Old Jim Crow is Alive and Well in the Wiccan Community
by Thora - Priestess of the Correllian Nativist Tradition
by Thora - Priestess of the Correllian Nativist Tradition
Addendum
The essay you're about to read is in response to an essay written by Hexangel. The essay was entitled, Traditional vs. Eclectic: We Are Not One Wicca and it was posted on Witchvox on the week of July 13th. I didn't like this essay. I found it pompous, insulting and demeaning, and marginalizing. I did not agree with her ideas or opinions, however I have found that after twenty plus years practicing the Craft, that many—not all—but many of my fellows in the Craft seem to hold similar attitudes and opinions. Enough to make me feel uncomfortable and unhappy.
As I said before, I did not like her essay. However, I did respect her for writing it and for putting into words what I've observed first hand over the years. I did not write her and insult, threaten or demean this person in any way. I did not disparage this person or their writing ability, question her intelligence, her parentage or her relationship with her dog. I did, however, decide to write a rebuttal to this essay and to point out how erroneous such ideas are and if allowed to go unchecked could become dangerous. My essay, entitled Jim Crow is Alive and Well in the Wiccan Community is an allegorical satire. Not satirical in the way of Landover Baptist or other spoof sites. This is a literary satire. When you read it, think A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift. Yes. It's melodramatic. Yes it's over the top. Yes, it's supposed to shock and surprise you just as Swift did in his aforementioned essay. That's what I was thinking about when I wrote mine with a gleam in my eye and my tongue firmly pressed into cheek.
When it was posted on Witchvox, I was startled by the number of hits it received. It was linked and rssed everywhere. It made me wonder what kind of buzz it was creating in the community. I figured that the vast majority of those hits were people who read part, if not all of the essay and said, "Meh," and went on to click another link. I also felt that a large number of the silent majority nodded in partial if not total agreement, and scampered off to do something else. I knew I wasn't going to receive very many happy emails congratulating me on my chutzpah. But what I was not expecting was the number of vicious, hate filled and yes, even threatening emails by people who angrily opposed—and indeed---believed that I had no right to an opinion, much less this one. Others were frighteningly funny, in that they missed the point altogether. Someone disparaged me by pointing out that their coven does indeed allow African Americans into our tradition, thank you very much. I don't recall mentioning that at all in the essay. The idea was to convey a distinct sense of marginalizaton and snobbery between some traditions (I used British Traditional as an example, thinking everyone would get the gist that I wasn't poking a satirical finger at just them,) and other traditions, eclectics and solitaries. One woman, very self righteously informed me that there is no hatred of other traditions in the Wiccan community, and we were certainly do not behave the way people did during the Civil Right's movement. I won't go into the entire four page diatribe here. I will say that while reading her email it reminded me of a sunny afternoon back in the sixties when the ladies of our all Caucasian church were sitting on the front porch discussing how they were going to help save all those `poor little brown babies' starving in Africa, all the while sanctimoniously stating that they didn't believe in segregation, that Jesus loves us all, ad nauseam. Then in the next breath I watched as the hostess verbally eviscerated, and then slapped, her young black maid not much older than myself (I was 10 at the time) for dropping a tea cup.
The person who sent me the email also pompously went on to proclaim that Wiccans do not nor have we ever done violence against our own kind, although during my time as a religious right's advocate I've several instances where there has indeed been violence. Ironically, following her letter, someone threatened to beat me to a pulp if I ever showed up at the same Pagan festival he was attending. Do I believe that there are separate drinking fountains for Wiccans with differing beliefs? No of course not. And if you believe that you've missed the point of the essay. The point of the essay was to start debate and dialog, not to widen the rift already being created by elitist attitudes in our community. It was meant to shock—sure—but it was also meant for you to step back and rethink that snarky comment you were about to make in regards to a group of eclectics who had the audacity to step into your favorite restaurant while you're dining with your conveners. And if some smart ass really does hang signs for Traditionals and Eclectics on the Porta-John doors during a large Pagan festival we can all snort and laugh because we know that's satirical and funny and meant, not to harm, but to drive home the point that we even though we may worship the Goddess in our own way, we are, fundamentally the same. So read, take it in the spirit it was intended, and in the immortal words of my favorite actress, Bette Davis, "fasten your seatbelts, it's gonna be a bumpy night." -Thora
Old Jim Crow is Alive and Well in the Wiccan Community
In 1944, In Detroit, Michigan, the NAACP community pronounced Jim Crow dead. They dressed in their Sunday finest as they marched slowly down the street. The pall bearers walked in a dignified steady gait as they carried a casket down the streets as they played slow jazz. They spoke his eulogy. Decades later, in 1965 when the Civil Right's Act was established, they effectively nailed the coffin lid shut and believed that Jim Crow was dead and gone and would never rise again.
But Jim Crow did rise again, and to those who were raised in the South during the Civil Rights era, he is a frightening specter to behold, especially when we see him arise in our very own community. Jim Crow—that set of laws laid down in the Southern United States establishing segregation; the `separate but equal' clause and better known as Apartied by South Africans who had a similar system in lace -- didn't really die out as the NAACP had hoped. He simply moved to a new neighborhood. Old Jim Crow simply dusted himself off, changed his clothes, put on a new hat and found a home inside the Wiccan community. And now he has come among us to create mischief. And he's doing a wonderful job at it.
We as Wiccans haven't laid down a `separate but equal clause.' Not in written form, anyway, although by the way people are talking you'd think there had been. There are no physical barriers between American Wiccans and British Traditional Wiccans; at least none that you can see. But they're there. They're there. And if you are on the wrong side of that barrier you feel it as surely as if it were made of brick, cement and razor wire. And those obstacles are becoming increasingly more difficult to tear down.
We love to talk about love and tolerance, yet we rarely practice it on ourselves. We criticize and on some occasions even condemn those who practice other beliefs when we are mocked or discriminated against. And yet, in virtually the same breath, we call members in our ranks names that are just as discriminating and treat ourselves just as cruelly.
And we are ironically the harshest on ourselves. We make a mockery out of other people's beliefs, while at the same time berating non Wiccan and Pagan communities for doing exactly the same thing. We espouse love and brotherhood, and at the same time try to do our brother in. We try to create positive life affirming cyber as well as physical communities where we can be safe and free from persecution, and yet, we do our very best to destroy those very things we yearn for.
American Wiccans can still—for the time being at least—drink from the same fountains as their British Traditional brothers and sisters. There is no law in our religious realm stating that a solitary eclectic cannot really be a Wiccan, although it has been implied multiple times. Yet, in our hearts and minds, we have embraced the old Jim Crow laws and use them against our own selves. Even now, on message boards, and within our covens and communities, even right here on Witchvox, we see the desire by some to segregate the Wiccan religion. Their reasons are exactly the same as those who established Jim Crow in the first place. Once again we are seeing those smug notions that state that British Traditionals are really Wiccan whereas American Wiccans are relegated to the lower status of"Neo Wiccans." Oh we're equal, but then again we're really not.
We're tainted somehow, inferior because we do not acknowledge their set of precepts nor do we believe in any way that Gerald Gardner is our lord and savior, or even our teacher in some traditions. And because of this we are relegated to second class citizenship within our own religious community. Because we do not follow their beliefs exactly, accept their creed en totale, then we are somehow not worthy to worship the Goddess and her Consort.
We, being `separate but equal' desire to eat from the fruit of the same tree as our British Traditional brothers and sisters. However the tree has been cut in half. One branch is for `them.' The other is for `us.' And our fruit, as deemed by `them,' is unfit to eat, because it, like ourselves, is different and is therefore tainted. And woe unto you, my children if you are an eclectic solitary. Then you are nothing more than a poser. A pretender. A fluffy bunny….And you get no fruit at all. You have to toil in the gardens alone, and grow your own trees. And maybe, in the end, that isn't such a terrible thing.
Gentle beings, these ideas and attitudes are the meat and wine for Jim Crow. He likes division, yearns for separation from those whom he deems are `desirables' and those who are `not.' He thrives on disparity and discord. He yearns for a day when only those like him are granted the freedom and privilege to call themselves Wiccan. Jim Crow doesn't want us to drink from the same goblet of the Goddess. He likes the bigotry, enjoys feeling superior, the—and yes I'll say it—the hated that is propagated when we decide that one set of people are the One True Craft whereas the rest of us are nothing more than a mockery, or at best, inferior.
I'm not here to give Jim Crow an audience. I am here with a shovel and a box of coffin nails, hoping to put him back down in the ground where he belongs. But I can't do this task on my own. It takes of work from all the communities coming together, to drop the delusion of elitism and fundamentalism and recognize that despite the difference in our beliefs, we all, at some point, look up at the moon, cherish the starry night sky, and hear the whisper of our beloved Mother Goddess in our hearts. She made us equal. There are no barriers between us. She does not have favorite children. She loves us all. And we can all, at least, be better siblings because of it.
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