Coping with prejudice in our time

How do you react to jokes and other remarks revealing prejudice on the part of the speaker?

Whether or not you know it, that question is a test of faith.

I have written so much about it my fingers are tired. And every passing year finds me more and more ready to leave the good fight to someone else. A forty-year career in retail coping with the ignorance and prejudice of thousands of people...peers, subordinates, bosses, the public, strangers overheard...have left me very, very tired. I don't have the patience or time to read these two links, but Fred Clark and David Neiwert both raised the question and received an avalanche of responses from their two communities of readers. (Three hundred-plus and counting at Fred's place.) The anecdotal evidence that prejudice is alive and well in America is overwhelming. And I am amazed and pleased at the variety and creativity of the number of responsible people now on the wagon. Reading their stories pisses me off, but when I reflect on their responses I feel better.


Go read.
Make your own conclusions.
Or not.