dianaiad
Well-Known Member
If anybody cares, there is this website for fiber crafters; Ravelry. Casey Forbes and his wife started it in 2008, and I've been a member pretty much since the beginning. Right now there seem to be about 8.5 million subscribers. It's a forum and database for knitters, crocheters and weavers from all over the world, to discuss fiber arts, and to share and sell patterns. A HUGE percentage of the members are NOT US citizens. When I buy a pattern, I usually have to get my payment 'translated' into the monetary system of some other nation.
If you have been paying attention to the news, you may have heard about Forbe's announcement regarding his new policy; he will not allow anybody to post a pattern, or an opinion, that supports Donald Trump. No "MAGA" hats. No 'Build the Wall" scarves. No statement in the Conservative knitters' forum or the GOP knitters forum that even hints at supporting anything Trump does or says. Try it and you will be banned.
Look...I'm white...and a conservative. I'm not totally in support of Trump, but I did vote for him and unless the Democrats can get their thumbs out and produce someone I can actually respect, I'll probably vote for him again. This makes me, in the view of Casey and Ravelry, a white supremacist.
The only problem is, I MARRIED a man who was half African American and half Native American. you want to see what a true white supremacist does to a 'person of color?" Try watching what happens to someone who actually MARRIES one, and then gives birth to five children who now can claim a 'racial heritage' from every group out there, and can check off every box on the forms. 'White Supremacist?" Hardly. I simply am a conservative, and I knit. I have never figured that knitting what a 'white grandmother's hobby,' though I guess I AM a 'white grandmother." Not that my granddaughter is 'white.'
My first knitting teacher was 'black.' I learned to weave from a native American. My favorite designer is Japanese. I attend knitting classes with people of all manner of skin colors and cultures...I have never, until now, figured that one's genes had anything to do with one's ability to knit, crochet or weave, or quilt. When I was very young, I would go into my neighbor's field and follow his sheep, 'gleaning' the wool they left on fences and bushes, and I would bring it home to my grandmother, who would spin it up for me to crochet. Turns out that this is how the people who produce the most expensive fiber in the world, qiviut, do it, if they don't comb it out of the muskox.
The POINT is, knitting and other fiber arts are not the sole purview of rich white women. One of the most famous pictures we have of Sojourner Truth has her with her knitting on her lap. For Ravelry and other rich white liberals to claim it for themselves, and then 'virtue signal' (gadfry, how I hate that phrase) that they are so inclusive and progressive that they are 'allowing' people of all colors and cultures to join them in it? Makes me more than a little ill. Since when do rich white women have the right...or the power...to 'allow' people of color to join them in something?
I've never figured that I needed to 'be inclusive' in order for my 'black' knitting buddies to associate with me, or to shop in the same places I do. I simply am glad to see them, and wonder if they like their Hiya Hiya needles, or if they prefer Chiagoo. Or whether they like doing socks with bamboo or metal. THEIR skin color doesn't affect their love of the craft...why does mine?
As well, AS a conservative, I have now been labeled as 'less than human.' "Deplorable.' I cannot express a political opinion...but I CAN buy a 'F*** Trump' hat pattern. *I* cannot post a pattern that expresses my love of my country and support of the current administration...for whatever reason, but I can sure buy any one of 192 'P*ssy Hat" patterns. AND when someone calls me names, I cannot defend myself, or I'm the one who will be banned.
I've been a member of Ravelry for ten years, and I have enjoyed the camaraderie of fellow fiber crafters there all that time. It took me hours to download all the patterns I have purchased from them. But I cannot support the sheer discrimination and hatred this policy represents. If Casey had said 'no politics...' I would have been fine. But he said that I am a horrible person; I am a white supremacist, he says, and I am not allowed to speak up, even in defense of myself, while others can denigrate and humiliate me...and misrepresent me, without let or hindrance.
So I deleted my account. Yes, Casey has the right to do this; it's a private site, and his freedom of speech allows this. MY freedom of speech says I don't have to support it. So I left.
And it broke my heart, because I also left behind many friendships, associations and groups that enriched my ability to do fiber arts.
So; question: was Ravelry 'right' to do this? Not, 'did they have the right,' because Casey absolutely did, but 'was he right?
Was I?
If you have been paying attention to the news, you may have heard about Forbe's announcement regarding his new policy; he will not allow anybody to post a pattern, or an opinion, that supports Donald Trump. No "MAGA" hats. No 'Build the Wall" scarves. No statement in the Conservative knitters' forum or the GOP knitters forum that even hints at supporting anything Trump does or says. Try it and you will be banned.
Look...I'm white...and a conservative. I'm not totally in support of Trump, but I did vote for him and unless the Democrats can get their thumbs out and produce someone I can actually respect, I'll probably vote for him again. This makes me, in the view of Casey and Ravelry, a white supremacist.
The only problem is, I MARRIED a man who was half African American and half Native American. you want to see what a true white supremacist does to a 'person of color?" Try watching what happens to someone who actually MARRIES one, and then gives birth to five children who now can claim a 'racial heritage' from every group out there, and can check off every box on the forms. 'White Supremacist?" Hardly. I simply am a conservative, and I knit. I have never figured that knitting what a 'white grandmother's hobby,' though I guess I AM a 'white grandmother." Not that my granddaughter is 'white.'
My first knitting teacher was 'black.' I learned to weave from a native American. My favorite designer is Japanese. I attend knitting classes with people of all manner of skin colors and cultures...I have never, until now, figured that one's genes had anything to do with one's ability to knit, crochet or weave, or quilt. When I was very young, I would go into my neighbor's field and follow his sheep, 'gleaning' the wool they left on fences and bushes, and I would bring it home to my grandmother, who would spin it up for me to crochet. Turns out that this is how the people who produce the most expensive fiber in the world, qiviut, do it, if they don't comb it out of the muskox.
The POINT is, knitting and other fiber arts are not the sole purview of rich white women. One of the most famous pictures we have of Sojourner Truth has her with her knitting on her lap. For Ravelry and other rich white liberals to claim it for themselves, and then 'virtue signal' (gadfry, how I hate that phrase) that they are so inclusive and progressive that they are 'allowing' people of all colors and cultures to join them in it? Makes me more than a little ill. Since when do rich white women have the right...or the power...to 'allow' people of color to join them in something?
I've never figured that I needed to 'be inclusive' in order for my 'black' knitting buddies to associate with me, or to shop in the same places I do. I simply am glad to see them, and wonder if they like their Hiya Hiya needles, or if they prefer Chiagoo. Or whether they like doing socks with bamboo or metal. THEIR skin color doesn't affect their love of the craft...why does mine?
As well, AS a conservative, I have now been labeled as 'less than human.' "Deplorable.' I cannot express a political opinion...but I CAN buy a 'F*** Trump' hat pattern. *I* cannot post a pattern that expresses my love of my country and support of the current administration...for whatever reason, but I can sure buy any one of 192 'P*ssy Hat" patterns. AND when someone calls me names, I cannot defend myself, or I'm the one who will be banned.
I've been a member of Ravelry for ten years, and I have enjoyed the camaraderie of fellow fiber crafters there all that time. It took me hours to download all the patterns I have purchased from them. But I cannot support the sheer discrimination and hatred this policy represents. If Casey had said 'no politics...' I would have been fine. But he said that I am a horrible person; I am a white supremacist, he says, and I am not allowed to speak up, even in defense of myself, while others can denigrate and humiliate me...and misrepresent me, without let or hindrance.
So I deleted my account. Yes, Casey has the right to do this; it's a private site, and his freedom of speech allows this. MY freedom of speech says I don't have to support it. So I left.
And it broke my heart, because I also left behind many friendships, associations and groups that enriched my ability to do fiber arts.
So; question: was Ravelry 'right' to do this? Not, 'did they have the right,' because Casey absolutely did, but 'was he right?
Was I?
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