Fighting Rough Waters
If you are silent about your pain, they'll kill you and say you enjoyed it.
All of the emotional coping skills on this site are really just about dealing with symptoms. The microaggressions will never end if you never remove their source: systemic oppression. Until there is no more white supremacy, there will always be racist microaggressions. Until there is no more (cis)(hetero)patriarchy, there will always be homophobic, transphobic, and misogynist microaggressions. Until there is no more ableism, there will always be ableist microaggressions. Until there is no more capitalism, there will always be class-based microaggressions.
But how exactly to go about wiping out white supremacy, pulverizing patriarchy, annihilating ableism, and crushing capitalism... That is a realm of politics much too vast and complicated for any individual's undergraduate thesis project to prescribe advice for. Sorry. I wish I could say "This one political ideology is the answer and if we do this one thing we will be liberated" but the world just isn't that simple. It's also just not my place to be telling other people how to deal with their politics. I'm way too white to be telling anyone how to confront racism. And since systems of oppression are all intertwined and born out of each other, there's no way to get rid of ableism or patriarchy without getting rid of racism.
So then what can I do? Well, this project came out of trying to compile resources together, so I can do that. I can link you to resources on other websites to help you find your own way politically. There are lots of local political organizations you can join which are trying to fight systemic inequity. There's way too many for me to link to every organization relevant to every person in every region, but I can pick out some that I know of.
- Derailing for Dummies was one of the original inspirations for this project. It's essentially a snarky encyclopedia of common defensive arguments and derailing tactics that people use when confronted with microaggressions and other forms of bigotry. It's great because it basically has pre-written counter-arguments to each argument. Just make sure you're not so caught up in using pre-written counter-arguments that you aren't connecting with what's going on.
Political Organizations
- Find your local chapter of Black Lives Matter.
- Trans Women of Color Collective.
- Trans-Latin@ Coalition
- Black Trans Advocacy
- Audre Lorde Project (New York City)
- List of Equality Federation Member Organizations
- Austic Self-Advocacy Network
- Slingshot Collective's Radical Contact List
- Racial Equity Resource Guide Organization Directory
- Find your local National Organization for Women chapter
- List of disability rights organizations
- Directory of LGBT community centers
- There's a well-maintained list of LGBT organizations on Wikipedia.
- Black & Pink
Unfortunately when it comes to disability rights, I couldn't seem to find any organizations which are grassroots, have local chapters in different regions and deal with Ableism as a whole.
When it comes to any topic, there's always a wealth of organizations outnumbering any directory I could link to. There's a link up there to the "Slingshot Radical Contact List." That directory is mostly community spaces where you're likely to meet local activists who you could probably ask about local political organizations. Many cities have "infoshops" which are spaces that specifically serve to distribute radical political literature and connect activists.
I hope this is all helpful. You really do have to carve your own path when it comes to politics and I hope this page could at least give a head-start.