A note on call-out culture

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 12:18am

By Asam Ahmad:

Because call-outs tend to be public, they can enable a particularly armchair and academic brand of activism: one in which the act of calling out is seen as an end in itself.


Briarpatch Magazine

[PalJoey]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 3:48pm

Thank you.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 4:52pm

I've read this more than once now, and I guess I'm just unclear as to what an example of "call-out culture" is? Is it someone on a message board saying "You shouldn't say faggot/tranny/whatever"? Is it something like the Chick-Fil-A brouhaha?

Updated On: 3/22/15 at 04:52 PM

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 4:58pm

Yes, it means pointing something out and sitting and waiting for the apology, etc. Grassroots activism is a dying breed.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 5:03pm

Ok

[South Florida]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 5:13pm

Chick - whatever needs to know they're assholes.

[ScottyDoesn'tKnow2]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 6:24pm

I like this article by Ngoc Loan Tran regarding calling out culture. Tran says that rather than think about it in a binary form, we should see who we are talking to and decide what methods are most approriate.

http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2013/12/calling-less-disposable-way-holding-accountable

"I don’t propose practicing “calling in” in opposition to calling out. I don’t think that our work has room for binary thinking and action. However, I do think that it’s possible to have multiple tools, strategies, and methods existing simultaneously. It’s about being strategic, weighing the stakes and figuring out what we’re trying to build and how we are going do it together."

I do think too many social justice advocates fall into this trap of playing the "I'm more knowledgeable and a better social justice advocate than you are" game and the targets of that are usually people who we should assume "best intentions". I think one problem with click culture and social media activism is that it becomes all about sound bites and memes and there lacks real conversation or attempts for meaningful discussions. I mean I know what I just said was pretty simplistic, but I think there's something to it.

However, I think some people really do need to be called out and that often times people get away with such attitudes because people are too focused on being "civil" in real life. This call for civility often results in self-censorship with people holding back or being silenced.








Updated On: 3/22/15 at 06:24 PM

[South Florida]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 6:29pm

Disagree, the bigots need to get hurt.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/22/15 at 7:02pm

I'd like there to be a clear distinction between social justice activists/advocates and social injustice collectors. I've worked with both my entire adult life.

[South Florida]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 4:49pm

I thought this short essay was confusing, maybe I agree with you. I dunno. I like the last paragraph.

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 9:08pm

Good to know, homophobic bigot.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 9:26pm

Yeah, SthFl, now that the ageist homophobic bigot has brought back all those links to your homophobic bigotry… oh wait, that didn't happen because it never happens with that one.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 10:00pm

Was that a call-out?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 10:14pm

Well I sure as hell ain't callin that one in.

As for the abscess, what is it when a person has a history of call outs that are completely wrong?

Updated On: 3/23/15 at 10:14 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 10:40pm

I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 10:45pm

Call disconnected!

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 11:05pm

EL OH EL.

Yes, keep on protecting South Florida and his trollish ways. The homophobic bigot who has expressed, on multiple occasions, a genuine disgust for homosexuality (specifically in a recent thread discussing public displays of homoerotic affection).

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 3/23/15 at 11:14pm

I do kind of remember that thread, but not much about it. At any rate, I did find it.







But all of the Panhandle's posts are gone Updated On: 3/23/15 at 11:14 PM

[South Florida]

Posted: 3/24/15 at 7:35am

Panhandle? Are you another one who always assumes that someone has changed there name? Some of you need to get a grip. I have always been South Florida except for when I joined years ago as Stephanatic. I wouldn't play childish games like that. You're stuck with South Florida, if you don't like me block me. I won't be returning as a different incarnation.

[tazber]

Posted: 3/24/15 at 7:39am

"Panhandle" isn't a previous poster.

It's a nickname for Florida.

Get it?

[South Florida]

Posted: 3/24/15 at 7:56am

Got it, kind of a bummer interesting posts get turned into this.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/24/15 at 8:11am

I posted this on FB and got into all kinds of stuff with all kinds of people (one unfriended me; buh-bye), shortly after the Arquette post-speech remarks. This completely addresses it, and is probably the most cogent statement on the subject. Can't be posted enough.

The last time we got into eating our own to this degree was in the waning days of the Clinton presidency. Everyone was keeping personal and public totem boards on who was a true believer; liberal litmus tests were ubiquitous. Now, as Affordable Health Care and marriage equality are before SCOTUS and Obama's (fill in the blank) being shot down hourly, we're doubling down on one another anew. See a pattern here? Why take on the goliaths who would destroy all we fight/fought for, when we can chew on one another until bloody instead?

Updated On: 3/24/15 at 08:11 AM

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/24/15 at 8:48am

South Florida. You only have yourself to blame. I am sorry that the posts from the thread PRS posted have been mysteriously deleted by the Mods on this site, although I can't say I am surprised. Anything to protect the homophobic bigot known as "South Florida." (a straight 60+ year-old chimney sweep in Florida... Really???)

[Liza's Headband]

Posted: 3/24/15 at 8:54am

I would like to THANK "South Florida" for finally owning up to his homophobic ways. Expressing disgust and hate for same-sex relations and public displays of affection makes you homophobic, no matter how you slice it. It's the equivalent of a racist claiming, "...but I have black friends!!!"

Here is the thread: https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1077816&dt=172

And here is his post (in case he tries to delete it): It started out somewhat homophobic. I was commenting about all the muscle guy pictures. Then it got ugly, then I apologized. Then when my apology wasn't accepted I warned I would delete the thread. Then someone challenged me to do that knowing I couldn't, so I deleted my comments. Also, in another thread I didn't start, I mentioned I wouldn't watch gay porn. That is the extent of my homophobia, sorry, but not really. Any reasonable person who looks at the bulk of my posts knows the type of common man I am, extremely liberal, and an advocate for gay causes. If I'm a raging homophobe in your eyes than that's your problem. I'm comfortable in my mind as are the gay people I know personally, including family, and the damn weddings are in abundance down here right now and I can't afford them. I have a long list of things I could write regarding actively working for gay rights. Does it bother me Jordan and Liza are following me around here and trashing me, a little, but not enough to make me go away.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 3/24/15 at 9:27am

The fallacy here seems to be that it is either/or.

Grass roots activism, on the one hand, and public (and private, and everywhere in between) discourse, on the other, have always been two important parts of social change. "Calling out" advocacy hardly precludes getting one's ass to the barricades. And as we've seen from Hong Kong to Cairo to Ferguson, they often go hand in hand, sometimes even to regime change.

Updated On: 3/24/15 at 09:27 AM