This is a hard thread for me, and I suspect a hard one for most wypipo like me.
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/109812905776999409
I have long considered myself someone who resists hero worship, but I also know I have a hard time letting go of positive images formed when I was young.
I don't want to let perfection stand in the way of progress, so I think it's worthwhile to celebrate the progress made by Lincoln while also being honest about his failures. Even in the whitewashed history I was taught, he bent over backwards to accommodate the enslaving southern states, and all for naught. It didn't help, and you'd think the suffering of so many people would have made it clear it never could.
But maybe that's still me, not wanting to go as far as I should in my criticism. I honestly don't know.
I appreciate the effort @mekkaokereke is going to attempting to educate people like me.
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io
@pwinn @mekkaokereke It is a challenge, letting go of icons, especially those that got some things right as well as important things wrong.
In a weird way, I need to embrace the seriousness of the limits of white icons. I need the lessons in humility that come from that… My favorite example is William Lloyd Garrison, the white abolitionist who first introduced Frederick Douglass as a public speaker. When Douglass eventually broke with Garrison, he resented him.
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@pwinn @mekkaokereke Garrison thought Douglass was ungrateful.
I often think of the contrast between the two men’s abolitionist journals: Garrison’s was The Liberator, and the masthead showed a kneeling Black man whose chains were broken, by a liberator, presumably white.
Douglass’ paper was The North Star. He saw that Black people were rescuing themselves.
Garrison didn’t know he was centering himself. And he was willing to risk his life for abolition. BUT…
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@pwinn @mekkaokereke
Whether or not Garrison understood it, he was playing white savior, and is always toxic.
And like I said, that’s exactly why Garrison matters to me. Garrison didn’t listen to Douglass telling him he was out of line. Garrison lost his humility, and centered himself.
This reminds me: NEVER forget to ask myself what I’m listening. NEVER forget the damage I do when I stop listening. That’s why I need my icons flawed; to remind me how wrong I may be.
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@pwinn
I also appreciate @mekkaokereke for his wise words.
One thing that I think helps is to let go of any notion of perfection with regard to people. Everyone has good and bad attributes. That makes it less painful when you come across a bad attribute or behavior in someone you admire. It helps you move forward without excusing or copying that bad attribute or behavior. There is learning in acknowledging what is bad about it.