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In reply to the discussion: This message was self-deleted by its author [View all]CTyankee
(63,768 posts)why is one accepted easily and the other uneasily, if at all?
"Just because someone says they're offended doesn't mean they have a right to be so." I am old enough to remember when that could have been said when blacks objected to speech they thought was offensive to them, since I went to segregated schools and rode on segregated buses in Texas as a kid. And we eventually came to agree with them that it WAS offensive speech. And we don't say n****r here at all, do we? And rightly so. And I stress the word "rightly." Social justice triumphed because people knew the right thing to do.
I am not trying to drive a wedge between oppressed groups, but I am saying that if you can accept this for one oppressed group you have to accept it for another also. No?
Why is this so hard? Why is the bar so high? Why do we get disbelief and questioning and doubt and equivocating on this very fundamental issue of human rights? I don't understand it.
I am old. And I have granddaughters. Imagine this: some of the statements that have stood unchallenged about females being said to my three granddaughters who are 17, 14 and 11.
Now imagine if they were YOUR children or grandchildren. What would you say to them? Would you say it's OK, maybe because you see it isn't that clear and besides, we can't ban speech, etc. And that's OK with you, right? I really don't think so.
As I said, I am old. I have lived through some decades of this. It is nothing new, believe me. I was there, in Washington, D.C. when a lot of dreams died with the defeat of the ERA in 1980. We still don't rate a simple declaration of equality in our Constitution. Oh, but there were "reasons." Of course. There were always "reasons." It would cause LOTS and LOTS of litigation. Horrors. It would destroy families. Well...I could go on and on but I won't.
I tell you all of this so you can get the perspective of an old progressive woman who has seen a lot of sexism and misogyny in her lifetime. I hope you can learn from this. It is important that you do.