Some years ago I was providing volunteer services for a person of A____ ethnicity. I did what I could to help. The person was remarkably unappreciative, and rude. This ethnicity has been persecuted by many. I realised about this time that many people who are members of what the legal community calls 'a protected class', are simply unpleasant and use their membership of that protected class to promote their brand of irritability.
Incidentally, many attorneys despise the label 'protected class', myself included.
Some years ago, I had a housemate. The housemate claimed to have a sexual orientation. Xhe socialised with others of that sexual orientation, and spoke in a manner frequently associated with that orientation. I was glad to have this person as a housemate and enjoyed xes company.
I can be extraordinarily intimidating, which might explain the following. The only person I ever saw my housemate spend the night with was not a member of my housemate's purported sexual interest group. I began to wonder if the appearance, the social camaraderie, rebellion and the noteriety of the orientation had more to do with my housemate's orientation than the sex. Sometimes, the desire for an identity, a peer group, a sense of belonging seems to take precedence over a person's actual qualities.
We all interact differently with different groups, and the following might be due to the way I approach blacks, but fake black people aren't an issue. The author of a formative book, Black Like Me, was a fake black person. Some years ago, while living in the black neighbourhood of DeLand, Florida, I was told a 'wigger' is a white person who wants to be black. For some reason, I am not annoyed by white people who want to be black.
My perception of other's peccadillos fascinate me.
Another example, two young men were comparing their vehicles, complementing each other on how much noise their vehicles made. One of the men mentioned how annoyed his neighbors were by his loud vehicle, and how he purposefully positioned his exhaust toward his neighbors.
I understand living in the United States is a daily dose of post traumatic stress syndrome, and for many years I passed that stress on to others. Thanks to Tonglen and other meditative practices, I try to absorb the anger, hate and pain and expel pleasant tranquility. Let's not perpetuate the vicious, downward spiral.
