This is in response to a comment made by Anonymous Father on my Penny Pinching Jews in SC posting. He had a very demonstrative response which shows why it is not ok to claim ignorance to racially sensitive issues. If you haven't read it you should.
But even though these are his feelings I can't quite agree. I see his point - we should have high expectations of our election/appointed officials. But I can't help but think that the more I learn, I realize how little I know (to paraphrase Socrates or another philosopher I may have heard about in Philosophy 101 which I obviously didn't ace.)
Anyway, my point is this: the more I learn about other cultures, the more I realize how much I don't know. I think of myself as a sensitive and fairly worldly person but I often learn something and think "wow, I bet when I didn't 'get' that I said something offensive." And in those times I just hope that someone looked at me and thought that I was so very wrong but rather than being offended that they chalked it up to my ignorance and didn't hold it against me.
I'm sure we have all done something like that at one point or another and I wouldn't want to measure other people on a radically different yardstick than I hope they use to measure me.
And when you focus on the results, slamming people makes them defensive and less likely to take responsibility for what they have said and done, so it just seems to me that it is best to be kind, correct them, and move on because a little tolerance goes a long way.
Tolerant
Taking your world view and imposing it
On others.
Luxuriation in folks mistakes doesn't
Educate our brothers.
Real understanding
And well-intentioned correction but
Not sharp-tongued criticism will help
To correct our world direction.
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