Guest Post by Manishita for Bis of Colour: People of Colour at BiCon: Are we really welcome there?
I think it is important for white people to engage in discussions about whiteness and racism and so am writing this even as I do feel I’m opening myself up for attack from all quarters. If people of colour don’t wish to engage with this writing at this time that is their decision and I expect they will have good reasons not to. If they do, I hope to listen and learn.
I appreciate people publicly expressing how they find community events I go to rather than just quietly walking away. I feel sad that she had such a negative experience which could have been avoided.
I tend to find it a bit discouraging if limited resources and previous progress are not acknowledged much, even if we are not where we want to be yet. If the main visible reaction to making changes is to be criticised for not making further changes then I am concerned this might be demotivating. This doesn’t mean any particular writer needs to offer praise or that pats-on-the-back should ever outweigh appraisal of not being close enough to targets we ought to have been hitting by now. Also, we white folks might be over-sensitive to criticism and miss where acknowledgement is being made. It takes me a couple of reads of critical writing to see both the criticisms and the support and look at my part and parts I can influence without talking it all into personal shame or rejecting it and disengaging which I have the unearned privilege to be able to do.
As ever, when people talk about BiCon I want to say a bit more about it for people who don’t know it: Someone’s experiences of BiCon will be made up of their own internal process, the people they interact with (including session facilitators, DJs, comedians etc.) remembering about 1/3 attendees are new each year, with and the structure of the event as put together by the organisers and also indirectly with the structure the organisers have to work within: the BiCon guidelines. Manishita writes Bicon is the UK’s largest and most consistent event dedicated to the bisexual community. It is the amalgamation of both a conference and a convention, hence the name Bicon. Bicon explores a whole spectrum of issues relating to bisexuality, kink and sex positivity. It came about in the mid-1980s after an event titled ‘The Politics of Bisexuality’ was the first to be organised in London, 1984. What followed was a series of similar events after fully concretising into Bicon shortly after. It is a yearly event where the management and delivery of the event is democratically run.
I’m a regular BiCon attendee and often a workshop session facilitator. I’ve not been a BiCon organiser. I have run other events. I have helped put together and revise the BiCon guidelines over the years. I’m concerned about inclusion and dealing with the racism reported around bi events including any racism that I’ve contributed to.
Manishita writes My first Bicon was rifled racism. I found myself swimming in meagre attendance of people of colour in an oppressive sea of white attendees. It was an unsafe space fraught with white dreadlocks and well-meaning pretty white bindis. It also consisted of culturally appropriative events organised and led by white people. These included meditation mornings and tantric sex type of sessions. This year’s Bicon was pretty much of the same old white thing. Even with Bicon’s sponsorship of first time Bis of Colour attendees, this year’s event was quite white.
I don’t think many people would disagree that BiCon has been very white, just by sight and hearing how people identify ethnically. People of Colour report many ways they find things “white” beyond demographics and I’m gradually learning what they might be.
M refers to the space being unsafe. This concerns me even as I know what is considered “safe” can use further discussion and that not all transformative shared spaces will be free of reenacting trauma. Part of the problem of seeing repeated physical violence is I find my sensitivity to other unpleasantnesses is either ramped way up or I find my empathy suppressed.
I still struggling with ideas of “cultural appropriation” where I expect ideas to flow between different people. Sharing styles of dressing up where I’m from have often been seen as positive appreciation and connection rather than theft or creative appropriation. I’m surprised that something as widely practiced for so long such as meditation would be seen as appropriation. This doesn’t mean I necessarily disagree with someone who says it is: I’m still thinking about it. I can’t think up where boundaries might be since so many ideas, dress, practices etc. have disseminated for so long (yes, while major power was used in a racist way throughout history). I also don’t expect people of colour to agree on all of the boundaries.
On a practical note: what suggestions are there about what we do about it? I can see checking carefully before picking an “exotic” ball theme. I’m not sure what intervention is wanted around how attendees usually wear their hair. I’m wary of excluding people and also aware of “teaching moment” interventions in a space vs. prerequisites to attend. Also: who should carry out such interventions, if any?
I understand some of the general objections around police existing at all from anarchist friends and the argument that feminism implies support for anarchism. I also hear the specific objections about police racism which is well documented. I also get that people have strong personal reactions to police from their own experiences or those of people like them. I know a fair amount of the history of homophobic policing. I also know policing has changed near where I live because of regular sometimes difficult conversations between police, those officially regulating the police, monitoring bodies, black and gay community organisations and community members. Police abroad are still police, and are also in quite a different context such as the US South and I’m not sure how useful it is to join them as a group or split them into subgroups. Would not allowing local police into any place we controlled or specific areas of BiCon have helped reduce biphobia or contributed to or reduced racism?
For future events: should the whole of BiCon be police free (unless they force entry or use covert means)? What about attendees who are also police or who have police partners? I think I’d want police and journalists on duty well marked but allowed into at least some areas and others open to people off duty only. Would that be too much of a compromise for others more affected by them?
I want NHS people welcome at BiCon on duty or not.
For the civil service, there are parts that I don’t think much directly affect equalities. Where they do, I mainly want them better informed and also want to support bi civil servants. I get that the HO are being asked to enact racist and biphobic policy. I’d like that to change and wonder how we help that happen. At some level if you take racism as “structural” then anyone in any organisation will be part of a racist system so again, where should a BiCon boundary be?
M continues
We are encouraged to attend, to contribute, and to make complaints within the existing structures. And when we do, we are thanked and our ‘views’ appreciated. However, those views, which in stark reality are in fact outright experiences of discrimination, are only ever just acknowledged. Racism becomes diluted to ‘microaaggression’ and ‘cultural appropriation’ almost as if that is an optional form of being discriminated against. It is as if we, queers of colour, choose to feel discriminated, hence actual change to create decolonised queer spaces become optional. That is all too convenient to white LGBT types. It suits them that we have done our job and contributed. And they have done their bit, they have acknowledged us. So the matter is closed.
I’m glad expressions of experiences are being sought by organisers and acknowledged. These seem like good first steps as long as they are not the only thing and matters are just closed. What sort of response do people of colour then want, and how quickly? Have current systems not been used well enough to satisfy expectations, do we want different systems or should the expectations for the future be different?
I’ve so far seen ideas of “‘microaaggression’ and ‘cultural appropriation’” as ways of explaining in more detail how discrimination can work rather than a way of watering down the problem so I’m surprised to hear the view expressed. Do others agree? Would it be better to use the most charged and important word racism every time? Much of my own thinking has been helped by having more words: so I don’t just put full responsibility for racism on the overt and violent rather than the patterns more of us follow and unconscious biases.
Towards the end, after more reporting of how racism is experienced which I hear, we have:
Bicon and its white apologists are not worth my time. In an act of decolonised queer self-love, Bicon will never be graced by my powerful and important presence. Not until, real action occurs. By that I mean at least 1) a consistent increase of Bis of Colour year on year 2) a stronger decolonised code of conduct 3) the proper enforcement of the code of conduct 4) the end to cultural appropriation 4) POC focused session *run* by POCs 5) intersectionality.
So
1) That appears to be happening and I hope will continue to be supported.
2) I’d need someone with better knowledge to say what wording changes they suggest. This seems quite tractable if we have wording suggestions. I can’t think of any.
3) I’d like to know how we’d know if the code-of-conduct was being enforced and what should be done if it wasn’t.
4)i) As above, I’m really unsure what this means even after reading a bit about it.
ii) I think it is reasonably established that POC run sessions for POC are accepted by BiCon. Should they be commissioned?
5) I think some people are already talking about intersectionality, others find it an academic, inaccessible word and I wonder how we take “intersectionality” forward in what we do.
[Edit: Disclosure: I have passed some messages between BiCon, BiCon Continuity and Spectrum but not otherwise been involved]
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