In the recent decade of rising attention going to social justice, activism, and a re-emerging civil rights debate in America, minority groups have been drawing a lot of positivity and empowerment movements. This is fantastic and really incredible to see a generation of young people caring so much about social equality and civil rights. However, I think sometimes we can forget that minorities are also human beings just like anyone else. Human beings are not perfect and now that we’re recognizing that they come in all shapes, sizes, colors, etc. it’s important to remember that human beings can also be mean as hell.
Just because you’re a minority doesn’t mean you aren’t an a**hole.
This might be controversial to say, but when recognizing equality, we are recognizing that everyone is equal as a human being with the same emotions and capabilities of being either very nice or a complete jerk. I feel that lots of people these days think that just because somebody is part of a minority group, they automatically are kind and understanding. The sad but honest truth is that anyone is able to be rude and horrible. Just because somebody is gay or black or disabled doesn’t mean they should be discriminated against, but it also doesn’t mean that they automatically get a free pass to be an a**hole.
Some may argue with this, saying that calling everybody a jerk is discriminating or insulting. However, I believe a big step in recognizing equality is recognizing that personalities are individual and every person on this planet is perfectly capable and equally likely to act like a complete d**che.
There are racist gay people, homophobic Muslims, Islamaphobic women, and so on and so forth. Simply because you are a group that is discriminated against in society doesn’t give you the automatic get out of jail free card. People seem to be of this attitude that certain groups are always supposed to be nice or something. So when somebody meets a gay person who’s not nice at all, this surprises them. As if for some reason the fact that they aren’t straight means that they’re unproblematic in every way and are immune of any bias or ill behavior? Minority groups can be incredibly discriminatory even within their own groups, let alone with the outside world.
So enough of this ‘minority immunity’ in terms of thinking that everyone who has experienced discrimination in their lifetime is unable to discriminate against other minority groups.
We’re all humans, and humans can be mean.
