Growing up I saw the world through rose colored glasses. Sexism, racism, and religious discriminations were things relegated to the history books. Occasionally I'd see something that fit one of those categories, but I'd pass it off as an isolated incident or I'd make an excuse for what it wasn't really what it looked like. In my mind people were just being too sensitive. Then I stopped being Christian in the South. Suddenly I was a target. I wasn't Wicken but many of my friends were. I saw what we all went through. Religious discrimination was real, but I still had my blinders about the other 2.
Fast forward almost 20 years and I have a Masters Degree in Religious Studies. I've worked for most of that time. I've seen more and more of the effects of racism and sexism on the people around me. I can't continue to imagine it's not there. I can't continue to pretend that well meaning things that were taught to me growing up don't perpetuate it. I can't continue to pretend that it's just an isolated incident here and there. I can't continue to believe that it's only malicious. Much of it is people that were taught these behaviours that they don't even realize perpetuate it.
This blog is me working through those realizations. This blog is a space where I want to talk about the things that I was taught that perpetuate the way things are. I want to stop pretending that our culture doesn't have these flaws and instead drag them out into the light to look at. I want to think about the things we say without realizing how they can be interpreted. I want to consider ways that we can make things better.
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