Photo credit: Ryan McGuire. gratisography.com
Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
Oct. 16, 2016
I grew up in a working class, industrial neighborhood. Lived much of my young life in a roach-infested, fourth-floor walk-up apartment.
I went to lousy schools that did nothing to prepare me for college. Thus, despite being blessed with “above-average” intelligence, I dropped out of a city university -- squandering an abundance of unearned privilege.
Yes, privilege. Regardless of the conditions listed above, I still hit the near-jackpot: male, white, American, New Yorker, able-bodied, sharp mind, raised by two loving parents, and so on. The odds were against me in a few ways, but if I had put my mind to it and played along, I could very possibly be, um… occupying a corner office at Goldman Sachs right now. The long-established template was securely in place.
I instinctually veered off the red carpet that had been rolled out for me, but I had no particular agenda. Later on, many years later on, I embarked on the type of self-education that enabled me to construct an theory of sorts to guide my “rebellion.” Although often self-sabotaging, this path has led me to where I am today. For better or for worse.
We currently hear so much about the idea of people becoming “radicalized” and it’s usually within the context of “terrorism.” But I’ve never seen anyone explain how within a system of insidious privilege, it requires a dedicated program of constant un-learning and re-learning to become and stay “radical” in a more social-justice-y way.
People like me aren’t supposed to “fail.” Everything within my conditioning and socialization still moves me smoothly along on the white male assembly line. I’m not asking for praise -- please believe me on that -- but I think it’s helpful to acknowledge that it required and still requires non-stop effort to not be a complete asshole.
Let me again clarify: This article is not meant to inspire sympathy for me, or any man. The goal here is to remind everyone that if we want to discover new and desperately needed forms of dissent, we cannot afford to ignore or dismiss the pervasive, 24/7 conditioning of males (especially white males).
Oh, one more thing…
Not only have I radicalized myself but more recently: I de-platformed myself. With the advent of Black Lives Matter, I began turning down offers to give talks or do interviews when that space clearly could’ve and should’ve been filled by a person of color. But even more so, upon drastically deepening my perception of patriarchy and male violence, I’ve basically surrendered whatever audience I once had. It was long overdue that I do way more listening than talking.
During my time as a “radical” writer and “activist,” I’ve endured incalculable betrayals, attacks (including death threats), shameful slander, and more -- all because I dared question and re-question orthodoxy on all fronts. But the sustained hate really kicked in when I challenged a lifetime worth of conditioning, shifted my focus to challenging patriarchy, and began naming the problem. As a result, both friends and fans have scattered to the hills. You know those invitations I started turning down? Well now, they’re no longer extended at all.
Consider me de-platformed.
End note: If I could, I’d create classes and support groups on every inch of the globe for males to teach males and then support each other in the most important work of all: Abolishing gender. Men, the change must come from us.
Mickey Z. is currently writing two books, a memoir called How to Lose Friends & Influence Nobody: My Life as an “Activist,” and a novel entitled stain red. In the meantime, he can be found here.
That time I radicalized (and de-platformed) myself by Mickey Z. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://worldnewstrust.com/that-time-i-radicalized-and-de-platformed-myself-mickey-z.