Are Goths oppressed?

Goths are subject to bullying. Does that mean they are oppressed? Well, it depends on how you define bullying and oppression--and whether or not you see them as connected phenomena.

That Goths are bullied is clear. You can read accounts at the Ultimate Goth Guide. Here is an example. Here are some more.  And here are some examples of bullycide. I could go on and on and on.

And the bullying does go on. It continues after high school. Into adulthood. The murder of Sophie Lancaster for being a Goth is probably the most egregious case. That would be a hate crime if Lancaster had belonged to a visible minority. But didn't she?

As bullying expert Barb Coloroso points out: bullying is about contempt--and I would add contempt for difference. It is part of the matrix of social responses to despised minorities--and as targets all minorities are substitutes for each other. The point is not the nature of the other but the social fact of othering. Any other is just as good for the bully and the forces s/he represents as only s/he can.

Who do bullies go after? The obviously wierd. The sexually ambiguous--or threatening. The racially diverse. The targets highlight the role bullies play as the red right hand of socialization.

And bullying is part of the hazing process we politely call socialization. The bully is the frontline enforcing agent of the 'normal.' S/he can do things that are outside the means of other agents of socialization. Your parents and teachers and coaches can't abuse you (well, that's the message at least, even if it isn't the reality) but the bully can.

The system is complicit. Co-dependent. Enabling. Society would not exist without the bully. The bully beats 'the rules' into his or her victims; and the victims are outsiders who need to be reigned in or turned into a deterrent for others.

In the link above, Coloroso points out how ineffectual most official responses are to bullying. Teachers sit the victim and the bully down together and talk them through it. The bully apologizes, the victim has to accept it and then everyone happily goes back to the brutal game of high school humiliation and oppression.

Coloroso doesn't explain why this happens. She seems to think it's due to gullilbility or ignorance. What if it's part of the system? Plausible deniability: When I found out what was happening, I did what I could to stop it. I sat them down. We talked about how terrible bullying is. She apologized. Problem solved. Right...The teacher knows what he or she is doing, even if he or she disavows it.

Bullying is a political act. It is oppression. Goths need to protect themselves accordingly.

Most advice on fighting bullying is personal or social. That is why it is ineffectual and insufficient. If bullying is political, then the response needs to be collective and organized.

A key to where we can maybe begin to organize and act lies in the murder of Sophie Lancaster. She was targeted because she was a Goth. That much is clear. But what does that mean? Not just that she didn't fit in or belonged to a marginalized group. But also because Goth is a socioeconomic symbol.

Goths tend to be better educated, middle class and professional. Even if they aren't individually, they are stereotyped in this way. And that matters in the current class war. As the rich intensify their assault on the middle class, they are enlisting the assistance of the poor and working class. Goths are just one more victim in this conflict.

Yes, they aren't directly enlisting angry youth but they sure are doing it indirectly. Think of the young men who attacked and killed Lancaster. Disaffected youth with no prospects living in ever-diminishing economic conditions. A real threat to the system. But you keep them uneducated. You keep them disorganized with drugs and consumer culture. What does that ensure? They never target their real enemies. They go after the nearest best thing. Smart, articulate, affable Sophie Lancaster has it better. She is it for the moment.

If socioeconomic conditions lie behind bullying, then what should we do? Organize along with the global Occupying movement for:

1. More public funding of education, training, and social services.
2. Free post-secondary education to open it up for everyone.
3. Higher corporate and progressive income taxes to fund these public goods.
4. Redistribute income and reduce the growing income gap.

And to directly tackle the hierarchical and unequal foundation that is the blood of bullying, we need to democratize:

1. The classroom.
2. The workplace.
3. All social institutions.

We learn by doing, we need to do democracy from the beginning. Bullies are on the side of the masters. Let's get rid of them with economic and democratic reform. Let's get rid of the socioeconomic and political conditions that lead to bullying.

And let's Occupy the world, my dark comrades!