colorblue recently wrote a post expressing her concerns and disappointment with the recent Asian Woman Carnival and oyceter, the host for the second issue of the carnival, addressed the specific criticism of the carnival she compiled.
colorblue and oyceter’s posts and the comments therein raise some important concerns and questions about the purpose, breadth and inclusiveness of the Asian Women Blog Carnival and the concept of safe space and how it relates to the carnival. I’d like to address those concerns in this post as well as clarify the purpose of the carnival and guidelines for hosts and contributors in hopes that will help us going forward.
1. Purpose of the carnival
The Asian Women Carnival was intended to provide online space for Asian women (and allies) to talk about ourselves and our lives, and to discuss the similarities and differences between us — our pride, our joy, our failures, our cultures, our oppressions, our privileges, our food, our music, our art, our concepts of beauty, our religious beliefs, our political beliefs, our families etc., i.e. everything pertaining to Asian women. I wanted a space to have the discussions about identity and how I and others related to the world as an Asian woman.
I had personally been thinking about PoC-centric spaces for a while because I was tired of the stunted conversations about race in my online hangouts and I was tired of reading people saying they felt incredibly put upon by even these conversations in our community spaces, as if I had less right to these spaces, as if my voice and my desires were less important than their comfort and I had to continually justify these conversations and even my presence in fandom.. There was no single catalyst but Racefail ’09 was a deciding factor. The communities I belonged to online were rife with racism, white privilege and had too few Asian women’s voices. I read too many times Asian women writing about having no culture and belonged nowhere, about guilt, inaction and how she, I, we had no right, no knowledge, no responsibility to talk about being the victims and perpetrators of prejudice, racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism etc. And I read too many white people speaking for PoC, claiming “expert” and “unbiased” authority of our history and our culture. I read the heavy skewer of male Asian voices in the anti-racist Asian blogosphere/online communities.
I felt very keenly that there wasn’t a space for Asian women to discuss our identity and how it related to how we navigated the world without having to constantly negotiate whiteness nor without having to temper the language and sentiment of my posts to be heard when talking about my racial, political, gender identity. I was tired of always having to count white people, their feelings and their emotional comfort first even in my *own* space because if I didn’t, it was used against not just me, but my allies. I was tired of having to deny an intellectual and emotional part of myself and my life because so many of the discussions about race in real life and online centred around white people and their demands. I was tired of reading posts that admonished us of our anger and tried to bind mouths and hands and thoughts by enforcing hypocritical and unfair standards of “politeness”, “niceness” and “civilisation” to achieve the end goal of assuaging the discomfort and demands of the most privileged in discussions about racism, white supremacy and systemic white privilege. I wanted to a space where we could talk about ourselves, where we could have meatier discussions instead of stunted conversations, where we could challenge each other without having to worry that it would be used against us at a later date, where we could delve into problems and learn about ourselves. I was tired of anti-racism 101, I was tired of sublimating my experiences and opinions to whiteness, I was tired of waiting for the majority of people to catch up and I made the decision that I wasn’t going to do it any longer.
2. Blog Carnivals and Safe Spaces
To create the space I talk about above, I decided to make this space by starting a) a blog carnival, b) a pan-Asian blog carnival and c) an Asian women’s blog carnival where trans and cisgendered women who identify as Asian, as well as allies, are welcome.
I chose the blog carnival format rather than an LJ/DW community or a group blog, because as valuable as those things are, I felt the format would be ideal to read a wide range of opinions on a wide range of subjects compiled communally by people with lots of different ideas. For me, the appeal of a blog carnival is that the host has the editorial authority to choose a subject she wishes to focus on and compile the carnival and choose the participants as she wishes; every carnival is different, potentially coming from different walks of life, different political, class, sexuality, ethnic group perspectives about a subject of which I personally may not have any knowledge. The subject can be wide, like Asian women identity, or narrower, like Hindustani and Carnatic music. It provides a platform for people who have different ideologies, interests, places of origin and residence, and backgrounds to present something from their own perspective.
I know that there are some people who are worried whether they are Asian enough to participate in the carnival. I cannot make the decision for you but I can tell you a little bit about myself. My name is anna, I am generally known by my online pseud “ciderpress” and I blog at ciderpress.dreamwidth.org. I am a trans-racial, trans-national East Asian adoptee. I live in the UK, a country where I am not counted in the national census or the cultural consciousness as an Asian. Here, that word belongs to South Asians, paid for with suffering and history and blood. I still struggle with how to publicly talk about my identity as a disabled, middle-class, economically privileged, democratic socialist, cisgendered, straight East Asian British woman. I am in no place and will never have the right to police your identity or make a judgement on your authenticity as an Asian woman and whether your experience is of import or of worth. I had very few rules when I started this carnival and I mean to keep it that way. If you identify as an Asian woman, you have something to say and you wish to share it, this is your space, too. If you are part of a group or a community that wishes to speak in the carnival in whichever language you wish, you are welcome here. If there is anything we can do help facilitate that, if you have any questions or concerns, please let us know.
The AWC is and was always intended as to be a first and experimental step, it was always intended to be a step and a communal space that those who participated would take and build together. It was always intended to be part of the larger PoC community; a place we could have discussions about race and identity (and all that pertains) but not the only place to have them. A place where people who had different political and cultural identities could come together to discuss what makes us similar and what makes us a different, to reach for better understanding of who each other are and how we are affected by each other, to search for what could makes us allies and a community. A place that we used to communicate things to each other, a place where we could share, if we were moved to do so, what we often feel can’t be shared, a place where we could go onto the next level of talking about race and identity rather than be stuck on racism and wider still, privilege 101.
In my online world in general, and even more so recently, there is always a great deal of discussion about safe space. I do not believe any one space can truly be safe for everyone unless that space is occupied by one single person. The carnival itself was deliberately set up as pan-Asian and thematically non-specific. We are Asian women, yes, but Asian women are not a monolith. Asian women are diverse, we are underclass, working class, middle class and upper class; we are poor and rich; we are transgendered and cisgendered; we are gay, bi and straight; we are disabled and able-bodied; we are an ethnic minority and an ethnic majority; we are race-unprivileged and race-privileged; we are old and young, fat, thin and somewhere in between; we are all a combination of those things and our identities are complex.
Our communal space is not inherently safe. Safety is a goal, not a feature. To make our communal space safe, we must work on ourselves and on the space itself. We are not a monolith, there is no party line, there is no one true Asian identity. Discussions are fraught, our experiences, lives and opinions diverse and the same person can be my friend, my ally and my oppressor. Intra-PoC/non-white/chromatic dialogue is complicated and can often be uncomfortable and hurtful. It will induce anger by what it reveal about ourselves and about others. Sometimes, these are the most difficult of all conversations to have. I am not very experienced in public intra-PoC dialogue because I have been afraid that whatever we say, whatever friction and arguments we have may be used against PoC by those who continue to deny the existence of white privilege, systematic racism and the price people must pay to perpetuate such a system. There is a fear of being judged, a fear of anger and perhaps, a fear of taking responsibility for our words, as if being judged is worse than living in continued ignorance.
The space the carnival was meant to provide is perhaps not quite “safe”. I do not think that I or any host can guarantee the AWC will and must be a safe space because, the more in-depth we look at ourselves, I do not think that any space can truly be safe for everyone in it. We are not all the same and we do not all have the same goals. We have to decide whether our goal is to make this space safe for everyone to say whatever they like without reaction and judgement or whether our goal is to make this space be safe for those who do not have privilege and those who challenge privilege. In the light of racism, gender and class discussions I have participated in and the experiences, pain and humiliation still fresh in my mind, I do not wish this space to be a place wherein oppressive speech goes unquestioned and unchallenged. I think that challenging such speech is our right and responsibility if and when we spot it. I am extremely thankful to colorblue for doing so in this instance and I respect oyceter very much for taking responsibility and accounting for her actions the way that she did.
In this respect, I would like the carnival to be, not a safe-for-all space but a communal space that works towards being a safe space. I wanted this communal space to be a space in which we feel all have a right to be, in which we all hold a stake and a voice. I would like to work so that this space if one in which we work to be equal, in which we are mindful of our own privileges and respectful and actively working on educating ourselves on other people’s oppressions and the intersections in our communities and experiences. We should take responsibility for our words and actions and decisions. We are not safe from each other. I think it is important to ensure we have communal space so that we have the ability to reach out and support rather than silence and suppress those among us who are particularly vulnerable. I think communal space is vital in dismantling privilege, our own as well as those of other people. We cannot achieve equality for a select group of people; we cannot build a just world for some on the backs of others. Social justice cannot truly be achieved for some but not all; racism, classism, poverty, ableism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia etc., these are all Asian women’s problems. We are only truly free when we are all free; we can not work to dismantle the kyriarchy effectively without being allies. Social justice is only achieved when we fight oppressions and end them all.
I believe that we need to work together to create communal spaces. I would very much like the carnival to be part of that space. We must work together and I must work hardest of all to be mindful of that fact that to achieve social justice, we must, as oyceter says “first and always focus on those who are most at risk”. With your help, your criticism, your advice, your questions and your suggestions, I believe that working together we can make the carnival a welcoming space to all those who wish to speak but feel too isolated and alone to do so. It should not matter and does not matter who you know, where you live, which language you speak, how much you earn, who you love, whether you are able-bodied. It does not matter what the world has told you that your and our kind of Asian womanhood should be and must be.
We should not police each other’s identity nor ask others to be a token That X Asian who speaks for the benefit of other people’s education; the world does it enough for us. I do hope that people who have felt previously excluded because the AWC has been lacking a perspective or a voice will feel welcome participating in this space. If you have any suggestions or advice on how we can make people feel more welcome, please let us know.
3. Going Forward: Announcements and Guidelines
First, I am pleased to announce that Maggie (aka bossymarmalade) will be joining me as a fellow carnival organizer and moderator of the carnival. This is in part to ensure that no single person has the power to make unilateral decisions about the carnival and in part to ensure the carnival is steered by someone who has a very different kind of Asian identity and life experience from my own.
We will be vetting hosts and themes and providing support for hosts should they have any concerns. We are happy to offer second opinions and our own perspectives should the host wish for input when compiling a carnival. We also expect that the carnival will grow naturally but we will work to reach out to a diverse audience on a wide range of subjects. I know that people are following us and reading along to try to decide whether you wish you be a part of this space. I also know that people do not feel that their voices are being represented. Your suggestions for themes and your offers to host, your participation and voices are welcome too. A carnival and this carnival in particular exists only because your voices count and you have things to share; this isn’t my carnival, it’s ours and I hope you will join us, share your perspectives, your experiences and joy.
Second, as before, each host has final, absolute, and arbitrary authority with regard to inclusion, exclusion, scope, scale, format and presentation. Hosts choose which posts/videos/art they want to use and may present it as they wish, in whichever language they wish. Maggie and I will be here to provide support, discuss any concerns or give second opinions to the hosts should they wish for us to do so. This is partly because this is how blog carnivals I have participated in and read have always been compiled and partly because neither Maggie nor I can be the arbiters of right and wrong, correct and incorrect because we are both limited by our backgrounds, beliefs and interests. (A post about American capitalism positivity on Asian women might strike me as completely wrong because I am not American, do not have intimate knowledge of the USA and am a social democrat but may strike a chord with those who this directly affects.)
Third, carnival hosts should make every effort to ask permission of said writer to link blog posts not submitted by the writer and not written specifically for the carnival. Quotes from and links to magazine articles, academic studies and essays etc. should be properly attributed to the writer and publication.
Fourth, no carnival host and no post is above reproach or challenge and such questions and critique must not be silenced. Comments must not be deleted from the host’s carnival post unless they contain advertisements or hate speech. The carnival cannot police personal journals/blogs and their comment policies but past behaviour and comment policies of the contributor must be be considered by hosts (and as organizers, Maggie and I will be keeping track of this) when deciding inclusion of posts in any particular carnival. Please consider this carefully before offering to host and/or submitting a post.
Fifth, this is my first time being a carnival organiser or running a PoC orientated community. We rely heavily on feedback we receive from you and we have no desire to rule with an iron fist. Or rule at all. (I am not a leader of women, or men or children. I’m not even leader of my cat.) I have no doubts that I will continue to make mistakes. We will make mistakes. We will talk and listen, we will agree and call each other out. Instead of a space where we are frozen by tone, etiquette and expectations, I hope this is a space where some rest, some learn and some find support. We will continue to challenge each other, hurt each other and be angry with each other as well as stand with each other and be a comfort to another and a beacon that lets us know that we are not alone. If it doesn’t achieve any of those things, this is just one carnival, this is just one thing I am trying, that we are trying together and I absolutely believe we can do other things, better things, more things and find our way.
These are our guidelines going forward from the fourth carnival; the third carnival host and theme were decided months before these guidelines were decided. These guidelines are not final and we will be adding more and/or adjusting these guidelines as circumstances arise.
Please contact us by email: asianwomencarnival at gmail dot com or comment to this entry or the Dreamwidth entry if you have any suggestions, critique, thoughts or questions.
* * *
The Third Asian Women Blog Carnival is being hosted by Jha’Meia. The optional theme for the carnival is: Intersections between Culture and Sexism. Please read her submissions post for more information about theme and how to submit [here].
