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Dec. 21st, 2016 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
borlandiaI hear things like "only love can conquer hate" consistently, moreso these days since the election (and the months leading up to it). The slightly-less-cheesy version is "When they go low, we go high".
I personally don't care much for this assertion. I'll admit I'm pretty negative, although it seems to me love loses to hate a lot, and those who go low are typically the ones that succeed and make it further in life.
That being said, I stumbled upon this story today, and I think it's fantastic.
I think a lot of the anger, aggression, fear, and so on that occurs in today's modern societies comes from the assumption that our knowledge base is complete. We know what we know, and that is enough to formulate all opinions, conclusions, etc. Isolationism leads to reinforcement of what we already hold to be self-evident. A lot of these folks had probably never sat down and actually had a real, live conversation with a black person. They hadn't actively sought it out, and they hadn't given the alternative any thought at all. Humans can be mean and borderline evil, but it's hard not to be sympathetic when presented with an individual case in front of their faces that isn't framed in a manner such as "You're an idiot and here's why".
When actually presented with information in a reasonable manner, such as this gentleman did, and in such a way where he LISTENED, as opposed to lectured or dictated, and had an open dialogue without belittling or insulting anyone, he was able to break down the "I know everything" wall and let some real information get accepted and completely transform mindset about BIG things - racism, politics, history.
I don't want to go so far as to say this guy is "doing what everyone should be doing" and is an "example" because I think there's a lot of dangers with a black man straight-up approaching the KKK and trying to wax philosophical, or any sort of comparison like that.
People should forget about being right or wrong and just talk and listen.
I personally don't care much for this assertion. I'll admit I'm pretty negative, although it seems to me love loses to hate a lot, and those who go low are typically the ones that succeed and make it further in life.
That being said, I stumbled upon this story today, and I think it's fantastic.
I think a lot of the anger, aggression, fear, and so on that occurs in today's modern societies comes from the assumption that our knowledge base is complete. We know what we know, and that is enough to formulate all opinions, conclusions, etc. Isolationism leads to reinforcement of what we already hold to be self-evident. A lot of these folks had probably never sat down and actually had a real, live conversation with a black person. They hadn't actively sought it out, and they hadn't given the alternative any thought at all. Humans can be mean and borderline evil, but it's hard not to be sympathetic when presented with an individual case in front of their faces that isn't framed in a manner such as "You're an idiot and here's why".
When actually presented with information in a reasonable manner, such as this gentleman did, and in such a way where he LISTENED, as opposed to lectured or dictated, and had an open dialogue without belittling or insulting anyone, he was able to break down the "I know everything" wall and let some real information get accepted and completely transform mindset about BIG things - racism, politics, history.
I don't want to go so far as to say this guy is "doing what everyone should be doing" and is an "example" because I think there's a lot of dangers with a black man straight-up approaching the KKK and trying to wax philosophical, or any sort of comparison like that.
People should forget about being right or wrong and just talk and listen.
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no subject
Date: 2016-12-21 11:21 pm (UTC)