From a very young age we’re basically taught to think of racism and “anything bad” isms as something “very bad people [consciously] do.” We are always taught to identify with the good guys and wonder what the bad guys were thinking. We then have a lot of trouble actually identifying evil thoughts within ourselves, because we don’t see ourselves as being “evil people.”
But part of truly understanding the horror of many acts in history is understanding that the people who made them happen were not particularly evil- the people that followed weren’t particularly evil. That evil often happens in little steps, tiny jokes and references and cultural nuances until something snaps and the whole thing snowballs into chaos and upheaval. Evil as it occurs when groups of people are denied rights or killed or discriminated against or whatever isn’t necessarily the result of an evil thought, but rather the result of a lack of conscious thoughts fighting evil.
feministdisney (via stay-in-skull)
no snowflake ever feels responsible for the avalanche
(via oogishkamaanisee)
I also think we should stop being so “OMG YOU HORRIBLE PERSON” and “let’s lynch the racist!” every time a racist remark/thought is posted. It’s doing nothing but contributing to the “but only other people are racist!” mindset that my American public school education drilled into me around Martin Luther King Jr. day.
People can improve their attitudes (by being exposed to /Different people/) but it’s no good to stigmatize others for being too intolerant.
(Source: skeptic-tank)
