Thread by @NotLasers

So, the #PLANAct town hall last night was 🔥, but I want to talk about a specific thing I noticed re: who showed up and who *tends* to show up at stuff like this. (thread) (1/)

The organization spearheading the PLAN coalition is focused on justice-involved women and gender-expansive folks, who are primarily Black and brown. And Black and brown women turn up; and Black and brown men turn up; and white women turn up. You know who doesn't? White men. (2/)

I think that comes from a few things:
First: People who aren't white cisgender men are more likely to be at least marginally aware of intersections of marginalization and injustice, and to see problems that don't primarily impact them as nonetheless being relevant to them. (3/)

I don't think that's malicious, usually; or even particularly conscious. I think it's a byproduct of the way our society centers the perspectives and experiences of one group of people and implicitly deters them from empathizing with people closer to the periphery. (4/)

As a white trans man who transitioned in adulthood, I am acutely fucking aware of the ways in which I (or who I'm assumed to be) am now default-centered in social and political power and interest dynamics. But most cis men don't have that frame of reference. (5/)

Which brings me to point the second: It is 100% the responsibility of white cis men to unlearn their own centering. It may not be your fault that you started there, but if you're still there as an adult? You should feel some shame; and you should do some work. (6/)

Privilege carries responsibility, guys. You may not have asked for it, but you've got it, and it is your gddamn BASIC HUMAN DUTY to show up for the people who don't. (7/)

If you are a white man who sees an issue that primarily impacts Black women, you should not be asking, "What does that have to do with me?"

You should be asking, "How can I help?" (8/)

And if this thread makes you feel defensive or ashamed?

Good.

It's supposed to.

Now get over yourself and do the work. (9/9)