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Prompt: Defended Identities
For anyone who feels like answering, here or in their own journals:
I'm going to cheat a little and bring in the original impetus of this: a while back, someone made a joke in my presence about the need for someone black to hang out there. I objected, because I am black. (And then acceded to the guy's riposte that I'm merely "off-white", because, well, I pretty much am in the cultural sense.)
In retrospect, though, it really surprised me. I didn't think I identified with being black, particularly, yet I did. So it got me thinking: what else would I react to that way? What other double-negative identities have I got?
Well, if someone said I wasn't an American, a U.S. citizen, I would object. If someone said I wasn't a person, a moral agent, I'd object. If someone said I wasn't smart, I'd object. If someone said I wasn't a decent person, that I was absolutely no good, that I was evil and wicked, I'd definitely object.
If someone said I wasn't a Republican, I might well object. I'm a registered Republican. I voted in the Republican primaries. (I'd talk about my votes, but that stuff belongs in the other journal.)
If someone said I wasn't a Boy Scout, I'd object. If someone said I wasn't an Eagle Scout, I'd object.
...I don't know what else I'd object to being not. I'm not invested in being male, or being human, or being a liberal or a geek or a writer or a painter. But it's curious some of the things I'll refuse not to be.
Consider the following fill-in-the-blank: "If someone said I wasn't _______________, I would object."
(Clarification: Imagine someone is describing you - either explicitly (e.g. "Robin isn't a guy!") or implicitly (e.g. "She likes LJ") - and they describe you inaccurately (see either of previous examples). The question is not whether you correct them - an interesting question of etiquette - whether you dislike being described thus.)
I'm going to cheat a little and bring in the original impetus of this: a while back, someone made a joke in my presence about the need for someone black to hang out there. I objected, because I am black. (And then acceded to the guy's riposte that I'm merely "off-white", because, well, I pretty much am in the cultural sense.)
In retrospect, though, it really surprised me. I didn't think I identified with being black, particularly, yet I did. So it got me thinking: what else would I react to that way? What other double-negative identities have I got?
Well, if someone said I wasn't an American, a U.S. citizen, I would object. If someone said I wasn't a person, a moral agent, I'd object. If someone said I wasn't smart, I'd object. If someone said I wasn't a decent person, that I was absolutely no good, that I was evil and wicked, I'd definitely object.
If someone said I wasn't a Republican, I might well object. I'm a registered Republican. I voted in the Republican primaries. (I'd talk about my votes, but that stuff belongs in the other journal.)
If someone said I wasn't a Boy Scout, I'd object. If someone said I wasn't an Eagle Scout, I'd object.
...I don't know what else I'd object to being not. I'm not invested in being male, or being human, or being a liberal or a geek or a writer or a painter. But it's curious some of the things I'll refuse not to be.