Audre Lorde and the train
Audre Lorde says that one mistake often made by those of us who don't totally identify with the dominant end of every axis is this:
"Those of us who stand outside [...] power often identify one way in which we are different, and we assume that to be the primary cause of all oppression, forgetting other distortions around difference, some of which we ourselves may be practicing."
Because I think she's right, I want to share with you all one of my favorite "ism" exercises. I did this for the first time when I was 21 and learned a whole lot, but I still find it useful in many circumstances. It is also ridiculously simple: just imagine you're getting on a train, and think about how you decide who to sit next to.
Of course, this doesn't reflect everything you think about all of the kinds of people who might be on a train, but it does point up at least a few things. For me, one of them was what characteristics I was most likely to read as indices of danger. (The fact that I think of trains as dangerous itself is interesting, in fact, and surely has something to do with both my mother's anxiety about me riding them and my own suburban upbringing.) Another was the ways in which I blur cultural markers into markers of class.
Anyway, I'm curious! Who do you sit next to on the train?
"Those of us who stand outside [...] power often identify one way in which we are different, and we assume that to be the primary cause of all oppression, forgetting other distortions around difference, some of which we ourselves may be practicing."
Because I think she's right, I want to share with you all one of my favorite "ism" exercises. I did this for the first time when I was 21 and learned a whole lot, but I still find it useful in many circumstances. It is also ridiculously simple: just imagine you're getting on a train, and think about how you decide who to sit next to.
Of course, this doesn't reflect everything you think about all of the kinds of people who might be on a train, but it does point up at least a few things. For me, one of them was what characteristics I was most likely to read as indices of danger. (The fact that I think of trains as dangerous itself is interesting, in fact, and surely has something to do with both my mother's anxiety about me riding them and my own suburban upbringing.) Another was the ways in which I blur cultural markers into markers of class.
Anyway, I'm curious! Who do you sit next to on the train?
posted by Sarah at 2:35 PM
2 Comments:
I am looking for "least dangerous" but also "least likely to harass me" which is a slightly different axis.
Gender is definitely the first selector, then perhaps age (older being preferred) and dress (casual)
I don't THINK I have a race thing there, which would make sense since i generally don't have a race thing about danger.
Someone who looks washed/clean, won't squish me and isn't playing their music so loud that I won't hear mine. I'm not particularly fussed by race, gender, or age. Which is interesting considering that I'd never taken public transport regularly until I started my current job.
I used to take it in Arlington, but that was for evening stuff. I had to drive to work because it wasn't near any good Metro stops.
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