What Problematic Means to Me

So let me start this blog off by saying that I'll probably find something problematic from virtually everything that I ingest. That's because everything is problematic. Everything. 

And that's why it's a bit complicated. 

So, there's problematic and there's downright horrible. Problematic is usually, in my mind, when someone does stupid things because they're ignorant. Saying that someone is ignorant isn't an insult. I'm ignorant about a lot of things, because I don't know everything. But the goal is to keep moving forward and to learn as much as possible. 

So, for my examples, I'll try to speak for things that I've experienced as a queer black girl. 

Examples of problematic things:

-When gay people make transphobic statements like "ew, a vagina." Because, you know, lots of guys have vaginas. That's not funny or cool. 

I usually only think that actions and words and thoughts and pieces of media are problematic. People aren't usually problematic. Just because someone doesn't know about cultural appropriation doesn't make them problematic as a whole, in my eyes, until they are educated and continue to appropriate other cultures. 

Examples of problematic people:

-Kylie Jenner: Because a whole bunch of people explained cultural appropriation to her, but she ignored them. She's still "rocking" cornrows, and basically appropriating black features. Fun!

Cool? So, to summarize, actions are problematic, and so are things that we create (because there's really no going back to change them. Most of the time.) However, people are only problematic on special occasions.

xoxo,
Camryn