y do people have tobe a part of a comunity to have common sense anyway.When i blindly thought i was straight i still supported lgbt+ with all my heart and I put so much effort into understanding n supporting.The alegory can go on.I fucking hate this.
Hey Anonymous, J here. I feel ya!
I happen to be from one of the 3 counties tied for 6th Most Conservative County in Texas (yikeeeeees). I now live in Brooklyn, NY. People in my neighborhood are really different from the people back home, both demographically and ideologically.
I always leaned left and I have to thank my Texas Democrat parents for that. Some examples of embarrassment relating to this from a young age: I remember my 3rd grade teacher taking a poll for the 2000 election and the only people in my class who would have hypothetically voted for Gore were me and the Swedish girl who recently immigrated to the states. I always called out my schoolmates for using “gay” and “retarded” as adjectives, and it was massively uncool. I got harassed at school for wearing an Obama t shirt in 2010. Seriously. 2 years into his presidency.
So all that’s to say, I thought I was one woke bae until I moved to New York City for college and realized I had a TON to learn about privilege, discrimination, and my role in combatting these things.
The thing is, it’s really hard to go against the norm in your community and region. When most people around you look a certain way, or are raised in a homogenous pool of thought, it’s really hard to even be aware of it, much less fight it. It’s just “normal.” It surrounds you. You don’t know any different, and difference is scary. It feels awful to take responsibility for and have awareness of your own ignorance. And if your privilege allows you to live comfortably, why disturb that? And if you face backlash from every direction for challenging the ideologies surrounding you, it’s hard to keep fighting.
You, Anonymous, raise a good point about putting in so much effort to understand and support. It takes a lot of work and personal discomfort to unlearn prejudice! I like to consider myself an ally to others with less privilege than me, but the reality is that I’m always learning and everyone has room to learn.
So many of the diehard conservatives I knew and argued with growing up went to college and now lean left, and actively so. This gives me hope. It is through dismantling ignorance that attitudes change, through formal education or otherwise. It’s exhausting for everyone. But in the end, we are all better people, stronger communities, and a greater nation for it.
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