Meta-apology delivered
Another entry for the Encyclopedia of Pointless Groveling: The Jam Jar Bristol posts an apology to The Trans Communinny on Facebook and then issues a second apology a week later saying the first one wasn’t groveling enough.
The Jam Jar is “an independent arts venue.” What they’re apologizing for is that time a bunch of trans activists bullied and threatened a group of non-submissive feminist women, blocking them on a staircase and screaming in their faces.
The first apology starts with this:
We apologise for how long it has taken us to publicly address the concerns of the Trans community regarding an event in April 2018 organised by a group with controversial views. The panel discussed issues affecting trans people, some of these views were hurtful for the trans community. This occurred due to a poor understanding of the issues faced by these communities and bad management structures at the time. Whilst much has changed at The Jam Jar in recent years, we acknowledge the harm caused by this event. We have since done our best to identify how we might heal this relationship and recognize a written statement is necessary.
It goes on with Core Values, all are welcome, communities, diverse audiences, Safer Space Policy. Nothing about women or feminists of course, no reaching out or apologizing to them, only “the trans community.”
But that wasn’t good enough. They felt they had to crawl even lower so they apologized for the apology.
We would like to follow up from our post last week. Thanks to everyone who provided feedback. We appreciate that the post was not framed correctly and did not go far enough to address people’s concerns. Nor did it properly demonstrate what actions we have taken to rectify the damage done by the occurrence of an Event in April 2018 organized by ‘We Need to Talk’. The Jam Jar’s involvement in this event and how it was dealt with was incredibly distressing for the Trans Community & their allies, causing a huge degree of harm to an already marginalised group. Understandably some have since felt unsafe or chosen not to attend the venue.
Still not a word about any distress for the Women Community and their allies, of course.
No one cares about what is hurtful to women.
Well, that’s kind of the thing, isn’t it? Modern concerns are constructed around “communities”. If a set of people is talked about as a community, then it’s something worthy of political and moral consideration. Its lives matter, so to speak. Conversely, if a set of people is not talked about as a community, then its interests are less important than any community’s, if they matter at all.
The groupings that should matter most are thereby supplanted by narrow, invented, or imaginary ones, and all it takes is filling the air with the new so there’s no room for the old. Because the old are those that unite us and those based on our most fundamental needs. Supplanting them leaves us divided against ourselves, and a house divided against itself, yadda yadda yadda.
Yes, I’ve been kvetching about that word for generations. The BBC’s endless burble about “the Muslim community” by which it always meant the most theocratic intrusive male “members” of that “community,” especially the very theocratic and male Muslim Council of Britain. The Beeb treated and talked about the MCB as representing and speaking for Muslims in general, which was complete bullshit. Now it’s “the trans community.”
Funnily enough, still giving voice to ‘the most theocratic intrusive male “members” of that “community…”’ AND their allies!