Fuck them All and Here's Why - De Minimis

Fuck them All and Here's Why

3/10/2017

Vol 12, Issue 10

ANONYMOUS

Lean in. Bossgirl. Bosslady. Mentoring underprivileged youth. Empowerment. Inspiration. Leadership training. He for She. Giving back. Fuck them all and here’s why.

Having been on the receiving end of well-meaning mentoring programs and similar charitable initiatives for kids from lower-SES backgrounds, I can tell you, what these programs lack in effectiveness they make up for in making recipients feel like weird charity cases.

To come into my public school and brag about your achievements like a spoilt toddler is the height of narcissism. Stop pretending you actually care and go do a charity run or whatever it is that you Beckys do.

Because if you really cared you’d have more to say about funding cuts to domestic violence services, you wouldn’t move to my suburb from Malvern and drive up my rental prices, and you wouldn’t talk down to me like some Gorman-wearing girl-Jesus.

If you really cared you would educate yourself. You’d be aware that many of the world’s women and girls have already collected themselves – they’re already doing feminist work. There are Muslim feminists, working class feminists, post-colonial feminists. Your role is not to make yourself the CEO of yet another charity, to don a burqa and write about your experience of oppression, to visit disadvantaged suburbs you have no business in to show them you too have a vagina.

No! Your role is to follow! Get in line and support what already exists. You have no place here, you are not the hero of this story. If anything, you’re the oppressor.

The best advice I’ve ever gotten came from women who were most voiceless. The Muslim Pakistani caseworker who told me if you want to do community development right in a remote village of some post-colonial country, you need to devote 10 years minimum otherwise you’re doing more harm than good. My mum who never completed high school and yet was the single-biggest advocate of education in my life. Not the hot shot lawyer mentor The Smith Family set me up with, not Hermione-fucking-Granger. My hero is my Centrelink-receiving, public housing-residing mother.

Lady – you don’t inspire or empower me, and you have nothing to offer me so please don’t sign up for that mentoring program.

What I really needed as a poor girl in my teens and early-20s was money, power, and critical awareness. Because the thing that disadvantaged women need is some of what you have: influence and cash. Your airy-fairy false positivity is precisely what is holding feminism back.

Feminism is not about you. It’s about equality. It’s about paying your taxes so I can access crisis accommodation. It’s about lobbying the Labor party to reverse Julia Gillard’s cuts to the single parenting pension back in 2012. It’s about inadequately funded Community Legal Centres and the effect that has on victims of DV. It’s about the women who sew your clothes in Bangladesh, who need allies not saviours, who can’t lean in and who look at Emma Watson and feel alienated AF.

This is the work of a JD student

Becky's razor

3/10/2017 01:14:09 pm

Have you ever considered that you might just be jealous?

Myriam AK

4/10/2017 11:10:03 am

Whoever you are, that is such a impulsive and unconsidered response to questions about inequality, femenism and class. Shame on you.

Olympia FW

3/10/2017 04:26:02 pm

This is a badass article, thanks for writing about being an actual human woman I might recognise in the real world.

Standard

3/10/2017 07:43:52 pm

This just reads like a salty rant

Ben Wilson

3/10/2017 08:38:07 pm

Thanks for writing this. There's a lot here that should be written. The desire to be Chic Jesus Uncrucified is a very ugly part of our culture.

Had to wrestle myself into sympathetic reading though, because the anger in the text put me right on guard (even though it wasn't directed at me precisely.)

dim

3/10/2017 08:45:07 pm

so many jd students

Tired of white guilt activists

3/10/2017 09:03:23 pm

Spot on.

Seatbelt inspector

3/10/2017 09:35:35 pm

So white people will be damned if they do and damned if they don't. If those are the rules then at some point they are just going to stop caring and do what they like.

In fact looking around the world I think that point might have already arrived. Buckle up.

Mahalia

3/10/2017 11:02:43 pm

Seatbelt Inspector, no one is saying white people are damned if they do. "White guilt" is an entirely different concept to white activism, and it was white guilt that OP was identifying.
The fact that you're so willing to discard caring about racial equality because you feel sad about the so-called "rules" just shows you did not care enough to begin with.
It must be nice to be so enveloped in your own privilege that you can't see how problematic that is. Those facing racial discrimination don't have the ability to opt out.

Ready to ride

3/10/2017 11:09:48 pm

There's a stark difference between genuine actions to help others and self-serving pseudo-feminism. Ie volunteer at a CLC, don't post a selfie to "raise awareness". Donate time or money to a good cause, don't make yourself CEO of yet another pointless mentoring program to feel good and brag about in job interviews.

This article isn't aimed at white people as a blanket, but the misguided subset who actually hinder in their efforts to help

Nn

3/10/2017 09:06:49 pm

How are you gonna get that influence and cash though?

The inordinately bloated welfare state

3/10/2017 10:20:38 pm

Easy. Tax 'Becky' out the arse.
She probably owes the author reparations for slavery or the crusades or something anyway. I'm she will just cop it with good grace.

Daughter of a centrelink-receiving, public housing-residing mother

3/10/2017 09:27:26 pm

Golden

Sandberg

3/10/2017 09:52:18 pm

The thing I hate most about lean in is that Sheryl Sandberg offers great advice for women who can afford to look for a new job, and she fails to mention that every boss she's ever had has been the exact same ethnicity as her. Funny that.

...

3/10/2017 11:06:06 pm

Antisemitic comments have no place here

Chill out chica

4/10/2017 02:29:06 am

Rich people and people from the ethnic group on top do "charitable" things to make themselves feel good. Sometimes those things feel patronising. Voluntourism is feel-good bullshit. What's new? Is this honestly affecting your life all that much?

Articles like this form part of the constant stream of attempts at this law school to atomise our cohort into group identities. Rich and poor. Rich women and poor women. Black and white, ethnic and white. (Personally I miss the good old fashioned violent brawls between students of different religious denominations). It's the kind of idiotic tribalism which we should leave in the twentieth century. That is not to say that racist attitudes and assumptions don't still exist here. But it is to say that people LIKE being part of a group, and will invent or blow problems out of proportion to make that happen.

In fact, you haven't identified a real problem, you've just invented another archetype to criticise people. Is "Lean In" full of shit? Tell me how. Is some charity or organisation more harmful than good? I want to know. Or tell me more about the childhood experiences you discussed in the article. I would like to hear about that. But don't construct another strawman from the other side of the class divide to spend precious mental energy hating. I get enough of that garbage on my newsfeed.

Sverre

4/10/2017 10:34:38 am

While you have absolutely nailed the straw man argument in the original article, it so happens that Anonymous has (possibly accidentally) hit a mark. Specifically, there is mounting evidence that mentoring programmes such as the one Anonymous refers to in fact do more harm than good:

Freakonomics is obviously not a primary source but they do cite the research they draw from: http://freakonomics.com/podcast/when-helping-hurts/

Saying 'We're all the same' can silence others

4/10/2017 12:46:27 pm

It sounds good that you want to hear more about other people's experiences.

On the flip side I get why you think 'tribalism' is bad, but I think you've run too far with your argument. Believing people *deserve* to be equal, which is great, is not the same as thinking that all people *currently, in practice,* come from equal circumstances, or face equal burdens.

When certain classes of people genuinely tend to face certain problems more often, it's good to hear from those people about that

Good article

4/10/2017 09:14:31 am

I think the favourite word of a lot of rich white JD women is "intersectionality". Intersectionality is actually a pretty useful concept in discourse, but in the context of our course, it's basically just a way for ultra-rich kids to claim disadvantage just on the basic of one factor about their identity (my parents are CEOs and I'm white, but because of intersectionality, I have it bad just because I'm a woman, etc.,)

Taña

4/10/2017 10:16:00 am

You're doing amazing work by calling out the harmful (white) saviour complex so prevalent in Australia. Regardless of any comments that attempt to tone police you, or this piece, there is a rightful place for your criticism and anger, and that place is wherever the f*ck you want!
Keep calling out this crap, hermana.

For your consideration

4/10/2017 11:12:03 am

We get it, you and the author just don't like white people very much. If i might so humbly suggest, maybe you would both just be happier if you relocated to some location in which there are fewer or no white people.

Mahalia

4/10/2017 11:42:06 am

For Your Consideration - it’s astounding to me that we’re doing a degree that requires so much critical thinking, and yet you’re so unwilling to critically engage with the problems that OP and this commenter have identified.
No one has said they dislike white people. We dislike racial inequality and people with disingenuous white saviour complexes.
Your “solution” of people of colour moving to somewhere with fewer white people is not only disappointing coming from someone with access to such a high standard of education - it’s incredibly disturbing. Particularly given Australia’s violent and lengthy history of racism and racial segregation.

I do wonder if you would be so assertive in expressing these harmful and divisive views if you weren’t hiding behind an anonymous user name.

Myriam AK

4/10/2017 11:42:25 am

First, that is revolting. Second, show us the courage of your convictions and post under you real name.

Myriam AK

4/10/2017 11:48:27 am

For clarity, my first comment was directed at 'For your consideration.' Mahalia, you and I must have posted at the same time :)

Missing words

4/10/2017 01:00:18 pm

You forgot Yaaas Queen.

Coined by the best urban femme show, Broad City, a wonderful antithesis to Girls, I wonder if its users realise it is used ironically in the show.

Teina

4/10/2017 07:19:36 pm

Thanks for sharing this. I am another kid who grew up in state housing raised by a single mum on centrelink and the small amount of cash mum got cleaning rich peoples homes. I went to a shitty public school where the careers lady suggested to me to do a cert 2 in retail at tafe as my post school option. I have never felt my class/position in society as much as when I started at MLS. For many of us, those things aren't all of who we are, but they do shape the way we move through and experience the world. If you see this as 'idiotic tribalism' then I think you have missed this point. I also don't think the author is advocating that all charitable type work is bad or that people don't have good intentions. I think it asks us to reflect on our reasons for doing those things and for whom the benefit actually is. And whether we are actually welcome or needed in a particular space or are there already people existing and doing that work. Poor people are not poverty porn resume fillers for a summer project.

Bored Spectator

6/10/2017 08:17:14 pm

I just had my comment deleted, despite its being neither abusive nor defamatory. My comment was a satirical observation on the victimhood culture that has developed among pseudo-intellectual twenty-somethings. I am surprised and disappointed that De Minimis deleted it.

Sverre

6/10/2017 08:43:10 pm

De Minimis is perhaps just honouring Melbourne University's policies of prioritising the right for students not to be offended over the right for academics and students to freedom of speech.

After all, Melbourne Uni got a score of "red" for freedom of speech here (https://ipa.org.au/research-areas/free-speech-campus-audit-2016), for among other things apparently ejecting conservative students on a membership drive.

And as recently as August, a proposed workplace agreement apparently would allow dismissal of academics without notice for unwelcome or controversial comments (http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/a-chilling-effect-academics-accuse-university-of-melbourne-of-shutting-down-speech-20170824-gy3c2m.html)

I guess the university (and seemingly DeMinimis) are not the bastions of free speech that I for one would think that universities should be.

Ugh

10/10/2017 11:46:32 pm

Why does the only vocal alternative to nutty idpol crybabies have to be nutty IPA ideologues.

Can we not find some middle ground that doesn't involve ancaps

Sheesh

Teina

11/10/2017 12:20:01 pm

I missed your ragey comment before it was deleted. Apologies. I don't think that stating how your position in society has shaped your experience of the world is crying victimhood. If myself and others like me felt like victims we wouldn't be studying at MLS because we would not survive the challenges thrown at us in life and the degree itself. No claims to pseudo intellectualism from me.

Feel free to inbox me if you still feel aggrieved.

Bored Spectator

12/10/2017 12:59:55 am

This made me laugh. My 'ragey' comment, which you didn't read, but which you still feel confident describing. Your sarcasm, used as a rhetorical device to mask the lack of argument. Your statement that you have 'no claims to pseudo-intellectualism' — well, people generally don't claim to be pseudo-intellectuals, do they?

Are you so steeped in the language of oppression that you interpret my comment as the expression of a grievance? It was an expression of surprise and disappointment. Not everyone wishes to wail out about how wicked the world has been to them.

Justine Block

11/10/2017 03:12:23 pm

Hi Anon. I am interested in your point of view and would appreciate a chat to ensure that our mentor programs are meeting the needs of all students. If you would like to disclose to me confidentially, please don't hesitate to contact me on justine.block@unimelb.edu.au.

amhersain

18/2/2018 08:31:56 pm

As an MMS graduate I wholeheartedly support this article but I'd still like to say a couple of rude things about it.

The author says that they'd like to see various problems in the world addressed and that people at the MLS take a superficial and tokenistic view of this.

I think I and the author agree that you'd solve these problems by distributing wealth more equally and by writing better policies. That last bit is the problem with the article though. The author acts like policy making is like Zen Buddhism. You make some shocking observation about how terrible the world is, reflect on it for a while, and then you'll come up with some awesomely just solution. That is firstly not how policy making works -- it takes detailed reasoning and data gathering. Second, it's annoying that the author is a law student when law school is supposed to teach you how to reason in detail and gather data precisely. Third, what the author does in the article is exactly as superficial as the people they are criticising, providing a giant smorgasbord of injustices which they can't all be expert on, and treating women in Bangladesh exactly the same way that the mentors at their school treated them.

I wouldn't have written these harsh comments if the author hadn't been a law student. Law isn't politics or sociology -- it's about text, writing, and detail. MLS teachers hide this because they want their classes to sound interesting, and MLS students ignore it because they like sounding cool and thinking about their work superficially. But it's still true.

Getting back to the question of the distribution of power. Obviously the MLS is mostly a place for the very, very rich, not just from a global perspective but a local one too. (Here's another rude part. I have heard many law students speak about how bad their high school was. Not to tar the author and commenters with the same brush, but when I actually found out the schools these people attended, it turns out they were just average, non-elite schools. Most MLS students have no idea how unequal schooling is.)

Talk about diversity and social justice is often intended to hide the fact that the underlying problems are basically economic. Students should still be asking those SJW questions about gender and ethnicity and such, but mainly they should be asking their teachers and fellow students how wealthy they are, how they got that wealth, and how they can use that wealth to redistribute power.

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