It's about getting you to look beyond your experience to see injustices that don't affect you.
Yes but... I know that not inviting people to a job interview because their name sounds Turkish or Russian or whatever else is wrong. And I know that without ever having had gone through the whole "I'm German without a migration background etc." thing. No one ever explicitely told me that this makes me privileged and I didn't have to "find out" that in order to judge what's discriminating and what isn't.
I also don't have to tell myself (or have anyone else have to tell me that either) that being supposedly straight makes me privileged to see that gay marriages have to have 100% the same rights that mixed-gender marriages (or just any couples, gay or straight, married or not married) have. I know that instictively because I was brought up to believe in the equality of all human beings, no matter their ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, whatever and that also enables me to see when people that should be treated equally aren't treated equally, without having to see who's privileged and who's not.
Empathy (which, in the end is what the whole privileges thing is about if I got that right?) was part of that education as well (my mom really likes the Native American saying "Don't judge a man before you've walked a mile in his moccasins." and I guess she tried to bring us up that way), so it's nothing strange to me and I know why it's so important to you (in fact, I usually am one of the biggest advocates of "Just because Americans don't think like you, it doesn't make their way of thinking any less valid. They have a different upbringing and they have different ways of discussing issues. Just different, not less valid." whenever the topic of Americans always trying to make everyone see the world from their - and only their - perspective comes up).
However... recently I feel myself growing tired of trying to walk in American moccasins because even after years of doing it they don't really fit and all wearing them does is make my proverbial feet hurt. I keep wishing that just for once... Americans would try to wear my moccasins.
No offense, but I still have the feeling you're wearing your American moccasins and you're trying to make me keep wearing American moccassins that don't fit really well. As rareb's (who, by the way, is Swiss who went to university in French speaking Switzerland) comment showed, it appeared that you also were wearing the American moccassins when talking about the burqa ban in France... not the French moccassins. What she said in her posting is the French moccassin. You see that it's completely different from what you thought how a French woman might think?
This what the whole posting is about: asking Americans to wear the moccassins of the people from other nations they're talking to, at least for a mile. Nothing else.
(and now I promise I won't ever wear any other figure of speech out like I just wore out the moccassins...)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 04:53 pm (UTC)Yes but... I know that not inviting people to a job interview because their name sounds Turkish or Russian or whatever else is wrong. And I know that without ever having had gone through the whole "I'm German without a migration background etc." thing. No one ever explicitely told me that this makes me privileged and I didn't have to "find out" that in order to judge what's discriminating and what isn't.
I also don't have to tell myself (or have anyone else have to tell me that either) that being supposedly straight makes me privileged to see that gay marriages have to have 100% the same rights that mixed-gender marriages (or just any couples, gay or straight, married or not married) have. I know that instictively because I was brought up to believe in the equality of all human beings, no matter their ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, whatever and that also enables me to see when people that should be treated equally aren't treated equally, without having to see who's privileged and who's not.
Empathy (which, in the end is what the whole privileges thing is about if I got that right?) was part of that education as well (my mom really likes the Native American saying "Don't judge a man before you've walked a mile in his moccasins." and I guess she tried to bring us up that way), so it's nothing strange to me and I know why it's so important to you (in fact, I usually am one of the biggest advocates of "Just because Americans don't think like you, it doesn't make their way of thinking any less valid. They have a different upbringing and they have different ways of discussing issues. Just different, not less valid." whenever the topic of Americans always trying to make everyone see the world from their - and only their - perspective comes up).
However... recently I feel myself growing tired of trying to walk in American moccasins because even after years of doing it they don't really fit and all wearing them does is make my proverbial feet hurt. I keep wishing that just for once... Americans would try to wear my moccasins.
No offense, but I still have the feeling you're wearing your American moccasins and you're trying to make me keep wearing American moccassins that don't fit really well. As
This what the whole posting is about: asking Americans to wear the moccassins of the people from other nations they're talking to, at least for a mile. Nothing else.
(and now I promise I won't ever wear any other figure of speech out like I just wore out the moccassins...)