It’s odd that in this age, viewing and talking about people as individuals, who all carry an equal and innate ability to do either harm or good in our society, is looked down upon and frowned on. Judging people by their actions and not their characteristics is seen as wrongheaded or incorrect in today’s political spectrum. Placing certain traits and stereotypes based on the color of their skin, their sex, their age and even their country of origin is seen as the right way to correct wrong deeds of the past. This attitude unfortunately has been gaining steam for the last 25 years, and not until recently has the hypocritical nature of these studies or views been called out for what they are; nothing but the same mistakes of the past. The point should be to learn from our past, and not forget our past. But it is certainly should not, nor ever be, to repeat our past in the name of fixing the past.
Hate me if you want to, but I try to live and interact with others based on their actions and deeds, and not on some superficial traits that people have carved out for them in some academic sociology study. Call me a radical egalitarian, (not in the political sense, but in the human sense) I don’t mind. I think both the left and the right have the idea of equality and egalitarianism all wrong; it's not something you think or study, it's something you live. Moreover, I certainly feel that this attitude fits my Buddhist practice as I’ve come to know it quite well. I make no apologies for that, nor do I apologize for being white, for being straight, for being a man, an American or any other superficial trait for that matter. Nor should anyone else. We are all human, and we all suffer from the same human condition. And this puts us all in the same damn boat, whether we like it or not, or want it or not.
PS. You don't think that there is a lot of male self hate, check out this Facebook exchange I had about this subject.
