The Education Of The Oppressor

freedominwickedness:

I am someone who chooses to be an educator, which means I choose to be gentle and understanding towards those who display prejudice but do not appear to be dyed-in-the-wool bigots. That choice is available to me because I have certain privileges — in particular, academic privilege — which make it relatively likely that those people will listen to what I say. It is a choice and not any sort of moral/ethical obligation; furthermore, it is a choice which is not available to all oppressed people.

Being an educator does not mean I give up the right to be angry at the way I and people like me are treated. My patience and energy are both limited, and you are not entitled to either of them.

Being an educator does not mean you get to hold me up as “reasonable” in comparison to other oppressed people. We all have every right to be angry — not just “frustrated” or “disgruntled”, ANGRY! — at the way you treat us.

Being an educator does not mean it’s my job to educate you. Not unless you’re actually paying me for it: my general rates are $50 for expert technical labor, $40/hour for college level tutoring, and $30/hour for high school level tutoring.

Privileged people are the perpetrators and beneficiaries of a vast edifice of systemic injustice, and they do not get to write the rules for how their victims respond to that injustice.

P.S.: I wrote this is in response to Riley (dumbthingswhitepplsay) being self-righteously and condescendingly lectured to about “reasonable responses” and “indecent actions” by metalsguy. Because that is totally fucking busted in a way that really pisses me off: it subverts my choice to be an educator by weaponizing my patience to attack people who are less patient, and that is grossly unacceptable.

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