admitting regret
So the whole Liam Neeson ruckus has got me thinking. Which is always a dangerous thing.
Namely: what is an acceptable way to speak your truth if you once behaved or believed in a way that you now regret?
(Clearly, it’s NOT saying that you wanted to kill some random person just because of their skin color. But I’m serious about the question itself.)
We’re at a really amazing point in our social evolution: thanks to the internet, we’re becoming much more aware of how we function as a species, the ways in which we’re broken, and finding ways that we can make ourselves better.
In order to get to that last “making ourselves better” part, though, we have to be able to recognize and acknowledge our own faults in the first place before we can start trying to correct them.
And that? Is scary. It’s painful. It takes guts.
But we all need to do it. Especially the people we look up to, because of the message it sends:
Prestigious person: I have never made one mistake ever.
Us: Only losers make mistakes.
Prestigious person: My mistakes have taught me how important it is to try to be better.
Us: Growth is possible.
But… how? How do we discuss this without fear of a social media dogpile?
I don’t know. (If you think you might, please comment. Respectfully. Without yelling.) But I think that discussing this is hella important, because the brutal truth is that we need more folks in positions of power to start doing this.
Why? You know why: womens’ problems get ignored until a man points them out. People of color shout their truths to the heavens, and no one listens until a white person speaks up.
I’m not about defending anyone’s actions here. I’m just saying, white men admitting they’re wrong is not a thing that I want to discourage.
So… thoughts?