Hatred among minorities for each other.

curlzy

Ok,

So a thread I read on this website got me thinking. I have personally witnessed derogatory comments by GLBT people about each other, like gay men bashing lesbians and vice versa and then both of those not liking bisexuals and then all of those groups not liking trans. So I'm just wondering if you have any opinions/experience of this? Maybe I've just had a weird string of experiences that doesn't reflect the norm. I'm not interested in hearing why a particular lifestyle is right/wrong in people's opinion, more so why are people who should really have compassion and insight into each other's lives would be so negative about each other? It just puzzles me. Like maybe there's something really key to it that I'm just missing because I'm straight you know?

Mod's feel free to move this thread, this seemed the most suitable forum.

Curzy.

Nodin

There's the idea that just because a group is a minority, they are somehow sympathetic to others in a similar situation. Such is not necessarily the case at all, at all. That applies in matters of religion, race, & politics and thus it's hardly suprising when it surfaces in relation to sexual orientation.

dsmythy

I guess it is because it's not just straight white men capable of hate.

HavingCrack

The United States is a case in point.

Korean-Black tensions run high in Los Angeles as a result of the LA riots where Korean owned businesses were targeted by looters and the tension has never really gone away.

Mexican-Black tensions are also very strained in California due to changing demographics where many Mexicans any other Central Americans are moving into previously Black majority areas such as South Central LA. For example compton was 90% black in 1990 but is only 50% Black and 40% Mexican today.

Going back even further Irish and Italian American communities used to have significant rivalries in early years of the 20th century for example.

Eliot Rosewater

People often purport to adhere to abstract ideals - like respect for all minorities - whereas in reality they only support freedoms for their own group, and use the assumed abstract principle merely to support their position publicly.

I don't think this is surprising because people don't seem to be generally consistent in their outlook. Lately we had FG and Labour bemoaning the new powers of the Minister for Finance. But it's worth asking: are they annoyed because they don't believe government should have so much power, or are they annoyed merely because a party they don't like gets to use that power?

There's a choice Edmund Burke quote that summarises this kind of situation, but I can't find it!

Zombrex

curlzy wrote: »

I'm not interested in hearing why a particular lifestyle is right/wrong in people's opinion, more so why are people who should really have compassion and insight into each other's lives would be so negative about each other? It just puzzles me.

Anyone who is bullied in school probably knows looking back that there was something wrong with the bully, such as trouble at home etc. I was bullied by a kid who had a really messed up home life. That didn't make him sympathetic to others, it made him an a-hole who spent his time taking his anger and frustration out of those weaker than him.

That is just the way humans work. The idea that if you face hardship, frustration, humilation etc you will be sympathetic to it doesn't really hold. More likely is that the person will attempt to make themselves feel better by doing the same to someone else, thus sub-consciously re-asserting their pride, if just between the bully and the bullied.

Minorities by virtue of being a minority may face feelings of annoyance, anger etc. They may face instances of humilation and isolation in society. Some of them will deal with this by being a-holes.

Even when someone has a perfectly happy life they just sometimes end up being a-holes.

cackhanded

Intolerant people exist in all minorities within our soceity, be that race, colour, creed, sexual preference etc., and just because one may belong to a minority does not preclude one from intolerance. Intolerant people always find an outlet for their anger.

I find that completely ignoring them winds them up even more .