Don’t patronise us by saying ‘the statement was spot on’. We know it is. Why are you talking? Stop taking up space congratulating white people for their anti-racism. People of colour have been telling you all the stuff in the statement and you haven’t been listening. As soon as a group of whites say it, you’re writing essays. Shut up.

For my part, I came to this gathering knowing very little about anti-racist spaces. I offered that I could deal with logistics, something that I did know a little more about, although clearly not enough. I, like a lot of the others at the gathering, expected to turn up and consume anti-racism without doing the necessary groundwork and educating myself. Sure, I did some of the reading, but didn’t consider what an anti-racist space is or how to create it. This is where we fell down, thinking that we could get a few facilitators in and everything would be alright. As mentioned, the one person of colour in the collective flagged this up repeatedly throughout. At the time I didn’t really understand what it was they were saying, but rather than educate myself on it, I hid behind the fact that “I was just doing logistics”. Again, an inappropriate and racist response. We fucked up, whether our intentions were well-meaning or not is irrelevant, the gathering has created even more oppression than there already was in our communities. We weren’t equipped to put this on, and we should have postponed it until we felt we were ready, or not held it at all if we didn’t feel we could make it safe.

In response to this:
“Can the white statement writers please put details of this new fake anti racist organising on this thread?”

The events that the organisers of the gathering (myself and Debi) are involved in are the Bristol Queer Caf (held at Kebele Social Centre once a month) and FAG club, which is usually held in a Warehouse Space.

In terms of the racism that the event originally came together to deal with, we didn’t have a “queer scene” in Bristol at the time, FAG club and the Queer Caf started happening in Bristol around the time we started putting the gathering together. From my understanding the gathering originally came about due to racism in London and Manchester queer/feminist spaces (i might be wrong here). Clearly however the gathering and follow-up in Bristol (on top of one incident at the cafe I have repeatedly tried to call meetings on anti-racism and had little response) has shown that our “radical”, “safe” new queer scene/community/movement is at least as racist as the others, if not more.

If anyone in Bristol is reading this, drop me an email (aveganhaggis@gmail.com) as we’re working on anti-racist space audits for both of these spaces.

have you thought that people of colour at experience both racial and class
oppression? that these two could potentially and usually are interlinked. who
exactly do you think occupies the underclass of society?

hearing white people talking about class is probably one of the most boring things
in the world. white people love to announce “the issue of class:” as if they are the
first to think of it. please.

stop trying to be smarter than people of colour and legit antiracists on this blog
cos you’re not. stop pretending that you are understanding something we’re not, that
your looking out for those that we are negating. the only person your trying to save
is yourself.

i think it’s clear to tell from your writing you do not have a commitment to
challenge racism. if you don’t want to challenge racism, then just stop posting.
wasting everyones time. honestly.

what is wrong with producing silence? i’m well into that. this would therefore mean
people of colour wouldn’t have to hear your racism.

Also how, exactly, do you know the ethnic make up (which may be multi-ethnic) or skin colour (which may pass as white in their day-to-day lives) of the person typing on the other end of the computer?

As I said in the previous post, the only problem with single-issue politics is that it can potentially produce silence and its own systems of invisibility. This is similar – in effect – to how the racism of the gathering, and the institutional racism of the wider world, operate. By all means talk about race in isolation, but don’t perpetuate classism in the process, because some people who have experienced class oppression all their life will find this equally offensive.

Kris,
I think the statement says clearly that racism at the gathering was not at the hands of just a couple of individuals – ie not just the white organisers but many of the white particants also.

I feel that the important thing now is to care for those who have been hurt and work out how we can move forward as a community.

“Those who have been hurt” are people of colour – is that who you are referring to? By once again trying to focus attention on how difficult it was for the organisers to put together this event, I don’t think you are expressing care at all for the people of colour who were hurt by the racism which they experienced.

Rachel,

I don’t think this is the space to have a discussion about how to run a workshop for white people or how one might organise other events. It would derail the conversation (see Laura’s comments above in response to Jennifer).

Hannah,

You say you are not diverting attention away from race, but your comment is pretty much in its entirety a diversion – you seem intent on actually justifying the racism of white queer people. Nowhere in your comment can I actually see a commitment or will to challenge the racism which you admit is a feature of the queer community. (‘Interesting’ how you are so quick to imply that the writers of the statement are not part of ‘the queer community’ so that you can presumably use the accusation of homophobia to dismiss it.)

Just because oppressions are linked does not mean we can never talk about them separately. To initiate a discussion about ‘complexity’ now (plus lecturing a woman of colour about life expectancy!), when clearly it is RACISM which has caused this particular situation not other oppressions, is avoiding taking responsibility. Your comment is perpetuating that racism.

The individual racism *wasn’t* due to the racism of a couple of individuals though, but seemed to be coming from many sides.

“You are excusing, in advance, your racism. This is an expression of your intention to be racist, that you might constantly engage in not being so is not considered. This amounts to a threat to people of colour.”

I didn’t mean to do this, I was just trying to be realisic given the society we are brought up in and conditioned into.