#MyWordForToday is #Tolerance

#MyWordForToday is #Tolerance. 

Do I really want to write about tolerance? No,  not really and this is why.

Tolerance is a nice-sounding word with a beautiful dictionary meaning. Whereas, it is, in fact, a little derogatory.

It is very derogatory because it does not teach value and respect. When you tolerate something, especially a person, opinion, culture or orientation, you do that perhaps out of societal expectations, upbringing, or maybe just pure human decency.

One of the synonyms for tolerance is resignation. Resigning to accepting a person because it is socially acceptable to do so.

None of us wants to be in situations where we (our opinions, feelings etc) are not valued, loved or acknowledged as human beings but merely tolerated.

We all have our prejudices, in fact, many of us suffer from confirmation bias (we actively look for experiences and evidence that back up those prejudices).

Perhaps the best example for what I am saying is Racism and its siblings (tribalism, ethnicism religious-ism; beg your pardon to coin this word).

Each race believes itself to be superior to the other, same for ethnic and religious groups. We are then taught to tolerate the other races/religion/ ethnic groups in order for peace to reign in our communities.

I really have no answers or solutions to proffer to these ills that are plaguing us.   I do not know how we came by this feeling of superiority towards others.

Perhaps if we went back in time, we could pinpoint how ethnicism and other cisms began.  Perhaps this will help us to figure out how to cure this malaise that is causing so much strife in the world today.

As a black Nigerian woman, I've had to face all of the isms at one point or other in my life so I am all too aware of the pain, first, of not being accepted, and then merely tolerated in a very badly disguised facade. There is no true respect in being tolerated.  

I, however, believe (even though I do not like it) that perhaps tolerance is the first step to take towards embracing others.

Perhaps, there is no way to fully accept/ embrace a person if you have not had a chance of meeting with them mentally and understanding that there's no real difference between us human beings.

Each human has red Blood running in our veins and our skeletons are always white.

I feel more than a little sad writing this blog because I do not think this post will make any difference to people who are committed to their prejudices.

It is tragic that these prejudices are usually formed on nothing concrete, but mainly on what they have been told, on confirmation bias and which forms the basis of their interaction with others.

What do we do when people do not fit into the boxes society has set for them? Tolerate them? Or embrace them without caveats?

Namaste 🙏🏾

Bibireosefowora 💕💌
(Neither Pedigree nor Class can be bought with Money).