Yeah, several of the commenters tried to shift the conversation to how he was baited and spoken in anger. I can completely understand losing your cool and saying things you wish you hadn't--or things which, upon reflection, you don't actually think are true but which you chose to say because you knew how hurtful they'd be. And I can't even imagine the pressure that comes with being a celebrity and having your every utterance broadcast and subjected to global scrutiny.
But what I objected to within the debate were the repeated attempts to completely disassociate what one says in anger from what one believes. As I pointed out, my father, now in his 70s, grew up in rural Maryland and has a short fuse. He's said a lot of things in anger, some of them very sexist, but I can't remember him ever saying anything racist or homophobic. And yet, when I came out to him, he warned me that he expected he'd react uncomfortably when I first brought a romantic partner home. Not because he had any conscious objection to it, but because he simply wasn't raised to regard loving affection between men as normal.
In the end, that didn't happen. But it meant a lot to me that he had the humility and thoughtfulness to admit that it could happen, that good intentions alone aren't enough to transcend a lifetime of socialisation. And that's what I'm not always seeing when very privileged actors are called on their (perhaps unintentional, perhaps unconscious) prejudices.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2014-02-28 05:45 pm (UTC)But what I objected to within the debate were the repeated attempts to completely disassociate what one says in anger from what one believes. As I pointed out, my father, now in his 70s, grew up in rural Maryland and has a short fuse. He's said a lot of things in anger, some of them very sexist, but I can't remember him ever saying anything racist or homophobic. And yet, when I came out to him, he warned me that he expected he'd react uncomfortably when I first brought a romantic partner home. Not because he had any conscious objection to it, but because he simply wasn't raised to regard loving affection between men as normal.
In the end, that didn't happen. But it meant a lot to me that he had the humility and thoughtfulness to admit that it could happen, that good intentions alone aren't enough to transcend a lifetime of socialisation. And that's what I'm not always seeing when very privileged actors are called on their (perhaps unintentional, perhaps unconscious) prejudices.