The following showed up in my feed and I thought it was important that I share it as this post highlights a good point about why it is important to call out people during arguments/discussions about human rights. I never thought about it this way but after reading it, this makes perfect sense and I am going to use this going forward.
Why it is important to call out people about human rights
@sepuichritude
one thing I don’t think people realize is that in arguments about human rights, it’s not about trying
to persuade the other party. its not about them at all. they’ve already made up their mind.it’s about persuading the audience.
if I call out my teacher on being homophobic I’m not trying to change his opinion. I’m trying to convince
any closeted kids in the room that they’re not the monsters he’s made them out to be.if I argue with my aunt about how racist she’s being it’s not because I expect to change her mind. its
because I’m hoping to god my cousin’s kids hear and learn that maybe skin color doesn’t mean what she says it means.people will try to hush you and say “they’re not going to change their minds, don’t bother” but its not about them. it was never about them
You see the thing is that if someone puts down a person because of stereotyping and no one objects to it then it normalizes that statement and that way of thinking. Over time that particular school of thought becomes accepted/normalized as the truth. The more people don’t object/call it out the more it gets mainlined and normalized. I have seen this with jokes about women in Tech, Indians being bad at English, Gay’s being evil and so on and so forth.
The other major issue is that if a person is being made fun of or being put down and no one objects, they will think that everyone there agrees with the statement. Which might or might not be true, but it will become true in the long run. As the saying goes, if there is one Nazi at a bar and is not immediately kicked out then it is a Nazi bar. The same is true for sexist or racist behavior/homophobia etc etc. Which is why we have communities enforcing Code of Conduct’s, companies having POSH and similar rules.
You might not be able to change a person’s mind but you can definitely show the person being picked at that they are not alone and not what the person picking on them is accusing them of being.
Thoughts?
– Suramya