Sunday, September 20, 2009

ffffffffffffffffff

I just don't get how people excuse offensive or bigoted opinions or whatever, because the person saying it is "just like that" or "they don't know better" or "that's how they are". Okay, so? It may be a reason, but it's not an excuse, you know? Just because someone doesn't know better doesn't mean they shouldn't have to.

I am not a perfect person. I do and say things that show off my privilege a lot. I try to recognise this, try to make sure I know when I'm coming from a position of privilege and then keep it in check. I'm not going to sit here and say I'm perfect - that I've never said racist things, I've never slut-shamed women, I've never used the word "gay" as an insult - things like that. I try really hard to look critically at these things and check my privilege, to use a phrase.

So I get fed up with these excuses that I seem to hear so often. Apparently, my thinking that people should be held accountable to their words and their actions, and that people shouldn't be given free passes to not show the basics of human decency, apparently this makes me high and mighty. Not even calling people on their privilege or their comments or whatever, but just the simple act of expressing the opinion that something is offensive or whatnot.

I mean, quite frankly, if you're going to sit around making up excuses for why people are allowed to say sorts of offensive, sexist, racist, homophobic, etc etc etc, things, then I would rather you think I'm high and mighty because I'm just glad I'm not being an ignorant, bigoted asshole. I'd rather be ~uppity~ because at least it means I'm ruffling feathers, and hopefully this means I'm doing something right. Because if I was doing something wrong, no doubt I'd be having excuses made for me, you know?

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