My last name and appearance immediately instills a set of biases before I have the chance to open my mouth. These stereotypes and generalizations forced on marginalized communities are at times debilitating and painful. As a minority in my classrooms, I continuously hear my peers and professors use language that both covertly and overtly oppresses the communities I belong to. Therefore, I do not always feel safe when I attempt to advocate for my people in these spaces. In the journey to become a successful student, I swallow the “momentary” pain from these interactions and set my emotions aside so I can function productively as a student.
The Tiffany Martínez case: her post is long on emotional appeal and short on details
However, since the post is so long on herding me to a predetermined conclusion, I’m forced to speculate, bringing my own years of classroom experience to bear in trying to sort out what likely happened, as well as what alternative explanations might be possible.
The grader may be a tool of the first order, and one who is about to get him/herself and the school righteously sued. Or, alternately, he/she may be an experienced, talented professional who called Martínez on something – maybe simple overwriting, or perhaps something worse.
At this point, I don’t know enough to have an opinion. I just have questions.
How the Internet Is Loosening Our Grip on the Truth
But that’s not how any of this works. Psychologists and other social scientists have repeatedly shown that when confronted with diverse information choices, people rarely act like rational, civic-minded automatons. Instead, we are roiled by preconceptions and biases, and we usually do what feels easiest — we gorge on information that confirms our ideas, and we shun what does not.
Evangelicals: This Is What It Looks Like When You Sell Your Soul For A Bowl Of Trump
However, the NY Magazine article highlights something very important—the people of God, who are called to hold to the highest standard of morals and ethics, now rank as the highest group percentage-wise of those who say that these things don’t necessarily matter. This is a problem of huge proportions.
Love Your Neighbor Enough to Speak Truth
We have all failed miserably at loving fellow image bearers who identify as part of the LGBT community—fellow image bearers who are deceived by sin and deceived by a hateful world that applies the category mistake of sexual orientation identity like a noose. And we all continue to fail miserably. On the biblical side, we often have failed to offer loving relationships and open doors to our homes and hearts, openness so unhindered that we are as strong in loving relationship as we are in the words we wield. We also have failed to discern the true nature of the Christian doctrine of sin. For when we advocate for laws and policies that bless the relationships that God calls sin, we are acting as though we think ourselves more merciful than God is.
I thought back to the jarring words John’s mother had just used to introduce me to her daughter. “This is Todd. He’s the one who saved John’s life.”
Wow. Really? I knew what had happened was important—life-changing even. But life-saving? Yet, as she went on to tell me, seemingly trying to explain her choice of words, she honestly questioned, given his deteriorating health, how much longer she would have had her son around had I not given him a kidney. That’s when it really began to sink in: what God had used me to accomplish was no small thing.
4-Year-Old Visits Her 82-Year-Old Best Friend for Halloween
Wood says everyone should have a Norah in their lives. “People get so busy living their lives. It’s not necessarily anyone’s to blame but people in nursing homes, or even in their own homes, their family doesn’t call them or [they] rarely visit them for holidays and I hate that. I hate that people feel lonely. It’s just important that people know that they matter,” she said.