The Antibigotry Radar

Recently, all that I’m seeing around me is a whole lot of bigotry! And it is mostly the subconscious hypocritical kind of bigotry.

Here is an example - Anti-abortionists saying they are pro-life. Hello! So what about the life of women who very badly want to be moms but have to reject due to health reasons? What about the life of the woman who has to nurture the consequence of a night that was forced on them? What about the life of the little girl who gets pushed and shoved into a corner with a bundle they call “joy” while all she had been taught so far was about breaking the glass ceiling? So don’t tell me you are pro-life. You are just pro-some-life and definitely not the life of all women. You are pro- an idea that somebody conjured up somewhere to meet their own needs, be it popularity, votes, revenge, money, or faith.

Now for a closer-to-home example - a proud secular state that reeks of casteism.

Right from the choice of partner and schooling…all the way to town planning, resource allocation, and of course, sexual assault. “Comparatively, our state is better off.” Sure, but that does not mean casteism does not exist here. That does not mean the trauma of the victims is any less real. That does not mean you can ignore what’s home while condemning what’s beyond your area of influence. You are being a hypocrite. And resting deep within are fragments of bigotry that thoughtlessly reassemble every time you mock and neglect.

Won’t it be great if there was a kind of radar that hovers over every individual and goes beep-boop the second a sexist, racist, and all other -ist comments or actions are made? How cool would that be? But then again, who decides which comments are -ist and who decides the level of -ism? These things change with time. And the swiftness with which people get offended nowadays will make version updates all the more difficult. We might not agree with a beep-boop now, but 100 years later it might change. And by then there will be 1000 new beep-boops, 100 deleted beep-boops, and even more revived beep-boops. There is no point in having the radar, is it? Somebody always dictates…decision-makers with their own levels of -ism.

The height of the ceiling and the strength of the glass are controlled and shifted by this imagined reality full of rules, laws, and prejudices that are not natural, but created by us - sapiens, the predator bound to consume this Earth. And there is nothing much we can do about it. We cannot factory reset. We are used to this structure with order and defined moral dimensions. We can’t go back to a time we behaved like “animals”. Although, if animals could talk, “humans” surely will be a cuss word. All we can do is find solace in our community. So do that. Find the solace you very much need. But don’t force it on people finding theirs in their chosen community. Do not impose.