One thing I’ve learned from voicing my opinion openly is that not everyone is going to like what you have to say. This applies to just about every area of controversy that is discussed in public or online, but is especially prevalent in areas of politics, religion, race, and sexuality. What’s difficult is developing your own opinion as an adult, when all you’ve ever heard are the opinions of your parents and peers. More difficult still is being able to stick to that opinion and speak up against people who disagree with you. Most challenging of all is having a firm and well thought out opinion and still being open to changing it.
When I first developed my own political stances and ideology I was still in high school. Easily influenced by my friends and teachers and their firmness in their beliefs, I began to research important affairs in a variety of subjects in order to sculpt my own unique voice. A commonality, especially among millennials, is to become very angry about things that happened in the past. This leads to the use of very definitive phrases, such as “all ____ are this”, “I hate ____ people”, etc. Having recently come out, I was learning more and more about queer politics and movements. The fact that I was never taught about Stonewall or the AIDS crisis of the 1980’s angered me, and I started to use those negative phrases in conversation. Something about saying “straight people are so annoying” to the rest of my queer friends was so liberating, and I believe the same concept applies to other racial and political minorities.
I am not here to say that the use of these phrases by the minority to stigmatize the majority has the same weight as these phrases by the majority. Systematic oppression has silenced the voices of minorities for so long that associating the majority with a negative word or phrase is just not as meaningful coming from an oppressed group. Just like I am not upset when people of color stigmatize white people, it’s silly for heterosexual people to be offended when queer people stigmatize them. It is obvious that the term “breeders” does not have the same historically oppressive weight as “fag”, so to assume that they are equal is ridiculous.
That being said, the unfortunate aspect of these concepts is that the majority will try to find a way to be offended by anything minorities say because in their minds, the world is equal. Racism and homophobia has been eliminated as prevalent issues in American society because they don’t see obvious hate crimes happening on television or in the world around them. In their perspective, there is nothing more to be fought for and this is a dangerous mindset. The appropriate reaction by minorities, especially millennials who have more of a voice than ever, is to verbally attack the majority out of anger. It is so frustrating to live in a world of constant injustice and still get played by subtle (or even outright!) acts of discrimination. I used to be one of those people. What I discovered is that no matter how loud I yelled, how much I cursed, or how angry I became, the majority had one option that I didn’t- dismissal. I realized that getting angry at those who had different opinions than I did had very little effect on their perspective, and only shut them off to the idea of changing their opinions. I used to have friends who believed that it shouldn’t matter how the majority feels because at the end of the day, those who oppress others are wrong. For a while I agreed, until I realized that what I was trying to tell others had no effect on their mindset, and only seemed to further their dismissal of minority opinion. The number one solution in trying to get others to change their opinion is patience and kindness, because no one likes to feel belittled or disrespected. Most of the time, those with close minded opinions simply haven’t been exposed to others who have taken the time to try to explain their perspective calmly and without judgement. This tactic is obviously unfair to minorities, but it’s one of the only ways that works. One thing that can’t be ignored is that like it or not, we need the majority to achieve change and that starts with the right approach to social justice.
