If you have been reading my blog for a while you will becoming keenly aware that my family and I have been targeted by a local group of sports bullies (with hate based seasoning). While they don't see themselves that way they exist within the border between highly "in/out group" aggressiveness and racial/religious bigotry infused into a distorted sports culture. This is something we see at various places within our society from different types of groups (Pick an ideology and pick a group.). We will need to tackle these hometown hate issues in order to develop our national human capital and in turn our future prospects (Much of human capital development is based in the environments in which we live and the signals we receive from society.).
Let me say that not everyone in the "super cool" group are bad people. They are mostly good people. However, from a social dynamic standpoint there are lower levels of healthy boundaries within that group and in turn there is rigid social adherence based upon false (i.e. childhood) misperceptions of life/self that should have been discarded long time ago. In other words, because they are highly homogeneous and relatively unexposed to other types of people their thought processes haven't changed much since highschool (on a social level)
The group likes to spread rumors against people they don't like, are different, and or their "leadership" tells them they must hate (Lack of critical thinking and healthy boundaries/objectivity). They may not have any real problem with the target(s), or bad experiences, or can claim that the targets harmed them in any way. Yet, they persist because they were expected to persist and racial/religious differences were high on their interest list (Remember I was told why they were targeting us and it was obvious laws were being broken. There have been other incidents of people concerned about where my kids came from, skin color, culture, religion, and other issues related to their backgrounds. Not to mention the "nigga baby" jokes and other aggressive behaviors in front of kids. i.e. yelling out that someone's dad is a "bitch" or group coordinated attempts to pick fights. Its not a single incident but a series of incidents that show intentionality, coordination, association.)
The immaturity of this group has now impacted two different local institutions (Maybe 3 but at this point it looks like 2). We have the local community college who said I was more than qualified and then ghosted me once they found out I was the "crazy Muslim guy" with Black kids some of their friends/social network didn't like. As well as a few officers (Looks like 2 but with another up to 5 on a different undefined problem) that are associated/central to this group began to target and circumvent basic Constitutional protections. (At this point they didn't succeed but I believe they are still motivated to violate the law and are more than willing to do it once the coast is clear. Following home, false information, pulling over kids in unmarked car, parking outside house, etc... Other community complaints by other people of serious behaviors have gone uninvestigated. These aren't my complaints, they are others offered organically without solicitation. In one case I asked for a little more info because they mentioned someone/something specific. Yet the mentioning was organic and unsolicited. That indicates there may be a wider issue involved and a concerning pre-existing pattern that has impacted people enough to get them talking about different incidents at different times. Smoke vs. fire issues. Like I said prior, these were pre-existing problems but my "perceived" differences based on religion, kid's race, etc. helped highlight those issues. Putting in place boundaries for distorted behaviors didn't cause the problem, it was symptomatic to an existing problem.)
As of yet, it appears that they were told not to persist in such behaviors but for the most part I'm not sure if there was a level of accountability (Telling them to not persist for their own sake and telling them not to persist for society's sake are different but beneficial to both.). Stopping bad behaviors and being accountable are two different constructs. For example, should a local institution hire their friends (good old boy networks), reject qualified candidates because of racial/religious reasons, or be allowed to use tax payer dollars for personal, political, group hate, vendettas, clan support, etc.? (In first world nations the answers would be "no". In third world nations we find that all mixed up with different justifications that end up creating separate societies. We are debating if we are one or two societies now with different rules for each. I advocate universalizing and ensuring solidarity of American values and principles. Ensuring our institutions are protecting the needs of a collective "whole" of society. )
The same can be said for law enforcement. While I support law enforcement and civil rights (they are not mutual exclusive) 100%, I do not believe using official position for personal, social, racial, religious reasons/gain is justified (One cannot say I haven't throughout my life supported law enforcement as there are many other instances outside of this instance where I can show I have. However, bad behaviors is bad behavior and that doesn't get my support no matter which way the political winds blow or who we select as our leader {i.e. why selecting leadership based on best and brightest versus the "most connected" is important to national development}. I have my own value systems as an imperfect person and it seems some of that is beneficial for understanding this particular situation.). Unaccounted bad behaviors damage trust in our institutions and we can see the result of some of the inability to hold to account blatant bad behaviors working its way throughout our society (Each situation has its own merit but often follows similar strains.)
Personally, I don't think we will succeed fully as a nation if we "normalize" certain bad behaviors as acceptable as long as they are against the "right" targets/people. Accountability doesn't always mean jail time. It does mean ensuring these behaviors don't happen again, learning from them (i.e. training and policy improvement) and ensuring such groups are not unduly manipulating local officials through clan like behaviors (i.e. lower versions of societal development). Without change, someday the acceptance of similar dark behaviors will lead to an unamendable break in society based on necessity and self preservation (This may not have anything to do with this situation but the 100's of 1000s of similar situations that people may have experienced across the country spanning many different years/generations. If there is a large percentage of society that feels a certain way, we might want to spend a few moments thinking about societal trust and strategic change. Be proactive and not reactive to large scale societal trends! These trends create pressure to make us better and more advanced as a democracy. Each situation is a step forward, stand still, or step back and adds up to macro results. So "no" its not truly just a local issue but an issue real Americans are facing everyday.)
I don't advocate for minorities, majorities, or anyone else but only for there to be fair treatment across all of society (Other stuff will be decided at a later date through a sequence of societal decision making.). My belief is that the thing we can do now is universalize our institutions to ensure that we maintain trust in a diverse society (The diversity we need to compete in the near future as a strategic advantage many countries that are not democratic lack). We hold to account with truth, moral conscious, and wisdom bad behaviors with the right kind of tools (Its not always about punishment). However, allowing such behaviors to continue and rewarding those behaviors would seem unjustified and perhaps reckless. We must find a solution to mend society's artificial differences/boundaries we have created for our own self interest. (What is my strategy with this group? Be kind, polite, engaging, visible, open to apologies/amends, unable to be intimidated, and willing to walk in the middle of a crowd of people who hate me and say "Hi. How are you? I hope your having an awesome day!". What I won't do is sugar coat bad behaviors simply because its convenient as that won't lead to improvement or change. It may lead to future targets and victims as bad behavior is empowered and emulated. Placating bad behaviors is not improvement...it just calms it down until the next time by letting distorted personalities feel falsely justified. Whether local or national, there are similarities. I know! I know! Don't listen to me....I have a Muslim sounding name. 🤷)
No comments:
Post a Comment