Quote:
Originally Posted by fdpaq0580
True. Crying wolf is a one way to put it. Admitting you didn't know usually happens after the supposed offense. By then the offended have, without any thought of the offenders real intent, have already leaped to the conclusion that it was intentional and the unnecessary battle is on.
Sadly, too many people, and I'm often as guilty as the next person, spend their time and energy preparing their next rebuttal and never take the time to listen or even try to understand the other point of view. They make the assumption the other side is automatically completely invalid. Emotions over heat (helped by the rabble rousers on the sidelines enjoying the spectacle), any real chance for real, lasting advancement is thrown under the bus and we end up back at square one with only hurt feelings on both sides to show for the energy spent arguing.
Somebody, please cue up the song " Why can't we be friends, why can't we be friends ..."
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Enjoyable comment, thanks. So true. If talking about certain topics is completely taboo then how can we ever understand each other?
I recently shared a very enjoyable conversation with a young black man about race relations, particularly about the melting pot that America genuinely is. He surprised me by telling me about his Native American ancestry. It’s kinda funny but I still hesitated here to describe him as black but he said he identifies himself as black because all of the people in his family, church and community identify themselves as black and he knows little about Native culture. We both felt very good to be able to talk without stressing out about it and we hugged as we said goodbye. I would like to have more talks like that. We began by discussing the PBS genealogy series, “Finding Your Roots.” Each show is about the family history Of one guest, usually a very famous person. Guest backgrounds are varied—white, Jewish or black, etc. Most of the guests were surprised, or even shocked, to find out his/her family tree was a lot more diverse than he/she had known. It is a great show. Many details of our history have been lost so it’s fun to rediscover some of them.