Monday, January 12, 2015

Oh, Tolerance Club!

Today our conversation centered on stereotypes and privilege, and inevitably perhaps, given recent events, it circled round to Muslims and terrorism. "Just because the attackers on 9-11 were Muslim, doesn't necessarily mean all Muslims will attack us," one of the adults said.

There was an audible snort. Just because some people come to Tolerance Club doesn't mean they're tolerant, I thought.

"What about ISIS?" demanded the snorter. "They're Muslim."

I decided to take an indirect approach to his question. "Before September 11, 2001, the worst terrorist attack in the US was carried out in Oklahoma City by Timothy McVeigh, a white man who didn't like the government. Nobody thinks we should be suspicious of all white guys because of that."

"Of course not!" snorted the snorter, "That would be ridiculous. The whole government is practically white guys."

And so it goes.

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