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Unfiltered thoughts from a neurospicy cat.
Good morning. This is Thursday, August 22, 2024. It is 9:14 AM in the morning here. I am, out for a walk, in this in a in a cemetery near where I live. It's it's a lovely day out.
Sadiq:It's it's beautiful. There's a little bit of a breeze. The sky is perfectly blue, and the sun is out. It's a clear day. I wanted to talk about something I read this morning, before I before I even ate breakfast.
Sadiq:I feel woke up and took a shower. I was reading an article in the in the local, the local dot t o, about racialized, queer communities in in Toronto and in, you know, so sort of how these communities have historically, tried to be a part of the of the non racialized, queer community, at, church and, Wellesley, and how they have been historically shut out in all all different kinds of ways because of, racism and marginalization and how these, these communities, people of color, brown, black, Asian, These these queer communities have had to form their own, organizations and and and and groups and and places for them to be, and they were talking about drag performers at, Asian drag performers at, Dim Sum restaurant, which I thought was really, really cool. It's a good piece. Everybody should read it, especially if you are a queer person in Toronto. It's it's worth reading for sure.
Sadiq:But also I wanted to talk about, like, how I feel about this kind of I would say it's like a marginalization within a marginalization where you are queer, but you are also a racialized group, brown, black, Asian. So you don't quite, fit in within the the sort of wider white queer community that is part of, that is, like, the majority of, church and wealth link. It's it's interesting because, how do I feel about it? I I think about it in a way, like, do I feel comfortable in majority white queer spaces? Yes, in a sense, I do because I sort of align myself on the access of my currentness, but on a on a deeper, on a more, more base level, I think there is a certain amount of discomfort, a certain amount of, what I would say is you feel like you have to, file away at the margins to to fit in, to to be to be able to be in these, like, white queer communities.
Sadiq:And I feel this way, and I've held this way for a while, and I have been a part of queer communities for for a long time online. And there is a certain, I say I would say, unspoken. Unspoken understanding or unspoken still rule that for brown, black, Asian people, who are queer that you don't bring up or you don't talk about your the the the part of your part of your queer identity that is specifically brown, black, or Asian or indigenous even. Like, you don't bring that up because it'll cause, it'll cause conflict and and it'll cause tension between you and sort of the the majority of, of the white queers in your community. And this is this is a real thing.
Sadiq:This is a real real vibe. This is a real sort of misapprehension that people like me, I'm sure, feel every day when they are part of queer communities that are predominantly white. Because, served sometimes not sometimes, a lot of the times, historically, white queers have, decided, decided to align themselves with their whiteness rather than form a wider a a stronger solidarity with their, queer brethren that are that are not white. And that I think is the big problem. I think there is a certain amount of so when push comes to shove, when when when the chips are down, when it comes to, time to build build solidarity, like, what happens?
Sadiq:You know? What happens with white queer people is that they align themselves with class class interests, especially if they're upper middle class, especially if yeah. Especially if they have money. They tend to align themselves with with wealth and with with their class and also with their with their rights. And this is a real problem because I don't know how to solve this problem.
Sadiq:I think it's a problem that white people have to solve within their own communities. It's a thing where if you're white, you need to you need to call out call in rather your own your own white comrades to, you know, fight this, fight this kind of, mindset. Yeah. So that's that's kind of, like, the overarching thought I have with in regards to in regards to being being brown. I am being being queer in in a in a world where we're not not the majority.
Sadiq:And, honestly, day to day, I I think it's one of those things where day to day, I don't even think about. Like, most of the time, I don't think about being brand. That's that's some kind of another thing, which, you know, is a privilege, of being in communities where I don't feel marginalized, being around other brown people. I don't feel that I need to think about being brown. I need to think about my brownness being the defining part of my identity.
Sadiq:But it is, but, also, it is a part of my identity and in in queer communities, where I am not the not the majority or I'm not the I'm not widely represented, then, it does feel awkward to to bring topics that people get people get defensive. People tend to get angry or pissed off. Do you think that I'm insulting them specifically, or do I have insulting insulting them specifically and calling their character into question when I think I'm not I'm not really talking about an individual. I'm talking about a systemic problem. I'm talking about a problem that has existed for 100 of years, 1,000 maybe.
Sadiq:And it's not it's not a single person that's causing this problem, obviously. It's a mindset. It's a way of thinking. That's the thing. You have to kill the way of thinking for white supremacy.
Sadiq:That that is the kind of thinking I'm talking about. It's a kind it's a poison, my fellow white queer comrades. When I when I what I'm saying what I'm saying is you need to kill the white supremacists in your head. You need to kill it. Every time you think about your fellow queer veteran, think about the the brown queer people together, black queer people, think about the the Asian queer people, the indigenous queer people, and kill kill the white supremacists in your head.
Sadiq:Because it it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to be you don't have to align yourself with the white supremacy. It's it's it's you can decide. You can choose you can choose not to. It's not a an inherent an inherent reality of your of your being.
Sadiq:You can you can throw it away. It's something it's a thought that you think the way of thinking that you can sort of just pick up and throw in the trash. So do that. Throw throw the white supremacy in the trash and listen. I've listened to I listened to brown, black, Asian, racialized queer people, And here, listen to what they have to say and listen without without getting angry.
Sadiq:Listen. Actually listen to what people are saying. Internalize what their problems are, what their issues are. Because their issues, a lot of the issues we we people share, racialized or not, are the same, but there are specific issues and variants and colors, marginalization that specifically, like, brown or black queer people face that you don't know anything about. And it is it is only to your benefit that you listen to these listen to these people and understand what they have to say.
Sadiq:Like, I really, really understand. Think about what they're saying to you and decenter yourself from from the conversation. Decent it yourself and sort of try to understand what where they're coming from, why they say these things, what they are talking about, and how you can be in solidarity with their queerness and be in solidarity together instead of falling victim to to the to the very attractive nature of, lexiconcy because it's a trap. It's a trap for you. It'll actually, in the end, be to your detriment.
Sadiq:It may seem that, you know, allowing yourself with whiteness is beneficial to you in the 4th term, But in the long term, you actually kill possibility for a better future, better better community with with your with your bandwidth. So think about what I've just said. Think about it. Think about how you could build community. Understand your understand both your similar your sameness and your differences.
Sadiq:I think that is important. I think I think, as Audrey Lord said, the whilst our struggles may be different, but we also need to understand the differences and understand the sameness at the same time. So I will leave you with that bit of thought. I am still walking because you might be able you might be able to hear traffic, as I walk by the road. I'm I'm almost almost home, but I wanted to end up this thought.
Sadiq:Have a have a blessed day, comrades, and thank you for for listening.