Am I a Bigot?
Now, I lived in the pacific southwest for a large chunk of my life. I have been honored to know hispanic americans as my friends, coworkers, employees, and from living in an ashram and teaching and taking yoga classes for a while. I have found them to be generally hardworking, bright, smart, bilingual(which I admire very much) people with a great sense of humor. Flashing smile, sparkling dark eyes, bright colors. I think their culture fosters these qualities. Sure, there are great variations in any group, but that's my impression.
Does that make me bigoted?
You cannot say anything bad about a group, does that mean you can't by the same token say anything good?
I dropped a comment on one of those threads that I was betting on the Hispanic Americans, because of their work ethic. Is that divisive? is it insensitive? Does it always have to be a BAD thing? Is our culture so divided, so paranoid, so fearful, that we cannot have friendly rivalry in team play? wouldn't a bit of friendly rivalry despell tensions, or are we fearful that it would it inevitably lead to ugliness?
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I was deeply affected by a thread over at BadTux the Snarky Penguin's that caused me some soul searching. I had a resistance to the picture of the mideast as peaceful for 700 years, (which I will be looking up) and I realized that the spectre of Sharia Law overshadows in my mind any good that Islam could bring. Peace, at the cost of the enslavement of half of your population? And in my life I have witnessed the blossoming of liberty in sporadic bursts in the mideast, only to be trodden down by the engulfing Sharia Law. Forgive me, I have been a feminist for most of my life and it deeply offends me that any woman anywhere in the world should be held to that barbaric and degrading writ.
Does that make me a bigot?
The fact that their women have no choice about weather or not they want to live under those conditions, that they can be abused and have no recourse under the law and under the iron rule of society deeply offends my sense of justice.
I understand that there are in the muslim community probably lots of husbands, who like their famous emperor, adore their wives. That adoration does not erase the husband's complete control over her life and death. And as a thinking feeling female, that offends me.
Does that make me a bigot?
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Am I "peeling the onion", so to speak, having deep insights into my feelings, or am I really just reforming my thoughts around my subconsious? Could it be that I'm kidding myself, and I'm a flaming bigot with lots of excuses? Is this all simply mental masturbation? Am I channeling Donald Rumsfeld?
AAAAKKKK! Holy Spaghetti, I hate insomnia!
posted by SB Gypsy | 11:21 PM
6 Comments:
SB, I swear we were separated at birth. Suffice to say that you are certainly not the only one troubled by such intense self-reflection.
(oh and no, you're not a bigot. from MW online:
Main Entry: big·ot
Pronunciation: 'bi-g&t
Function: noun
Etymology: French, hypocrite, bigot
: a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance
- big·ot·ed /-g&-t&d/ adjective
- big·ot·ed·ly adverb)
actually i didn't know that "bigotedly" was even a word. i won't be using it anytime soon - i prefer "moronic" in such cases. has a better ring to it.
anyway, it doesn't seem to me like you're being obstinate about anything, which is an important facet of the "bigot" concept. also i haven't seen any evidence of "hatred" or "intolerance." all you're doing is questioning.
question EVERYTHING. even - and especially - your own assumptions and prejudices.
again, i swear we were separated at birth. at least in one lifetime or another.
SB, you've raised interesting questions, and to me, that's also a key difference between sanity and insanity. Sane people ask questions, and constantly listen and evaluate other points of view. Insane people speak with a level of authority that doesn't allow for questioning.
So as I understand bigottry, no, you are not a bigot.
Aaaahhh, but by that definition, I was acting in a bigoted way ... ack!
Badtux argued that we are mis-translating the Arabs in the middle east. The moderates just want to send the Israelis back to Europe, not nessessarily kill all of them. I replied " Look at what they do: Darfur" He argued that Darfur isn't a religious thing, but every news article (including Wikipedia) says it is.
Badtux objected to my lumping all Moslems in together, from the Mongol Hordes to the middle east, with the persians and arabs and Jews, to Darfur.
So, I was thinking all day about Islam, and how so many different peoples are so into enslaving their women. I still find that unconcionable. And I watch the news and every few years there's another country trying to institutionalize Sharia Law into the civil laws of the land. I get the feeling that where ever Islam attains a majority, Sharia Law is not far behind. I do not know if that's true, and I will attempt to find out on the internets this weekend.
My stepdaughter was dating an arab student a couple of years ago, and intending to return to his homeland when done with college. I cannot say how relieved I was when she broke up with him. I am not tolerant of Sharia Law.
In fact, I guess I'm stubbornly intolerant and bigoted about it..... Damn!
the fact that you worried, handwrung over this - and that you cared - means that you are not bigoted...
Execs on the Survivor show I am not so sure...
To me bigotry speaks of conclusions - conclusions reached despite information to the contrary. I question myself on this subject all the time. You aren’t pre-judging. You are raising legitimate questions – legitimate to you; and that’s all that matters when it comes to personal understanding of any subject. To question isn’t bigoted. Questioning provides information. And I understand why even the thought of nurturing bigoted perspectives makes you uncomfortable. It does me too. I don’t want to be like that. I don’t see myself like that. I don’t want to be like the Falwell’s and Robertson’s of the world – nursing hatreds, turning bigotry into a business – tying the entire thing to spirituality in a way that makes religion itself decidedly unpalatable. Frankly – if I find myself sharing an opinion with someone I know is a bigot – I immediately begin to question that opinion.
I knew a woman during my undergraduate days who was confined to a wheelchair. The first thing she said to me was “Why are you ignoring the wheelchair?” She wanted people to come up and ask – to stare, if need be. She said she hated that people would often gloss over it – ignore her disability and in doing so ignore her. I told her I felt uncomfortable asking about what was wrong. She said “Good. I’m not here to make you comfortable. I just don’t want to be invisible.” I have thought about her many times in my life. I find comparing attitudes toward minorities and the handicapped apt analogies. Often, when confronted by any culture or religion we find alien, we tend to gloss over those differences we don’t quite understand. We don’t ask questions. And if we don’t ask our own questions – other people’s attitudes and opinions begin to take over as fact.
As for Survivor dividing teams along ethnic lines – you may see it as an opportunity to explore other cultures – but I don’t think the producers are viewing it in quite that altruistic a light. Look at Limbaugh’s response – he immediately jumped on the stereotypes associated with particular ethnicities – and predicted the outcome based on his prejudices. So will far too many people in America. And I’m afraid the producers of Survivor will guide and edit the episodes to reflect that thinking. Did you perchance see FX’s series Black/White? Two families switched races – immersing themselves in the other’s culture in an attempt to explore the differences (if any) between the cultures. I watched every episode. It was done in documentary style. I never got the feeling the producers were guiding or editing to produce results. It was quite an eye-opener; something I fear next seasons Survivor won’t be.
So – no, honey. You are not a bigot – not by any definition of the word. But I fear the makers of Survivor are. At the very least – they are inviting the Limbaugh’s in American society to say – “See – I told you so!” when it comes to racial stereo-typing.
Survivor. They ALWAYS mess with the heads of the competitors, with the challenges they choose, and the way they pass out the rewards and such.
The four team phase is usually a very short beginning phase, and they redo the teams after the second or third challenge. We'll have to wait and see if this will cause more ugliness to surface. I'm hoping it will not.
Usually people who get angry and cause arguments don't last long.
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