(no subject)
I just recently stumbled across microaggressions.com (it's a site where people can post careless non-PC remarks that other people made, which hurt them in some way).
After frying my brain on this site for about 45 minutes, I came to a conclusion about humans, and it's quite depressing.
Groups who are affected by microaggression are, for example, women, everybody who is not (or not exclusively) white; immigrants, Native Americans, transgender people, transsexuals, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, people with alternative lifestyles or looks, people who are overweight, and people who are underweight, and many many more (the website seems to have mostly American visitors. In different countries, this list may look different with respect to colours and ethnicities).
Phew, that's a lot of people, isn't it? In fact, I suppose that's a very, very large part of the population. 50% of the population being female, 13% of the population being black, many more percent being Hispanic, 10% of the population being homosexual, many more bisexual... you get the general picture. Well - who's left then?!
Is there really a tiny percentage of the population who is white, male, privileged, straight and conservative, who is doing ALL the discriminating? Of course not. (Although the image of a group of WASPs sitting under a table, shivering and preparing for the onslaught of the non-WASP hordes, is very funny.)
No, they wouldn't last five minutes. The sad truth is: many people dish out as much they get. Some black people hate gays. Some gays are racist. Some women are racists. Some women are misogynists. Some gays are misogynists. Some black people are misogynists. Some overweight people are prejudiced against Native Americans, and vice versa. The possibilities are endless and very silly.
It only goes to show one thing: just because you know what discrimination feels like, doesn't mean that you know better than to discriminate against others. I honestly wish I could say something nicer about human nature, but the truth is, inside we're all goatse-coloured. And if stupidity was a form of energy, we wouldn't need plutonium, but I say that all the time.
Wah, I must spend more of my online time looking at kittens. Otherwise I'll become cynical and go off to live with the fireflies in the park.
After frying my brain on this site for about 45 minutes, I came to a conclusion about humans, and it's quite depressing.
Groups who are affected by microaggression are, for example, women, everybody who is not (or not exclusively) white; immigrants, Native Americans, transgender people, transsexuals, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, people with alternative lifestyles or looks, people who are overweight, and people who are underweight, and many many more (the website seems to have mostly American visitors. In different countries, this list may look different with respect to colours and ethnicities).
Phew, that's a lot of people, isn't it? In fact, I suppose that's a very, very large part of the population. 50% of the population being female, 13% of the population being black, many more percent being Hispanic, 10% of the population being homosexual, many more bisexual... you get the general picture. Well - who's left then?!
Is there really a tiny percentage of the population who is white, male, privileged, straight and conservative, who is doing ALL the discriminating? Of course not. (Although the image of a group of WASPs sitting under a table, shivering and preparing for the onslaught of the non-WASP hordes, is very funny.)
No, they wouldn't last five minutes. The sad truth is: many people dish out as much they get. Some black people hate gays. Some gays are racist. Some women are racists. Some women are misogynists. Some gays are misogynists. Some black people are misogynists. Some overweight people are prejudiced against Native Americans, and vice versa. The possibilities are endless and very silly.
It only goes to show one thing: just because you know what discrimination feels like, doesn't mean that you know better than to discriminate against others. I honestly wish I could say something nicer about human nature, but the truth is, inside we're all goatse-coloured. And if stupidity was a form of energy, we wouldn't need plutonium, but I say that all the time.
Wah, I must spend more of my online time looking at kittens. Otherwise I'll become cynical and go off to live with the fireflies in the park.