Damn, but I have a lot of white friends.
Jan. 5th, 2010 12:27 pmOkay, so I'm hoping to get the perspective of some people of color over in a post I made that's friendslocked. So far it's a festival of whiteness, and I'm afraid that if it goes on much longer, any POC who might have felt like commenting are just going to laugh at me/wander off muttering frustratedly to themselves.
One of the issues, of course, is my friends list. Wow, do I know a lot of white people. Sometimes it occurs to me how few POC I have in my life, and it bugs me. I mean, historically, I have a hard time making friends. But these days...well, I'm a little better at it. You'd think that I'd therefore have a better representation across my LJ-friends list (admittedly, not all people I know in real life or talk to that frequently) than 13 out of 275. (And that's counting generously.) Is it simply a question of numbers in the subcultures I travel in? (Partially, to be sure.) Am I less comfortable approaching POC for friendships than I am white people? (Probably, which bears a boatload of examination.) Do the POC I do know lack LJ accounts? (Maybe.) Are there people I'm forgetting to count? (It took me a second to remember and register that one of my friends is Filipino-American, and a few more to wonder if that counts, and a few more to wonder if he thinks of himself as a POC...)
Obviously I'm thinking a bunch about this stuff lately.
Anyway, if you are on my friends list, are a POC and aren't already terminally frustrated with the comments, please comment on this post, if you're so inclined.
Friends list maintenance currently underway.
One of the issues, of course, is my friends list. Wow, do I know a lot of white people. Sometimes it occurs to me how few POC I have in my life, and it bugs me. I mean, historically, I have a hard time making friends. But these days...well, I'm a little better at it. You'd think that I'd therefore have a better representation across my LJ-friends list (admittedly, not all people I know in real life or talk to that frequently) than 13 out of 275. (And that's counting generously.) Is it simply a question of numbers in the subcultures I travel in? (Partially, to be sure.) Am I less comfortable approaching POC for friendships than I am white people? (Probably, which bears a boatload of examination.) Do the POC I do know lack LJ accounts? (Maybe.) Are there people I'm forgetting to count? (It took me a second to remember and register that one of my friends is Filipino-American, and a few more to wonder if that counts, and a few more to wonder if he thinks of himself as a POC...)
Obviously I'm thinking a bunch about this stuff lately.
Anyway, if you are on my friends list, are a POC and aren't already terminally frustrated with the comments, please comment on this post, if you're so inclined.
Friends list maintenance currently underway.