Race, Gender ,and Sexual Orientation matter but they neither explain anything and
everything nor is readjusting inequality along these lines the solution to
anything and everything.
In other words, these issues are capable of being exaggerated and no one should be considered an enemy to progress for being more exact with these degrees. To exaggerate is a loss in credibility.
Examples: Geena Davis institute and like-minded institutions
publishing numbers on women and film, the Cannes film festival insisting that
the grand prize go to a woman director despite the quality of Sophia Copolla's
film, the black lives matter reaction to the Oscars So White campaign, the
black politce brutality
Being on the right side of history doesn't give you liberty
to be a jerk.
Yes we know racism and other said evils are wrong, but there
is nothing justified about harassing or demeaning other individuals you suspect
of these behaviors in the manner you accuse them of doing
Examples: Attacks on liberal college professors, death
threats to electors who were planning on voting for Trump,
The move for inclusivity of gender, race and sexual
orientation must not be compromised with intellectual exclusivity
Examples: Many of the message board encounters I have,
university atmospheres, ?, disinviting speakers
You must acknowledge things that people do well if you
complain about them doing things wrong, you also don't get to dictate what your
ally
If a conservative lawmaker or advocate actually makes
progress on something you didn't think they'd do, you must give them credit or
you have no credibility. Similarly, no one owes you anything. If someone wants
to advance your cause, you can critique how they go about it but not before
appreciating their help, that reeks of entitlement.
Examples: So so many: Various conservative lawmakers like John McCain or Jeff
Flake who have done things against the party.... The NCAA for relocating their championships outside of North
Carolina for the bathroom bill...People being hard on the academy awards in 2015/2016 when
they bent over backwards with a black president, black host, and black honorary
Oscar recipient just to appease a liberal base.... Even if the Trump administration
occasionally does something right, like a decent response to Hurricane Harvey
and Irma, or having the foresight not to push for the nomination of the corrupt
drug czar or promoting a woman to homeland security, it has to be acknowledged... All the missives like "Dear White People: You don't get
it"...Comments on message boards from women who hate guys who list
"feminist" in their dating profile as if that's better than not being
a feminist.... Countless instances of people saying that organizations are only
half-modifying their efforts... Tom Hiddlestone gave a speech at the Golden
Globes calling attention to doctors without borders in the Congo and people
complained he was a "white savior"
We should listen and research other people's perspectives
and if you are a policy maker or a cultural icon, you should get feedback from
colored purple or women in making your decision, but your skin color shouldn't detract from an intellectual argument
In debate tournaments, judges don't deduct points based on
skin color. Everyone is a stakeholder on policy, everyone gets a seat at the
table. Besides, people are capable of researching what other people go through,
it's not an industrial secret.
Don't be afraid of free speech and encourage fear of it.
The solution to bad speech is simply counter speech. Don't shut it out, don't
live in a bubble
Examples: Berkeley Campus, movements to make twitter be more
stringent, reactions to try to categorize UVA as a hate crime, wanting to push
for the TV show Confederate not to be made...
There are bad people who should be stopped, but stop
labelling everyone as bad by association. I personally don't like most of the
republican party platforms, but being Republican isn't a crime nor is having
ever associated with a Republican a crime
Examples: Mozilla Firefox CEO ousted for donating to gay
marriage, believing that all Trump voters are xenophobic and misogynistic,
wanting to boycott Matthew McConaughey's movie because he said "Give Trump
a Chance', holding it against anyone who once held views against gay people,
(similarly Obama having had contact with Ayres isn't a cause for concern), not
understanding that there's a dichotomy more complex than pro-gay vs anti-gay
that shapes how people vote. Also, there's the idea that neutral technology
somehow has to be pro-woman. Twitter is just an algorithm it's not pro or
against anything. What is that??
Not all sex crimes are equal, people accused of sex crimes
deserve to be heard, historical figures need to be taken in context
Examples: Realizing Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson were
products of their time. Treating sexual harassment or erring a bit on set in
terms of creating a safe workspace as equivalent to rape as is the case with
Casey Affleck, treating Woody Allen like he's guilty when there was never
evidence outside of one person's testimony. Calling Joss Wheedon a sexual
predator for having affairs. Labelling Travis Kalanick (Uber) and Kenneth Starr
(Baylor U) with sexual deviants when they were merely the heads of companies
that didn't have proper atmospheres.
Realizing that "intersectionality" works both
ways. If you expect people to have compassion as both a black person AND a
woman, then be open to the possibility that someone can be both white AND poor
or poor AND disabled, or born into a cycle of poverty AND have invested
generationally in a dying industry
Examples: The lack of empathy for blue lives matter or people persecuted in red states
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