Making Space for Vulnerability in an Age of Call-Outs
Our stories of learning are essential because all of us are problematic
“I was a real horse’s ass.” This was one of my grandfather’s favorite refrains. He relished telling stories about his own failings—what he learned, how he grew.
That learning was evident in his life. He grew up in Depression-era Libby, Montana, before moving to San Francisco, Guam, and Oregon. He grew up with passively conservative politics and spoke openly about how his experiences in World War II made him revisit those beliefs to center pacifism, feminism, even LGBTQ justice. He told stories of meeting gay men in the army, sex workers during the war, and people in developing nations who had been condemned to poverty by international trade policies that placed the U.S. squarely at the top of the food chain. He talked of proudly buying his first home and getting his bachelor’s degree, and then meeting other veterans, veterans of color, to whom the GI Bill simply didn’t apply.
They weren’t stories he enjoyed telling. He still burned bright with rage at the continuation of policies that systemically disadvantaged women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and anyone who wasn’t white, straight, and Western.
