"It doesn't happen anymore."
It doesn't happen anymore. Once upon a time, we lived in a horrible world of racism, sexism, homophobia and slavery, but then we had the abolition of the slave trade, the civil rights movement, women's lib and LGBT rights, and now everything's mostly okay for the average straight, white, cis, abled, middle-class person. Well, mostly. Those poor straight white men are being oppressed by evil, hairy-legged feminists and reverse racism, and let's not forget how hard-working Joe Citizen is being squeezed by having to - gasp! - have some of his taxes go to aiding people. Clearly everyone has it (mostly) just fine.
Well...no. Look harder. Look at who's living in which areas, who's doing which jobs (or not) and what they're being paid. Look at what they don't tell you: what does the news not cover? Who does the news ignore? Look bigger, too: what's happening around the world? Who makes your clothes? Who makes the bed? Who drives minicabs? Who gets stereotyped as what, and why?
Truly, I want us to actually have a world where we don't need to remind people that oppressing others is bad and where everyone gets the opportunity to develop themselves. The trouble is, no matter how much privileged people say otherwise and manage to fool other people (particularly other privileged people) into believing this, this world isn't it. It's been - what? - a century or less since women, POC, LGB people, disabled people and many others started to be considered as equals in some circles - and even then the amount of discrimination against and sheer hate for anyone who isn't a white, cis, rich, abled, straight male is shockingly common. (By shockingly common, I mean that it's near-ubiquitous and still retains its horror factor.) We don't just have a long way to go, we're barely even starting out. Less than a century of change cannot, will not, erase the centuries of oppression that came before it. And not talking about the oppression, or denying its continuing existence, won't help either. It won't make it go away - denial never does. Instead, it'll probably make it worse - if no-one knows or wants to admit that oppression remains a problem, no-one will do anything about it.
I want a world where we no longer need to consider oppression, where everyone is equal. I truly do. But - as I have stated before - this is not that world, and as someone who tries to be a good person it would be wrong of me not to acknowledge that.
Well...no. Look harder. Look at who's living in which areas, who's doing which jobs (or not) and what they're being paid. Look at what they don't tell you: what does the news not cover? Who does the news ignore? Look bigger, too: what's happening around the world? Who makes your clothes? Who makes the bed? Who drives minicabs? Who gets stereotyped as what, and why?
Truly, I want us to actually have a world where we don't need to remind people that oppressing others is bad and where everyone gets the opportunity to develop themselves. The trouble is, no matter how much privileged people say otherwise and manage to fool other people (particularly other privileged people) into believing this, this world isn't it. It's been - what? - a century or less since women, POC, LGB people, disabled people and many others started to be considered as equals in some circles - and even then the amount of discrimination against and sheer hate for anyone who isn't a white, cis, rich, abled, straight male is shockingly common. (By shockingly common, I mean that it's near-ubiquitous and still retains its horror factor.) We don't just have a long way to go, we're barely even starting out. Less than a century of change cannot, will not, erase the centuries of oppression that came before it. And not talking about the oppression, or denying its continuing existence, won't help either. It won't make it go away - denial never does. Instead, it'll probably make it worse - if no-one knows or wants to admit that oppression remains a problem, no-one will do anything about it.
I want a world where we no longer need to consider oppression, where everyone is equal. I truly do. But - as I have stated before - this is not that world, and as someone who tries to be a good person it would be wrong of me not to acknowledge that.
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