Allyship - Blog Posts

I just saw somebody in my notes whose blog header identifies them as a "straight ally", followed immediately by a series of emojis depicting a gay pride flag, a trans pride flag, two women holding hands, a disco ball, and what appears to be the national flag of Denmark.

it’s so interesting to watch harry potter fans continue to try and distance the series/characters from the creator when jkr said this in 2023:

i get it, harry potter was important to me too. i played hogwarts with my friends, i started a harry potter club, i had a wand and robes. i almost took “religion and harry potter” as a freshman in college!! but when i found out that jkr was a transphobic nazi sympathizer? i dropped that shit so fast. it was kind of sad but mostly i was just angry at jkr. and i understood that the characters were fake while transgender people are real. you have to realize that transgender people are more important, right? and nonbinary people like myself because i’m pretty sure she hates me too but it’s mostly trans folks

and yeah you can interpret the characters however you want! you can make them black, queer, trans, whatever you want! you’re still using her characters, her series. her bigotry is inherent in her creations. you can’t separate it and the fuck would you want even the smallest part in it?? just let it fucking die, already, please. or if you can’t give up a mediocre fantasy series, you could at least admit that you’re not the best ally, huh?

The things I have heard people say about Jews are the worst things I have heard anyone say, about anybody.

Hot take but I really do think that some of y’all need to consider how/why/when/how often you’re making fun of straight people for being straight

I do it too, I’m not going to pretend I don’t make jokes about the hets, or the down with cis bus, or whatever

But I recently befriended a cis, straight dude and I have watched him be dismissed, degraded, and unambiguously insulted for the perceived “crime” of being straight — all in queer environments where he is allegedly “completely welcome” and surrounded by “friends”

This guy is not a toxic person! But I have seen him be made to feel so small and like his comfort and safety in those spaces are conditional on his silence and acceptance of being treated like a human dunk zone, and I think that some of y’all have had so much shit from straight/cis people that the second you feel like you’ve got an inch, you want to luxuriate in the perceived catharsis of bullying someone who— actually —doesn’t deserve it

And until he very, very carefully mentioned to me in private that it makes him feel bad, I didn’t even clock that I was involved in doing that, that it had become so instinctive for me to make casual jokes like that, and that— well meaning or otherwise —I had been contributing to an environment that made someone I really really like feel like shit

So, I dunno, I think maybe some of y’all should think about that too

Getting work done on my house and the contractor was like “I saw ur sign….. r u yknow in the community or an …ally?” And I was like doing the major side eye and was hesitantly like “……in the community…” and the guy whips out his phone and goes “cool let me show you a picture of my daughter and her 4 kids and her wife and did u know the baby is theirs biologically which is very cool and” then I got to listen to him tell me all about being an ally and how much he loves the queer community and also he thinks it’s despicable all the friends they lost when his daughter came out and they haven’t won the best yard since they put a pride flag out and how it’s about making sure people have safe spaces and know they aren’t alone- to my complete astonishment I really did get the full essay from him

For a friend who wanted links to some posts I made about antisemitism, allyship, and how to support Palestine without being antisemitic—which is both possible and easy to do!

How do you know if you’re antisemitic?

How to be a good ally for Jewish people. I responded to a wonderful ask from @faggotry-enjoyer about how to be a better ally and to discuss Israel/Palestine with people who are inclined to distrust Jews due to unexamined antisemitism.

Important post about the dangers faced by Jews as an extreme minority. There are good examples in the reblogs and replies and tags—both of great ways for non-Jews to provide support as well as if antisemites denying their own antisemitism. Therese even one example of ways Jews can and do disagree with each other while remaining respectful without delving into antisemitism OR Islamophobia OR denying the rights and dignity of Palestinians. Jews can do this and so can non-Jews. But that can’t happen if people hate us too much to listen to anything we have to say.

The emotional toll of antisemitism on Jewish people.

Example of the death threats we get that are designed to make us look like bad guys.

If Jews can learn about the Holocaust in detail before we even reach the age of ten, you can and should too.

Don’t trust people who rely on bad sources. People do make genuine mistakes. Here’s an example of bad faith link sharing. Especially when Reblogging things. Even I don’t have time to always check every source in a post. Also, it’s possible that a link seemed legitimate when it was originally posted but the source is either no longer trustworthy or the OP got better at assessing sources. If an error in their original sourcing is pointed out, they should correct it publicly. If they are sharing a link as an OP they should always take time to be as responsible as possible.

There are plenty more posts under my #leftist antisemitism tag to look into about a variety of ways that antisemitism manifests in left wing circles.

Allies, please reblog with any posts you think relevant for a someone new to dismantling their antisemitism.