You can be in an oppressed group and be bigoted as hell.
I just thought that might need saying since a bitch has been getting some e-mails claiming the opposite.
Now I don’t have the foggiest idea what triggered these protests…sometimes these things just cycle on and off based on their own internal clock.
You know…like cicada.
Blink.
Anyhoo, just because you have The Man’s boot on your neck doesn’t mean that you don’t harbor the belief that some other people deserve that boot on their neck just because of who they are.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled bitchitude…
9 comments:
Wait - You've gotten e-mails claiming otherwise? Really. Hmm. I could quote the old "Spans and Motes" proverb but would probably offend somebody.
Ah.... thanks. I needed that belly laugh.
Afternoon Shark Fu!
Is this post in response to Elizabeths comment on the Steinem post?
Cuz I think you nailed it, if it is.
shark fu- thank you for saying that.
I agree Shark Fu. I think people get their terms mixed up. An oppressed group may not be in a position to oppress, but that doesn't exclude them from having bigoted attitudes towards others.
For example, it is a rather common opinion amongst civil rights activists and folks in social science fields to claim that oppressed groups can't discriminate, based on the fact that they don't have the power to create or enforce a discriminatory system based on race, hair color, social class - you know, whatever.
And I can understand their point and largely agree with it. But that doesn't mean that they can't have ignorant, hateful, bigoted attitudes, just as you say.
My Dad used to say if you pulled a cicada [locust] wings just the right way they made a sound like pharaoh. Same with groups and organizations.
I completely agree with you, just because some one is part of an oppressed group does not make them above being a jerk.
Thinking otherwise is an assumption. and assumptions are one of the things that frustrate me the most, so im sorry that some one emailed you in that manner.
Prejudice is about power, as any white man who lives for a period of time in New Orleans can attest, where the shoe is on the proverbial other foot.
Sometimes this does have its amusing side, like when a man on the bus, unprovoked by me, began hassling me and yelling at me to "go back to Europe".
Sometimes it's not so funny - having the bus driver slam the bus door in your face when you are trying to get on in the pouring rain or having a guy throw a bottle at your head because he feels you owe him $ because you are a white male.
TESTIFY!
LOL... Don't think it was actually meant as an invitation to rant on personal experience (so I won't). So I'll just say, you kinda rock right there ;-)
(Elsewhere too, added you to my favorites long before I saw this)
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