Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Harrumph: A Rant
Note: I expect this may make people angry. I don't mean to give offense, but I've just got to say what I've got to say. Please accept my apologies in advance if this offends your sensibilities. It is not meant to.
In my ideal world, negative connotations to personal realities will be gone.
You know, something of personal irritation to me is the line that we must learn our history or be doomed to repeat it. I'm certainly not for covering up dark history— but does it have to be shoved down our throats all the time? As an English student, often have the agendas of various groups shoved down my throat. The plight of the African American. The evils of women's work. The hardship of industrial era immigrant workers. We keep educating ourselves and others about the seemingly yawning differences between us, and foster resentment and frustration in individuals that have often suffered very little or no real hardship as a result. Racism, classism and sexism still exists, but can we ever escape it when it is crafted into our very education?
There is a phenomenon happening that they often call counter racism or counter sexism. Which is totally ridiculous. Racism and sexism isn't a one way street. It does not just flow down hill like a river. It follows wherever irrational hatred grows, so much of it presumptuous and fictional.
In my utopia, such differences should be a personal matter. Can we not be proud of our femininity or masculinity without feelings of superiority, inferiority or self conciousness? Can went be comfortable within our own gender without making war on the other? Can we not be interested in our heredity and history without inventing the pains of our ancestors into our present? Can we ever manage to make no assumptions about what a person is or what they think or feel besides what they do and say?
Can I be a woman without it being assumed that I have to fill or avoid traditional roles? Can I be Caucasian without assumptions being made about my liniage or the behavior of my forefathers? Can I be intelligent, well spoken and educated without people assuming I am a snob, a bitch, or having a predefined set of opinions and political views???? WELL WHY THE HECK NOT, WORLD?
Can we stop obsessing about past pain and difficulties and lay down our apparent need to defend ourselves from each other? Can we just be the people of Earth and MOVE ON ALREADY????
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I enjoy your posts Sarah. The majority of people seem to have an inability to see things as they are. I like how you said people cannot be comfortable with their gender. That definitely applies to the lack of comfort in every other aspect of the lives of many. So many don't think for themselves and are so afraid of being morphed into a stereotype that is unacceptable to society, that they morph into something else that is just as bad.
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI totally understand what you mean. When I tell people my own personal religious views, I almost feel like I have to apologize for it. I feel like, sometimes, individuals (or society in general) find me personally culpable for crimes or morally wrong actions that happened over eight hundred years ago. It's a weird feeling for someone to accuse you (either implicitly or explicitly) for doing "such-and-such" crime that happened many generations ago.
Either way, I do understand what you are trying to say. I applaud you for speaking your mind in public! I couldn't have done that!
I think that this is a very interesting point and causes me to wonder how exactly we would celebrate diversity without these nagging issues creeping into our mindset? I am in no way saying that I disagree with you, I am just curious to know how you might propose that we could go about breaking down these barriers? Do you think that we would have to put less focus on being different from one another? Perhaps focus more on the fact that at the most basic level we are all human beings and that tie binds us all together. Although we still have a long way to go, it is interesting to look back, even to our parents generation, and see how far we have come in partially addressing this issue.
ReplyDeleteLet me give you an example of what I mean- I am a first generatio american. My heritage is of English and Irish decent, and I have particular interest in the Irish side of my family, being that I am a citizen of that nation by my birth. I take pride in that heritage, in the culture and art and rich history of that island nation, and I see it as part of myself.
DeleteIf my friend is from South Africa, and has pride also in her nation that does not afront me. I do not feel that my history or imagined home nature is superior. I can even look at the culture from which she sprang with admiration and even fascination. It may not 'call to me' of home. But I can still appreciate it.
The problem comes when we wish to bullheadedly believe that our past histories are better than others. That we have more to be proud of, that we have nothing to learn from others and nothing to improve on in ourselves. The deadliest step is when we imagine that others should be ashamed of their origin history.
Why can't we love and embrace who we are without feeling that superiority or even inferiority if the case may be.
Personally, I feel like you should not have to appoligize for speaking your mind. You have a very valid point.In a way it is like perpetual punishment for our past mistakes, and no matter how many times we go over it so that it doesn't happen again it is indirectly keeping us from moving forward. So I have to say that I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI'm really not clear as to what you mean in this post. I think you are absolutely 100% correct when you say (I paraphrase a little to try to understand your ideas) "racism, classism and sexism still exists" and that these ideas are "crafted into our very education...."
ReplyDeletePerhaps we mean different things by the phrase "crafted into our very education." I see it to mean that racism, classism and sexism exist because of the structural inequalities inherent in the education system of the U.S. and most other countries (with the exception, perhaps, of Finland). Most issues that you mention in this post would be alleviated or eradicated if education was crafted with equality for all as a priority.
What did you mean by the phrase?
I mean that certain works of literature or history are thrown into extreme relief that seem to foster resentment and negative feeling among the students.
DeleteWhen I was a child, I was never told anything one way or the other about race. I pretty much assumed that the color of your skin was random chance like the color of your hair or eyes. But throughout almost my entire education, I have been steadily subjected to literature and history about the slaves in the united states, and I have watched walls go up between myself and my peers that did not exist in our innocence. I've watched african american students become bitter and angry and assume persecution that they never felt. I have been hated for the color of my skin despite the fact that I was not alive in the time of slavery, nor did my family own any, being from an entirely different nation over a generation ago.
I have seen similar responses to class based literature, historically based literature and gender based literature that seeks to tell the stories of the moments of greatest failing and evil in our human race's history.
I think that trying to hide these moments in our history is wrong, yes. And I think we should have a basic understanding of why it is morally, ethically and logically wrong to create reasons to hate, exclude or even enslave each other. But those lessons can be learned generally, can they not?
Innocence is a wonderful and fragile commodity. When we are born, we have no hate. And until hate is fostered in us, we remain empty of it. Why do we surround ourselves with horrible images of cruelty and divisiveness, when we are born equals in innocence?