This meme got a bunch of play with my Facebook friends last week, so I took a second look at it.
It starts out as a simple, “yes, we can be wishy-washy about lots of things, but for something like racism, you have to take a stand,” and I’m sure a lot of people took it that way. Good for them.
However, social media being what it is, and people being what they are, there are always some who will take the conversational football and run it far into whatever corner of the field your handedness induces you to choose. (I never offend lefties; there are too many of them too close to me.)
Let’s Look Closer.
Okay, so we’ve got a good idea, but a picture is worth a thousand of those. We’ve got a black person who, even given cultural styles of talking, considers it okay to call her acquaintance a negative slur, which isn’t guaranteed to bring togetherness and harmony. Does the meme still have the same meaning?
What About Somebody Else?
Now let’s change the personalities. Let’s try an Israeli and a Palestinian having the same conversation. I’m somewhere in the wishy-washy, reasonable, two-nations, centrist views on their crisis, so I have no axe to grind with either one of them. And I bet if you got down to a good discussion, the average Israeli and the average Palestinian would find it rather difficult to hash out a good definition of racism and how it was applied in their respective worlds.
And the Rest?
And that got me thinking that there must be all sorts of people out there with what they think are perfectly good definitions of racism, and I bet a lot of them don’t mesh 100% with each other.
What to Do About it?
And I looked again at the cartoon, and it occurred to me that sometimes simplifying a complex issue down to a 7-word meme might influence less thoughtful and more emotional people to consider that those 7 words were all there was to the discussion. And since they happened to agree 100% with those 7 words, then they must be TRUTH all in capitals.
And Those Who Don’t Agree?
Well, if we’re 100% right, they must be 100% wrong, mustn’t they? And around we go again.
Enter Religion
When we think about this kind of attitude it reminds us of a few religions we could mention, doesn’t it? “My religion is the right one, and everyone who doesn’t believe in it is going to burn in hell.” That sort of sermonizing. And if you think that way about whatever your pet issue is, no matter how righteous, you’re off down the path they have trodden for a thousand years or more. You’re part of the problem, not part of the cure.
The Bottom Line
I know it’s tough, but your parents and teachers have been trying to tell you for years that the world was a big, complex place, and simple solutions are NOT always smart ones. Grow up, get off your high horse and listen to other people. Instead of tearing everyone down, you might find something about racism you can agree on and build up.