One thing that feels in its infancy about sexism or racism is that the discussion is pressured against talking about any differences. We so have to pretend they don't exist (and maybe that's what's needed as a society about these things for now anyway). When you're first educating a child, you give them much broader rules that as they grow have nuances and exceptions.
What if that coach years ago was right, that black men *statistically* tend to have a slightly different musculature that enables them to {do some aspect of something to do with football I think it was, better} (I'm hoping someone with a better memory than I tend to regarding things sportslike can help me fill that in more accurately)? We pretty much can't have that conversation as a society right now.
I think what it is, is that if differences are acknowledged, they can be misused as reasons to make value judgments and discriminate ("ummm, I dunno, we can't go hiring black men for this job, as with their statistically larger muscles, we'll need to on the average buy larger uniform sizes that cost more" -- ok very contrived example but I hope it's illustrative).
Also, sometimes we walk a tightrope -- some women get severe PMS for example. So do we ignore that? Or do we pay attention to it, and then risk some people's dismissal of every woman's strong emotional point of view as "she must be PMSing"?
I'm hopeful of someday a society where we can acknowledge the legitimate differences between any groups of people, and yet not misuse them.
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Date: 2007-08-08 11:48 am (UTC)What if that coach years ago was right, that black men *statistically* tend to have a slightly different musculature that enables them to {do some aspect of something to do with football I think it was, better} (I'm hoping someone with a better memory than I tend to regarding things sportslike can help me fill that in more accurately)? We pretty much can't have that conversation as a society right now.
I think what it is, is that if differences are acknowledged, they can be misused as reasons to make value judgments and discriminate ("ummm, I dunno, we can't go hiring black men for this job, as with their statistically larger muscles, we'll need to on the average buy larger uniform sizes that cost more" -- ok very contrived example but I hope it's illustrative).
Also, sometimes we walk a tightrope -- some women get severe PMS for example. So do we ignore that? Or do we pay attention to it, and then risk some people's dismissal of every woman's strong emotional point of view as "she must be PMSing"?
I'm hopeful of someday a society where we can acknowledge the legitimate differences between any groups of people, and yet not misuse them.