Right or Wrong, Left or Right?

Nowadays, everything is political, everything! Whatever we say or do is either a lefty or a righty or a conservative or liberal, politically speaking.

I find myself thinking, when did things get so black and white? Why is there only one absolute answer depending on which side you’re on? Whatever happened to engaging in critical thinking and finding solutions or answers? No, instead, you’re either right or wrong.

In our society, we pride in “speak up!” but only if you like the topic. If you don’t like how someone thinks, it’s usually, “you’re stupid,” “you’re a bad person,” “you’re a bigot,” and the list goes on and on.
Our culture has moved toward an impossible moral high ground. You have to be perfect, or you’re considered the scum of the earth. There’s no room for errors or human imperfection.

One topic that some people might dislike is when I say that I have faced discrimination by people who aren’t white. I know family and friends with similar stories. But we can’t talk about this. It gets people angry because we want to pin racism only on one type of people, white.

For example, I’m incredibly disappointed with what’s happening in our country. People are looting, robbing, and destroying things. You would think that we can all denounce evil behaviors. But that’s not the case. Now, this brings me to George Floyd. What happened to that man is incredibly wrong–a monstrous act by a sociopath. But even George Floyd’s brother has pleaded people to stop the destruction of their cities, and not one person involved in looting seems to care. Imagine mourning the death of a person by stealing a pair of Jordans and expensive clothes. Where’s the mourning in that? It seems opportunistic to me.

Now, protests are a great way of exercising our rights here in America. I support peaceful protests. But not marring small businesses and neighborhoods, especially if they belong to people of color. So when I see these unjustifiable acts, that’s when I know that pain can be channeled wrongfully by any type of person.

The problem with many is that because they belong to one side, they can’t agree with the opposing team, even if it’s logical or accurate. That pride is destroying relationships and other unvoiced issues because we have allowed our society to be selective: “That’s wrong!” Oh, but don’t talk about that other stuff, “Shut up!”

As long as we are selective & limited in our thinking, have the moral high ground, and refuse to admit that evil doesn’t have one face or one color, then we can’t resolve much. It would be like focusing on the one flat tire, driving on, and ignoring the other three flat tires. It’s like focusing on one hole inside the boat that’s letting water inside, but we don’t want to look at the other holes causing us to drown too.

We’re telling our friends and family that unknowingly, they are racists. Basically, they have a little Ku Klux Klan hidden inside of them simply because their views are different from ours. We have celebrities, politicians, and scholars telling us these stories. While there are legitimate racists people out there, not everyone is one.

So I would like to thoroughly disagree with this type of mentality. There are good and bad people worldwide of all nationalities, worldviews, ethnic backgrounds, and belief systems. Also, I’m what you call a “brown woman,” and I certainly don’t expect anyone to kneel before me.

Additionally, I want to know that people trust me to have the full intelligence, resilience, inner strength, the heart, faith and critical thinking skills to overcome challenges–that I can channel my emotions in a positive way.

I also hope that we can set an example for the younger generations. If we limit them mentally, we’re crippling them. While it’s important to keep in mind the injustices that happen in our nation and across the world, we also need to give young people hope and solutions, not just negativity on how they’re doomed.

• Image by Flash Alexander from Pixabay
• Image by John Hain from Pixabay
• Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
• Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
• Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay

©anaprose.com 2020