Hunting Wife
Well-known member
My takeaway from this thread is that no matter what, there will always be people who can’t or won’t deal with the discomfort of introspection. However, I try hard to be an optimist because really, what’s the alternative in times like these? It seems like there’s a much larger number of thoughtful individuals in the population who care and are willing to try, even if they don’t fully comprehend the problem, even if they’ll make mistakes along the way, even if it’s confusing and uncomfortable subject matter. No one is alone in that. I know what my experiences are, and some of the experiences of my family members. But I don’t and won’t pretend to have a clue of what it’s like to live as a black person in America, for example. I freely admit I am completely ignorant of many cultural or historic references and connotations that are offensive, simply because I don’t come from a place where I ever encountered that stuff. There are plenty of times I’m confused by a term or phrase I heard for the first time only after some event made it front page news, and I have to spend some time Googling to figure it out what it means and why it’s offensive. I don’t fully comprehend the depth of discrimination in our social systems, but the more I try to learn about it the easier it becomes to see. I mean let’s be fair, white guys don’t corner the market on ignorance. Everyone has their biases and blind spots. We all have room for improvement somewhere, but we have to be willing to try.