Unfortunately, this is the state of our country rt now. The bkgrnd is politics – & we’ve been divided for so long. The foreground (although it’s been going on for centuries), is race, race relations, equality – & sadly, we’re a country divided.
Mix those 2 topics & how they do/don’t apply to one another – but how they always seem tangled in the same web when we shout our opinions & it becomes very messy. Sprinkle in some heightened emotions, & literally no one listens to understand one another.
The problem is, we shout over each other, & we don’t actually absorb diff vantage pts. We won’t make any progress, collectively, if that’s how we go abt things.
When we actually LISTEN to someone’s vantage pt, we may not agree 100%, but we understand, based on their bkgrnd, their upbringing, the challenges they’ve faced, the way THEY view a particular societal problem, rallying cry, or action.
This actually happened the other day: We had a charity event & one of my friends – someone I consider a brother…a Black man – I asked him to speak after I spoke abt the charity – to a zoom group of supporters, there for a comedy show. My friend touched on his involvement in the charity, his love for helping school kids, & finally some of the current events happening in our country that impact MH. He was not offensive – he brought up Black men who’ve been killed recently – he brought up some of the police involvement; he went out of his way NOT to mention White ppl or cops, nor speak in totalities.
Immediately following his comment, someone from the audience (there only as a listener) – on volume so the whole grp could hear – essentially spoke over my friend, & asked “Why don’t you mention the 20+ Black ppl killed in Chicago by other Blacks?”
THAT was a microcosm as to how our country is dealing w these topics on a macro level. “I see your issue, but you don’t have the grounds to talk bc there’s this other issue & I will shout louder than you abt it.”
How abt ALL these issues matter? How abt we listen? Acknowledge that an issue we think is “more impt or bigger” doesn’t make another’s issue NOT impt? We need to actually LISTEN.