Reply #: You misunderstood what I meant

[chefgirl]

That may be my fault, and if so, I'll take the responsibility for that.

When I said, you can only change your own perceptions, I was in NO way trying to imply that the behavior is only in the 'victim's' mind.

You used a pretty good example mentioning a time when women couldn't vote. I'm sure that there were some women (hell, there are now) who truly believed that women shouldn't have the right to vote. The LAW is what they changed, not other people's prejudiced behavior toward them.

MLK is another very good example of what I'm saying. Tell me he wasn't called every vile name in the book. There was a man who faced discrimination in every form, but he refused to react to it the way they wanted him to. He stayed above the fray, and as a direct result of his actions, the LAW was changed. However, the prejudice remains.

I was attempting to say that it diminishes you (any of us) as a person, when you allow others to dictate your reactions.

If I reacted to the daily yet quiet, insidious prejudices of the men I work with, I would be diminishing myself, and behaving exactly the way they intended for me to behave. I feel like I owe myself more than that.

I'll save my anger toward sexist men (as well as homophobes and racists) for the appropriate time and place..the ballot box being one of those places.

-chef-