Okay, I get that we need to be more inclusive, but now it’s an option in Yoast SEO? Like, as writers, we’re going to be flagged if it’s not PC? What is the world coming to? It’s a good thing that it’s disabled by default. I mean, what if someone writes online historical fiction? You can’t use 2022 language if your story is set in 1922. To be realistic, you use language that is appropriate of that time. I mean, it’s like characters on Downton or Bridgerton talking about selfies and such.
As you know, I’m very open at how over-the-top the world has come to and how I feel only SOME stories are allowed to be told. You’re a child of immigrants? You better have been raised in a marginalized community or you don’t count. I’ve tried telling my story, of how things were like for me when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, but as you know, practically every DE&I seminar I’ve been to has had facilitators tell me that it was “too anecdotal.” If I said my parents struggled to put food on the table and worked long hours in restaurant kitchens or something like that then it’s no longer anecdotal. I’d be told that I should be proud of myself for having achieved a comfortable life. Otherwise, I’m just another spoiled, over-privileged brat, not too different from a multi-generational Anglo-Canadian Protestant. But I AM different from them. My parents were still immigrants, still not Anglo and yes, I ate different foods (though my family was creative enough to turn many Chinese dishes into sandwich filling. Nothing wrong with that, but I suppose it IS wrong according to DE&I because, well, they had to adapt. Wait, so North American pizza isn’t “adapting?” I always thought it was. Ditto with chicken balls and beef and broccoli (rather than beef and gai lan or, if you were me circa 1983, beef and choy sum. Because that was the only way I’d eat it when I was 3 or 4)). I was STILL dragged to Chinese school (though it never lasted) and ate with chopsticks at home. Maybe I had more exposure to “Canadian” foods than other children of immigrants, but that’s what things were like for me. And apparently, as I’ve said over and over, that kind of story doesn’t matter to them. Too anecdotal and too privileged. And probably “not inclusive.”
A lot of what the DE&I world wants today really closes doors to certain groups and their stories aren’t heard, even if those stories were not part of the mainstream narrative from a historical perspective. And it’s not just me. They only want victim stories, and not those who become successful. Instead, anyone who DOES become successful is dismissed as being anecdotal (as I’ve said before). I’m just tired of that. And if you DO want to talk about victimhood, isn’t NOT VALIDATING and experience the same thing as being victimized because you’re being dismissed? Are you not taking advantage of the experience and using it to note that this is just another way of being XYZ? I expect these comments to come from those who are newer to the country who may have language barriers when it comes to communicating with people like me (and vice versa), but not from people who were born here or who came as young children. It’s really distressing and it’s a trigger, if you want to use modern, “woke” terminology.
I’m not going to stop talking about this. I will continue to do so until these things are at least acknowledged and validated by mainstream media. I guess they’re too afraid to bring it up as it won’t be seen as politically correct. I know that there are A LOT of people who feel this way. At least I’m not someone important enough since I’d likely be cancelled just for talking about this!!!
