A guest writer in response to this post (not a Resisting Hate original) that we posted on our Facebook page.
Unfortunately I’ve seen many threads where you don’t get to comment on the thread because you’re a man/white/not a survivor etc.
Sure, I’m all for minorities (like me) to raise their voices, but saying other people don’t have equal rights and a right to be heard is not equality.
I hate reading, ‘I’m disabled’ and I think… something about welfare benefits. Or ‘I’m a Muslim’ and I think… something about terrorism.
I’ve seen more and more that people often think they are not allowed to speak without prefixing their opinion with a label. On a couple of pages I’ve been on anyone who didn’t use the prefix – like me – was told they had to stop speaking over the heads of the label group. I was part of that group but I don’t believe we have to prefix everything we say with a label. I’ve also seen: You’re a white straight man so you don’t get to speak in several threads.
This is censorship and narrowing debate to polar opposites or just plain cutting out anyone who doesn’t behave (by which I mean have the same opinion as everyone else).
As a gay person it was straight people at university who were good to me. As a Christian I’ve found more kindness and friendship in Muslims. As a woman I find more kinship with men. As a disabled person I spend most of my time with able bodied people. I don’t let any of my tick boxes define me or what I am or am not allowed to say. My tick boxes inform my life but do not dictate my opinions or way of life. I believe people are a lot more complex than labels and boxes and that we should all be allowed space to explore different opinions and even hold opinions that seem to go against our labels because everyone’s experience of life is different and so everyone’s opinions are going to be different.
I’m not talking about bigotry here. I’m totally against Facebook being used to promote.fascist agendas.
I’m talking about not being too hard on people.
