Benevolent Bigotry Is Still Bigotry
I want to talk about a recent news story concerning an end-of-year awards luncheon at the Bailly Preparatory Academy in Indiana. The event was attended by students, parents, teachers, and the principal. When it was time for the special education teacher to present an award to an 11-year-old, non-verbal student, the audience was blindsided. What award did the boy win? “Most Annoying Male.”
Parents of kids with special needs, and the special needs community at large, should take this as a reminder that there is a tremendous amount of misunderstanding and discrimination that's still in place. Even though a lot of strides have been made towards improving the lives of people with special needs, there's still a long way to go in both people's perceptions and the policies that affect the everyday lives of people with disabilities.
When a family is having all of its needs met, and is part of a community that is accepting, it’s possible to lose sight of what is taking place “in the trenches” every day. There are still many ways that people are discriminated against and misunderstood — and perhaps the most insidious is the kind of discrimination leveled against the boy in Indiana.
We’ve all seen it happen before: someone taunts someone with special needs and, if called on it, will say their target doesn’t understand they are being mocked, so no harm done. I think that is a repugnant way of thinking, and it's horrifying that it is so common. When we see discrimination like that, especially when it's casual or thoughtless, we need to challenge that discrimination and interrogate the underlying beliefs that encourage someone to act in a bigoted way. More often than not it comes from misunderstanding or fear.
Hopefully by challenging and educating bigots, or by ascertaining the reasons why somebody feels a certain way about a certain group, we can shed light on their cognitive dissonance — and hopefully get them to stop acting in a way that hurts other people.
People's perceptions and their implicit biases affect the way they act and, on a larger scale, the way policies are put into place. They can really have a concrete, negative impact on the way people live their lives and, if that's allowed to go unchecked, the ends that lie down that path are grim.
Jonathan Gottlieb
Partner
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Jonathan@GottliebFirm.com
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