I wrote regarding race in the entry Entitlement.
Another article has me thinking. It began with this post on Ebony and a few of the comments there. A minor epiphany today in response to another commenter whose entry hit on something that has itched at me for some while.
What if discrimination of all kinds is three-fold?
1) That we are aware others like ourselves are discriminated against, therefore we watch for subtle signs (as [the commenter posted] the word paranoid).
2) That our personal and collective histories tell us discrimination against ourselves and our collective is going to happen, setting up the expectation, and therefore the defensive stance, which others can perceive though they may not know exactly what it is.
3) That our preconditioning to separateness, different-ness rolls from our beings as a cold forbidding, a waist-high wall we can and do hide behind, and therefore aren’t seen normally.
You’ll find my other comments in that Ebony article as well. Set the sort to “newest first” and look for Sandra Davidson. Please, tell me what you think. This is important to me, as it is to all of us, really. Who doesn’t see themselves as set apart at times?
©2012 Sandra Davidson
