Reflections on my creative journey: non-answers from a curious artist, for other curious artists.
Dehumanizing Language
This sort of othering, dehumanizing language is easy. It makes us uncomfortably comfortable, because even as we point out the ways in which they hurt and dehumanize us, we don’t have to face the fact that the people who are saying and believing these things are just as human as we are. Often, they are our family or our community. Facing this truth is painful and difficult.
Those Who Challenge Us
The unifying factor, then, is mutual respect. The friend who is staunchly opposed to my ideology, and who listens and questions and challenges with respect, is priceless. The diversity of perspectives inspires new ways of thinking that I wouldn’t have considered if I were in an echo chamber of my own beliefs.