My flight to the Bahamas was basically like being on a slave ship. May 24, 2011 Jill I don’t want to trivialize the inhumane horrors that African slaves endured on slave ships destined for the Americas, but on a much-needed vacation to a far-flung destination I had to fly commercial and my legs were all squished up and now I pretty much understand what slaves went through. via the Awl.
One word: disgusting. And the TSA agents are rapists and those whips HURT. If there is anything, ANYTHING, that indicates what a bunch of spoiled fucking BABIES we are it is this “air travel is so hard, boo hoo hoo” whining. Air travel is the province of the privileged. It has gotten remarkably cheap, and if anyone would like to pay more I’m sure that could be arranged and it would be more pleasant. Until then, STFU. Please.
Why, Jill, why? Wow. Now let’s see if anyone pops up to defend, gloss over, or deflect from the absolute fuckery of this comparison. Maybe the point is that class is more of a factor than race. And that what’s happening here is covert public legal racism against white people.
Now let’s see if anyone pops up to defend, gloss over, or deflect from the absolute fuckery of this comparison. Maybe the point is that class is more of a factor than race. And that what’s happening here is covert public legal racism against white people. Well, he DID have to fly commercial! So clearly this is a class issue, since his lack of class privilege means that he wasn’t in a nice roomy private plane.
No. If you’re even thinking of comparing anything other than a slave ship to a slave ship, just stop.
At least he’s getting flamed in his own comments. His readers are turning against him, deleting their subscriptions, even after his “Mea Culpa”.
Slave ship, really? And there are so many good ways to criticize airplane seating design! And the myriad other ways that airlines make travel deliberately difficult and uncomfortable for various groups of people! Like Muslims! And people with disabilities! But comparisons of seating diagrams to those of slave ships is really not one of them.
Question though – Jill, the quote that makes up the current post here appears to be substantially different from the quote in the Awl piece and the original Heller post. Was the OP altered, or is the post here not actually a direct quotation despite the punctuation? Because in the comments of the OP, Heller denies that the trip was for a vacation. This is not an attempt to defend him, but the discrepancy confuses me and I’d like to know its source. This post: “I don’t want to trivialize the inhumane horrors that African slaves endured on slave ships destined for the Americas, but on a much-needed vacation to a far-flung destination I had to fly commercial and my legs were all squished up and now I pretty much understand what slaves went through.” Heller/the Awl: “I don’t want to trivialize the inhumane horrors that African slaves endured on slave ships (above) destined for the Americas. But after a recent airplane trip, sitting tightly next to my neighbor in steerage seats, I feel the discomfort and pain endemic to the current air experience has certain curious similarities.”
Question though – Jill, the quote that makes up the current post here appears to be substantially different from the quote in the Awl piece and the original Heller post. Was the OP altered, or is the post here not actually a direct quotation despite the punctuation? Because in the comments of the OP, Heller denies that the trip was for a vacation. This is not an attempt to defend him, but the discrepancy confuses me and I’d like to know its source. The post here isn’t a direct quote. The first line basically is (with one word removed). The second line was me being hyperbolic. Sort of.
but if he stops writing for them they’ll be down to only 24 white, male authors (out of 38 total authors) according to the author profiles listed on their left rail, one of whom is Carnegie Melon. Of course that’s not counting the design group Fahrenheit212 whose website’s ‘about us’ page shows that of the six out of seven of their current partners are white men (the seventh a white woman) which would make the total 30 white men, one apparently Asian man, one Institution, and 12 women (whose elasticities I didn’t take the time to guess) as the make up of their roster. Yes, this is quick math based on their website, but i don’t think we should be surprised that this boys club didn’t stop to question if this was the “good kind of edgy” or not.
The author responds to criticism in the comments, and uses the classic “Hey, I was being ironic!” excuse. In part: My intent was in part irony. My goal, right or wrong, was to make a statement. Instead, it came off as insensitivity at best, racism at worst. This post is an unfortunate blip.
Kudos to his readers for absolutely NOT being tolerant of this comparison. Even if it was a relatively innocent blunder, it is good that it was not accepted as a cute/funny/clever insight by his own fans.
Yeah, that would wash if you were chained into your seat for months, forced to sit in your own filth, and fed a subsistence diet that caused malnourishment and other diseases due to lack of proper vitamins and nutrients.
Wow. Jadey is right, there are so many critiques of airlines that magically don’t involve acting like a racist shitbucket. I suppose it’s just easier to be “edgy.”
Ah, but he says in the comments that the trip was taken during an extremely stressful trip that was not a vacation! So he was similarly forced to endure the suffering that slaves suffered. /sarcasm
smmo: One word:disgusting. And the TSA agents are rapists and those whips HURT. If there is anything, ANYTHING, that indicates what a bunch of spoiled fucking BABIES we are it is this “air travel is so hard, boo hoo hoo” whining.Air travel is the province of the privileged.It has gotten remarkably cheap, and if anyone would like to pay more I’m sure that could be arranged and it would be more pleasant.Until then, STFU. Please. STFU yourself. I’m sure paying $250 for an airplane ticket once a year or so or however often they do it makes someone just so fucking privileged in every way that any complaints about the TSA molesting people is just privileged whining. Screw survivors who don’t want to spend the day curled up in a ball crying because their fucking SCARS set off the fucking naked machine and they had to be patted down invasively anyway, screw trans people who don’t want their genitals etc. setting off the TSA screening, screw trans survivors especially, screw people with disabilities, all those people are just too fucking privileged to complain. This man was…I don’t even know, clearly fucked up beyond belief. But, well, so are you if you think everyone with an issue with the TSA as a whole being basically like a serial rapist (not every single TSA agent) is just like that asshole.
STFU yourself. I’m sure paying $250 for an airplane ticket once a year or so or however often they do it makes someone just so fucking privileged in every way that any complaints about the TSA molesting people is just privileged whining. Screw survivors who don’t want to spend the day curled up in a ball crying because their fucking SCARS set off the fucking naked machine and they had to be patted down invasively anyway, screw trans people who don’t want their genitals etc. setting off the TSA screening, screw trans survivors especially, screw people with disabilities, all those people are just too fucking privileged to complain. This man was…I don’t even know, clearly fucked up beyond belief. But, well, so are you if you think everyone with an issue with the TSA as a whole being basically like a serial rapist (not every single TSA agent) is just like that asshole. …seriously, no one said any of that. This is a post about a dude who compared being uncomfortable on a plane to a slave ship. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t 10,000 things wrong with the airline industry and TSA and airport security. But it does mean that on a post centered on racism and the casual comparison of slavery to trivial ordeals, we need to center on racism and the casual comparison of slavery to trivial ordeals. We don’t need to argue against things that were never said nor implied.
But by aligning crowded seats with the TSA patdowns and framing them each scenario as something that is just ‘privileged whining’ smmo was downplaying others’ very real aversion to what they feel is a violation on behalf of the TSA, so yes, although that’s not what the thread is about, someone did say it. Although WL jumped on the offense in their response to smmo’s comment, I wouldn’t say their objection was completely unfounded.
Am I missing a comment somewhere? Where did SMMO even mention TSA pat-downs or say that anyone who complained about them was engaging in “privileged whining”? She said, sarcastically, “And the TSA agents are rapists and those whips HURT,” which I think was pretty clearly meant to point out that slave traders routinely raped slaves, and so comparing being cramped on an airplane to slave trading is ridiculous. Again, maybe I’m missing a comment? (I am super tired and may be reading this thread poorly). But I don’t see where anyone brought up pat-downs until wl.
I’d say that “air travel is so hard, boo hoo hoo” could be regarded as highly insensitive to those who have serious issues with the TSA patdowns. Just me.
Oh dear god this thread. We are talking about racism. Can we keep talking about racism and not re-center the conversation on everything else that folks want to talk about, including perceived slights that take a pretty huge stretch to get to? I’m not saying that complaints about TSA aren’t valid, or that people don’t experience trauma when going through airport security. But that’s not what this this thread is about. Bringing up issues with air travel is fine; pointing out that not everyone who flies is not privileged is fine. I actually think SMMO’s comment was kind of asshole-ish and reductive. But I’d rather we not divert the conversation to talking about whether or not SMMO is wrong, because again, that takes away from the topic of the post. Feministe comment sections have a bad history of being totally derailed by white people who want to talk about their own issues instead of what the thread was about. Let’s not do that today. We just did it yesterday.
Florence: Exactly. There are SO MANY critiques of airlines that don’t involve acting like a racist shitbucket, but this isn’t the thread to share them on.This thread is about racism, and it would be awesome to have a comment thread of Feministe that is about racism and the critiques of racism that make life so unnecessarily difficult, annoying, and scary for people of color. Or, OR!, we could decenter racism and just talk about whatever. Anyway, this is a perfect example of how white-people-intention sometimes doesn’t matter. Comment two is “Mea Culpa” and a few in later he’s all, “Oh, but this [presumably anti-racist critique] isn’t what I INTENDED.” And yet, this is what you said after admitting you knew it was insensitive and inflammatory, so. Is this where someone will respond that you are silencing the white voice and that they are leaving Feministe? Cause this thread totally is lacking in the that’s it I’m outta here drama.
thetroubleis: Jadey is right, there are so many critiques of airlines that magically don’t involve acting like a racist shitbucket. Exactly. There are SO MANY critiques of airlines that don’t involve acting like a racist shitbucket, but this isn’t the thread to share them on. This thread is about racism, and it would be awesome to have a comment thread of Feministe that is about racism and the critiques of racism that make life so unnecessarily difficult, annoying, and scary for people of color. Or, OR!, we could decenter racism and just talk about whatever. Anyway, this is a perfect example of how white-people-intention sometimes doesn’t matter. Comment two is “Mea Culpa” and a few in later he’s all, “Oh, but this [presumably anti-racist critique] isn’t what I INTENDED.” And yet, this is what you said after admitting you knew it was insensitive and inflammatory, so.
But, Florence, it’s all about class! /bitter negro Anyhow, the more I think about this comparison the more it pisses me off. I’d be a bit more willing to accept the blip explanation if, you know, Mr. Heller didn’t bring up the fact that such a thing could be considered trivializing. Not only that, but considering the fact that he made sure to have plenty of illustrations, I’m not buying it. That stuff takes time. This wasn’t some spur of the moment comment. It just illustrates to me that white fools continue to be unable to leave other people’s cultural wounds alone. Because of course, everyone wants to hear their fabulous and totally new ideas on the matter.
Just one more example of why “I don’t mean to” followed by a “But” is a big red flag that you are about to do the thing you didn’t mean to do and you should probably STOP. Also, mass murder, genocide and enslavement is not your personal metaphor. Sad that such a concept needs to be put into words.
Would it be wrong of me to imagine strapping Heller into a chair, sticking on a pair of headphones, and putting “Can’t Truss It” by Public Enemy on repeat for, oh, a week or so? What a tool.
Really disappointing from a school I admire. And here’s the voice of privilege chiming in: Andrei May 24, 2011 at 10:32 am Aside the moral issues, I dont see what the problem is, efficient layout/design should not be blamed for the purpose it serves. And from the author, Heller: However, to those who want to cancel their subscription, isn’t that a little extreme (and even self-righteous)? If you’ve subscribed up to this point, I presume you are getting something from this blog and PRINT in general. Yeah, we got something from it alright. Just not the beacon of light you think it is. Why does he get to decide what is overly self-righteous? Oh, right, privilege.
Skimming through the comments there, I thought the most interesting was from a regular reader who noted that while this publication has mentioned design stuff relating to the Nazis/Holocaust frequently, it has always been done in a way that doesn’t belittle or trivialize the horrors perpetrated. While it’s possible to have Nazi humor, just like there can be terrorism humor, people seem clear on what the object of satire should be: the bad people, the Nazis. Gassing people, not so much. So it goes with design of slave ships: it could have been an interesting thing to note, maybe look at the men (presumably) who designed such things, maybe satirize the kind of mind that could bend itself to the task of “How do I move what I consider to be cattle, that just happens to be human-shaped?” It’s always weird to see these huge gaps between sensitivity regarding the Holocaust and the ignorance about slavery/black genocide. I don’t mean this in an oppression Olympics way, just thinking about the Dean of African-American Affairs at my college who noted that there are multiple Holocaust museums in America that memorialize what happened primarily on another continent, there are very few (and much less-visited and less-funded) museums about what was done right here in North America.
For me this is a big example of why ‘CONTEXT MATTERS’ and why it ERASING IT is seriously douchey. Like bloody Rumsfeld saying that forcing detainees to stand for 10 hours (on concrete with people pointing guns at you) is no big deal, because he stands all day (in his temperature controlled, carpeted office with a lecturn to lean on). Bah. You know some of the things that make plane flights nice…and different from slave ships? 1) you chose to be on it. 2) You have a very good idea of when it will end. 3) You know where it will end. 4) You know that at the destination you are likely to have food of some description made available to you, and that you will be able to stretch your legs. Take away any one of those things and any ‘trip’ becomes pretty freaking scary. And that’s even before getting into a discussion of the privations and violence slaves suffered on those ships.
Good points, PG. I want to add that the post isn’t only racially idiotic, it’s also plain old bad design criticism. “This thing looks like that other thing, therefore the two are somehow analogous” – no. That’d be trite and facile in any context!
I mean, I was disgusted reading the quote. Then I clicked and saw the pictures. What. The. Hell? You know, besides the actual trip being hellish, slave ships also meant you were being taken from your home against your will. And the horrors didn’t stop when you got off, either. He’s comparing an air commute with fucking slavery. SLAVERY. I feel like white people don’t get that word, what it actually means. We hear it and some concept like servitude (butlers and maids) comes to mind instead of slavery.
Please reconsider your use of the sarcastic paraphrase method of criticism. It’s massively overused, and it leads to confusion as seen upthread, not to mention the problems that happen when your paraphrase is blogged as being the original. I am all for exposing the unrealized subtext of the things that people say, but by massively overstating it this way, I think you set yourself up for failure in anything more than preaching to the choir. For example, I am undecided at present, and having to consciously fight my bias against the way you framed your argument in order to consider the merits. I was moved to post in the first place because an article just before this in my RSS feed was an interesting juxtaposition to me: http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/05/24/i-feel-your-pain-the-empathy-of-torture-a-guest-post-by-jeff-mosenkis/
Kristen J.: Also, mass murder, genocide and enslavement is not your personal metaphor. This. Dude is full of racist, privilege-denying horseshit. There isno justification for conflating slavery with inconvenience.