saad
WHITE FRAGILITY: WHY IT’S SO HARD FOR WHITE PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT RACISM by Robin Diangelo