4 ms·
No, the "trick" is not simply to befriend them. That is an incredibly simplistic and naive way to interpret hate, and it shows you haven't had to deal with raci
by ikeyany 8y ago
No, the "trick" is not simply to befriend them. That is an incredibly simplistic and naive way to interpret hate, and it shows you haven't had to deal with racism strongly impacting your life. Not all bigotry is based in innocent misunderstanding. Sometimes it's intentionally strongly held convictions of derision and superiority.
The answer isn't to spew hate back at them, but it certainly isn't to make friends.
- yellowapple 8y agoIn my experience, the vast majority of my racist family members and other acquaintances are such specifically because of a lack of understanding of and positive exposure to individuals of other races. Even the "strongly held convictions of derision and superiority" are more often than not compensation for a sense of fear rather than genuine belief in superiority. I never said it was innocent misunderstanding, but it is still misunderstanding nonetheless, and it is still possible to at least start to correct this misunderstanding by alleviating the fear underlying it, thus making it easier for a racist individual to expose oneself to those "inferior" races and realize that they're just fellow human beings and not scary job-stealing world-order-establishing criminal boogeymen.