once in a while someone will mention that one of the biggest privileges is the ability to be willfully ignorant. to be a white person and sincerely and truly be shocked every single time a Black person is pointless murdered by the police or some random white person. to an abled person and be shocked whenever a disabled person talks about just how truly awful it can be. etc. and so on.

and the opposite is true for the oppressed. we must always know our oppressors, since one of the key tools of oppression is re/mis/education. filling our heads with lies and occupying our minds so that we must live in a distorted reality where they are all that is good and right and normal, while we are Other.

someone on my dash, earlier, was asking for intro/basic rec”s for learning about marxism and/or anarchism.

my response was:

marx is just another dead white racist (esp. orientalist). he has nothing to offer any iaopoc.

anarchism, by and large, is a white dominated movement that glorifies genocidal colonialists (see spain and anarchism). it also has nothing to offer iaopoc.

i occassionally get these urges too. this urge to learn about/from these so-called ‘important” white thinkers, theorists, scholars, philosophers, etc. i”ve already read some. and people are constantly talking about some important/foundational white thinker or other.

but.

these white ppl have nothing to teach us. not. a. single. thing.

i don”t need marx to know about a capitalism built on my back, built with the labour of enslaved people and their descendants, built on stolen land and indigenous genocide.

i definitely don”t need anarchism to teach me about the rampant and many ills of our current socio-political systems and institutions. i esp. don”t need white anarchists to understand this, given that i have to live with the direct consequences of the inequities and oppressions embodied within our institutions.

i don”t need trans/gender/queer/feminist discourse to understand the ways that my gender/sexuality marks me as a target for violence. every screamed slur and threat informs me of this.

i have nothing to learn from my oppressors that they haven”t already taught me in their every deed and action.

i also fail to see what value learning any of this holds. yes, there are numerous people (both oppressor and oppressed) willing to trot out and drop the right names, theories, and ideas.

i once got into a conversation about the values of the enlightenment with someone. and they brought up the US”s declaration of independence.

and my only reaction was:

“why should anyone listen to or believe the word of a slave owner and rapist about what freedom is or isn”t?”

so. yes.

these days. i often choose ignorance. because attempting to remain ignorant of whatever poisoinous lies and bullshit my oppressors have to say (about anything) is one (small) act of resistance.

i have so little time on this planet. and i refuse to spend anymore of it reading tedious tomes written by crusty dead white men or even a tweet from a vibrant, young white activist.

the time i”ve already spent learning all this shit only adds another resentment to the pile. the time i”m spending unlearning all of it is part of my hate.

i could have been learning my own language, instead of my colonizers.

i could have been learning the history and customs of my own people, instead of the nonsense of white people.

i”ve had my fill. i don”t want anymore.

i choose ignorance.</p>