Freedom of speech is something that I've always taken for granted. I had never thought about how incomparably lucky I am to be a straight, white, cis-gendered woman with access to incredible education and resources to extend my understanding on the world. Never in my life have I had to think about things as being not just as they are. As a woman I deal with implicit sexism in all parts of my life, the littlest things that are embedded so far into our culture that people don't actually think that they're sexist.
Our unconscious forms of sex-bias are arguably, far more dangerous than the explicit oppressive acts of patriarchal males. Our unconscious racism, homophobia and discrimination of all sorts has created a society of morally ignorance. Is it excusable for these implicit forms of discrimination to continue, given that we've never been criticised for all the ways that what we are doing is wrong?
My whole life I chose to be morally ignorant to the realities of animal abuse, because doing so benefited me. I chose to be morally ignorant of the realities of the daily discrimination of people because of class, race and sex, because these issues never affected me. It has gotten to a point where we are so used to how our lives have been built on the oppression of those around us, that rather than acknowledging our wrongdoings and serving to address them, we feel guilty. Rather than turning guilt into a productive emotion, we donate money to charities that do more harm than good for the 'benefactors.' We vote for the 'better' political party, so at least when the other party stuffs up you can justify your guilt because "I didn't vote for them!"
In order to create change we need to evaluate ourselves and our understanding of the world on a microscopic scale. We need to become aware of the implicit discrimination that clouds our individual judgement of others. We need to stop feeling guilty for things we have no control over and start using what we have been blessed with to create change. Rather than feeling guilty that I was raised in an upper-middle class environment and have the ability to think and speak freely when millions can't, I'm working to realise the power of thought and grasping onto how lucky and grateful I am that I can actually cause change.
This is not a macroscopic issue, it's an issue that starts with us as individuals. It starts with calling our friends out if they say something that isn't okay. It continues with gaining the foresight and the self reflexivity as individuals to the point where we won't even need to filter what we are saying and thinking, in turn destroying our preconceived discriminatory views on others. I no longer believe, (in my white girl wonderland) that ignorance is an excuse to destructive views on anyone different to us, we have the world at our fingertips and need to educate those around us. Change starts at home. Change starts with swapping negativity with positivity. One single thought can start a revolution within yourself. We have no excuse.
