Shawna Ainsile is afraid of white men. But she’s discovered that they can be allies.
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Shawna Ayoub Ainslie is a writing coach and essayist who writes on issues of race, place and survivorship at The Honeyed Quill [honeyquill.com]. Her work has recently appeared in The Huffington Post, The Manifest-Station, Medium, Art Saves Lives International and Role Reboot. She is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of Open Thought Vortex, an online magazine for everyone, and is currently fundraising for her son’s psychiatric service dog [gofundme.com/ainslieservicedog].
Speak your mind unless you disagree?
It takes a lot of courage to speak your truth here. I admire that.
Good for you.
Be honest. Apologize when you’re wrong. Ask how to make it right. Put the answer into practice. I do these things because I believe that those actions improve me. That they might make the world a slightly better place for those around me. That perhaps, those small actions might one day accumulate into something significant. But the idea of doing these things not because they are right, but in order to assuage the fear and suspicion directed at me from someone I’ve never met, let alone wronged… I’m not certain that I wouldn’t rather remain terrifying. A pale fiend, with… Read more »
The tragedy of this piece is that Ms. Ainslie seems to believe white men will want to pass her subjective “safe white man” test. But in setting forth the test, Ms. Ainslie has made clear that she is incredibly prejudiced against white men. What’s more, she seems perversely proud of her prejudice. And why would I, as a white man, ever want to impress someone who is so clearly bigoted? So her message misses the mark and is unlikely to galvanize as she likely wishes.
Perhaps if she led by example Ms. Ainslie would get a better result.
I myself am a disembodied series of alphanumeric roman characters on an electronic medium; hopefully neither offending, disconcerting, nor displeasing. In any case, the sharing & insight is much appreciated, even though I may not be as forthcoming.
“White men are the most violent.” If we say it enough…. wait. Its still not true. Does anyone around here want to “eat these stereotypes for lunch?”
My wife, has a profoundly different experience than you do. She has found if she wants something done right she has been far more successful when she is assertive, intelligent and exhibiting her natural leadership ability. She’s a pretty badass person; nice internal locus of control, inspires followership, and knows how to make things happen.
By the way, in case you haven’t guessed it, I’m a white guy. Boo!