Saw a post in Indonesia where a woman was berated for captioning her FB post recipe as "Baby Cumi". Cumi is squid in Indonesian. The reason why she got berated was because she used the word "Baby" which to some Indonesian perceived as Babi or pig, even though the word baby has absolutely nothing to do with babi/pig/pork.
I can't help thinking, how insecure can you be with your belief that a completely non-related word can trigger you to a point where you felt offended by it. Even though pork/babi is forbidden by Islam, just seeing that word shouldn't 'stain' you.
Other example was when my company got a request to eliminate a certain sign in our label because it looks like a cross. Cross is a naturally presence sign. If your belief is hurt upon seeing such innocent sign, then you have really, really big issue.
It looks so backward, don't you think? "That's why I am an Atheist." "This is what happen when you are in a primitive country." "Yay for Islam. NOT." We look at them with distaste for their foolishness, for their baseless fear and seemingly small mind. And then we did exactly the same thing.
The news of Kenji Lopez-Alt apologizing for his MAGA hat ban hit me hard. I love Kenji. I followed his blog Serious Eats almost devoutly. He is awesome. Yet, he choose to follow the crowd and put the ban on MAGA hat, which to me as discriminatory as the "If you are Trump supporter swipe left" on dating apps profile.
I know at this point some of you will stop reading. "Another dumb Trump bitch". My words mean nothing because I support the evil by defending this abomination. But do I really support the evil, or are you just angry because I do not see things your way?
HRC won the popular election by 2% margin. It means there's still 49% of the voter that choose to entrust America in the hand of Trump for 4 presidential years. Using that logic, 49% of Americans are all racist bigots. Statistically, it means out of 10 friends you have, 4 or maybe even 5 of them are closeted racist bigots.
You can say "No! My friends are all anti-Trump as we all should! Viva la revolucion!". Do you really know, though? If the slightest indication of them supporting Trump can result to their excommunication or even lost of job opportunity, why would they show it?
I refuse to believe that. Life is not a multiple choice quiz. Sitting on the bus everyday, I see people's worries. I've seen struggles and hardship. I understand where the fear and resentment is stemming from. I understand why to some, he is a better option. And this has nothing to do with being white or racist.
I've went to enough dates where my date was relieved to know I don't judge them for their political belief. That is sad. Everybody should be able to express their belief and not afraid of repercussion. I thought that's why people immigrate to America on the first place.
Yet the freedom to express our belief should not be an excuse to oppress others, to view others as lower than us, or even to intimidate others. Sadly, in all kinds of beliefs, this is what happened. People are using their belief as an excuse to lash out their inner demons. Translation: people are dicks, and not always the fun type.
People who wear MAGA hat can be a dick, as well as the ones who wear pink pussy hat. Roaming the street of Jakarta and Los Angeles made me realize: it's always the person, not the attribute. Regardless of the race and social status, people will find an excuse to be a dick if they are so inclined to.
Why am I writing this? Because we need reconciliation. Because we need to stop being scared and angry over a hat, just like that Indonesian poster got offended over the word "Babi". Because the more people get pushed and vilified over what they belief, the more likely they will fall towards the dark side of it.
We want equal rights for all genders, race, all human kind. We are not going to get it by excommunicating people or putting people into specific clusters in our mind. We can only do it by reaching out and opening ourselves. Sure, some of them are dicks. It's ok. We can just go "Ewww" and triple washed our hand, or MarieKondo it and sent it on its way.
Greed is absolute. Lust is absolute. Evil is absolute. Fear is not. Look past one's attribute and search his/her reasoning. If it's fear, we can work with it. As a human, we can agree to disagree. That is how advance we are as a species. We can do this. We are better than what we are right now.
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