Uproot Your Mind

The term “social uprooting” was borne out of a desire of many PoC to move away from the problematic discourse surrounding current social justice.

The social justice movement is primarily white dominated, and focuses on a set of rules that only really work for some people, some of the time. It doesn’t recognize cultural differences, or personal experiences, which is, funny enough, supposed to be the point. Current social justice rhetoric is a set of laws drafted by a small group of people that ALL people affected are expected to live by, and despite the constant dropping of the term “intersectionality”, often is enacted against people it is supposed to help due to a lack of true understanding of the meaning of the term.

Social uprooting is a movement that makes guidelines, instead of hard and fast rules, so that more people may be included in the scope of justice.

In general, one tenet stands out above all others:

Live and let live.

This does not mean that everyone is allowed to do what they want.

This means that people should be free to handle their oppression in the way they choose, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of others.

This also means that if you repeatedly infringe on the rights of others, you should expect consequences.

Performative “social justice”, or SJ for the purpose of looking good, is ignored.

Harassing people repeatedly to force a reaction that “is not SJ sanctioned” will not be tolerated.

Social uprooting will take the flaws in social justice and try to fix them. That is why the terms are different.

For numerous reasons, I don’t do “101” here. Make sure you have a substantial understanding of the following terms before engaging.

• privilege
• intersectionality
• whiteness
• oppression/-isms
• respect
• nuance

These are absolutely necessary terms to comprehend much of what will be written here.

Occasionally, I may reblog a post I consider basic “101” knowledge, and it will have the “101” tag on it for your reference.

I do not answer 101 questions of any kind, please refer to your search engine of choice for your answers.

If you wish to engage, remember that a human being is behind this blog, one who exists in real life. This isn’t an ivory tower, I write directly from my own experiences and much of this will be very personal to me. Please make sure to run the following questions through your mind.

• Is this something that needs to be said?
• Is this something that needs to be said by me?
• Is this something that needs to be said by me, right in this moment?
• Does it seem as if the human being behind this blog is in a state of mind to discuss something very deep and personal with me?
• Is this something I would say to a privileged group of people?
• Do I understand everything going on in the conversation and do the necessary research?
• Am I 100% sure the things I am saying are fact? If so, find a reputable source before saying it just in case you are asked to clarify.
• Am I biased on this topic?
• Do I understand the topic?

This post will be left for you to read, with a link at the top of the page, in case you forget or need to check yourself.

This doesn’t mean “no white people allowed”. It means that whiteness, the views that are built in whiteness and the culture that focuses on whiteness in the highest regard will be slowly broken down and become a part of a group where PoC can have a decent handle in conversation without fear of being railroaded. Some of the first ideas I want to implement involve cutting down commentary with loaded language and cutting down the current regimen’s focus on language over ideas without paying care to language differences between races and cultures even within the same area.

I also want to, somehow, encourage diunital thinking over dichotomous thinking.

I will say this very clearly: This aims to be a safe space for me. This will not a safe space for you. This is not a safe space for whiteness to go unchallenged in any context and since whiteness pervades ALL marginalizations and takes over, it will be the thing I am most focused on eliminating.

That said, errors will be made, because I don’t yet have a complete idea how that whiteness controls the way we frame social uprooting today, and until we can come up with a set of “rules” so to speak on that, it will get fuzzy.

I will be your host.

Uproot Your Mind is a blog designed to do just that; uproot the minds of its readers. There will be largely social commentary here, some promotion of great work by others, and tidbits of all kinds.

You will find things here that will challenge everything you’ve ever been taught, and everything you’ve ever grown up with. You probably won’t have a pleasant ride, but that’s a good sign…it means you’re slowly getting it.

Feelings aren’t coddled here. Trigger warnings are rare, and I love cursing more than your dirtiest deckhand.

If you’re cool with true, factual information, stay a while. If not…you know where the ‘x’ is.

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