Of Open Roads And Uber Fail: The Wiscon 33 That Was.

[thewayoftheid]

Though karnythia beat me to the punch with her post--which pretty much said everything I was going to say about this weekend and more--I feel I must add this:

If you're really serious about making Wiscon a POC-safe space, you must step your muthafukkin' game up. You can't just import a bunch of brown folks in and believe your work is done. You must seek to

Comments

[emilytheslayer]

Yup, definitely still like you.

[pretzelcoatl]

I agree with my mindtwin.

[thewayoftheid]

:)

[popelizbet]

Emily-tested, Andy-recommended, Pope approved.

[lcohen]

still like you, am very glad i got to see you, and wish i had known that was going on, though what i could have done besides a scene from "taxi driver," i'm not sure :( .

[thewayoftheid]

I'm happy I got a chance to see you again too, and it was great meeting your guy. I honestly didn't expect to be so affected by all of this, but seeing all this shit go down and then hearing about folks crashing the room that was SPECIFICALLY SET ASIDE AS A SAFE SPACE FOR POC--I lost it. Completely. And I'm not even the "weeping willow" type. But it totally took away from the good I experienced while there.

[lcohen]

it sucks. it sucks more than i can say because i am sickened that it would OCCUR to people not to respect that space--what the fucking fuck is up with that. so, back to the drawing board for the concom to discuss how to make that work better--"people might act like assholes about this--what do we do?"

[popelizbet]

I just had the thought of, if the concomm is unable to do so, con or bust/FOC Assistance somehow arranging to rent a hotel room in the con hotel that would have keycard access, not be open to the publicly trafficked spaces, and basically actually make sure the space is safe without having to literally post a damn gatekeeper 24/7. I doubt that as many people would go out of their way to gain access to a setup like that in the way that they would veer out of a public-traffic hallway into it - and if some bullshit goes down, there's a place of retreat, where anyone opening the door doesn't put private business in the street even for a second.

I don't know if any of that makes any sense, so, I don't know. There amy be issues with that idea I don't see, but I'm throwing it out there.

[delux_vivens]

[thewayoftheid]

At first I thought I was overanalyzing shit as usual, but after sorta laying in the cut and observing a litte more...yeah. Clearly some folk think it's really all about them and it's not.

[thewayoftheid]

lmao whaa? the hell I miss?

[skywardprodigal]

We see when you stare at us, or walk by us completely ignoring our salutation to you, only to run up to us minutes later after you realize who we are. We see you when you crash our party for the sole purpose of snubbing us.

I am over certain folks feeling threatened by the appearance of other POC because they may take away their SUPERSPESHULNOTLIKETHEOTHERS crown?

Well now.

White people acting ugly, :(

But that other business? Pathetic.

[thewayoftheid]

Srsly. But again, next year WILL be better. Trust.

[skywardprodigal]

I'm getting shaky and appalled just reading about it. :(

But, okay, I'm gonna trust that, next May, 2010, it will be different.

You on im?

[sparkymonster]

There was some jacked up shit that makes a motherfucker want to bust shit up. But there was also a lot of amazing intense strength from POC saying "Oh hell no" and having back up on it. At various moments I was shaking (in a good way) from being able to see POC over and over stand firm and call shit out.

Also, being able to talk and connect, fucking amazing