How to talk to a bigot

 Self confessed bigot Doug Stevenson on bigotry, what makes a bigot, how to deal with your own bigotry, and how to talk to a bigot in this Ted Talk:



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Divide and Rule

Image
 Mankind has been abusing mankind since the dawn of time. Human beings have been subjugating, enslaving, disenfranchising, abusing, denigrating, objectifying and murdering other human beings simply because they could, and nowadays we have a society divided in such ways that many of us aren't even conscious of the divisions or our own prejudices. The phenomenon of implicit racism, for example, is one that many people fail to recognize. Racism, sexism, bigotry, prejudice and injustice are so woven into the fabric of society that we don't even know we're doing it. We say we're civilized, but a fine veneer of civilization covers a seething mass of resentment and hatred, as we've seen rise to the surface in recent years. In this blog I'll be looking at the history of the kinds of injustice that mankind has subjected upon his fellows, and I'll be looking at some of the people who've tried to bring us to the awareness of the folly of doing so.. I'll be stud
Read more

A common enemy: the only thing that will ever unite us?

Image
 It's been said that the only thing that truly unites people is a common enemy. How true is that? We divide into groups, into tribes, each tribe's members having affiliation with the next. We know what's common with us: our skin color, our nationality, our gender, our sexual orientation, our interests.  Some of us are Red Sox fans; others White Sox. We might hate the damn greedy, stupid Republicans or the Snowflake bleeding heart Democrats . We're sick of the immigrants taking our jobs , or the goddam queer hanging around our kids. We resent the rich guy who has more money than we'll ever see, or the homeless guy because we think he'll steal from us. We hate the rich Jew , we might think who controls the wealth;or the Muslim , because he's probably supporting terrorism.  In the following clip, from the movie Independence Day, the president is rallying the people not just of America but the whole world to fight the alien invasion. Is this the only real o
Read more

The objectification and abuse of animals: is it any different to what we do to each other?

Image
 We know slavery is an historical wrong. We know human rights abuse is an historical wrong. We know women's lack of autonomy is an historical wrong. We know that homosexuality, and gender rights, have been too long coming to civilization. Nowadays, many more of us are politically aware of the injustices minorities have faced throughout the ages. As we become more aware, the politics of freedom changes, and those who were once slaves, or dehumanized, or disenfranchised, know what is to be seen as equal in society. But is it any different for animals? We enslaved people of color because we could. Elements within human society have controlled and manipulated and subjugated other elements within  society because they could. And they got away with it because they could. But is it any different how we treat animals? We kill and eat, wear, and enslave animals by the millions every day. We wear their skin, and we eat their flesh and organs. We eat their eggs, and drink the milk intended fo
Read more