So. I actually made the picture attached to this post several years ago, during the pandemic when someone (I honestly don’t remember who) was in the process of being shown the door.
Today, I’m not writing about any specific person (although the post was prompted by the actions of a particular royal in a particular kingdom that rhymes with “for-ya”), but instead about how rank and privilege blind us to other peoples’ perspectives and lived experiences.
Just like any other environment with humans in it, the SCA has its own types of privilege and unconscious biases. Recognizing that this is the case does not mean that anyone is bad, or that there’s someone to blame; these are facts of life, and it is incumbent on us all to work to learn, grow, and overcome them. But in order to do that, we have to become consciously aware of them, and that’s -hard- to do. No one can do it for you. And it’s rarely an easy or comfortable process.
For example, the SCA very consistently supports the narrative that Peers should be looked upon as Exemplars. More than once when I was on vigil, I was told that upon elevation, I would be seen as a representative for the entire Order of the Pelican, whether I liked it or not.
I’ve been a Peer now for a little over three years, and I can say with certainty that there are some people who treat me differently than before I was a Peer. Is that because I’m a better person, or is it because they have an unconscious association of “Peers=good people”? I don’t know. But I do know that I have had to, more than once in the past 15 years, consciously and deliberately review and deconstruct my own reactions to acts taken by Peers, because I realized that I was giving some people extra leeway or benefit of the doubt simply because they had a patent or a coronet.
The SCA has gotten a better about exposing and removing toxic elements from the population. There’s lots more to be done, of course; being anti-racist (for one example) is a process, not an achievement, and we’re never done. But there have definitely been a lot of people removed who never would have been in the 80s or 90s. And some of them were removed for verbalizing or taking action on long-held beliefs (more unconscious biases in many parts) that they still do not understand why they were sanctioned for.
So I’m the… Viceroy of the Kingdom of Cattleville. Two people, who I have known for decades, were kicked out of the Association of Armor five years ago because of things that they said that made other people who live in Cattleville feel uncomfortable to the point of feeling unsafe. Some of those other people are trans, some are LGTBQIA+, some are from non-dominant religious communities, some have different skin pigment. It doesn’t really matter what the two people said specifically, but it was in violation of the Association’s Core Values, and even though those two people held Patents of their own, they were finally held accountable for their actions and removed.
Those two people, along with a bunch of other people in the Association who felt the same way but hadn’t been caught speaking the quiet parts out loud, went and formed their own Association — the Association of Swording. It’s a lot smaller than the Association of Armor, but a lot of the rules are very similar, except for the updated Core Values. Those two people do a thing that makes them also Viceroys of one of the Association of Swording’s kingdoms.
The Viceroy of the Kingdom of Cattleville knows these people. He considers them friends. And while maybe he doesn’t agree with everything they say, he believes, in his heart, that they are good people. So he goes to an Association of Swording event — not as himself, but in his official position as Viceroy — and he asks a bunch of the members of the Association of Swording to come back, because they’re his friends. After all, they’re Peers. They have coronets. He knows they don’t -really- want to hurt anyone.
The Viceroy of Cattleville needs anti-bias training. The Viceroy of Cattleville needs to learn how to look beyond his own privilege and rank, because the Viceroy of Cattleville is supposed to be a representative of the People of Cattleville to the world, and a lot of them don’t think that the Association of Swording is full of good people. The Viceroy of Cattle is falling victim to his own internalized prejudices — ones that he almost certainly doesn’t even realize that he has.
Now. Someone out there is reading this and saying “I don’t want politics in my SCA. Can’t we just agree to disagree?”
The answer to that is “no.” Because these aren’t issues of politics. They’re issues of humanity. When we agree to disagree on issues of personhood for someone who doesn’t look like you, or loves like you, or thinks like you, these aren’t matters of opinion the way that answers to the question “Is Chicago Deep Dish Pizza actually Pizza”? (The answer here is also “no”, its Chicago Deep Dish casserole, but I digress.)
When we allow those who think that BLM is a terrorist group, or those who think that trans people are trying to “groom” children, or those who think that Western history is the only history worth learning about or recreating to be in our Society, we are telling all the people who are hurt by that prejudice that they don’t matter as much to us as these other folks, who have been our friends, do.
And that’s wrong. Because a person of color can’t (and shouldn’t have to) stop being a person of color. A trans person can’t (and shouldn’t have to) stop being trans. There is no way for me to become less Jewish.
But you know what -can- change?
Unconscious bias. Prejudice. And Privilege.
