It would seem victim-hood is as hard to leave behind as entitlements. If you happen to be one of the "elite" minorities in our society, that is to say a woman, a black, a hispanic, or a child, then you are expected to assume a default position of "discrimination" whenever you encounter rude or unthoughtful people. In my opinion our friend, Oprah, has given us a glimpse into this phenomenon with her recent encounter overseas. While this event has become quite the news story, our country is full of similar situations. Unfortunately, there are no sane leaders among our alleged intelligentsia who are willing to try and move us away from this built-in response to any negative event in the life of an "elite" minority. (I use the term "elite" minority to accent the fact that only a handful of the actual minorities in our country benefit from this mindset.) One of the difficulties in working through this ambiguous maze of pseudo-reasoning is the immediate and very negative reaction one gets when trying to engage others in dialogue on the subject. No one wants to have the reputation of being a woman-hater, a racist, or being against the well-being of our children, so one feels a strong intimidation when approaching this subject. For the sake of brevity I would like to try and illustrate my point with a recent experience of my own. As a singer-songwriter I occasionally attend a local singer-songwriter circle. It had been years since I was able to go but decided to check it out again. As I entered the small sandwich-type bar and grill I saw the circle and headed towards it. I stood behind one of the guys in the circle waiting for the current offering of a song to end before entering the circle and taking my chair. I was having difficulty staying out of the waitress's way and eventually the guy I was standing behind scooted his chair over to allow me a chance to be seated. I took a seat adjacent to the young man who was singing one of his songs. The song had a nice rhythm and chords I was familiar with. I began playing my mandolin along with him being careful not to get in the way of his song. After the song, instead of introductions and a welcome from the leader of the circle, all that was offered was a statement of the rule about only playing when invited and an apology from the leader to the singer for my taking a seat during his song. That was it. Nothing else. Then we were on to the next guy in the circle. Looking back at that situation, I believe if I were a black, or a woman for instance that I would have immediately interpreted this cold reception as being sexism or racism. Since I am not a member of either of these "elite" minority groups, I was left with the conclusion that I was the victim of unthoughtful musicians who were too interested in what they were going to play next to concern themselves with this new guy. I honestly believe that true sexism and racism and several other -isms are present at a much lower level than what public perception would indicate. In fact, there are those who fuel the elevated perception of these ostensibly discriminating acts to further enrich and empower themselves. There IS a comfort level that comes with likeness, this is not in question. But a hispanic, or a black or a woman who loves music, for instance, has entered a comfortable place for me.
