I consider a major part of my having grown up to be a series of realisations that my expectations of normality had been conditioned in such a way as to make me de-facto prejudiced.
That little burn of umbrage when someone does or says something outside of your expectations of normalcy is the insidious cancer all privileged people are infected with. Admitting that you are infected, and are behaving unfairly and that it is your fault if you don’t change was always obvious to me when I was confronted with my prejudice.
I don’t believe any rational or semi-rational person escapes this realisation, but some are far more ready than others to bury those perceptions deep and then blame everyone else for the unease they feel.
I don’t often take part in these discussions because I usually feel like I don’t have anything to add, but recently I’ve been wondering if that isn’t the exact reason I should be in them, taking part. I might not add anything to the discussion but I want to sharpen my ideas and my rhetoric and, well, this is the best place on the planet for that.
