“Mental illness, mass murder, and #yesallwomen – part 2

Trigger warning for violence, sexual abuse, emotionally-charged language and suicidality.

In graduate school, the first thing that was drilled over and over into our heads was to take one’s cultural experience into account. We were taught to recognize our own privileges and understand that others from different backgrounds will not have the same views as we may. We learned that one’s cultural experience largely shapes that person’s identity, experiences, and way they see the world. We were made to address several unpleasant stereotypes that had been engrained into our thinking, as well as acknowledge how these stereotypes could impact the clients we work with. The term microaggression became rooted into our daily vocabulary. We were taught to accept everyone for who they were and put our own stuff aside when working with them.

Race, culture, and empathy

Earlier this evening, I was putting off searching for jobs/sprucing up my cover letters and paroozing the interwebs when a friend of mine posted this link on Facebook.

http://blackgirldangerous.org/new-blog/2013/4/22/hey-white-liberals

The Facebook share has been posted for about an hour, and there have been a variety of comments made. Some thanking my friend for sharing the “powerful” article, others criticizing the writer for referring to the tragedy in Boston as a “white” tragedy and insinuating that the writer is over-reacting to to societal racism and the significant lack of untold stories of non-whites in the media (side note: every single commentator on this Facebook post was white).