When I heard he and his family are moving to Qatar, I instantly
understood and am embarrassed that "the West" is allowed to
behave this way at all.*
You heard the Shakespeare thing, "The lady doth protest too much
methinks"? When I saw the huge rally of support for him from the
president, NASA, all sorts of big people I thought, "Ok, they're
trying to pin this on the police force in question.. to show
that "no we're really an accepting nation".
But we're not. We're really not. It's not just the school
faculty or right wing evangelical Christian groups from the
south...
..it's also hiding in plain sight within liberal Great White
Hope do-gooder activities. I went to a college like that.
Multicultural studies had its own kind of white elitism, a "We,
the educated white, understand you people better than the
uneducated whites and we will step in and help you because you
can't do it on your own."
Granted, the offer for help is nice and I believe in speaking
for those who can't speak for themselves, or translating for
people whose intentions may be obscured through cultural
differences.
But the element of superiority remains. It can be hard to see,
but it's there.*
An example I found recently was from a friend of mine who is
handicapped. He hates when people try to help him.
"Oh you poor thing. As I am able-bodied and you are
differently-abled, I'll help you."
His answer was always, "fuck off, I can do this myself."
They would find him rude and were angry that he was ungrateful
for their help.
But that's the thing: they missed the point. Autonomy does
matter.
Still, it's a hard balancing act. How do you know if you're
going about it the right way?
I guess it's a case of teeter-totter. A little weeble over in
this direction, a little wobble over in that direction, try to
keep from falling over or ending up joining a group whose aims
may end up NOT coinciding with your own but take you in
directions you really don't to find yourself in.
That's why I try to keep a variety of people around*smile
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