Impartial to Humanity
How Being Impartial Is Our Greatest Downfall
We really need to have a conversation about what it truly means to be ‘impartial.’ You hear and see a lot of companies toss that around a great deal: how they have to remain ‘impartial’ to politics, or ‘impartial’ so that they don’t look like playing favorites. ‘Impartial’ so that we can’t say who you can and cannot vote for, but ‘we agree with you that no one with a sliver of sense should be supporting Trump’.
The problem is, this is what ‘impartial’ gets you:
At what stage are we going to concede that being ‘impartial’ is a big part of why and how we got into this mess in the first place?
Listen: I get it. Really, I do. Without going into my hours long rant about why capitalism is literally terrible, I concede that we at current, have no choice but to survive capitalism. This means making money, and for many of us that means making money however we can. However, there’s a difference between someone who is up and coming, needing to get their foot in the door against a society that works tirelessly to see them fail, and a company allowing whoever and whatever to be present, despite the very apparent harm that groups are capable of doing. We spend more time and energy making sure ANTIFA cannot and does not get a spotlight because SCARY, but we aren’t invested in making sure bigoted beliefs, even if presented professionally, calmly, plainly, and smoothly, get no traction. What I find interesting is when I bring this up, it becomes a conversation about ‘perception’ to which I ask this:
Why the fuck do you care what fascists think about you?
Seriously. Someone explain it.
Is that not the root of the conversation?
‘We don’t want to give off a perception of choosing one group over another’-but we’ve long and well established that some of these ‘groups’ are full on bigots, fascists, people who couldn’t care less about their fellow man, and also people who have no problem being all of the above. So why do we care that they’re angry we care about LGBTQIAP+ people? Why do we care that they’re going to ‘track us down’ when we criticize their bigoted favs? Why do we care that these people think BLM is a terrorist organization (which it isn’t)? Why the hell do we care what bigots and fascists think about people who know what baseline empathy is?
While we’re all here, we need to also talk about tactics. That is to say: only well meaning people, liberals, and naive folx are worried about being impartial. About ‘pointing out’ how all the things these fascists do is corrupt and wrong.
Boo, they know that. They are aware of that. They do not.
Fucking.
Care.
You want to know why they don’t care?
Because they know ‘impartial’ people will gladly step in and lecture those ‘mean people’ about how maybe ‘you didn’t know any better’, or that ‘you just need to be talked to’; ‘impartial’ people jump at opportunities to explain down how ‘well everyone doesn’t want to hear about this stuff all the time; there’s a time and a place to talk about this stuff’-as though people’s lives have a casual pause button. ‘Impartial’ people give benefit of the doubt to the people who need it least, because even thought there can be arguments made about why we should care more about why people are protesting than the trash can they kicked over, the trashcan being kicked over is the focus because it echoes disarray. It represents disorder. Impartial people are impartial because they dislike disorder, so they attack what causes it on a superficial level, but won’t touch the deeper scale, because that means you have to heavily evaluate all of the disorder around you. It’s easier to scold people for reminding you that ‘hey this problem is still here and should be addressed’ than it is to step back and say ‘why is this problem still here and how do we fix it and keep people from feeling invisible/in pain?’ Being ‘impartial’ does just that: agrees with you that there is a problem, but ‘we shouldn’t talk about it, it makes people uncomfortable.’
And?
Moving forward, I think the solution is very simple.
Stop caring what fascist assholes have to say or think about your desire to care about people.
Stop caring about how your ‘social calculator’ is impacted if you decide to step out and say ‘actually, you know-I don’t care if that building was trashed. We can replace the building. Those buildings have insurance. I can’t say the same for people.’
Stop ‘being worried’ that ‘but Vanessa, this may drive off people, and people don’t really want to read that all the time; this should be our time to just not think about this stuff.’ You’re right, they don’t, and we should be freed of it.
I also don’t want to have to write about it all the time.
Or always remind people that things need addressed all the time.
Or be reminded constantly that, at any given moment, my life may be forfeit all the time.
All of which could happen if more people were less afraid of losing their followers or a little bit of money and more bothered by the fact that many of the people they call friends and family are afraid to just live.
Because as long as we want to feign ‘impartial’ as a reason we don’t talk about these things openly, we don’t confront them forwardly, we refuse to address them or see why by ‘impartial’ people actually mean ‘I don’t want people to criticize me as well’, we will continue to get mess like this: https://twitter.com/hemantmehta/status/1323719357927751683 (where people are calling down the power of God to….vote for a fascist).
We can’t keep saying ‘we don’t want to pick a side, we don’t want to make people feel alienated’ then be surprised that things like protestors being ran over, black people being shot in front of their parents, kids being carted off are a normal and every day occurring thing.
We have to hit a point where ‘impartial’ isn’t acceptable.
Condemn bigotry.
Openly. Loudly.
No cake for racists.
No cookies for sexists.
Make it so that even the idea of being bigoted is met swiftly with disdain. We shouldn’t-and don’t need to-keep convos about whether or not ‘this thing is not OK’ behind closed doors.
Especially when those people are fighting for what we all agree is right.
So, REGARDLESS of how the night goes?
Let’s get out of this funk of ‘being impartial’, of actively opting to not fight for what’s right to protect bigots around us and/or money.
Nah, make bigots uncomfortable.
Your marginalized friends deserve at least that much.
No amount of forward facing work/accomplishments/changes are going to mean anything if you opt to ‘remain impartial’ and tell those around you who are marginalized they must share space with people who absolutely make it clear they want to inflict harm on them.
Remaining ‘impartial’ in conversations involving racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, transphobia, ableism, anti-Semitism….you name it: only benefits those who want to inflict harm. If you know it’s wrong?
Say it.
