Yes, Marcos is gay. Marcos is gay in San Francisco, black in South Africa, an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10pm, a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.

Marcos is all the exploited, marginalised, oppressed minorities resisting and saying `Enough’. He is every minority who is now beginning to speak and every majority that must shut up and listen. He is every untolerated group searching for a way to speak. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable – this is Marcos.

    • optissima@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Of course it’s more nuanced, if you are Romani. Also insane to use a reddit thread as a source instead of something not anecdotal. For you, it’s a slur.

      Whoever says “yeah I use slurs in solidarity” has no interest in solidarity, the use of a slur is inherently alienating.

      • lumpenproletariat@quokk.auOP
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        2 months ago

        Slightly pedantic but you’re using an ableist slur in a negative connotation right there.

        It’s not wrong to hear the voices of members of groups directly, it’s the only thing you should be doing.

        And to be an even bigger pedant, I’m ethnically an Irish Traveler. Of which the word has also been used for.

        But I’ll concede, Marcos could have used less divisive language. Although I can’t blame him for not being exposed to many Romani peoples 20 years ago in the jungles of southern Mexico.

        • optissima@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Get this: I am part of the community that gets to use the word insane, otherwise I wouldn’t use it.

          • optissima@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I will argue for Marcos here: it being a slur wasn’t really well known till the early 2000s here in NA and am willing to accept that he wasn’t intending to use it as such, which is why I was trying to figure out if it was a quote of his or your own words.

            • lumpenproletariat@quokk.auOP
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              2 months ago

              Well I think this conversation has ran its course? I’ll update my earlier remark about none of it being a slur.