Dear Dudes:
As a fellow white male, I understand how tough it is to get oneself noticed above the din of all the other white male voices out there. We’re so numerous and seemingly unrestrained in our desire to talk about the world at large that sometimes it’s disheartening. We want adulation, and if not that, then at least light applause or one of those bro-nods (more a half-nod really) that communicates a job well done, a point aptly made.
And I can understand that you, white male, might find yourself in a place where you feel like what you’re writing about/reporting on/experiencing is really effing important, and the world needs to catapult the propaganda or whatever and you’re afraid that your white-maleness might disqualify you somehow from having a very important viewpoint on the subject at hand (though in my experience, white males are always considered the ultimate expert on any subject you can care to name) and so you’re tempted to take some liberties.
Don’t. Don’t do it. For example, do not become a half-Syrian, half-American lesbian blogger reporting on the crackdown on the Arab Spring protesters.
The fact that you’ll get caught is beside the point. You’ll get caught, believe me, but that’s not the big reason you shouldn’t do it.
Look, you can claim that “while the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground,” but you’re just rationalizing your dishonesty. An innate part of being a good journalist is that you’re honest, honest about who you are and honest about the story you’re reporting on, and white male, no matter how much you think you can get inside the head of an imaginary half-Syrian, half-American lesbian blogger living in Damascus. Don’t co-opt the voice of a minority in hopes that people will take your writing more seriously, especially when you belong to the most privileged demographic group on the planet.
Do you want to write a story about a half-Syrian, half-American lesbian blogger in Damascus during the Arab Spring crackdowns? Fine–write it. But write it as fiction. When you claim to be reporting on “the situation on the ground,” you’ve entered into a contract with your readers which includes the promise that you are who you claim to be, especially if you’re claiming to be a minority in a dangerous area.
You want another reason, fellow white male, why you shouldn’t do this? How about because it can harm people in the very situation you imagined.
Daniel Nassar, the pseudonym of a gay campaigner in Damascus, told the Guardian none of his gay friends had met or heard of Amina, but they feared what the backlash to a fake blog could lead to.
“I changed my Twitter name (which was my real name) and picture (which was my real picture) after the news of Amina [emerged],” he said. “I wasn’t afraid of what happened to Amina, as I felt she was fake … I was afraid of the aftermath of her silly lie and how would it affect the way police treat LGBT people here.”
Is your very special take on the situation so unique that it’s worth potentially harming people who are actually there on the ground? Let me answer that for you–no. No it’s not. You’re making things really hairy for people who live in those communities.
If you really have something unique and important to report on, your white male-ness will not get in the way of your being heard. In most cases, it will be an advantage, as bylines and television appearances testify every day. Take, for instance, this piece by a white male who did some reporting from Palestine recently. He didn’t have to invent a half-Palestinian, half-American lesbian in order to be heard. He just had to take good pictures and write about his experience honestly, and he found an outlet.
So fellow white males, if in the future you’re filled with the desire to take on the persona of a minority and write about experiences as though you are that person, do us all a favor and watch an Avatar/Dances With Wolves double feature and get it out of your system. And then maybe find someone on the ground who actually is a member of that minority and help get their voice heard. Or make your own writing interesting enough that people won’t care that it came from a while male. It’s not like they care most of the time.
54 responses
Bravo
“Don’t co-opt the voice of a minority in hopes that people will take your writing more seriously, especially when you belong to the most privileged demographic group on the planet.”
Thank you.
Thank you, Brian; exactly. By co-opting, i.e., stealing, another cultural identity, he commits the same sort of transgression as any colonizer or occupier. Yes, on a much smaller scale, but in a way it’s more intimate, more of a trespass.
For the triple feature you could add One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The view point of Chief Bromden was reserved for the book only. Hollywood abhors an interior monologue – especially when Jack Nicholson is in the film! 😉
This was so misguided of him. There’s absolutely nothing okay about what he did. Passion for an ideal is not a justification for reprehensible conduct.
God, yes. This is so right I keep looking for it to loop back around to wrong. Which it of course never does.
Yes. Thank you.
I suppose one benefit of this terrible little affair is that it provides a 100% pure, first cold-press example of “white male privilege,” “entitlement” and “appropriation of voice” all in one easily linkable package.
Write whatever you want whenever you want in any voice you want.
“do us all a favor and watch an Avatar/Dances With Wolves double feature and get it out of your system.”
LoL, that is going straight into my favorite quotes file. XD
Thanks for this piece–you’re a good guy.
Really Aaron? No restrictions? Not even when what you’re writing is basically journalism? I’m really interested in how you would justify what this guy was doing as ethical journalism.
I want to write a sequel to this, entitled: Dear Fellow White WOMEN. Seriously, we co-opt and exploit for gains, too. But a big bravo to Mr. Spears for a great, snarky-in-the-good-way article!
It’s not journalism it’s a blog. If you don’t know the difference I think we may have identified the real problem. This writer was unknown and irrelevant. He wrote a blog that thousands of people read and cared about. Now he is a known writer and audiences may be interested in his future writing. Writers such as yourself were so captivated by his story they felt compelled to write responses. This piece is basically a fan letter to him except you chose to express your interest negatively. Same way this “negative” comment is actually an expression of interest in your writing.
Same deal with Frey. Everyone got self-righteous about his memoir so they wrote and wrote about him and his book. Writing that thing was the best move he ever made. It made him a successful writer. Cassanova wrote his memoirs as a “true” story but they are full of stuff that can’t be true. Daniel Defoe went to his grave swearing Robinson Crusoe was a true story. Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley is almost entirely fictional but presented as a real travelogue. The Iliad and the Odyssey are told as true stories and so is the bible. They all remain tremendously popular.
Don’t believe everything you read. Or do if you want. Who cares?
I have never put much thought into “white privilege” or “entitled” people; I just focused on the person. After reading his initial “apology” I saw the white male privilege exuding entitlement and taking care of boredom while his wife was off in school. What is also unfortunate is that this man will probably write a book about this and it will all turn out to be ok for him. Bravo on your take!
Sorry Aaron, but that’s bullshit. First of all, I’d never heard about this guy until he was outed, so I’m anything but a fan. I didn’t care about his work before and I don’t care about it now except for the way it shines as an example of unexamined white dude privilege–something it sounds like you could do with a look at, given the way you so blithely toss aside the fact that some real people in Syria put themselves potentially in harm’s way in order to find out what happened to this invented character. Bloggers around the world are trying to get the same sorts of protections that journalists get, and douches like this dude don’t help matters when they claim to be reporting and then turn out to be fabricators.
Whether or not you think it was journalism is irrelevant–he acted as though it was, and so betrayed the agreement he had with his readers. Like I said in my piece, if you want to write in a voice other than your own, go right ahead. There’s a huge genre out there waiting for you. It’s called fiction. Just stay out of the places that claim to be factual (as opposed to truthful, since you can find truth in any kind of writing).
“I’d never heard about this guy until he was outed, so I’m anything but a fan.”
That’s exactly my point. Before, his writing meant nothing to you but now you are publishing articles on your website about his writing. You found something about his writing very compelling, even if you chose to express that in a pedantic “stay out of my special factual writing place” way. You are confused. You think you are angry at him but in fact you are fascinated by what he wrote and how he presented it.
And the fact that you are now appointing yourself as the writing police is absurd. You don’t get to tell anyone what to write or how to present it. Sorry. Don’t use the violence in Syria as some kind of moral backstop for your own authoritarian impulse. Geez, talk about white male privilege.
Let me state this (again) clearly–I have never read his writing and I have no plans to do so. Therefore, I cannot find it compelling. What about that do you not understand?
As far as that crack about my appointing myself the writing police goes, well, I’m not exactly taking a controversial stand here. He positioned himself as a writer of factual things. That is not in question. Call me crazy or pedantic or whatever, but when a writer makes that sort of claim, I think it’s only fair to hold said writer to that standard, especially when there’s a chance for violent repercussions. Like I’ve said repeatedly now–if you want to take on another voice, there’s a huge-ass literary world out there waiting for you. Go frolic in its meadows, where there’s no contract with your audience which promises factual content. But if you’re going to write journalism–even in the less-edited world of the blog–then you’re making a promise to your readers that you’ll be accurate about your facts and that you are who you say you are, and you can’t hide behind the greater good or artistic license if and when you’re outed as a liar.
Your article made jezebel.com.
@Aaron: Having an audience and being “fascinating” are not enough to justify placing real people in danger. Read again what Brian has said repeatedly about a contract with one’s reader. Writers have a responsibility beyond being compelling. They should be truthful when they purport to tell the truth. And if they want to do otherwise, they are free to do so as long as they are not perpetuating lies.
The whole “contract with the reader” thing is bizarre. There is a rich body of literature enshrined in our canon which is bald-faced lies. If your first rule for a writer is “be truthful,” you are throwing away a wide swath of fantastic, ribald liars throughout the ages. I don’t know where you got the idea that writers are honest or that writing is even about being moral. Maybe that’s what they teach in MFA programs.
Writers are often lying scoundrels. And still amazing writers.
AaronWB:
“For whatever reason, I was really torn and I thought it was my opportunity to put a voice to people who people don’t listen to,†Ms. Seltzer said. “I was in a position where at one point people said you should speak for us because nobody else is going to let us in to talk. Maybe it’s an ego thing — I don’t know. I just felt that there was good that I could do and there was no other way that someone would listen to it.â€
Taken from NY TImes, March 2008, about the infamous phony gang memoir. You, uh, know a lot of people reading Margaret “Seltzer” Jones these days? Amazing writers are often lying scoundrels, but they are under no illusions, they know exactly who and what they are. Lying scoundrels who believe they are amazing truth-tellers…give it an equal three years and we’ll see how many people are reading MacMaster.
Aaron, I don’t know if you’re being deliberately obtuse or if you really don’t think there’s a difference between journalism and fiction, but if it’s the latter, I don’t think there’s any way for us to have a reasonable conversation on this subject.
It’s strange to castigate this guy for writing a blog pretending to be a lesbian woman in Syria. I’m sure he’s really the reason for the danger there (Bashar who?). But, it’s comical if you think he broke some sacred covenant between the writer and the reader.
I understand the difference between journalism and fiction but the way you adore your rules is creepy. Seems like a short step from indicting the writers of fake blogs (lives were at risk!) to indicting any writer who may cause trouble (he wrote an anti-government article and it was all lies!). Anyway, he’s not a journalist– no one paid him to write a factual story. If he was a professional journalist then maybe he would have broken an actual real life legal contract (as opposed to an imaginary divine contract).
Who are you to tell him or anyone else what to write?
Wow, Aaron. You do realise that actual people with actual lives are doing their best to change their countries for the better and save lives, and this guy’s actions have made that harder?
Yes, you’re correct in saying that he did not cause the problems in Syria and the rest of the Middle East, but he’s made it much easier for the regime to discredit them and also given them an excuse for a crackdown. It’s also personally put activists who tried to help ‘Amina’ at risk.
Aaron, with all due respect you’re arguing in circles. I don’t read this article as propoganda from an extremist ‘writing police’. If the contents of the GGID blog had been published in print as non-fiction then the author would have been breaking the law (at least in the UK). The fact that it’s online doesn’t mean all ethical expectations between author and reader disappear, even if there is no effective legislation. Sure, he had a right to write; but the rest of the world has a right to be irritated by his dishonesty and short-sightedness.
… yes, Aaron. Expressing criticism is a slippery slope toward imprisoning writers for their beliefs. I guess YOUR comments are creepy too. Seems like a short step away from indicting the writers of opinion pieces (freedom is at risk!) to indicting any writer who may cause trouble (he wrote an article critical of the media and it was practically fascist!)
See how ridiculous you sound?
Hold on. He stole someone else’s identity. He became deeply involved in a “relationship” online. He has endangered other people’s lives….all because of his desire to develop the narrative voice…. bullshit…he like many online…has a perverse addiction. I hope he gets help. Do you really think this was done to help the cause in Syria? I think it all is rather narcissistic.
It’s a little weird to defend someone’s right to do something when the guy who did it is bending over backwards to make his apologies and mea culpas and has even renamed the blog “hoax” so it’s the first and biggest word you see when you go there.
Brian makes a great point about identity and appropriation and how members of the historically and presently privileged group will seem especially douchey if they do things like this. But defend his right to do what he did? Even HE doesn’t defend that.
Hey, maybe you should go to him and argue to him that he shouldn’t have apologized and he should put his blog back the way he had it? Let us know what he says.
It’s a good thing Louise J. Esterhazy retired before she was hanged.
This contorted thread brings general mirth.
Reading personal-narrative blogs as a source of news? I suppose it can be done—but on high alert.
The Summer of Fake Lesbians will be over soon, and the gullible taken by something of a different shade next time.
So I would agree that faking story lines and your identity is bad in the reporting/blog game, but I think there is danger in saying that a “white male” cannot understand or accept an identity other than what he was born with. This is not a knock on the article, to which I enjoyed and respected the the authors argument. Instead it address the overtly PC nature of this debate, which due to the reactive nature of this storyline, is neglecting some key points that should not go undiscussed (including reverse racism).
For example, I am a white male, who has lived, worked, studied and taught in China for 3 plus years. I speak/write mandarin fluently (thick Beijing accent) and consider it part of my identity to be “Chinese”. Sure I don’t look Chinese, but if you were a blindfolded Chinese person, and we were discussing politics, you’d have no idea that I was unlike you. I write for a Chinese language blog: http://www.transparent.com/chinese/ along with another white male who also lives and studies in China.
To say that we cannot write about the culture (to which we are a part) and identity of being a Chinese person is wrong. Citing birth-rite and ethnicity as your only claim to identity to belong in a community is flawed for reasons that are obvious: racism. Cosmopolitanism has increased dramatically with the rise of globalization, technological advances in communication making the world an ever increasing melting pot of cultures. The gift of truly talented writer is to situate yourself within different perspectives and cultures, bringing out truths that can be related to by any and ALL people.
Be wary fellow writers of cloistering yourself away in the “white male” niche. Experience, regardless of who experiences it, is a valuable thing that should be written and disseminated throughout the world. It’s not who you are BUT WHAT YOU SAY, people. Thought that was writing 101?
Thanks for the piece,
Stephen è€å¤–
You guys should stop feeding the troll. Aaron doesn’t have a reasonable argument, just a badly misguided contrary opinion that he’s lobbing around to try and sound intelligent. I bet even he doesn’t really believe the bullshit he’s spewing. Engaging him and giving him attention is exactly what he wants. Ignore him and he’ll go away.
Thanks for the thoughtful piece Brian. What MacMaster did is shameful and he deserves to be called out loudly and harshly. Your take on this mess is spot-on.
Wait a minute. Hey, Aaron. . . any chance you’re actually a lesbian living in Syria?
@AaronWB To quote the king of white male “dudes”, I turn to “The Dude” aka the Big Lebowksy: “You’re not wrong, you’re just an asshole”.
You’re correct in claiming the creative nature of all blogs as somewhat fictional(lets face it people, there are no true fact checking mechanism like in real journalism) and thus is hugely dependent upon freedom of expression. Further, when reporting on anything controversial, you as a writer/blogger put yourself and your community in harms way. It’s just the way it is. Would you have said a white, northern male abolitionist was endangering his fellow southern black freedom fighters (also abolitionist) because said white male was putting those men in danger with calls to emancipation? Where’s the line? Or can only some people cross it?
I think more people would realize that in this forum if they could divorce themselves from the controversy. If this was a gay/lesbian arabic woman claiming to be the voice of young white males who are unable to find work (yes white males in that demographic are not better off than their female counterparts–just look to any economist, US census or business journal report data if you don’t believe me) and she was “outed”…you think anyone would pay any attention?
It never hurts to cast a critical eye toward both sides of a debate.
-Stephen
Stephen,
I don’t think I ever argued that it’s not possible for a white male to understand or accept an identity other than the one he was born with. I spoke specifically against co-opting a minority identity. Those are two completely different issues.
perfect. thanks.
Fiction is just that. Journalism is an approximation of truth built on a foundation of facts. The blogosphere is full of both and hybrids. Credibility remains the paramount currency of journalism. Notice or self expression may well be the fuel of bloggers. These are mostly divergent cultures, but they aggregate in this cyber stew that we inhabit.
Years ago I posed a question to a network executive for whom I was developing a project; at what point do the ethics of the cyber world begin to alter our sense of justice in the “real world?” Random mayhem in gaming, serial murder, explicit violence, explicit sexuality and false persona in the cyber world are permitted. At what point does a social tolerance of such a recreational behavior begin to sew genuine social consequences? It was an odd question to pose to a network executive who went on to preside over what we call “reality” television.
Your post points to the effect. Anthony Wiener is living through another repercussion. One may feel a cloak of protection or privacy while feeding the blogosphere with any manner of fantasy, lunacy or “creativity.” It is not illegal, yet. Whether it is right or wrong is for someone else to reason. It does however have consequence and indeed could be more serious or even lethal than a lone writer, wrapped in their own reality may have the intelligence or common sense to realize. Thanks for your view.
A great article Brian, it sums up how I think I feel about this. Yes it is the case that many literary lions have blurred the line between fact and fiction, often apparently without realising it (or did they?).In a case like this where the blog became the news, where it was in print media and on TV for god’s sake, it was really irresponsible to wait until now to admit it was a fake.
What’s more privileged than assuming because you live in a media rich environment where blogs aren’t journalism because you have plenty of access to “real” journalism, that everyone does? There are plenty of places in this world where citizens HAVE to be able to rely on first-person reporting in online blogs to represent truth and fact (when presented as such) because that’s the only source that may be available. Sure, as an American, perhaps I have the LUXURY to poo-poo individual blogs as inevitable fiction, but that’s because I’m privileged enough to, well, live in America where I can generally access fact-based journalism with relative ease.
So thanks for the excellent example of privilege at work, Aaron. More effective than any scripted example could ever be!
As for the comment above saying he considers himself Chinese but isn’t actully Chinese: shut. up. Living and working and speaking a language does not actually make you a member of that ethnic group.
White men are born with extraordinary amounts of privilege that have led to entitled appropriation of POC’s experiences without the convenient oppression, colonialism, imperialism, sexism, racism, and so forth. That’s why it’s important for white male writers to stick to their own experiences instead of appropriating other cultures.
“Bravo!” (nothing trumps integrity)
This is a spectacularly written piece. As a (non-Syrian) lesbian, thanks for getting it, Brian.
It is not, nor can it ever be, ethical to manipulate another person’s emotions for personal reasons.
I definitely agree that this guy shouldn’t have pretended to be someone else so thoroughly on something that was ostensibly reporting news. However, I don’t see why this has to be directed at white males. Clearly it would have been just as bad if it were an American woman. Even, dare I say it, a lesbian American woman. Right?
Right? This is what we’re talking about here, right?
@Stephen White Male: So let me get this straight. You lived in China for 3 years and this somehow makes you not only an expert on China, but Chinese?! So what’s next? Telling us you dated a woman once for 3 years and this not only makes you an expert on women, but a woman yourself? Or you’re an expert on whales cuz you spent some time at Sea World and this now makes you a whale? Ai-yi-yi. The arrogance, presumption and sense of entitlement you white boys have is one of the World’s 7 Greatest Wonders.
Brian,
I directed it at white males mainly because this story called for it, but also because white males–straight white males, if I want to be specific–are the most egregious offenders because we are the most powerful group on the planet, so when we do it, there’s no mitigation. There’s also the fact that I’m a member of this group playing into it–I’m calling out my own, you might say. I wouldn’t feel comfortable saying it about another group if only because of the power differential.
As a while male, I futty agree
Clearly this would have been a bad thing to do if the author had been a lesbian American woman; this piece is about white male privilege as a complicating factor. Yes, if anyone does this s/he’s a jackass. But doing it as a white straight American male is like acting out the symbolism of colonization in jackass form.
Great article, Brian, thanks for it.
Well-said, Brian. Thank you for this.
Um…Stephen. You’re not Chinese. You could spend the rest of your life in China, marry a Chinese woman, crank out your one Chinese baby, pay a lifetime of Chinese taxes, die and be buried in Chinese soil and you will not ever, EVER be Chinese.
You know how I know?
I’ve been in America for thirty-five of my forty years, I have an American education, an American husband, gave birth to two American children, I own American property, pay American taxes, follow American politics (a terrible habit, admittedly) and even am an American citizen, but if I go ANYWHERE in this great nation of ours, I am asked, “What nationality are you?” When I tell them I’m American in my perfect American English, they clarify, “no, I mean where you’re REALLY from.” The answer they’re looking for is ‘Chinese.’
So…you can claim to be Chinese til you’re blue in the face, but unless the Chinese claim you as one of their own, you’re hyphenated, at best. Trust me, I know.
It’s not a lie, it’s a gift for fiction.
– William H. Macy’s character in the movie “State and Main”
@Teri: I read that, and I can’t help but be reminded of a cartoon I watched once, where one of the students was going to be competing in a poetry tournament, and the principle came in to congratulate her.
However, the girl was an “Asian-American”, so he went on about how proud he was about how multicultural the school was, before asking where she came from. She said simply, “Kentucky, sir.” She didn’t seem to get the reason why he had asked her that, since in her perspective, she had lived in the United States all her life, where else was she going to be from? And yes, it had never occurred to the teacher that she had actually been BORN in the state, since she didn’t fit the category of “White American”. It actually didn’t even occur after she had told him where she was from, as he continued with his perspective, seeming not to realize Kentucky was part of the USA, and pronouncing it in an Asian way. Being from Kentucky, I know the state makes you wonder if you aren’t really in a different dimension at times, but… (Sob.)
(By the way people who know where that’s from deserve a cookie.)
So yes, even being born in the United States doesn’t mean you’ll be considered as simply an American, or even American at all.
And yes, this from a girl who would be simply considered an American/White, with no hyphen. The default(well, sort of. Not a white male “American”, but close), if you will.
Ah, sorry! Also, for the “Asian way”, “Asian” should be in quotes. Once again… sob.
Call me paranoid, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the author of this post is actually a half-Syrian, half-American lesbian posing as a White Male blogger because that way, as she herself acknowledges, we are more likely to pay attention (“as bylines and television appearances testify every day”).
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