Month: December 2015

Content warning: Discussion of Christianity

I intentionally do not talk much about my religion in order to avoid triggering people. I will keep it that way.

Myself, I am a non-denominational Christian. Despite what some people may think. I am not a Jehovah’s Witness. Their faith is oppressive – it is homoantagonistic, transantagonistic and misogynistic, and I hereby go on record on this site as saying that  I do not support the JWs.

What do I believe?

• God exists, but as belief mainly. God cannot be scientifically proven.
• I believe in the theory of Original Sin, but the narrative has various flaws and can in itself be oppressive.
• Because of Original Sin, Jesus was sent to Earth by God as an eventual sacrifice to atone for the sins of humanity.
• Jesus, a man of color, was killed by an oppressive government at 33 years old in an act of public execution for doing nothing wrong.

I’m Kylie and/or Cassandra (she/her) / Jesse and/or Cass (they/them).

My thoughts:

• Accommodation is important, however it should not be the only thing done
• Disability needs to be integrated by employers of all kind in both the employee side and the customer service side into the organizational culture
• This integration is NOT tokenism, “inclusion” or “diversity”
• Rather, integration of disability means a reshaping of the organization to center Disability and be accountable to Disability communities.

A phenomenon that annoys me in the mainstream – and usually liberal – world is where things like slavery and colonialism are seen as over because people do not connect these things to larger systems, such as capitalism, white supremacy and the like.

There are many more other examples, however I do not have them at present. You’re welcome to engage with me anytime about this.

Liberalism teaches a few lies.

Lies like:

• Slavery doesn’t exist anymore
• Multiculturalism is good
• Colonialism doesn’t exist anymore

These just aren’t  true. Re multiculturalism, I just want to clarify that I’m not talking about recognition or acceptance of multiple cultures. That is not quite what multiculturalism means. At the moment, I’m not sure how to explain multiculturalism though.

More to leave in 2015:

• Single issue movements
• Placement of activists on pedestals
• Hypocrisy
• Exotification
• Desexualization/deromanticization of disabled people
• Ageism
• “I have X friends so I can’t be oppressive towards X!” Same for partner(s), coworkers, etc
• “Canada is inclusive and better than the US!!!!!”
• Patriarchy
• Capitalism

#LeaveItIn2015:

• Intent mattering more than impact
• Dehumanization of people
• Respectability politics
• Colonization, imperialism, the State
• Homoantagonism, transantagonism
• Audism
• Phonocentrism
• Ableism
• Racism and classism
• Whorephobia
• Heterosexism
• Cissexism
• Islamophobia
• Sexism
• Ignorance of oppression
• Outright refusal to do allying where appropriate/safe and where you are capable of it
• Isolating marginalized people by action or inaction

Content warning: anti-ziganism/anti-Romani sentiment

It is interesting in the discussion over UberHOP coming to Toronto, how someone chose to use an anti-Romani slur to make their point against UberHOP.

Canada is not as inclusive as you think. Get real, people.

Remember: People can’t acquire wealth just because of hard work. Look at working class people, after all.

People get wealth because they’re non-Black and/or non-Indigenous and because they have some or all privileges that aren’t related to class nor race.

This too applies to Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama.

So just to sum up:

• Working hard and wealth are not necessarily connected.
• Working hard is not the sole determinant of wealth. Privileges strongly determine wealth.