TEDxCUNY

November 20, 2015 4:03 PM

Today at TEDxCUNY, protestors took the stage in honor of Sonia Guinansaca, a migrant queer poet whose speech was pulled this week. (protest begins before the 7 minute mark of the video)
posted by roomthreeseventeen (17 comments total)

In the blog, they posted only one email and maybe I don't have the necessary context or background to see anything that was particularly triggering or disturbing about the email (please feel free to correct/help me in understanding that better). I did find the email a bit paternalistic and condescending though. I understand that being a cis white male I have the privilege to simply overlook those transgressions since they are not a regular part of my interaction with our culture.

Throughout this whole encounter as a queer woman of color migrant, primarily a cis white man did the email exchange, which was uncomfortable and triggering.

However, the above sentence pulled from the analysis of that one email seems to indicate that the problem was that it was a cis white male that was the problem, and not the cis white male's actions.
posted by herda05 at 5:18 PM on November 20, 2015 [8 favorites]

"Our job is to make you a hero"...so shut up and do what we say. I mean, that seems pretty disturbing to me. Being like, we want you to perform your "really amazing" (ugh) poems but we are going to silence any activist portion of your piece, is really nasty. Like, "Let us be tourists who can call ourselves progressives by listening to your exotic outlook...but, y'know, don't bother us by reminding us that steps can be taken to make lives like yours better." The tone is just so adverbially passive-aggressive it sets my teeth on edge.
posted by mittens at 5:51 PM on November 20, 2015 [15 favorites]

Yeah, I found the letter triggery, passive aggressive, paternalistic and absolutely filled with white privilege. That was nasty, and I would have responded as she did. How dare he suggest that her talk be emotional labor to soothe the ruffled feathers of a white man uncomfortable with her narrative. Fuck that shit.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 6:10 PM on November 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Aside for the great points raised here and in the article about privilege and silencing, man the style of TED talks. I watch a lot of talks with a view to choosing speakers for a conference, and I swear I can now tell it's a TED talk just just from listening to the cadence and rhythm of the speaker. Don't need to know what they're talking about, or who they are - just close my eyes and listen. Yup, Ted talk.*

*not a compliment
posted by maupuia at 6:19 PM on November 20, 2015 [8 favorites]

1. It's really funny watching some of the TED people try to confront the protesters in the video. They know they're walking on reallllly thin ice and that anything they do or say to remove them from the stage could put them under really intense scrutiny. I don't think I've heard voices quiver more wildly with pure weakness and fear as they try to ask them to step down. Gold.

2. It always wows me how even the most radical left-leaning crowds do not understand what a protest is. They're like, "what you're doing is pointless! We gave you a chance to say something and now you're not saying anything, you're just inconveniencing everyone now! You're being really disrespectful." Yeah dude, that's the fucking point - the point is to inconvenience everyone now that they've blown it. It's like a protest has to be this properly organized, roped off, and pre-scheduled event to some of these clowns.
posted by windbox at 6:19 PM on November 20, 2015 [20 favorites]

"TEDx" and "radical left-leaning" are strange concepts to find so close to each other.
posted by Pope Guilty at 6:27 PM on November 20, 2015 [9 favorites]

but but but your protest is not being NICE to us.

(Could you possibly protest in a way that we could, you know, completely ignore?)
posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:41 PM on November 20, 2015 [9 favorites]

In the blog, they posted only one email and maybe I don't have the necessary context or background to see anything that was particularly triggering or disturbing about the email (please feel free to correct/help me in understanding that better). I did find the email a bit paternalistic and condescending though. I understand that being a cis white male I have the privilege to simply overlook those transgressions since they are not a regular part of my interaction with our culture.

I don't think the email itself was the major problem here - did you read the paragraph after that? All of it?
posted by atoxyl at 6:57 PM on November 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't actually find it very hard to believe that the TED guy had issues with the structure (rather than just issues with the content disguised as issues with the structure) but this is itself a reflection of the narrowness and lack of imagination of the TED formula.
posted by atoxyl at 7:04 PM on November 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

Is the talk itself available anywhere? From the way she describes it its just a big list of names, I'd be interested to know what else it had in it.
posted by Sebmojo at 9:48 PM on November 20, 2015

It's really disappointing that the first comment in here is a white cis guy saying he thinks the artist just objects to white cis guys and there isn't any actual problem here. You really managed to read that entire post and not pick up on her objections to being told not to include all the other activists, for instance? What absurdly selective comprehension.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 3:27 AM on November 21, 2015 [8 favorites]

I had to watch a TED talk video as part of a corporate retreat yesterday that had all the depth of a self help book. Bosses love that shit cause it's all individual solution w no blame put on the system.
posted by emjaybee at 5:54 AM on November 21, 2015 [6 favorites]

From the blog post:

Problematic, oppressive, racist, misogynistic behaviors and lack of professionalism has forced me to out of this opportunity.

That reads like she voluntarily backed out, not that her talk was "pulled" as the OP put it. Am I misreading this?
posted by eustacescrubb at 1:00 PM on November 21, 2015

The committee told her she was only to read her poetry, not to present her talk. That means her talk was pulled.
posted by gingerest at 1:15 PM on November 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

This has given me a lot to think about. Thank you for posting this.
posted by biggreenplant at 4:28 PM on November 21, 2015

It's really disappointing that the first comment in here is a white cis guy saying he thinks the artist just objects to white cis guys and there isn't any actual problem here. You really managed to read that entire post and not pick up on her objections to being told not to include all the other activists, for instance? What absurdly selective comprehension.

This is what she said:

Throughout this whole encounter as a queer woman of color migrant, primarily a cis white man did the email exchange, which was uncomfortable and triggering. In spite of having a predominant staff of color and women, the primary contact person was a tactless white cis man.
posted by Sebmojo at 6:50 PM on November 21, 2015

Yea, I saw that sentence, but I also saw many other sentences which created a coherent narrative, and apparently you didn't see those other sentences.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 11:58 PM on November 21, 2015 [2 favorites]