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Flint · 04-21-2016, 06:00 PM

Great video, if you haven’t seen it.

In brief, a young man realizes that his father, how hates black people, only knows one black family, and they are “good ones” –and he realizes that his father’s world view can’t possibly be accurate. And it was segregation of races that created the situation where his father only personally encountered a disproportionately small number of black people.

This got me to thinking… when people aren’t familiar with someone who is different from themselves, because they haven’t had a chance to interact with them, haven’t had a chance to learn that they are “okay” people, it is much easier to harbor unfair, discriminatory feelings about that group. Segregation of races created this situation, but we knew it because we could see who was different, by the color of their skin.

Fast forward to the national “bathroom laws” discussion issue and we don’t have the convenience of skin-colored segregation to define the group we are talking about. What unknowns there are that exist in this case are due to people’s familiarity with the issue—not necessarily their exposure to trans people, because they might not have known if they’ve ever interacted with a trans person. It's, literally, not a "black and white" situation.

So that's my ham-handed metaphor for the subject that's obviously super complicated and difficult to discuss, and people get all worked up about it for various reasons, but I think we should probably try to muddle through and talk about it anyway because it's not going away.

04-21-2016, 06:00 PM	#4
Flint Snowflake Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Dystopia Posts: 13,136	Great video, if you haven’t seen it. In brief, a young man realizes that his father, how hates black people, only knows one black family, and they are “good ones” –and he realizes that his father’s world view can’t possibly be accurate. And it was segregation of races that created the situation where his father only personally encountered a disproportionately small number of black people. This got me to thinking… when people aren’t familiar with someone who is different from themselves, because they haven’t had a chance to interact with them, haven’t had a chance to learn that they are “okay” people, it is much easier to harbor unfair, discriminatory feelings about that group. Segregation of races created this situation, but we knew it because we could see who was different, by the color of their skin. Fast forward to the national “bathroom laws” discussion issue and we don’t have the convenience of skin-colored segregation to define the group we are talking about. What unknowns there are that exist in this case are due to people’s familiarity with the issue—not necessarily their exposure to trans people, because they might not have known if they’ve ever interacted with a trans person. It's, literally, not a "black and white" situation. So that's my ham-handed metaphor for the subject that's obviously super complicated and difficult to discuss, and people get all worked up about it for various reasons, but I think we should probably try to muddle through and talk about it anyway because it's not going away. __________________ **************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio** Last edited by Flint; 04-21-2016 at 06:15 PM.