We as a society have got to stop this glorification of marginalazation. When we outcast bigotry in all it’s forms as not ok, then maybe we perhaps will come closer from removing it’s ugly stain from the Earth. And how do we do that? One person at a time. I’m watching my self closer and what I say and think. If others begin to do like wise, maybe we could start a trend.

After all, kindness has this ability of being rather infectous.

My son, age 7, makes comments that come across as racist but for him I know it is just how a kid’s mind works sometimes; he sees a situation and his mind makes it into a generality.

It’s not easy to explain to him the social subtleties of why saying some of those things is wrong. (But I DO tell him!)
.-= janny226´s last blog ..Why Not Make Him Class Pet? =-.

Many times, people don’t consider Jewish people to be minority people, which completely mystifies me. At other times, I’ve found people using our minority status to dismiss our concerns entirely. I acknowledge that I have the privilege that goes with having white skin and a middle-class upbringing, but some of the ignorance and bigotry I’ve experienced around being Jewish just floors me. And I’ve gotten it from autistics and non-autistics alike. If anything, the incidents with autistic people were the most mind-numbing…Like the time a person on WP told me that since Jews only make up a fraction of a percent of the world’s population, who really gives a shit if someone is anti-semitic or not? As if the fewer of us who survive, the less we matter. Grrrrr…. And then, of course, there was the autistic on a different thread, who said that Hitler wasn’t responsible for the Holocaust, since he never actually operated a train or shoved people into gas chambers.

I grew up with the self-serving myth that Jews are smarter than other people and not as prone to bigotry because of our history, etc etc etc, and that turned out to be, er, not true. So when people start saying that all autistics “get it,” I have the strangest feeling of deja vu, and it’s not a good feeling at all.
.-= Rachel´s last blog ..Struggling with Internalized Disabilism =-.

(And some of the ones who most insist that autism isn’t a disability are horribly dehumanizing towards other types of disabled people, or autistic people they consider “lesser” than themselves.)

And, oh yeah, I sure have seen people using the “being autistic makes me incapable of prejudice” line, going on about how they just see and love individual people, not categories, NTs herd mentality blah blah blah– and then doing one or more of the things listed in the previous paragraph, in other situations. I mean, theoretically, I can obviously see the appeal of believing one’s own group is specially above bigotry and prejudice, incapable of hate in the same way as the hive-minded mundanes or whatever. And it seems to be a popular idea; having spent most of my adult life trying to fit in with one “weird” subculture or another, I can say conclusively that autistic people are by no means the only ones who cry “omg, my group isn’t capable of prejudice or herd mentality.”

In the end, though, it usually just seems to be used as an excuse for people to not educate themselves about these issues, and to flatly deny that they’re doing what they’re doing, when they’re being prejudiced.

Just because it’s common doesn’t make it right.

I try to think that people are neutral in their character, or at least reserve judgement on my first impressions of traits that may strike!
.-= Adelaide Dupont´s last blog ..Running sheet for Key Concepts and Development: prelim and first draft, with pics and sounds! =-.

“People have a very dark and destrcutive sense of humor these days. They think it’s ok to tear someone down, no matter who they are, for the crowd’s amusement. It is not funny, it is cruel, and has the potential of causing someone emotional damage because someone thought they would get a cheap laugh out of you.”

That’s a really good way of putting it. I guess it always seems cheap to the person delivering it because it’s at someone else expense. Ultimately it’s at everyone’s expense.

Saying that any group of people has attributes of good character is as bad as saying they have attributes of bad character….when how they are identified as a group (race disability etc,) has nothing to do with character one way or another.

It encourages the hierarchy that is at the root of the problem. I agree it’s romanticism. A romance that always ends in a crash landing when people get hurt by the reality that eventually reveals itself.
.-= Ed´s last blog ..The Mysterious and The Disorderly =-.

Bad Behavior is actually quite a clever idea: basically instead of asking if you’re human, it determines based on the headers sent by one’s browser whether one is a spambot. (Bots generally don’t use normal web browsers.)

Most will argue and tell you that they aren’t bigots.

A few will actually listen and apologize.

The people in the second group are so amazing that it makes it worth it to put up with the first group.
.-= Joel Smith´s last blog ..The Purpose of Marriage? =-.