The Price of Support? About Six Dollars
Two days ago I spent the day with a white vegan anarchist. The guy spent the day showing me how politically correct is he, how he eats the right kind food, buys the right things, thinks the right way (I was confused because I concluded that he most belong to the right, but he says that he’s a leftist), and how much he wants to work in solidarity with those who don’t have privilege, especially with indigenous people. Actually, he claims that he’s the right to have an “Indian card”, since he’s “a lot of indigenous blood running in his body”.
Though that made me even more confused, I never understood if he meant that he’s indigenous ancestry or if he’s talking about his ancestors killing many Indians and stolen the land after the bloody massacres.
During the evening, my white vegan anarchist “I wanna be an Indian, yupi!” acquaintance acknowledged his white privilege in front of a friend, who happens to be a person of color, like me. My South American friend has been looking for a job for a while, but he’s having a hard time finding a good job, he’s ended up taking jobs that he doesn’t enjoy for short periods of time and lives in constant economic turmoil. He’s a professional photographer, a really gifted one, who managed to study without any family support. My white vegan anarchist acquaintance, on the other hand, doesn’t have a permanent job; he just works whenever he needs to, a couple of days per week. He is ok with this situation, because that way he’s free time to “work against the system, yeah!” He can get some very well paid jobs because he’s friends with money (who happen to be white too). He can get really well paid jobs even when he doesn’t have a college degree, because he managed to not to finish college, even with family support. But he acknowledges that he’s white privilege, he’s willing to acknowledge that in front of everybody, especially people of color that are breaking their backs trying to get a decent payment and a decent job.
My white vegan anarchist acquaintance really wants to let us know, people of color, how much work he’s done unpacking his privileges.
That night, after some beers at home, we decided to go to a pub. After a few beers at the pub, my by now white vegan anarchist drunk acquaintance decided that it was time to get a woman. He has a partner, they live together, but it doesn’t matter, because they’re very open minded people, they have the right ideas, the kind that would make the world a better place if everybody would have them, like knowing your grains of coffee (whatever it means), not eating chickens because they’re very nice birds (I guess that Santiago Nassar would have disagreed strongly with him, he’d been afraid of chickens since he was a child and imagined a chicken as big as a human adult. Though, he ended up being killed by a human, not by a gigantic chicken. Chickenphobia, I believe he was diagnosed. But that’s another story, one that belongs to a great writer), and fighting against the system while using their white privileges, fuck yeah!
The night went on and the bill arrived, it was C$ 62 including taxes and tip. My non privileged friend just had C$ 15. I, the other non privileged in the group had C$25. I had to go and interrupt my white vegan anarchist drunk polyamorous acquaintance to let him know that his share of the bill was C$22. He flipped out; and said “I just have to put C$11 or so”. I told him that my friend was short of money, and that I have already put all the money that I had. He said “I don’t have that kind of money; I want to have separate bills”. Then he paid with his credit card.
Yes, my white vegan anarchist drunk polyamorous “I want to destroy the system, fuck yeah” acquaintance has a credit card and a debit card. Though, I have to say that they are nice, the plastic cards, they have a cute dog in the front side, the kind of dog that is in the movie The Mask.
He explained that he’s trying to leave the system because the banks are evil, but that he’s not quite ready yet.
When the waiter brought the bill, our white vegan anarchist drunk polyamorous acquaintance showed us, “look, C$ 14 dollars (C$ 16 including the tip), I told you that I didn’t have to pay C$22”. The waiter brought our bill; he apologized because he was charging us, the three people in the group, an extra beer. The bill was C$36, we put C$40 including the tip, exactly all the money that we have. I don’t know what would have we done if the bill had been higher than that. My unprivileged friend is pretty much broke, and I don’t have a credit card.
Don’t get me wrong, I also think that the banks are evil and that they should be destroyed altogether with other evil things like Darth Vader, George Bush, Hitler, every bird that has shit over me since I was a child, and that Norwegian dish of fish that looks like frozen semen with fish bones and tastes even worse than it looks. But sometimes, like that night, I wish I had a credit card. I can’t have one because the type of visa that I get has many limitations.
Did I mention that I am also from South America, and that embassies and immigration officials give me problems every time that I need a visa or cross a border? One of them is that I can’t get one from the credit union where I have my money.
Yes, I think that banks are evil and for that reason I open an account in a local credit union, but I don’t go around letting people know how amazing I am and how hard I’m working to destroy the system, fuck yeah!
That night, my white vegan anarchist drunk polyamorous piece of shit acquaintance managed to pay a cheap bill without losing the girl that he was going for. In Spanish we would describe him as “someone who is ready to sell his mother to get what he wants”. He didn’t have to sell his mother to get laid that night; he just had to sell his non privileged “friends”. I guess that six dollars are too much for his solidarity.
- Julián Gutiérrez Castaño
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…Wait, so why are you friends with this guy again?
Acquaintance, not friend. I never called him my friend. It’s complex, basically we share some work scenarios and have crossed and will cross paths again. I had a talk about the issues that I raised in the chronicle and he listened. I hope that next time that we cross paths he won’t behave as a white vegan anarchist drunk polyamorous piece of shit again!
En solidaridad, Julián
Thanks for your post. That day sounds like a frustrating experience.
It helped me think about the divergences between my own daily living habits, principles and personal beliefs, my location in histories of atrocity, and the way I regard others. It’s the nature of habit–things you do without being aware that you’re doing them, and how fortunate when a friend gently points these out.
I think it’s important to create situations where people with different backgrounds and different politics can challenge each other and learn from difference.
Your post reminds me of my last two years, transitioning from socialist political orientation to an anarchist one. Everything I’d read about anarchism and anarchists sounded like something I could live by, if not belong to.
I found that most of the anarchist scenes I happened upon are set up by/for whites, white men who seem to share a common language-culture, and attempts to share/intervene in that language-culture haven’t gone so well. Sometimes I felt so used and so alone, even more than in everyday situations, like I was only there to add color and sexiness to the picture. Maybe that was just my own perception, but the people I interacted with didn’t really do much to interrupt or challenge that situation. It’s the limitations of simple acknowledgement of privilege that doesn’t interrupt the practices by which such privileges result in violence and oppression.
Yes the way they deal with money seems different to me, coming from a place where it’s good form to fight over who gets to pay for everyone else, and we take turns paying for the group (if the bill is really large then splitting it up is okay but the senior/oldest/richest pay more). Another way is to socialize at places where we don’t have to use money, and make our own refreshments and gifts for one another.
So I’ve withdrawn and just try to concentrate on getting things done, read as much as I can, contribute where possible, boycott where possible.
Things are always changing and I tell myself it won’t be like this forever. We’re not really missing out when we withdraw participation from places and practices like the one you described.
About polyamory–while the ethics and the practices are complex and multifaceted, people potentially get hurt or feel jealous like with any other adult relationship, I have to say I haven’t abandoned hope in free love–the emphasis is on *love* which is compassion, responsibility, honesty, kindness, respect.
Thank goodness I can stay in the loop with news and analysis outlets like POC Organize!
I’ve a number of problems with this article.
1) Did you actually raise any of the issues you have with this guy, or rather just run to a computer as soon as you were done hanging out?
2) What is this about: “he claims that he’s the right to have an “Indian card”, since he’s “a lot of indigenous blood running in his body”. Though that made me even more confused, I never understood if he meant that he’s indigenous ancestry or if he’s talking about his ancestors killing many Indians and stolen the land after the bloody massacres.” – what kind of wild conjecture is that? Doesn’t anyone have a perfect ancestral history?
2)”He can get some very well paid jobs because he’s friends with money (who happen to be white too).” – what’s the point here? Does this privilege disqualify him from being radical?
3)”Yes, I think that banks are evil and for that reason I open an account in a local credit union” – good for you. This doesn’t justify sneering at everybody who still has their money in banks. And I think focusing on ethical consumption is not an very productive way to effect social change. It is after all a way of expressing your politics that allocates votes in the form of dollars – so if someone has more dollar privilege, they have more votes.
4) This article is an example of what I would call the lowest form of left political discourse. It is basically radicals saying to other radicals “I’m more radical than you, na na na boo boo!” or “I’ve got less privilege than you, ha ha!” I’m active in radical circles here in Europe and I’m glad to say that this type of discourse is not at all common. I don’t know why this is so common in America but i think this kind of competitiveness and narcissism within radical circle is very destructive to building social movements for change.
Hi, I’ve just found this post by accident, didn’t know that this chronicle made it here!
1) I’ve talked with the guy about this. It was a good conversation, he actually recognized that he’s been called on some of this behavior before. I hope that he’s not doing the same mistakes.
2)Don’t really get your point, maybe because it seems that you didn’t get mine. It wouldn’t hurt you to learn more about “Indian card” or “Indian Status” in Canada and the US. This story took place in Canada.
3) (which you have as 2 again) Are you familiar with “anti-oppressive framework” while working on social justice issues?
4) The guy has been called on his self righteousness and his judgmental behavior before, it’s kind of funny that you twisted and argue that I’m being the one who was behaving like that. I do think that ethical consumption can have a big impact on social change, but I see it more as an internal process of awareness and practice.
5) Perhaps Europe could learn something from America (I’m talking about the continent, not the US), perhaps we have done a better job analyzing and dealing with racism and oppressions on a personal level than Europe… Check “Olympic Oppressions” for more information about the subject. Europeans have a huge responsibility dealing with issues of racism and oppressions, after all you were the ones that came out with the ideology! Please educate yourself and don’t react so harsh when people address issues that reflect in your mirrorself :)
En solidaridad, Julián
I read the article as a challenge to build social movements beginning at the level of person to person alliances. So issues around friendship, money, access/mobility/migration, and love, need to be thought (and re-thought and re-worked) through. They are high priority for maintaining alliances.
Reconsidering, maybe I was a bit harsh recounting my experience of local anarchist scenes. It just felt like time to take a “sabbatical” to work through some wounded-bird narcissism and become a more thoughtful and effective person.
To advance the process of alliances among thoughtful and effective individuals, we could compare across and within geographic contexts: the U.S. is a settler-colonizer context while Europe is experiencing waves of resettlement by former-colonized subjects returning to the imperial centers. Therefore in both contexts the location of individuals with respect to the histories of colonialism and empire is important.
In the U.S. for someone to distance themselves from the (often buried) history of colonization by claiming “indigenous blood” is to repeat the erasure which was part of the genocides. We’re all implicated in these erasures, and non-indigenous especially anarchists like myself have an additional responsibility to learn the histories and ally felicitously with indigenous struggles (decolonization).
In the U.S. every justice struggle (economic, governance-security apparatus, environmental, gender-kinship) draws from and belongs to indigenous decolonization struggle.
Perhaps in Europe the emphasis for radical politics is different (weighted more toward antifascist and anticapitalist?) which calls for a different set of knowledges to draw upon, and different practices for direct action and alter-social formation to take shape.
You got it my friend! I’ll add that Europeans had a huge responsibility learning and dealing with colonization and racism in the Americas, it’s not their continent (not anymore), but they brought the ideology.
En solidaridad, Julián