Adam, I often find myself agreeing with you. Especially at brown where people seem to get offeneded by the wind blowing ("did you notice how it blows harder at people of color??"). And I also find that when you're so worried about either being the target of or being accused of some "-ism" that its much harder to form bonds with people different from yourself, which to me is a terribly sad loss.
That's why I reacted to my dad the way I did. Its been a sort-of epic battle between us for a long time. And I find that in his paranoia, he forms his own little deffensive sort of racism because he's afraid of anyone who isn't like him.
But I think its just as dangerous to say that prejudice doesn't exist at all. I know a man who on no uncertain terms (the TOLD him) was fired from his job because he helped out a gay cause. And I honestly think that the likelyhood that it was the dog, and not its owner who didn't like "African Americans" was pretty slim. The problem is that in our never-ending quest to keep from offending people we're masking the real problem, which is that lots of people are scared of one another. The act wasn't any less racist because he said "african american." The problem is that people are trying to clean up their racism, trying to make it more palletable but also making it harder to identify. And that difficulty, of course breeds paranoia like my dads.
That's why I reacted to my dad the way I did. Its been a sort-of epic battle between us for a long time. And I find that in his paranoia, he forms his own little deffensive sort of racism because he's afraid of anyone who isn't like him.
But I think its just as dangerous to say that prejudice doesn't exist at all. I know a man who on no uncertain terms (the TOLD him) was fired from his job because he helped out a gay cause. And I honestly think that the likelyhood that it was the dog, and not its owner who didn't like "African Americans" was pretty slim. The problem is that in our never-ending quest to keep from offending people we're masking the real problem, which is that lots of people are scared of one another. The act wasn't any less racist because he said "african american." The problem is that people are trying to clean up their racism, trying to make it more palletable but also making it harder to identify. And that difficulty, of course breeds paranoia like my dads.
So what do we do?
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