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Activism and Politics => Discrimination => Topic started by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 11:45:27 AM

Title: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 11:45:27 AM
Seattles mayor painted the sidewalks rainbow.... so I'm pretty sure its the most open..... though I still do take issue with the fact the mayor did this. While I am thankful for the move toward acceptance and equal rights, I take issue with activists who like to go beyond equal rights.

Everyone has rights, when a special interest group goes beyond equal rights to the point of infringing on others it is no longer about equal rights.

In the case of the mayor and his press release about the sidewalks he stated that was just the beginning, I remember the face palm moment when I read this. I thought what's next? special rainbow seating on the buses? The mayor is so caught up in his bs that he cannot see what he is promoting is regression

for those who have not seen it, the current stage of equal rights is a dangerous playground, it needs new direction if we are ever to truly establish equal rights and acceptance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKcWu0tsiZM
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Deborah on January 05, 2016, 11:58:45 AM
If people have time to be offended by sidewalks then they truly have no real problems.


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Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Peep on January 05, 2016, 12:00:58 PM
I'm not offended by it but there is something to be said about empty gestures. what else could that money have gone towards?
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 12:16:11 PM
you must have missed the point, I really don't think anyone is offended by sidewalks or anyone cares if they were embedded with diamonds. What I was pointing out is regression. African Americans had their own sidewalks, their own seats on the bus. the equal rights movement abolished that. There will never be equal rights if this kind of crap continues.

because it does create a separation/devide in everyone subconscious
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 12:27:14 PM
as far as the video goes, the message isn't really about people being offended either. It is about reverse suppression, the fact that many of the things that are being done in the media and special interest groups have absolutely nothing to do with equal rights and are more about the suppressed becoming the oppressors.

Here is another video from the same group that better helps clarify it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XM-HJT8_esM

QuoteThe follow up to #Equality, Modern Educayshun delves into the potential dangers of a hypersensitive culture bred by social media and political correctness.
Written and Directed by Neel Kolhatkar


Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 12:31:41 PM
I guess the reason I have such strong views on this is I come from a belief that acceptance is the only way, accepting everyone for who they are and respecting their rights as human beings is the only way we ever achieve equal rights. Once we start pushing the envelope into one persons rights trumps another persons rights then we have lost sight of the original goal.
Title: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Deborah on January 05, 2016, 12:37:35 PM
Acceptance would be fine.  But as long as we are facing a dominant religious group that feels it their civil right and religious duty to be obnoxious, disrespectful, and outright discriminatory then the law needs to be used to force their compliance. 

I still remember separate waiting rooms for whites and blacks in my Grandfather's Dr. office.  Without federal law, and troops, forcing that issue there would still be separate waiting rooms today.


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Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 12:45:48 PM
I do agree, my strong views are not against any one group. I have always had the stance that I am a bigot against any extremist group whether it be the extremists within the African American, LGBT, Anti-Gun, Religious, Pro-life and so on...

They all have lost sight of what equal rights is, unfortunately until everyone reverses this mentality nothing will ever get better.
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 12:57:25 PM
Being from Seattle I did not grow up with racism, I spent most of my youth completely oblivious to what it truly was. I was so used to having African American friends throughout the years that I was really caught off guard when I joined the military and got stationed in A school. When I entered the break room all the whites were sitting on one side and blacks on another... I was a little shocked at first but walked on over and sat down with the blacks, there was laughter and ridicule that followed but I was very comfortable in my views as us as all people so I was able to shake it off and something happened...

I changed minds of many of the African Americans that I attended school with, people started becoming more co-mingled. In class I don't remember the full details, but I do remember me saying something and one of the African americans throwing a statement of "it's because I'm black isn't it?" I replied "no but it is obvious now that it's because I am white" jaws were left hanging open and I quickly befriended many, they couldn't understand why I was so un-affected by the racism, but it was because I didn't understand it because it is not how I grew up.

Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Deborah on January 05, 2016, 12:59:07 PM
:-).  I think we agree on that.  And you are right that it's easy to get caught up in the mindset of revenge.

Right now though a certain political party calls us extremists simply for existing.  So how to fight back without using extraordinary means?


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Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 01:59:39 PM
Well it is a pretty delicate balance line but we need to come up with laws that force acceptance. The religious groups don't have a right to force their views on how people should be, but have the right to not have other peoples views shoved on them (I don't have time right now but I have an example of public decency that I have used to describe this to others in the past).

Anti-Gun groups have the right to have laws put in place that allow them to feel safe (This is actually false sense of security but more on that later), but they do not have the right to take other peoples rights away. (None of the laws they propose serve any purpose for a safer community, they only serve to push their opinions on others).

Pro-lifers well this is a whole other animal, again I really don't have the time at the moment to explain why this group tends to be lying to themselves and could actually benefit to learn from transgenders who become honest with themselves.

I will explain in more time later but for now I have to leave, again I am not referring to people with any of these belief sets, I am and only mean to have these opinions of the extremists within.
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Tessa James on January 05, 2016, 02:17:45 PM
Wow what a helpful public service you have offered us.  A scary music video that laughably has nothing to do with modern education and equal rights but everything to do with fear.

Your remarks are not just offensive but confused as you claim to be a bigot, seeking "...laws that force acceptance."  Huh?

One of the political failures of this nation was to fail at passing the Equal Rights Amendment decades ago.  Your comments inspire me to work harder for eventually passing that and ENDA.

A reliable source informs me that these videos are actually satirical, you know humor.  Got me!
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Adena on January 05, 2016, 06:11:50 PM
Perhaps we are being too easily offended?

I'm not sure I fully understand where the OP is coming from but I don't sense that they are trying to be hateful and I don't buy that because they are making a contrarian argument that means they must have bad motivation (this is separate from a discussion of the merits of their arguments, there's nothing overboard in the Seattle measures that I see so far).

I do not believe that it is proper to assume that individual Republicans, Conservative Christians, etc. are bad people or badly motivated just because they fit into these groups, or at least not necessarily more so than individuals from any other group of people. I do agree that the vocal intolerants and bigots are more represented in these groups, that seems obvious (but feel free to disagree with me, I won't hate you for doing so). The latter is why we ourselves sometimes tend to discriminate against individuals that are members of such groups. I actually find it tougher to deal with people who pretend to be accepting of me but speak ill of me when I am not in their presence  and stab me in the back when they have opportunity. And those kinds of people sadly can come from all political and religious categories.

Just my 2 cents. Your thoughts?

Love,
Denali

Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Asche on January 05, 2016, 06:24:49 PM
I didn't watch the video -- finding and setting up a computer to watch them is a PITA, and I find watching on-line videos really unpleasant anyway.  Unless there's a transcript or at least enough of a description that would indicate that the content is really worth the hassle, I don't bother.

That said, my past experience of people who claim that some oppressed group is taking equal rights too far is that it almost always turns out that they're defending some long-established bigotry.  Typically, the story they tell is a distortion of what is actually going on, and invariably they also ignore the structural inequalities and culture of oppression that are the context of whatever it is they're complaining about.

ETA: I'm not offended, but at some point I can't be bothered to read to the end if the beginning sounds all too familiar.
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: highlight on January 05, 2016, 06:50:43 PM
I loved the videos they were much fun.  :laugh:

In all seriousness the outcomes in the video simply will not happen, but.......yes!

I agree with you in some ways it has gone a little to far. You know it has when Hilary Clinton can say "women are always the primary victims of war" with a straight face and with very little back-lash.

Also I am not sure about "offensive words" like ->-bleeped-<-. After all what is the point of creating words we cannot use?

But a much more serious factor is the fact that some of the energy of the activists is misdirected. I myself would be campaigning for the correction of trangenderism as an intersex condition myself. Very few people are doing this.
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: stephaniec on January 05, 2016, 07:39:41 PM
I think the most important event in education would be the abolishment of the grading system. The grading system itself is the tool of the oppressor.
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Tamika Olivia on January 05, 2016, 07:51:59 PM
I'm so confused... how is painting a sidewalk rainbow discrimination of any kind? Like, what does that even mean? Does the video explain?
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: stephaniec on January 05, 2016, 07:59:25 PM
It means we need to abolish the punitive and derogatory nature of the educational system through  the absolute abolishment of grades.
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Deborah on January 05, 2016, 08:00:48 PM
Or maybe people just need to study harder.


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Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Mavis on January 05, 2016, 08:43:07 PM
Hey everyone, sorry it seems many of you got the wrong idea and I will try to better help explain when I get some more free time. In the mean time just know that my intentions are not meant to be offensive in any way, more so a discussion of what's currently wrong with the system and what positive changes could be made. P.S. the videos are supposed to be over the top to shed light on what some of the current issues are, not saying that in their entirety that is how it will be.
Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Deborah on January 05, 2016, 09:12:33 PM

Quote from: DenaliBe on January 05, 2016, 06:11:50 PM
I do not believe that it is proper to assume that individual Republicans, Conservative Christians, etc. are bad people or badly motivated just because they fit into these groups, or at least not necessarily more so than individuals from any other group of people.
i believe that they share in the blame because they support the groups that do the harm.  You don't get to belong to and support a group that actively campaigns for and enforces discrimination and then claim lily white innocence.  If there really were this huge number of "good" people in these groups and they actually acted on their conscience and left the groups then those groups would lose their influence and fade into irrelevancy.  But they don't leave and their presence give the groups and their toxic beliefs legitimacy.  So yes, they share in the responsibility.


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Title: Re: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Adena on January 06, 2016, 01:48:26 AM
Deborah i think that's too harsh. I believe there are moral problems in liberal, conservative, etc. churchs so by this standard one couldn't be a "member of any of these groups. Please PM me if you would like to discuss this in greater depth.

Love,.
Denali


Title: Equal rights activists, can they go too far?
Post by: Deborah on January 06, 2016, 09:06:34 AM
Quote from: DenaliBe on January 06, 2016, 01:48:26 AM
Deborah i think that's too harsh. I believe there are moral problems in liberal, conservative, etc. churchs so by this standard one couldn't be a "member of any of these groups. Please PM me if you would like to discuss this in greater depth.

Love,.
Denali
Yes, I thought about it hard after reading your post and it was too harsh.  So, I'm backtracking on the part about Christianity.  I cannot find any good justification for my former argument mainly due to the extremely fragmented nature of Christianity in America.  There really is not one Christianity to belong to but rather a multitude with competing theologies and political beliefs.

Political parties are different though.  Since the purpose of the party is to advance specific agendas, belonging to that party is giving implied consent.  And yes, no party is ultimately good and no party is pure evil.  So one just needs to decide what issues they find so repugnant that they can not be associated with and join the opposition.  But whichever party a person belongs to, they own what that party represents.  There is always the option of not voting at all but that simply makes you irrelevant.

I'm not coming from a lifetime as a far leftist either.  I used to be a steadfast Republican.  This really goes back to my childhood in the late 60s and early 70s in a military family.  My father went to Viet Nam and what was ingrained in my mind at that time was the Democrats were the ones who hated my father and threw things at him.  Additionally, my father was extremely anti-racism and brought us up the way.  At that period of time the democrats were the party of racism where I lived.  That all changed in the 1980s when the Southern democrats became republicans.  Then there is the contribution of the trans thing where I spent a long time building my avatar to suppress myself and while my avatar was very effective for a while, its effectiveness was built on extremes.  Anyway, now I'm at the point where I view the Republican policies as more evil and destructive than the democrat policies.

And as a conclusion, classifying these things as good and evil to me are just a convenient way of thinking about them at the macro level.  At the micro, individual person, level I do recognize that there are good people supporting bad things everywhere.  So, in my personal dealings with people their religion or political party is not a concern.  Rather their personal attributes like decency, integrity, and others is what drives my judgement.



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