Nov 16 2019
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I think there’s a difference between passive bigotry and active bigotry.
Passive bigotry is just ignorance. Passive bigots will change their ways if you show them how their behavior is hurtful. Sometimes they get defensive about it, but if you’re patient and willing to soothe their fragile egos you can eventually get through to them.
Active bigots don’t care if they’re being hurtful or not. They use prejudice as a way to rationalize looking down on and attacking people who are weaker than themselves. You can’t teach these people the error of their ways, because they care more about feeling self-righteous and superior than about treating others with respect. At best, you can only hope to make their bigotry socially unacceptable, so that they don’t have as much power or opportunities to hurt people.
Most people are passively bigoted to some extent, simply because we grow up in a culture full of prejudices. We have to consciously educate ourselves, and unlearn those prejudices, in order to be informed and morally upright people. Ignorance does not excuse a person’s bigoted actions or make bigotry any less harmful, but I can forgive someone for being ignorant if they’re sincerely trying to learn and do better.
But to be actively bigoted - that takes a special kind of asshole, and I have no patience for those people.
