Just sitting there eating and bam, a comment is made and people at neighboring tables glance over. You are then put in a position to have to say something so you are not seen to approve of the comment. Of course you would always say something but maybe you would not be so adamant as you are in this situation with strangers listening in.
Do others think you agree with them when they make disparaging comments about another race or culture? Do they not hear you when you tell them that those comments are not okay to say? Do they think you are kidding when you tell them they are being rude?
I also think it is interesting when a person is in a group that has been historically oppressed and they then make racist comments about another group. What is up with that? Do they not have compassion? Can they not see that by making these comments they are keeping another group oppressed?
It just always makes me think of a famous statement attributed to pastor Martin Niemöller about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. I learned it back in 1993 at the March on Washington for Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual and Transgender Rights:
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the Socialists
and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the homosexuals,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't homosexual.
Then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Maybe I will never get it. Maybe I will never understand. Maybe I just have to keep standing up and be the person who tells them those comments are not okay.
Until tomorrow...
I have always wondered about that myself, Adrienne. Sometimes I think it's human nature to try to make people that aren't just like us into the "other" and from there, into enemies. Sometimes I'm convinced that we are taught prejudice by our families and the particular culture we come up in. Whether human nature or learned, however, once we are old enough to understand how such behavior hurts others, we are old enough to stop it. Ending bigotry and prejudice starts with each one of us.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this thoughtful post. And good on ya for speaking out.
Thanks!
Delete