It's been a while (like what? A week?) :) School's been pretty hectic. I had school on monday and the entire week off following it, and now I'm on spring break. Some heartbreaking events happened, some staff at my school got fired because of a change in the subcontractor. So everyone's protesting against it and the entire school (everyone) has occupied the University entrance. All of my classes were obviously cancelled.
It's a nice and sunny day. I don't know how I'll spend my day, I actually had a meeting at school but I'm not sure if it's cancelled or not. I'm totally burned out after demonstrating the past few days, shouting, singing, jumping about, getting soaked in the rain, combined with doing sports (yeah, the sports part was a bad idea hah !). I wasn't able to stay at night though, I'm seriously phobic of guns, and I'm just getting over my fear of the dark. Having armed forces right next to the door didn't help.
I've been reflecting on many issues, such as my personal experience about being different (not only ethnically but health wise), and I was actually going to put it in clear and concise words, but all that just seems trivial now, compared to the way in which staff got fired. Actually the series of events that followed the way in which people got "kicked out" of their workplace shows how clearly differences are socially constructed. The staff was forced to wear uniforms and were strictly defined as "the other", just like that. Even clothing segregates people, and most of the time, we don't even notice it. When everyone wore normal clothes, there was a better sense of understanding each other, even though it was unconscious.
So here's something I've been thinking about but I might be wrong. But maybe there's food for thought for this idea I have...
Our brains are strange organs. It actively tries to organize, categorize things it is exposed to. There are mental files in which things are clearly and neatly tucked away. It's nothing like my art workspace, that I can tell you (lol) ! Anyways, but when the brain categorizes, it also produces constructions. Categories that aren't even there. We are prone to do this. It's biological and actually crucial for our survival. We are able to distinguish a machine gun from a toy gun. They both have a protruding tube and a trigger in which it can be held, but we know which one is lethal and which one isn't. We can tell what is edible and what isn't (most of the time). The brain is such a wonderful thing that it can make amazing calculations and categorizations. It wouldn't be able to function if it hadn't been that way. That's why some autistics can memorize everything, but have trouble having social interaction. Babies can distinguish different gorilla faces until they are toddlers. As they grow up, they are exposed to different information and lose that skill in order to replace it with new ones. They will be unable to tell different gorillas from others (in portrait photos that is) and mash them up into the concept and category of "gorilla".
As I said, we wouldn't be able to function if we didn't categorize... And we do that without actively working on it, but here's the catch. I'm trying to get at something here... We also have to actively train ourselves in order not to fall into the pit of inequality, segregation and discrimination. An open mind is not inherent, it is acquired. I'm not saying all categories come out as a result of our biology. NO. Some categories are taught and that really sucks. Even the simplest tasks are coded into categories of actions before executing it (there is a before and after, there is the concept of a future as a mental category). We actually have a fictitious conception of time, that is arbitrarily categorized into seconds, minutes and hours. And actually, it has shortened a few microseconds after the huge Japanese earthquake last year. We measure stuff. We have memories shelved as "childhood", "preschool", "pleasant", "unpleasant". We like and dislike people. There are music genres we like, and we don't like. But people? So-called "different" people? We should not categorize and label people. And that is something we have to seek actively. I'm NOT saying racism is inherent or anything. It's just that we categorize everything. Chairs, tables, types of coffee, types of hamsters, rats, geckos, birds, bags, television sets, earphones, websites. Even numbers are a form of categorization. So we must avoid categorizing people. At all costs. And be against anyone who tries to do that, or tries to instill it in their children. There.
Train your brain. To love and be compassionate towards everyone people. That's the way things will get better. I've always loved people. But I doubt I would have been so hadn't I been taught to be like this as a child. I might as well have wounded up as a racist, a bully or I don't know what if I were brought up differently I guess. And seeing humanity, you can tell which one is the easier option.
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