Thanks Raj for asking an important question about fighting racism. This is not simple to tackle here because there are contextual considerations. Is the discrimination happening in a workplace? Between friends? Between colleagues? Online interactions? Hate email? What social justice issue is being advocated for? Is it your own mission or…
Thanks Raj for asking an important question about fighting racism. This is not simple to tackle here because there are contextual considerations. Is the discrimination happening in a workplace? Between friends? Between colleagues? Online interactions? Hate email? What social justice issue is being advocated for? Is it your own mission or someone else's mission?
I'm giving you more questions than answers - perhaps a specific example/scenario would be useful to analyse and provide more concrete ideas of how to respond.
What I can say overall is that relationships between humans matter. We all carry baggage of some kind that infiltrate our daily interactions, whether we intend to or not, and can create disconnection and rifts. My hurt doesn't trump your hurt and vice versa. But at some point someone needs to want to try to understand where the other person is coming from and ideally, this would be reciprocated to develop a shared understanding of the issue and negotiate a better way of being with each other.
The trick is to know where to invest your energy in facilitating awareness and change. It's not going to work when someone is invested in being racist because they need to cling to their prejudices for their own sense of control and safety. Better to distance from people like that because they're only going to try to trigger you harder.
Efforts are better invested in those who show willingness to consider other positions. But there's some work at the front end of the relationship to build enough trust where that conversation can occur.
There's more I want to say about this but I'll pause here...do you have a scenario that you based your question on to consider how to respond constructively?
Thanks Raj for asking an important question about fighting racism. This is not simple to tackle here because there are contextual considerations. Is the discrimination happening in a workplace? Between friends? Between colleagues? Online interactions? Hate email? What social justice issue is being advocated for? Is it your own mission or someone else's mission?
I'm giving you more questions than answers - perhaps a specific example/scenario would be useful to analyse and provide more concrete ideas of how to respond.
What I can say overall is that relationships between humans matter. We all carry baggage of some kind that infiltrate our daily interactions, whether we intend to or not, and can create disconnection and rifts. My hurt doesn't trump your hurt and vice versa. But at some point someone needs to want to try to understand where the other person is coming from and ideally, this would be reciprocated to develop a shared understanding of the issue and negotiate a better way of being with each other.
The trick is to know where to invest your energy in facilitating awareness and change. It's not going to work when someone is invested in being racist because they need to cling to their prejudices for their own sense of control and safety. Better to distance from people like that because they're only going to try to trigger you harder.
Efforts are better invested in those who show willingness to consider other positions. But there's some work at the front end of the relationship to build enough trust where that conversation can occur.
There's more I want to say about this but I'll pause here...do you have a scenario that you based your question on to consider how to respond constructively?
THank you!!!!