Little did I know
Blog Reflection 4 -- A conversation with someone of a different point of view.
Everything being said was fundamentally wrong, yet I sat there listening. In fact, I was jumping out of my seat. A debate was taking place in my global citizenship class, Citizenship without Boarders. Each group had to pick a topic -- the topics already debated: automated labour, and euthanasia.
The other topics were interesting, making fair -- or moderately fair -- points on their own behalf. But, this debate was getting at people, it wasn’t just me fidgeting. I kept reflecting over the same meagre, stale, outdated points being made by the opposition. It got me so mindful of this, as a bystander, I could not help but write out my own responses.
When the time came for questions my hand shot up like many others. I was not going to go unheard, as was my meek attempt to ask a question during other debates. That wasn’t going to happen. It had been a long night, and class was concluding, so I was able to reign in the full attention of the class for one seismic question. Luckily, an astute classmate followed after the conversation from my question subsided -- it was my second question, but taken further. I rejoiced, literally thanking my classmate while he was asking the question. But, still, my last question went unanswered.
Or so I thought.
While packing up, one of the three men opposed to legalizing prostitution came up to me and asked me to ask my question because it was obvious I was burning a hole in my seat during the debate. I was appreciative of this. Not only did we have a platform in class, but this was on his own time asking to open a dialogue about our differences.
I asked. He answered. And but so did others. Four of us stayed behind talking about the intricacies of what came up in the debate -- how it affected our lives, and how this plays into society as a larger picture. It was surprising to hear the humanity which was seemingly to be absent before, just as the shared opinions and shared experiences.
What I realized was that I remove the humanity from others who disagree with me about core values. Even though I can hear someone out, I have disregarded them, written-off people as a classification according to one topic in a reality of millions of global issues. The feeling of my eyebrows raising was abrupt when I realized I was distancing myself off, rather than engaging; further, rather than accepting that this opposition is part of other human experiences and perceptions. It is not my own, it is far from it, but people share all the same needs. To define a person off of one interaction, one behaviour, one opinion is absurd, but it does happen every day. What I realized though, is like my final year has groomed me to actively acknowledge and challenge my assumptions, I need to challenge my own resistance to that which is not my reality.