Any time you’ve got a problem that a lot of people would prefer to stay in denial about, just being calm and “reasonable” and politely saying “Oh excuse me, I believe may have a problem over here, if it’s not too much trouble…” is likely to be ignored. More often that not, it takes someone (or many someones, as the case may be), saying something more like “HEY! YOU! YES, YOU! GET OFF YOUR ASS AND TAKE A LOOK AT THIS ***ING PROBLEM!” before the oblivious masses start paying attention. And then of course, they’re terribly upset that OMG, someone was mean to them, but at least they’re paying some degree of attention, which means that, just possibly, the calm-and-reasoned approach might then stand a chance of being heard.

Also, I really liked your “sleeper agents” analogy in your reply to Kev McVeigh. I’ve run into that with regard to other oppressions as well – sexism, homophobia, etc. And yes, it hits a lot harder when the horrifically clueless comments come from a totally unexpected source. :-/

Thank you for such a well-phrased and civil response to a post so full of possibly well-meant, but nevertheless frustrating blind privilege.

I’m not sure I could have put it as well, let alone better, myself.

I imagine you’re right: one gets tired explaining the same basic stuff again and again. Especially when one has a sense that the ill-informed commenter is “Simply Explaining How It Is” to the original poster, and likely won’t read responses.

On the other hand, I don’t know that the answers to these questions actually are out there in a really accessible form. I’m still waiting for the book of essays that summarizes the scope and content of the discussion in a way that takes a day or a week to read, rather than three months.

I’m starting to wonder if maybe some kind of blog carnivale is in order? Or perhaps an actual book of essays… hm.