As humans,
we have the natural inclination to categorize things. When we do this
categorizing, we are completely abandoning the opportunity to understand deeply
a situation or person, and grow from the experience of doing so. This
categorization of people and situations is not only the root of racism and
sexism, but also the root of those who believe that the Black struggle in
regards to police brutality is the same as the struggle for Palestinians in
Israel. By automatically categorizing these two struggles together, they are
refusing to acknowledge the great differences between the respective
situations. If they were to actually look deeper into the situations, they
would see that Black Lives Matter movement focuses on how the victims are
innocent, whereas “Palestinians do share in the responsibility for their own
travails and suffering”. And while I do not believe that Palestinians fully
deserve their suffering, there is a clear and undeniable difference between the
two situations, differences that are worthy of people’s attention.
As a reform
Jew, I am often accused of laziness- of not participating in Jewish traditions
simply because I am too lazy to. But in this case, I have educated myself on
the topic enough not to allow my brain to automatically categorize them
together. The solution of this natural inclination to categorize is simply
education, so I highly suggest that people educate themselves and understand
the two topics, before blindly considering them as one.
I liked your perspective of this subject. I completely agree with your opinion about how humans automatically categorize things and since they do, they put the two struggles of the Palestinian struggle and the Black Lives Matter movement which is not correct in my opinion. I think that people who realize that the two have very different goals and mindsets and identifying them together is not right.
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