That is actually a great misperception that prevents many low class whites from rallying against classism with their fellow impoverished that are minorities.
Nah, it's really not.
We just established that ill-intent against the kid was a misunderstanding. I have no care to throw him under the bus, but I would criticize the handling of the situation. Saying "this is not the right way" is different from him as a person and his worth to society, and it is not a claim as to what "the right way" is in terms of valuing him. If I haven't made an argument defining the "proper response" as throwing him under the bus, why assume it would be my conception?
As I said before, I used myself as an example of something that is common to millions of kids. If I am calling people hypocrites for extending so much to this one kid, then it doesn't logically follow that I would think it okay to benefit just one more (myself). Rather, I think it is an inappropriate non-solution to what are systemic problems on a grand scale. I have in mind what I experienced in life, yes, but also kids I grew up with and millions more.
These people are saying "We care and think valuing and cultivating the curious efforts of youth no matter what ethnicity or socioeconomic status is the right mindset. See, you can tell by what we extended to this kid!" but really they don't give a single fuck and nothing changes for good kids outside of that one, and even he will probably still be dealing with a ton of shit in life because the tokens are apart from the real problem that affects him.
And how does any of this grant him a life of being treated with dignity and honored for that which he offers the world? An apologetic offering for a terrible thing a person went through is not the same as valuing a person for what they are before and despite the offense. It's kind of like how capital punishment is different from justice. Attempting to satiate our griefs with token sentiments we find comforting while not reforming the actual cause and perpetuation of suffering is not ultimately compassionate nor the valuing of persons.
I just think it's too easy to keep having offenses and keep providing token offerings in response and using that to think "hey, we got it!" and not actually changing anything in a meaningful way. I do get why people think I'm just shitting on something good, because I do see these things are making the kid happy for now, but I think that is never to be taken as an appropriate response to the kind of shit that made his troubles happen in the first place.
Unfortunately, people see "this is not the correct measures" and assume one is in with the racists who deny that there are even institutionalized bigotry issues to be dealing with. Am I shitty at working around that misperception? Yeah, I guess apparently so. I can't argue with the results in this thread. But should I just never talk and somehow practice public engagement all alone to myself? How could I do that? You have to engage to get better at dealing with common assumptions.
