Like many people I was raised in a milieu with more than the usual amount of sexism and racism. I often say “I got better”, but the truth is, I’m getting better. I strive to learn more every day. To be empathic and listen to the experiences of people who are different with me. I work to be a better, more accepting and less horrible person. I’m an able-bodied, cisgendered, straight, white man. I may be poor and fat, but I have a lot of privilege. I have the privilege given to me by society to be blind to the casual racism, sexism, ableism, and homophobia all around us.

‘Diversity’ is one of those words that people can get tired of hearing very quickly: it makes them feel guilty and insensitive, and it almost always raises acrimonious discussion until it fizzles out, leaving bitter emotions in its wake. A quick perusal of comment threads (such as here , here , and here ) might lead one to think that there is a small number of privileged minorities who have nothing better to do then to complain, insult, and derail conversations towards their pet project: complaining about a problem that was solved years ago.

[Sasha here. One of the main points of More Than Men is to get regular guys talking about why diversity matters to them. Here’s our first guest post making that happen.]

In the recent past our society has been making incremental steps towards the universal acceptance of diversity and the equality of all flavours of humanity, whether it be gender, race, sexuality, blood type or the amount of hair on your knees.

• Stephen Hawking is Mystified by Women. In related news we’re mystified by people who pay attention to experts talking out their asses about things outside their specialty.
  • Y U Mad, Whiteboy? This is Sasha’ new favorite non-naked Tumblr.
  • Rick Santorum has something for you ladies. (While we’re on the topic of Tumblr memes.)
  • The Invisible Backpack of Able-Bodied Privilege Checklist. Because privilege isn’t just about men and women, folks.

It’s come to our attention that there are some people who are a little confused by what the More Than Men project is all about. Perhaps because our original About was not as clear as it should have been, perhaps because a group of white guys gathering together for something that’s not horrible is such a novel concept, but somehow there are people who either have the wrong idea about us or who are skeptical about what we will actually be doing. So let me break it down.

Greta Christina has written about the “Yes, but…” problem many of my fellow dudes have when listening to women talk about sexism and misogyny. I want to talk about a specific “Yes, but…” here: “Y_es, but that’s not sexist because he/I/they don’t hate all women, just that one!_” The argument is that since the person slinging gendered slurs doesn’t hate women as a class, they aren’t a misogynist, therefore they’re just a jerk and we we can shut up about this problem and go talk about how dumb Christians are again.

We live in a diverse world and I think we can all agree that any time a group’s makeup is less diverse than the world at large there are reasons for it. Here in the United States we have more diversity than most places, but when attending nerd events, atheist events, and skeptic events I keep finding myself in the majority. Why is that? I believe it is because something about those groups is making women and racial and sexual minorities feel like the group is Not For Them or are experiencing things that make them feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. I would like to change that.

Howdy

There’s nothing to see here. MtM has been shelved for quite a while and I’m not putting any effort into it, but I may allow limited contributions in the future