I need your help. I need you to tell my story to people who will never hear it otherwise.
I need you to tell them that brown people are peaceful, just like non-brown people. I need you to tell them that people who are good at math can be good at things other than engineering and IT. I need you to tell them that people who choose to be goofy aren't pushovers. I need you to tell them men who bake bread on the weekends, learned ballet, or watch an inordinate amount of Star Trek are just as capable of being men than those who constantly talk about sports. I need you to tell them that those who don't humblebrag about their credentials are as talented as those who do (maybe more).
More than anything, I need you to tell them this: don't believe TV or the Internet is a representative sample of reality. Regardless of the identify of mine you consider: race, religion, size and shape, attitude, political beliefs, or level & disciplines of education, what you see on TV or the internet is only a caricature of that identity.
I didn't even know it until yesterday, but the Brexit and rise of Trump Republicanism have made me fearful. Not only because of how much of a train wreck a Trump presidency would be, but because of what his rise indicates. When I see Trump winning primary after primary, it signals to me that people believe those caricatures they see on TV about categories of people they've never met. I fear that belief in those falsehoods will affect how people treat me and eventually turn to violence, because that's what's happened throughout history.
The best way to combat those beliefs are to expose folks to categories of people they've never met. But no matter how many dinner parties we all throw, that's not enough because there are probably lots of people who will never willingly expose themselves to new things.
Which is why I need your help. I need your help to set the record straight about me and others who have identities that are made into caricatures on TV and the internet. I need you to tell my story to those who will never hear it otherwise. I am probably already doing the same for you.
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If you enjoyed this post, you'll probably like my new book - Character By Choice: Letters on Goodness, Courage, and Becoming Better on Purpose. For more details, visit https://www.neiltambe.com/CharacterByChoice.