People who choose to define themselves by their race, who have selected just ONE facet of who they are as the only part that matters, seem to presume that everyone else does too.
We don't.
The goal isn't to ignore the differences of skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Those differences exist, and they DO matter -- but to some people, they're the ONLY thing that matters.
If you don't want skin color to matter to you, that's fine. If someone else does decide it's the most important thing, there's not much you can do to shake them of that stupid point of view -- and they're going to interpret EVERYTHING you say or do in whatever way suits their extremist viewpoint.
You can't reason extremists out of their viewpoint, because it's not grounded in reason. And people who see everything in terms of race -- either because they fear what's different, or because they've decided to make their race the most important thing in their identity -- are extremists.
I think however, the distinction is this: The idea is to NOT let obvious physical (but essentially cosmetic) differences get in the way of treating individuals fairly based on who THEY are and how THEY choose to act.
If someone chooses to get their feathers ruffled by your honest attempts to deal with them in a fair and unbiased manner, fuck 'em.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-08-06 04:45 am (UTC)We don't.
The goal isn't to ignore the differences of skin color, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, etc. Those differences exist, and they DO matter -- but to some people, they're the ONLY thing that matters.
If you don't want skin color to matter to you, that's fine. If someone else does decide it's the most important thing, there's not much you can do to shake them of that stupid point of view -- and they're going to interpret EVERYTHING you say or do in whatever way suits their extremist viewpoint.
You can't reason extremists out of their viewpoint, because it's not grounded in reason. And people who see everything in terms of race -- either because they fear what's different, or because they've decided to make their race the most important thing in their identity -- are extremists.
I think however, the distinction is this: The idea is to NOT let obvious physical (but essentially cosmetic) differences get in the way of treating individuals fairly based on who THEY are and how THEY choose to act.
If someone chooses to get their feathers ruffled by your honest attempts to deal with them in a fair and unbiased manner, fuck 'em.