Doshii_Jun An actual disability . . . Racism. Gender discrimination. Religious discrimination . . . More and more, I see my own skin as a disability. Not just in the sense of "white guilt" . . . but in the sense that I'm left without a solution. And I'll never get one, if some folks are to be believed. Unless of course, I study it the rest of my life and read a library's worth of books on the subject over the course of thirty years. I trust who's ever on the other end of this line. Dunno why . . . but I do. Can I ever learn to overcome my "natural" ignorance, as well as my natural privliges being a caucasion male? Or will I just have to keep going as I have: angry at having no way to solve the problem, letting my mind stretch itself from one ray of hope to the next. Sorry to bother you so with such questions . . . thank you for listening. Naota Nandaba What makes you feel that way? I mean, it's not like I'm a master of that emotional stuff or anything, but I don't think you should feel that way unless there's something there making you feel that way, right? Naota Nandaba So what have you been doing that makes you feel bad? Naota Nandaba And if you haven't done anything that should make you feel bad, I guess you shouldn't feel bad. Dark Schneider "Can I ever learn to overcome my 'natural' ignorance, as well as my natural privliges being a caucasion male?" That is a rather loaded...and not to mention stupid statement. "Natural" ignorance? Sure, you are ignorant of stuff you've never been through. So what? Or are you buying the load that there is some unbreachable gulf between you and anybody that isn't male or white? Kid, bridges can be made, but you'll never finish unless you work at it from both sides and meet somewhere in the middle. If people choose to exclude you, or tell you that you don't understand but won't even bother to make the attempt, then they're the highest order of hypocrite if they then go and try to make you feel unworthy because you don't understand, or worse, demand that you can never understand. Dark Schneider And you want to "overcome" your "privileges"? What does that mean? And why in My name would you ever want to do that? Sure...I feel sorry for a guy in a wheelchair. Doesn't mean I'm going to go home and shoot myself in the foot, so that I can feel better. Wouldn't make me a better person if I did. In fact, it would make me pretty foolish, wouldn't it? Dark Schneider So, what can you do? Well, you can try your best to understand people. Even if you haven't been through what they have, you can mentally put yourself in their shoes. Maybe you'd make the same decisions they have, maybe you wouldn't. But you can always give it a try. If people push you away. Then forget them. Understanding is a two way street. You can't understand them, unless they help you to understand. But don't you just assume because they don't look like you, or haven't lived the same life you have, that you can't understand, either. You have to work at this, too. Feel bad because you think you are advantaged? Then use that advantage to help others. Rich? Give your money away to people you think deserve it. In a position of authority? Use it wisely and well. But there's a dark flipside to this. Don't fool yourself into the thinking that, because you feel you are priveleged, that everybody else, therefore is somehow disadvantaged, such that you have to help them, or else they could never hope to achive anything. That sort of demeaning attitude can be poisonous. Help people to be the best they can, if they want and are willing to accept your help. It doesn't matter who. Look beyond the color of their (or your) skin, and to the content of their character. Dark Schneider What? You know I'm all about the love. Doshii_Jun Hmm. What makes me feel that way . . . the fact that the paper I work for made a lot of glaring errors in judgement that offended a lot of people. I didn't make any of them myself, but I still feel responsible. Bridges . . . hmm. The emotions that spurred me to write this were about a day or so old, but the issue has been going on now for a few weeks. The man who came in to give us a bit of sensitivity training--Alla(e?)n G. Johnson, PhD.--sometimes did seem to imply that bridges aren't ever really enough. One must try to pull the sides of the gulf together, so to speak. His whole thing is that caucasian males have natural privliges in the United States, and everyone else is at a disadvantage. I think he'd argue that to some extent, the history of discrimination in this nation makes it so I would have to try and build from just my side, and if the other sides don't extend out to help, it's no excuse for not trying. If I read you right, DS, you're making the same argument, in different words. As for overcoming privliges . . . *shakes his head* Ya know? I've never seen where my privliges got me as a caucasian male. I dunno if Johnson's full of shit or not. I wish I could say I did. I will say this--someday, I'd like to go live in a nation not known for liking America, or caucasians, or what have you. Maybe then I'd be able to understand this more than just through intellectual means. I think, if I read you right, DS, that your position is one of the individual matters. I think I've been told far too often that individuals don't matter, that good intentions are meaningless, and that there's too much history involved to boil it down to single people. I was never one to buy that. Individuals do matter. Maybe good intentions don't mean much in the newspaper business . . . but I can sure as hell try and make individuals matter. Hmm. I don't really have any money or power as of yet (single college students rarely do) but who knows about the future? Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses . . . I think I just have to keep that in mind and take it one soul at a time. Ethnicity fits in there, somewhere, I know . . . guess I'll just have to keep working at it until I find out where it goes, and how I fit in it as well. Thanks, DS. I think I can pull my head out of the hole I had it in now.