Skit: Day of silence

Friday was Day of silence and I completely forgot. I talked all day. Not even sorry. My feelings on day of silence has changed over the years. Before I was all for it, be silent, protest, yea! Now its more before you silences yourself analyze your privilege as it relates to the space your in. On Friday I was in Lakeview/Boys town which is a upper middle class white neighborhood. It was not the place to be quite. I as a person who is normally gendered female, I am queer and poor it is my duty to speak up and talk about the diaspora happening in my community. I want to talk about the police brutality and the misappropriation of resource. On Friday I used my voice to tell my coworkers about the fact that they are building a walk in free clinic in this upper middle class neighborhood where 90% of the people have insurance. Who is using this clinic? Who is this benefitting? But in my neighborhood where only 25% of people have some kind of health insurance we don't even have a hospital. We could use a clinic in my neighborhood to help everyone, not just queers, get better access to health care. I also didn't get to go to Night of Noise because I am lucky enough to have a job, and I need to work for a living. So when thinking about Day of silence think about your privilege and privilege around you. So if you are taking up space and your voice/opinion doesn't really matter, Shut the Fuck Up! So that the people who are at a disadvantage can speak for themselves. They know what they need more than we do. So how do you know if you need to STFU! Are you upper class in a lower class space? Look at your class and how it relates to those around you and the space your in. If you're at an advantage Shut Up. If you're at the disadvantage speak up your important. If you're cis ( identify as the gender your assigned) in a space full of gender non conforming people Shut the Fuck Up! If you're under the gender queer umbrella speak up your story is important. If you're hetero Silence!!!  Queer people speak up and let people know when they do something that hurts you. Day of silence is about is being quite if you're privileged to not only make those around cognisant of those who are being silenced and can't speak but, it allows those who are normally drowned out by privileged a chance to speak, be herd, and talk for themselves about issues that effect them. The big take away Shut the Fuck Up! Haha :)