Do you ever find yourself just straight fucking exasperated because you’ve schooled the same damn people on the same damn thing so many times that you just wish you could short-hand the whole thing to “fuck you, because I say so dammit”.

In an effort to decrease frustration and save time, here is a boilerplate “fuck you, because I say so” letter. This letter is particularly focused on the fauxgressive calls for oppressed people to join the non-oppressed to enact change, while refusing to acknowledge that the fauxgressive point of view may not be in the best interest of oppressed folks.

Caveat 1: The patriarchy has no new tricks. All oppression serves to create haves and have-nots. At its core, oppression is about control of resources and power distribution. But not all oppressions manifest in the same manner. It’s a different world for a white woman than it is for a black man, for example.

Dear (insert faugressive group name here):

We (insert oppressed group name here) have recently received your request for our assistance in (insert pressing social action here). Thank you for (finally) acknowledging our existence. However, we have several long-standing complaints such as (insert example of oppressive act) that have yet to be addressed by you (insert privileged group name here). Until such time as you (insert privileged group name here) have addresses those issues, we cannot in good faith provide our time, energy, or labor to yet another social justice movement run by the people who benefit most from injustice.

It doesn’t take a doctorate in (insert type of degree that focuses on your type of oppression) to see that, to date, every single time you (insert privileged group type here) ask us (insert oppressed group type here) to follow your lead and (insert action here i/e vote, protest, etc)the way that you want us to, we get fucked over. Every single damn time. And that shit don’t fly no more. Sure, now that things are bad for you, you have noticed that things are bad for less privileged folks. But that’s just base opportunism, not empathy. You notice because you want our already oppressed bodies for your cause. You do not want to add your relatively unoppressed body to our cause. That is telling. It shows that you don’t give two shits about real change, you just give a shit about saving yourself.

And that’s fine. But we (insert oppressed group name here) cannot trust you, because a lifetime of privilge coupled with a very short peoriod