As Orwell said.
An excerpt from Nellie Bowles – a former New York Times liberal who’s been mugged by reality — in her great new book The Morning After The Revolution: Dispatches From The Wrong Side Of History:
An excerpt from Nellie Bowles – a former New York Times liberal who’s been mugged by reality — in her great new book The Morning After The Revolution: Dispatches From The Wrong Side Of History:
And so there are efforts to fix this and other conversational hegemonies.
One way to fix it is a clever system to figure out who speaks first at events in progressive spaces (political gatherings, academic conferences), and it is called the Progressive Stack. The stack is simple: Those most oppressed speak first. Then, the moderately oppressed. Last, the least oppressed. Oppression is obviously connected to race, so black people should be at the front of the line, then Latino people in order of descending skin tone. But there are also disabilities to consider (visible and invisible), gender identity (trans before cis), and then sexual identity (gays before straights). But it gets messy: Would a white gay guy go ahead of a straight Asian man? Is a trans teenager more oppressed than someone in a wheelchair? I imagine them having to fight so we can figure it out. Whoever loses wins. But how it actually works is that the Progressive Stack moderator will be called to help figure out who should be in front, and who behind.
When people line up to ask questions at some progressive events—let's say a Democratic Socialists of America conference—a moderator will walk through the line moving some to the front and some to the back, to follow the Progressive Stack. Or call on certain people first.
The idea is that people whose ancestors have had enough time in the sun of power should wait a beat and let others speak. The stack ought to inform all facets of someone’s life. In class and in social conversations and at work, a good progressive follows the stack, a sort of modern chivalry. Everyone is generally good about supporting the stack and knows that it is good.
From the DSA’s Guidelines for Respectful Discussion: “If someone who is of an oppressed group or identity, or of a group or identity that is unrepresented in the conversation raises their hand, they go to the top of the list.”
Speaking order “is one way to address and practice the reversal of systemic inequities introduced and held by white supremacy and patriarchy,” says the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, in their Bridging & Breaking: Dialogues of Belonging workbook.
You don’t know whether to laugh out loud or to cry.
