For this, I am coming from a feminist standpoint. Yay analogies.
For every one genuine good faith question about feminist-related stuff, I get:
* accusations that I'm overreacting (it's just a joke, it's just a word, you're such a feminazi, &c &c &c) * people asking me basic fucking shit over and over as though I'm their personal goddamn feminist library and their fingers and brains are broken * tone pissiness ("You were exasperated with me when I said that omg men get raped too as though you weren't aware - this has put me off feminism, I hope you're happy!" - god, I wish I were exaggerating) * outright dismissal ("I can't trust your word on your experiences, because you're not objective enough.")
Not to mention my personal utter dislike of people asking me basic fucking questions that they could've looked up bloody anywhere. I have never liked these regardless of the topic, because it shrieks to me that someone is expecting me to do the work for them. "How many reported rapes have there been in the US?" Google it. Google it! It's right there!
Q: Well, I'd argue better, except I don't know how many reported rapes there are in the US. X: Argle, here. Ten seconds in Google.
Also, I can't just, yknow, stop hearing stupid questions. I get basic-ass questions at work (I do tech support), but if they truly drive me batty, I can quit my job, or take a vacation. I can't quit being female in a sexist society. So it's not like "X, you keep going to $place and you keep getting these questions, so stop going!". If I wanted to stop getting feminist questions, I'd have to not talk about being a feminist. If I wanted to stop being pissed off about sexism, I would have to never interact with another human being by any means, including any media and potentially clothing.
To wrap this up, every day I live in a society that is sexist as hell and doesn't... particularly care for women. And I'm a woman. It sucks rancid dog droppings that people don't understand and usually don't care to. Further, they can get away with it, because society is set up to not have to give a shit about women. (Which to me is what privilege is - the society-approved ability to not have to care about what a minority is going through.) So I start out tired.
And then someone asks me, "Could you explain this 'feminism' thing to me?"
I am only human. I try really hard to be as patient as I can, and to give the asker the benefit of the doubt. But sometimes I would kind of, maybe, a little bit prefer that people shut the fuck up and do some goddamn reading up on the subject before they come to me and ask me to, on top of dealing with this woman-hating culture as a woman and a feminist, do some more work for them.
It's not a perfect analogy - as one example, being female doesn't necessarily mean one is a feminist, whereas a PoC is a PoC (tautologically enough) - but it's certainly close enough to understand where PoC are coming from.
So while I might advise one to disengage from the internet if they're about to keel over from too-high blood pressure (I recommend this for just about anyone, and should do so myself more often), I can completely understand where PoC would get upset by yet more questions.
I'll be the irritable and long-winded one today.
For every one genuine good faith question about feminist-related stuff, I get:
* accusations that I'm overreacting (it's just a joke, it's just a word, you're such a feminazi, &c &c &c)
* people asking me basic fucking shit over and over as though I'm their personal goddamn feminist library and their fingers and brains are broken
* tone pissiness ("You were exasperated with me when I said that omg men get raped too as though you weren't aware - this has put me off feminism, I hope you're happy!" - god, I wish I were exaggerating)
* outright dismissal ("I can't trust your word on your experiences, because you're not objective enough.")
Not to mention my personal utter dislike of people asking me basic fucking questions that they could've looked up bloody anywhere. I have never liked these regardless of the topic, because it shrieks to me that someone is expecting me to do the work for them. "How many reported rapes have there been in the US?" Google it. Google it! It's right there!
Q: Well, I'd argue better, except I don't know how many reported rapes there are in the US.
X: Argle, here. Ten seconds in Google.
Also, I can't just, yknow, stop hearing stupid questions. I get basic-ass questions at work (I do tech support), but if they truly drive me batty, I can quit my job, or take a vacation. I can't quit being female in a sexist society. So it's not like "X, you keep going to $place and you keep getting these questions, so stop going!". If I wanted to stop getting feminist questions, I'd have to not talk about being a feminist. If I wanted to stop being pissed off about sexism, I would have to never interact with another human being by any means, including any media and potentially clothing.
To wrap this up, every day I live in a society that is sexist as hell and doesn't... particularly care for women. And I'm a woman. It sucks rancid dog droppings that people don't understand and usually don't care to. Further, they can get away with it, because society is set up to not have to give a shit about women. (Which to me is what privilege is - the society-approved ability to not have to care about what a minority is going through.) So I start out tired.
And then someone asks me, "Could you explain this 'feminism' thing to me?"
I am only human. I try really hard to be as patient as I can, and to give the asker the benefit of the doubt. But sometimes I would kind of, maybe, a little bit prefer that people shut the fuck up and do some goddamn reading up on the subject before they come to me and ask me to, on top of dealing with this woman-hating culture as a woman and a feminist, do some more work for them.
It's not a perfect analogy - as one example, being female doesn't necessarily mean one is a feminist, whereas a PoC is a PoC (tautologically enough) - but it's certainly close enough to understand where PoC are coming from.
So while I might advise one to disengage from the internet if they're about to keel over from too-high blood pressure (I recommend this for just about anyone, and should do so myself more often), I can completely understand where PoC would get upset by yet more questions.