Since we all grew up in a racialized society, we all have racist ways of thinking. I’m not saying we are all white supremacists, but we have all lived in a society that considers white to be the standard and others to be substandard, in so many different ways. This...
Continue reading...Social Issues
How to respond to “if you aren’t doing anything wrong, you won’t be stopped in the first place.”
The whole point of the protests is that Black people *do* get stopped by police for doing nothing wrong. And when they do get stopped, regardless of whether they have done anything wrong or not, they tend to get treated with more brutality, and tend to be subject to extrajudicial...
Continue reading...It’s All of Us
I had lunch with one of my mentors yesterday. She has worked in education for her whole career and is soon to retire. She grew up in Ibaraki and then went to Tokyo for university. She was originally planning to find a job in Tokyo after she graduated. However, she...
Continue reading...Why can’t we all just get along? Thoughts on the Effects of Underlying Relative Value Statements in Arguments
The latest argument pitting “Democrats” against “Republicans” is about children being separated from their parents. I put Democrat and Republican in quotes because almost no one who argues about stuff like this is an actual member of either of these parties. And I really dislike the idea that all of...
Continue reading...Square Dancing and Racism
So, here’s the thing. I am about as white as it gets, with my Dutch and Scottish heritage in a Canadian package. Under normal conditions, I would not ever experience racism, so it might be hard for me to really understand what it means, and how it feels, to be...
Continue reading...My Understanding of the Black Lives Matter Movement
One of my Facebook friends asked some questions about the Black Lives Matter movement. Here are my answers. Is Black Lives Matter (BLM) any different from the KKK or Neo Nazi groups — racist hate groups? BLM is not a hate group, nor is it racist. It is a group...
Continue reading...Why Do I Argue with Racist, Sexist, Gun-Loving People?
Almost every time I have a day off with no pressing work to do (so, roughly, two times a year!), I end up getting into arguments with racist, sexist, climate change denying, and/or gun-loving square dancers (*see note below) on Facebook. Normally, I would never encounter people with such vastly...
Continue reading...Good and Evil are for Fairy Tales: We Need to Grow Up
J.K. Rowling is awesome and I agree with her rebuke of Rupert Murdoch. However, I don’t agree that the world is divided into “good” and “evil” the way this article suggests (“we fail to recognize the evil behind the attacks for what it is: pure evil”). Good and evil are...
Continue reading...How To Respond to Climate Change Deniers
Climate change denial is a politically-motivated opinion. It is basically the same as “science denial”. I try not to get into fights with people about stuff like this because it is awfully frustrating, but sometimes I can’t help myself. Here is how I responded to a conversation on Facebook that...
Continue reading...What if 20 Million Illegal Aliens Vacated America?
This article is not based on anything resembling fact, so it cannot be used to form an opinion about illegal immigrants. It was written by someone (or probably a combination of people over the years) with a strong bias against immigration in general, legal or otherwise. It tries to incite...
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