This week a student needed an explanation of positive racism, after being criticized for praising Jews as "good with money". I explained blood libel & the origin of the stereotype (brutal acts of social exclusion compelling the construction of separate systems), but the whole topic led to her asking about other times she'd praised groups holistically--all positive racist remarks, too.
Many of us don't realize how much treating demographics as hiveminds, even when intended "nicely", can do harm.
I hope we can get there one day, though. Tribalists though we humans often are... it'd be really neat to live long enough to see more people allowed to be *individuals* first and foremost, whatever identity labels we might carry with us, too.
🤞 Holding on for that day, but not holding my breath.
we can distance ourselves from our prejudices and create an opening for change:
"Gadamer’s positive conception of prejudice as pre-judgment is connected with several ideas in his approach to hermeneutics. The way in which our prejudgments open us up to the matter at issue in such a way that those prejudgments are themselves capable of being revised exhibits the character of the Gadamerian conception of prejudgment."