The common thread between all forms of oppression is the fear of those who are oppressed by those with power. Men feel threatened by women in positions of power, Muslim people are all viewed as terrorists, black people are seen as feral and the main argument against the humanity of LGBT people is that we’re all predatory in some way. Every stereotype, every hateful word, every law designed to restrict us from existing as human is rooted in the deep-set fear of other, and fear of the realization of the vile acts they have committed.
To our oppressors, we are everything but human, because to recognize our humanity is to acknowledge that everything they’ve done in order to push us to the outskirts of society has ended the lives of countless innocent people just like them. People with families, friends and lovers, people with hobbies, complex emotions and brilliant ideas. It is innate within humans to not want to cause harm to another human, so they pretend we are not. They break us down until we fit into neat little boxes of stereotypes that they don’t have to treat as another human being, because if they were to do that they would have to accept that they are and have been wrong in the way they treat us.
All humans are suspicious of that which is other than themselves, to protect ourselves we have to be, and instead educating themselves, people with power and privilege have allowed that suspicion to grow into a fear which ultimately leads to a violent hatred.
Too often I have seen someone rebuke an argument against bigotry with a demand that the other party deal with reality, when the one who truly needs to face reality is the one who is committing the acts of bigotry. They need to face the reality that no human life is inherently worth less than another due to how they were born or which god they believe in, and yet we treat so many people as if they are. There is not a single person deserving of being forced to commit violence against themselves in order to fit in to a society that would rather them be dead, and the fact that that scenario is all too common is a sickening truth.
The truth is the most powerful weapon we have, and it is the one thing people refuse to listen to.
The “reality” is not that because I am a woman who just so happens to dare to love women in this world I am somehow worth less than a man, worth less than a woman who loves men, the reality is that I am human. The reality is that my transgender friends are humans, not target practice, not sexual predators. The reality is that my Jewish friends are not dishonest, greedy misers, they are normal American teenagers with hopes and dreams. The reality is that every single person systematically oppressed, murdered for their identity, skin color, or religion, harassed on the streets for daring to be proud of their difference, is a human being, and the reality is they deserve to be treated as such. Just because those who oppress us are terrified of the differences we present does not mean that we are any less human, it means they have to find a way to be okay with the fact that not everyone in the world is like them.
