Sometimes we can be so insulated in our own circle of like-minded people, that we get a big shock when we find out what people are *really* like. When a Sikh classmate of mine was denied entrance to a bar because of his turban, the article about him had comments like:
My Rostafarian religion requires me to wear a baseball cap [sideway]. No turbin no entry. Deal with it loser!
If he does not like it, he should go back to his own country. He is just another sand niger.
follow the rules or get out. i have never seen such a whiney bunch as mid-easterners. they have a seisure reaction to every slight, real or imagined.
And here is an article about an Indiana school where the principal has decided to censor a student editorial asking for tolerance of gays. Again, look at the comments:
Kudos to a principal for demonstrating leadership & taking proper action when warranted! Indiana schools also develop character, and to that end, they must adhere to contemporary community standards. Parents have a right to expect that schools will not be exposing children to materials contrary to ethical beliefs.
… You people and all your accusitory comments about the rest of us being intolerant, are being intolerant yourselves. You are being intolerant of my natural phenomenon of being homophobic. After all I do not choose to be this way, it’s just natural to me. Cudos to Tim Hardaway and his recent thoughts. After all where is this tolerance that everyone keeps preaching?
OH - MY - GOD. I mean, I knew that there is hatred and insensitivity, but to hear it so directly from their own mouths (or keyboards) I realize how scary it is.
And I was reminded of my coming out support group meeting the other day, when people were talking about how they disliked Arnold Schwarzenegger for promising to veto a same-sex marriage law even if it passes through the state legislature. And my thought was, “Well that’s fine if Arnold is the only person who opposes same-sex marriage, but he’s not. He’s representing a majority of the state.”
And I’m scared that, in the quest for equal rights, gays in America have begun to demand that their ideals be legally forced onto a population that doesn’t agree with it. And, yes, this population is trying to do the same thing, but that’s not the point. What I’m scared of is that the same thing will happen with gays that happened to some degree with race relations — once there is legislation, progressives will dust their hands and say, “Mission accomplished,” while those opposed to the legislation will only nurse their ideas in private, in their churches and homes and club meetings. And yes, they will indoctrinate their kids — even more deeply now that they know what they’re up against.
Look at those comments again. They seem to show that legislating morality (even if it is a progressive morality) will simply drive the bigotry underground and make it that much harder to root out. What we really need is discussion and dialogue, and YES for people to say ugly things like this, so that society can feel pain and fix it. It’s like our body’s pain sensors: they alert us to illnesses and to their causes. I think perhaps the difficult thing about it is that this approach requires each one of us to participate in a very personal way, and to put our relationships and our social lives on the line, by engaging people in dialogue and sharing our views, and it can feel like walking through a minefield. But how else can we adress the real source of hatred and bigotry at its roots?
